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Family members of inmates who die while serving time due to abuse or neglect can sue for wrongful death. Who can family members sue and what damages can be recovered? The answers to these question depend on the type of institution where the inmate was held, the manner of death, and certain statutory considerations. Systems of incarceration are deliberately confusing and you will need an attorney. But there are some basics to understand in advance of a consultation that will help you understand your legal options....

Jaycee Dugard sued the U.S. government on Thursday. She alleges that the negligence of federal parole officers contributed to her kidnapping and imprisonment. Dugard was kidnapped when she was 11 at by Phillip and Nancy Garrido from South Lake Tahoe in 1991. She was driven across state lines into Antioch, California. There, she was captive for 18 years and raped hundreds of times. She bore two children from Phillip Garrido....

Regulatory blind spot sparked pot shop boom. Los Angeles currently has a booming number of medical marijuana dispensaries. More than the city intended when it put a supposed moratorium in place in 2007. Now L.A. is seeking to close many of them down. According to the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles currently has about 800 dispensaries in operation. To put that number into perspective, San Francisco has a reported 30....

A Las Vegas jury had already decided that the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino’s Marquee nightclub owed David Moradi $160.5 million after security staff attacked him and left him with a traumatic brain injury in 2012. But that was just for compensatory damages – the amount needed to make Moradi whole after medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. Moradi was also seeking punitive damages (designed to punish and deter bad behavior), to the tune of another $483 million....

The time may come for your business to vote out one of its partners, and the NBA’s recent scandal may serve as a good lesson. Donald Sterling, the Los Angeles Clippers owner who has been banned for life and fined millions over racist comments, will likely be forced to sell his team by the NBA, reports NBC Sports. Take a lesson from the NBA: Make sure your business is prepared to vote out a partner....

Even your friends who went to law school would have trouble reading half the contracts you have to sign in your daily life. That’s why it’s no surprise that many people look for help in getting a contract reviewed. Almost everything nowadays involves a contract. For starters, there’s your car lease, home mortgage, and even your iTunes account. Think back: How much of the fine print did you actually read in any of these legal agreements?...

Ohio death row inmate, Darryl Durr, who claimed he could have a drug allergy to the anesthetic Ohio uses to put inmates to death, has been executed by a single shot lethal injection. An Ohio serial rapist, Darryl Durr, 46, was executed by single shot lethal injection and pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m. last Tuesday at an Ohio Correctional facility, the Associated Press reports. As previously discussed, the court has rejected his last minute legal challenge claiming the state’s single shot injection chemicals violate federal prescription drug laws....

As the vaccine debate seems to have hit a fever pitch in the past couple years, it’s actually been an ongoing national conversation since the 70’s and 80’s. In fact, there was so much litigation surrounding claims of vaccine injuries back then that Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) in 1986. The goal of the NCVIA was to limit the liability for vaccine injury cases by restricting the types of claims that could be brought and the time in which they could be brought....

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives some employees the right to up to 12 weeks time off work should certain personal or family health issues arise. But contrary to popular opinion, not all employers have to give their employees FMLA leave regardless of the seriousness of the health issue, and not all employees are FMLA eligible regardless of who they work for. So how do you know when you have to give your employees FMLA leave?...

The gloves are coming off in the legal battle between director Woody Allen and clothing company American Apparel. But what’s all the fighting about? Round One: The fillmmaker sued the Los Angeles-based clothing distributor last year, accusing the company of using his image without permission and damaging his reputation. Allen charges that American Apparel used a movie still image of him in a scene from “Annie Hall” on American Apparel billboards that appeared briefly in Los Angeles and New York City....

A bicyclist’s hit-and-run video has led to the suspected driver’s arrest. Michael Patrick Medaglia, 42, of Oakland was arrested last week in connection with a Berkeley, Calif. hit-and-run video posted on YouTube. The video was recorded with a mounted bike cam by “Bruno,” one of the cyclists. It shows a black car drifting into the bicycle lane and clipping Bruno and another bicyclist. The car then speeds off. Medaglia, the car’s owner, has been booked on suspicion of felony hit and run....

Most entrepreneurs start and end their careers as a sole proprietor. However, the more successful ones eventually incorporate, and the most successful ones start, run, and sell, multiple businesses at the same time. For the serial entrepreneur, there is no one right way to go about structuring multiple businesses. Sometimes a serial entrepreneur will have multiple businesses all focused in one industry. For instance, a surf shop owner may own the surf store, as well as make surf boards, bikinis, offer surf lessons, sponsor a professional surf team, and make surfing videos....

As the saying goes: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. But for your employees, a well-stocked snack closet or break room refrigerator can come pretty darn close. Though the jury is still out on whether giving your employees access to snacks is doing their waistlines any favors, reports The New Republic, there’s certainly no doubt that employees will avail themselves of free snacks and office coffee if you provide them....

Gun violence has become a serious and widespread problem in the U.S. While many people are calling for stricter gun control laws, one retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice has a more drastic solution: repeal the Second Amendment. Justice John Paul Stevens called for repealing the Second Amendment in an op-ed piece he wrote in the New York Times. Justice Stevens also encouraged demonstrators demanding more gun control to also call for repeal....

Lawsuits over Chinese-made drywall have moved sluggishly since the first claims were filed in 2009. Part of the problem is determining whether the Chinese manufacturers are bound by U.S. law, an issue lawyers and judges call ‘jurisdiction.’ One of the manufacturers, Taishan Gypsum, has argued that U.S. courts don’t have jurisdiction because the drywall was distributed in the U.S. by other companies. But two rulings in the last few months have undermined that claim....

When times get tough, the tough get naked. At least that’s what a Florida motel owner hopes, as he turns his 32-room property into a potential magnet for nudists. The Fawlty Towers Motel in Cocoa Beach, Fla., is set to go clothing-optional May 1, after years of declining business and increasing competition from larger chain hotels, its owner told Florida Today. Going nude wasn’t a snap decision. Owner Paul Hodge first had to convince his skeptical wife....

Florida’s prisons stopped serving kosher meals to inmates several years ago but now the federal government is taking notice. The state was sued in federal court over its decision to stop providing kosher meals to inmates in the general population. The state previously provided kosher meals to about 250 inmates, according to Reuters. That program ended in 2007. The government claims that Florida’s decision to stop offering kosher meals to prisoners is a violation of Constitutional rights....

Security cameras are a great way to monitor, as well as prevent, misconduct by both customers and employees. But for business owners looking to save some money, it might be tempting to install fake security cameras in their business, saving themselves the cost of expensive video equipment while still enjoying the preventative benefits of security cameras. After all, if people think they’re being watched, they’ll behave better, right? The answer, as you may have guessed, is not necessarily....

This is one more legal battle staring the big monster v. the underdog or in this case, the underlizard. Lawyers representing the holders of the trademark rights to everyone’s favorite atomic lizard, Godzilla, are stopping through Damariscotta, Maine and breathing out cease and desist letters at their target, Grill Zilla BBQ. According to an incredibly comprehensive report by the Kennebec Journal, Grill Zilla is owned and operated out of an old Frito-Lay truck by Sarah Burnham and her husband, Jay Swett....

A lawsuit against a county sheriff in the state of Georgia alleges that a mass drug search violated the civil rights of 900 high school students. The allegations stem from April of this year, when Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby ordered the local high school to be locked down for a drug search. While conducting the search, in addition to using drug sniffing dogs, each student was subject to a pat down, with many students reporting rather invasive pat down searches....