Ice storms might mean snow days for children, but it can mean car accidents and headaches for adults. A winter storm considered “the worst to hit the United States in years” pummeled the nation’s central states on Friday, leaving many to deal with icy roads, frozen cars, and cancelled flights, reports Reuters. And more icy weather is on the way for the weekend. What can drivers do to prepare for an ice storm?...
Interstate child custody arrangements can be challenging to both agree on as well as to carry out, but when parents live in different countries the entire game changes. And, as the Savoie family of Tennessee has experienced, when the other country is Japan there may be surprisingly little recourse in enforcing a U.S. custody decision. Christopher Savoie and his wife Noriko married in Tennessee and had two children together. They divorced in January and his Japanese ex-wife was granted primary custody while Christopher Savoie was granted limited custody....
Everyone knows the First Amendment ensures your right to free speech, but does it also protect the right to ask for change? Eight Chicago panhandlers think so. They’ve filed a federal lawsuit alleging their constitutional rights were violated. The group is seeking class action status against the city of Chicago. They’re accusing local cops of regularly forcing them to relocate their activities away from the ritzy Michigan Avenue, the Associated Press reports....
Annoyed with his family, the will of lumber baron Wellington R. Burt forbade the distribution of his multi-million dollar estate until 21 years after the death of the last of his then-living grandchildren. Ninety-two years after his own death, the time has finally come. His remaining descendants are about to become multi-millionaires. From all accounts, before his death in 1919, Wellington R. Burt was in conflict with his family. Despite leaving annual allowances for his favorite son, cook, housekeeper, chauffer and secretary, ABC News reports that he placed the rest of his fortune in a trust, prohibiting distribution until his family died off....
It helps congestion. It causes accidents. Whatever your opinion on motorcycle lane splitting–the practice of driving between cars in slow or idling traffic–it is undoubtedly based on whether your ride has 2 or 4 wheels. But more importantly, is it legal? Is it safe? And how does it impact a lawsuit should there be an accident? As of now, motorcycle lane splitting is only legal in the state of California, though there may be some participating localities across the country....
Lillie Leon may be a teaching veteran, but that does not mean her job is secure - the New York teacher was fired recently. According to Leon, she was terminated because she complained about escorting her students to their bathroom breaks. Leon, 80, has three decades of teaching experience, according to the New York Daily News. She has bad knees and uses a cane to help her walk. Because of the school policy, she is required to escort her kindergarten students to the bathroom which is all the way across the cafeteria and on the other side of the school....
The Oklahoma oilman who was ordered to pay his ex-wife $1 billion in the couple’s divorce is appealing the ruling in the case. In his appeal, Harold Hamm calls the ruling “erroneous and inequitable,” Reuters reports. But Hamm’s appeal marks an about-face from his comments immediately following the judge’s decision, which he characterized at the time as “a fair and equitable outcome to the case.” What may have led Hamm to change his mind?...
In recent years, Black Friday has become associated with severe discounts, amazing deals, and shopper stampedes. You may recall that people have literally been trampled to death when stores open their doors, as MSNBC has reported. If you fail to follow some basic Black Friday safety tips, you could face a premises liability lawsuit for resulting injuries this shopping season. Fortunately for you, most Black Friday injuries can be avoided. Here are five common mistakes you should avoid this holiday shopping season to keep your customers safe:...
Sen. Rand Paul’s neighbor has been ordered to pay $580,000 in damages and medical expenses after losing the lawsuit Paul brought against him for injuries sustained when he tackled Paul over lawn maintenance issues at their shared property line. This award was on top of the 30 days the neighbor had to spend in jail plus a $10,000 fine and 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty for attacking a member of Congress, even though the argument was over grass and not weed....
Maybe you started a family business because you want to love who you work with, to keep the profits in the family, or to establish a brand that will last generations. Or maybe you were just born into it. Either way, managing family members in the workplace may be very different than maintaining those relationships at home. Especially when financial, corporate, and employment laws are involved. Here are five tips for managing relatives in a family-run small business, from our archives:...
A law in the Missourian town of Maplewood penalizes people for calling the police, even if there is a legitimate need for police assistance. As a result of this law, a mother of two, who is also the victim of domestic abuse, was evicted from her home. In other words, as crazy as it sounds: a woman was evicted from her home for calling the police about domestic violence incidents....
Suspecting child abuse is one of the most painful things an adult can endure. You fear the stakes are high if you call it in, regardless of whether or not you are correct. However, public policy has changed to encourage reporting, and if you truly suspect your neighbors are abusing their children, here is some information that might help in making that difficult call. In the past year, the Perris, California community has come under scrutiny after it was discovered the parents of the Turpin family in that town were beating and torturing their 13 children right under the noses of their neighbors in what looks to be a very Brady Bunch style neighborhood, with homes built within mere feet of one another....
Until 2007, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 gave auto manufacturers a choice between lap belts and lap/shoulder belts when outfitting seats that are not placed against a car door. A handful of courts had ruled that the choice given by FMVSS 208 preempted state court product liability and injury suits, basically giving consumers no recourse for resultant seat belt deaths. Last week, the Supreme Court changed this. It ruled that plaintiffs can now sue auto manufacturers for their failure to outfit rear middle seats with shoulder seat belts....
Patients may think that common medical mistakes are just that – innocuous goof-ups. What they may not really is that these three common types of medical mistakes are actually medical malpractice, and victims are entitled to sue for these errors. And as NPR has reported, these errors are the “third-leading cause of death in America.” So what are these three common mistakes, and how can victims sue to recover from medical malpractice?...
It can be stressful enough getting to the airport on time, making it through security, getting to your gate, and boarding. But imagine finally getting aboard your flight only to get kicked off, like “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Benzino earlier this week. Ugh. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of ways you can get kicked off a commercial airliner. Here are five of the more notable ones we’ve seen....
Alright, most people have probably heard of Kiefer Sutherland’s arrest by now. Yes, the star of FOX’s long-running show “24”, whose character Jack Bauer finds, chases, beats down, and/or tortures terrorists all over the world, apparently decided his next target would be fashion designer Jack McCullough at a nightclub. At any rate, Sutherland ended up getting arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault, according to the AFP. Although there doesn’t appear to be any indication that the fight was mutual, people might be wondering about the legality of bar fights in the first place....
This is perhaps one of the oddest product defect suits you’ll ever see. The Regents of the University of Colorado are suing a toilet paper manufacturer and its distributor for providing “defective” toilet paper that allegedly clogged pipes in 27 academic buildings, leading to severe overflows and general restroom chaos. Wondering how toilet paper can be defective? It didn’t properly “disperse.” Through a contract for janitorial supplies, Waxie Enterprises provided the University’s Boulder campus with toilet paper made by Royal Paper Converting....
Starting January 1, 2017, Alabama will no longer recognize new common law marriages. For couples that get common law married before the end of the year though, the state will still continue to recognize those marriages as valid. And, most importantly for those couples that common law marry before the end of 2016, they will likely be able to utilize the courts for a divorce if they ever decide to part way....
Parenthood is not for the faint of heart. For many of us, even when we try to do what’s best for our kids, we never quite feel like we’re doing enough. This is especially true for parents of children with special needs or medical conditions. One Georgia couple felt they were doing the right thing for their special needs son when they let him smoke marijuana to deal with his frequent seizures....
A California college student who was locked in a holding cell for five days on the brink of death has settled his lawsuit against the DEA for $4.1 million. University of California San Diego student Daniel Chong, now 25, was arrested during a raid by the Drug Enforcement Agency in 2012. Though he was never charged, agents left him handcuffed in a windowless holding cell, where he was forced to drink his own urine to survive, reports CNN....
