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A popular track and field coach at a California high school died in a freak accident. Can anyone be held liable? Marion Adams was riding his bicycle after track practice at Rio Linda High School near Sacramento early Tuesday when he looked over his shoulder to say goodbye to a student, reports The Sacramento Bee. By turning, the coach apparently failed to see a partially open metal swing gate in the school parking lot, and was impaled by the gate arm....

A Costco customer was hit by a steel rod while reaching for a package of paper towels, prompting a host of medical interventions. The 62-year-old North Salem, New York resident suffered irreversible brain damage at a Brookfield Costco in 2016, and has filed a federal lawsuit against the wholesale chain for monetary damages claiming unsafe, dangerous, or defective conditions. According to the lawsuit, Peter Aurigemma Jr. was reaching for a package of paper towels, which was stacked over seven feet high, when a 40 inch long steel pipe, three inches in diameter, fell and struck him above the left eye....

If the drug name fentanyl rings a bell, that’s because it has been linked to thousands of accidental overdoses in heroin users. Carfentanil might be less well known, but is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, and 5,000 times more potent than heroin. It’s supposed to be used as an elephant tranquilizer, but its toxicity in humans has aroused concerns that it could potentially be used by terrorists as a weapon of mass destruction....

In the wake actor David Carradine’s tragic death in a Bangkok hotel, papers filed by his ex-wife in their 2003 divorce have been unearthed in attempts to shed light on his lifestyle and death. Seeing such intimate personal details laid bare reminds us that it is often a good idea to request, and confirm, that divorce papers be filed under seal. Confidentiality in divorce proceedings is a good idea for many reasons....

The legal duty to warn has come to the forefront as more information has come out about James Holmes in the aftermath of the Colorado shooting. Lynne Fenton, the therapist treating Holmes prior to the shooting, was alarmed enough by his behavior to alert the University of Colorado’s threat assessment committee. The committee chose not to pursue the issue because Holmes had recently dropped out. Now that decision looks like it may have been incorrect....

Pull the artichoke leaf from the hearty steam, dip in sauce of choice, eat bottom portion of leaf, discard remaining leaf. Repeat. Arturo Caravajal, a family practice doctor, is suing Houston’s restaurant for an unpleasant artichoke experience he had at the chain’s North Miami Beach restaurant. Specifically, he ate the entire artichoke because he had never seen one before. Not too surprisingly, his stomach was none too happy with him. Now he is none too happy with the table servers for failing to warn him that parts of the vegetable were inedible....

With holiday shoppers set to give retailers a boost, ’tis the season for hiring temporary employees. While you may only need holiday workers for a short period of time, you still typically need to comply with the same employment laws for these temporary workers as you would for full-time employees. Otherwise, you could risk costly employment lawsuits and other consequences. Here are five things you need to know when hiring seasonal workers, as highlighted by the Small Business Administration (SBA):...

With the popularity of shows like Little People, Big World, you’d think that sensitivity to the issues of dwarfism would be at least somewhat heightened. Not so if you work for Starbucks, it seems. Dwarf Elsa Sallard was fired from her barista position after she requested a stool to help her do her job. The company is now being sued by the government. According to the lawsuit, three days into her training at an El Paso Starbucks, Sallard made the stool request so that she could more easily reach the equipment....

Among the many sex abuse scandals hitting the Catholic Church and now beginning to approach the Vatican itself, is one March 30 report from Florida. Attorneys for alleged victims claim a later defrocked priest, known for years for his work with immigrant children and adolescents had many claims of abuse attached to his name that the Archdiocese of Miami and even the Vatican were aware of and did nothing about. The Miami lawyers for the victims say this case is similar to the one unfolding in Wisconsin regarding abuse by a priest at a school for the deaf....

By now, you may be familiar with the worst kept secret in America. This week a “confidential” leaked memo announcing all Google employees will receive a 10% raise leaked. No doubt the Google grandees who created the confidential internal email to the company’s 23,000 full and part-time employees knew that the good news would be hard for such a large number of people to keep to themselves. One person did not, and he was fired....

A new breastaurant lawsuit has been filed, and this time it has nothing to do with trademarks. Hooters has sued Twin Peaks, a scantily clad startup with 15 restaurants in the Southeast. The mountain-themed chain, which uses the slogan “Eats, Drinks, Scenic Views,” plans to build another 35 locations in the next few years. Hooters claims that the plan is based on confidential information stolen by former vice president Joseph Hummel....

If you happened to be on the hook for a misdemeanor in Arkansas this week, the killing of Osama bin Laden saved you some money. Karren gave misdemeanor violators a $51 discount on court fines and fees. The discount of $51 was meant to reflect the date of May 1st, the date that a group of American Navy SEALs raided the bin Laden’s compound and killed the 9/11 mastermind in Pakistan....

Is it legal to share your Netflix account? If you’re among the nearly 30 million Americans with a Netflix streaming account, there’s a good chance you’re sharing it with friends and family. But while Netflix seems to be encouraging sharing accounts with its new “profiles” feature, there is no legal guarantee that Netflix won’t sue you for sharing. Sharing Netflix may stand on uncertain legal ground, but here are some basic legal considerations to help you decide if sharing accounts is right for you....

A new Michigan welfare law limiting lifetime cash assistance to four years will go into effect on October 1, ending benefits for 41,000 people–30,000 of which are children. Perhaps the strictest welfare law in the country, Governor Rick Snyder backed the measure not only as a way to cut $60 million annually from the state’s budget, but to “return[] cash assistance to its original intent as a transitional program to help families while they work toward self-sufficiency....

Axon, the company formerly knows as Taser, has recently announced its latest body cam, known as Axon Body 3. Set to launch in late 2019 at a price of $699 each, almost double the price of the Axon Body 2, new features include livestreaming, wireless uploads, low-light video capture, transcription, and license scanning. The wireless aspect of the device was created through a strategic partnership with AT&T’s FirstNet and Verizon....

A lawsuit alleges that an Albuquerque law firm improperly filed a penis amputation lawsuit claiming that a nursing home patient lost his penis due to facility negligence. According to the lawsuit filed by the nursing home, the law firm did not investigate the claim and wrongfully filed a federal lawsuit in September. Not sure how they could have missed that. It seems like it would have been easy enough to… look into....

Alex Jones doesn’t get a whole lot of things right, especially when it comes to school shootings. Earlier this month, Jones and his InfoWars website were sued for defamation after misidentifying an innocent teenager from Massachusetts as the Parkland, Florida shooter. This week, Jones has been sued by families of victims from another school shooting about which the conspiracy peddler has theories. Parents of two children slain in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012 filed separate defamation lawsuits against Jones, claiming his insistence that the shooting was staged and the parents are actors has tormented them for years....

Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided not to hear a controversial DWI case from Virginia. By refusing to hear it, the Court lets stand a Virginia ruling that police may not pull someone over on suspicion of DUI based solely on a tip, rather than direct observation of suspicious driving. The vehement dissent by Chief Justice John Roberts raised fear that the court’s refusal to hear the case would increase the likelihood of drunk drivers remaining on the road in some states....

After working as a police officer in 17 places over 18 years, Michael Meissner has been arrested on a slew of charges, including possession/promotion of child pornography, aggravated promotion of prostitution, solicitation of minors, engaging in organized crime and others. As described by WFAA Dallas, Meissner was what is referred to as a “gypsy cop,” moving from town to town and police job to police job. His most recent post, as the only cop in Little River-Academy, Texas (south of Dallas), will likely be his last....

Therapist-patient conversations are confidential until something happens that the therapist is required to report. Unlike attorney-client confidentiality, therapists don’t have a complete duty to keep therapy sessions private. In some cases they are required by law to break confidentiality and inform police of the content of a therapy conversation. One of those situations is known in legal circles as the ‘duty to warn.’ In general, conversations between a therapist and patient are confidential....