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MF Global is bankrupt. And for whatever reason, the trading firm is missing more than $600 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission is now said to be probing into the situation, and is looking into whether or not Jon Corzine misled investors. Corzine headed the now-defunct brokerage firm. He is the former governor of New Jersey and ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs. The firm filed for bankruptcy on Monday. The bankruptcy is recent news, but the firm faced increasing scrutiny from regulators the past few months....

If you saw this ‘dancing baby’ video, you probably didn’t realize you were witnessing the beginning of a decade-long lawsuit. After all, who sues a music company for shutting down their YouTube video of their baby rocking and rolling? Stephanie Lenz, for one, along with a lot of help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They chased the case up to the U.S. Supreme Court and back again, finally settling on a “fair use” process for takedowns of copyrighted videos....

Humana, as a third party service provider to an ERISA benefit plan, cannot sue under the Act to recover funds paid out, since it was not an ERISA fiduciary, the Fifth Circuit ruled on Monday. Rather, under the plan management agreement, Humana’s role was simply ministerial, more akin to a lawyer or collections agent. Humana and API entered into a plan management agreement whereby Humana would administer API’s employee benefits plan....

A case that’s been making headlines during the holiday season, the First Circuit will soon weigh in on the constitutionality of anti-panhandling ordinances in Worcester, Massachusetts. No, the ordinances weren’t sponsored by the Grinch. City officials claim they’re necessary for public safety purposes. But do the ordinances violate panhandlers’ free speech rights? In 2013, the city of Worcester passed two ordinances that restrict panhandling. The ordinances, enacted in January, restrict panhandlers from operating within 20 feet of locations including restaurants, public restrooms and ATMs, and “any other place of public assembly....

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court made a curious ruling: it held that a federal ban on animal crush videos was unconstitutional. Animal crush videos are despicable depictions of torture, dismemberment, and killing of animals, often in a sexually fetishized context. Few would argue that these videos deserve the protections of the First Amendment, but the Supreme Court ruled the way it did because of the text of the statute: an overly broad wording that could’ve been applied to hunting and husbandry....

This is one of the more absurd copyright claims, and absurd responses to a disciplinary proceeding, that you’ll ever see. Joanne Denison, an attorney, has a blog about the trials and tribulations of Mary Sykes, a 90-year-old “probate victim.” The blog contains a number of allegations of corruption in the Probate Court of Cook County, Illinois, along with accusations of elder abuse and physical and mental harm inflicted upon Sykes....

In plaintiff’s action against the United States Department of Internal Revenue Service seeking a refund of federal excise taxes plus interest, judgment against plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) dismissal of a claimed violation of due process was proper as plaintiff has not overcome what is the IRS’s prerogative to tax it, but not its competitors; 2) summary judgment regarding plaintiff’s claimed exemption from the tax excised pursuant to section 4051 of the I....

Petition for review of an order denying asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture is dismissed in part and denied in part where: 1) there was no jurisdiction to consider the asylum application as the application did not present any colorable constitutional claims or questions of law; and 2) substantial evidence supported denying the application for withholding of removal and for protection under the CAT as the record did not support a claim that he would more likely than not be persecuted and tortured if he were to return to Syria....

What will it take for the dynamic duo of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss to curl up with their $65 million Facebook settlement and leave the judicial system alone? More than an admonishment from Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski that the time for the litigation to end “has now been reached.” The Winklevii are at it again, this time challenging Facebook in the United States District Court in Boston. Their claim?...

Students should rejoice since U.S. District Judge Michael Davis ruled in September that schools cannot force students to turn over their Facebook passwords. The brouhaha over Facebook passwords has been in the media for a while since employers starting asking applicants to turn over their passwords. Courts and legislatures have tried to respond to that issue but this recent ruling was an affirmation of students’ rights. In the decision, Davis affirmed that students do have first amendment rights and new technologies don’t change that....

If you’ve listened to, or read the news in the last day or so, then you’ve probably heard about Heartbleed a/k/a the biggest security flaw in years. The flaw is so bad, that one NPR commentator stated that it was like leaving your car door open with the keys in the ignition. That doesn’t mean someone will actually get in your car and drive away – but the vulnerability is there....

The year 1790 was a very different time, but interestingly enough, the first Patent Act passed in the states wasn’t that different from today’s system. Sure, there were some differences (patent examinations were conducted by the the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney General, instead of trained patent examiners), but the system then faced some of the same issues that it does now: patentability, jury trials, and fee-shifting....

With the U.S. relaxing its longstanding embargo against Cuba, the island nation is suddenly the place to be. Everyone from hotel chains to fruit importers to Jimmy Buffett (really) is looking into expanding to Cuba. And when Buffett shops around Havana for a good spot for his Margaritaville restaurant chain, he can already stay in one of thousands of Airbnb rentals. This is not exactly the Cuba of Che Guevara anymore....

You’ve hung your shingle. Now it’s time to take it down. Whether you’re retiring, moving across the country, joining another firm, or giving up on the law, you’ve decided to shutter your firm. But closing a law firm isn’t like shutting down any other business. You still have ethical responsibilities to take care of when closing up shop. Here’s what you should do. Don’t worry, you’re not the first attorney to have closed a firm....

In 1992, California adopted the nation’s first anti-SLAPP law, and arguably its strongest. The statute, meant to stop “strategic litigation against public participation,” is a powerful weapon against lawsuits that may chill free speech. For example, an anti-SLAPP motion halts discovery, allows for quick appeals, and provides for the award of attorney’s fees. It is perhaps the most used anti-SLAPP statute in the country, with a huge body of relevant caselaw....

The past year has been good for technology and its fans. The tech industry has let us find Pokemon on our front porch, brought artificial intelligence into law firms, even given us smart speakers that know not to snitch. But it’s not all happy unicorns, robots, and black turtlenecks in the tech world. The past year has seen its fair share of failure, scandal, and schadenfreude. Here are our top five for the year....

In Gorelik v. Costin, No.09-1192, the First Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s judgment in favor of the defendants in plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against the president of the New Hampshire State Board of Medicine, arising from the Board’s mischaracterization of plaintiff’s temporary license as disciplinary action rather than as “Board action” and posted on the Board’s website and in newsletters. In affirming the judgment of the district court , the court held that the issuance of plaintiff’s temporary license and the posting of the newsletter labeling it a “disciplinary action” occurred eleven years before filing of the complaint, which is well outside the limitations period....

Uralde v. US, No. 09-13845, involved an action against the U.S. claiming that plaintiff’s wife died as a result of the Coast Guard’s failure to provide her access to timely medical treatment after she was injured during the Coast Guard’s interdiction of their vessel. The court reversed the dismissal of the action on the ground that, because the Suits in Admiralty Act did not include a reciprocity requirement, plaintiff had no obligation to demonstrate that Cuba would allow Americans to sue its government on similar claims....

In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, court schedules can lay out the amount of money that an attorney may be awarded. But there are limits to a bankruptcy attorney’s fees in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, as we see in a recent First Circuit Court of Appeals decision. In this case, a bankruptcy attorney challenged the fees he was awarded in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding, claiming that the fees were too meager....

Green v. Drug Enf. Admin., No. 07-15334, concerned plaintiffs’ appeal from the district court’s dismissal of their claim that the DEA lacked jurisdiction over property the DEA seized from plaintiffs and then forfeited to the U.S. in a civil administrative forfeiture proceeding. The court of appeals dismissed the appeal, holding that the appeal was untimely because Fed. R. App. P. 4(a), which enforced a jurisdictional time limit, was tolled only by timely motions, and plaintiff’s Fed....