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Have you ever heard of telephone bill “cramming”? Have you seen some peculiar third party charges on your phone bill for services you’ve never ordered or authorized? If so, you may have been hit by a practice called “cramming,” where third parties place unauthorized fees on unsuspecting consumers’ telephone bills, reports Fox News. The fees are usually tacked onto customers’ landline telephone bills. The fees sometimes go undetected for years, because they aren’t too high - sometimes only around $2-20 a month, according to Fox News....

A Georgia grand jury has declined to indict sheriff’s deputies on criminal charges for throwing a “flash-bang” grenade that burned and severely injured a 19-month-old boy. The child, Bounkham Phonesavanh, was injured during a police drug raid when the stun grenade landed in the infant’s crib. The suspect whom police sought in the raid was not actually in the house at the time. According to Reuters, the grand jury found that deputies did not intentionally injure the child and that their conduct was not tantamount to criminal negligence....

The New York City Police Department has announced that it will no longer arrest those carrying 25 grams or less of marijuana. Instead, NYPD officers will issue begin issuing summonses to those in possession of small amounts of marijuana, reports Gothamist. The summonses, similar to those issued for speeding tickets or relatively minor offenses, will not appear on a person’s criminal record. What else do you need to know about the NYPD’s new marijuana possession enforcement policy?...

Domestic violence is usually defined as physical, emotional, and/or psychological abuse committed within an intimate or family relationship. All too often, acts of physical abuse are part of a pattern of aggression that typically includes controlling behavior, manipulation, threats, and intimidation. According to U.S. Department of Justice research, about 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year in the U.S., and almost 25 percent of surveyed women said they have been physically or sexually assaulted by a spouse, partner, or date at some point in their lives....

Hollywood has a lot of interesting lawsuits. Take Quentin Tarantino, he’s suing a neighbor for the “pterodactyl-like” screams coming from his “exotic bird menagerie.” (Does Tarantino really know what kind of sound a pterodactyl makes?) “On a daily basis Defendant’s macaws, large tropical birds known for their loud squawks and screams, are placed in an outdoor aviary where they emit blood-curdling screams at random intervals for 7 to 8 hours each day … which are not only startling, but have also seriously disrupted Mr....

On March 25, Reuters news service reported that a jury in Boston awarded a verdict of $141 million in damages to plaintiffs Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, against defendants the Pfizer corporation. The jury found Pfizer was liable for its promotion of the drug Neurontin for off-label uses. Drug companies are strictly prohibited by law from promoting their products for uses other than those for which the FDA has specifically approved them....

Looks like there are going to be some unhappy meals in Northern California. San Francisco is cracking down on happy meals and the fast-food toys in them in an effort to combat childhood obesity. According to Reuters, the recently passed San Francisco ordinance would require the happy meal to be of certain nutritional value before being allowed to place a toy with the order. The San Francisco happy meal toys law is similar to one recently passed in nearby Santa Clara County....

Some Taco Bell customers had to make a run for the doctor’s office after a Salmonella outbreak that infected dozens of people in ten states last fall. But the outbreak also affected other unidentified restaurants, not just Taco Bell, the fast-food company points out. A Salmonella outbreak in October and November 2011 infected 68 people, 20 of whom had to be treated at hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control reports, according to ABC News....

Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin was indeed subjected to racial slurs and vicious sexual taunts about his mother and sister by Richie Incognito and two other teammates, according to the long-awaited report released by prominent attorney Ted Wells’ on Friday. Incognito was the ringleader of three players who orchestrated “a pattern of harassment” not only on Martin, but also another unidentified young offensive lineman and a member of the team’s athletic training staff....

The remains of 10-year-old Zahra Baker have been found and identified by police in Hickory, North Carolina. The little girl was reported missing by her father and step-mother on October 9, although it was reported that no one outside the family had seen Zahra since September 25. The police say they have found enough physical evidence to confirm the remains found in an area of Caldwell County, N.C., were those of the missing girl....

Thankfully football and awards season is over so we can get back to watching “The Good Wife” every week. But legally speaking, how did the show do in its depiction of the law? The recap: This week the attorneys of Lockhart & Gardner dealt with a lawsuit involving none other than Eli Gold. Turns out the Department of Justice hasn’t just been harassing Eli; the feds want to charge him with conspiracy....

As the saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed; try, try, try again. President Donald Trump may be on his third try after his second attempt at an executive order limiting travel from several predominantly Muslim countries was blocked much in the same way as the first. The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, upheld a lower court’s injunction prohibiting the travel ban from being enforced, and minced no words in doing so....

The primary provider of arbitration services for credit card and other consumer debt disputes is quitting the game. The National Arbitration Forum (NAF) won’t handle any new consumer cases due to investigations and lawsuits from numerous city and state governments, plus class action lawsuits challenging its arbitration practices and its neutrality. Many consumers have learned the hard way that if you have a dispute with your credit card company, a debt collector, or an increasing variety of merchants, there’s a good chance that a mandatory arbitration clause applies....

Are guns allowed in movie theaters? State statutes, local ordinances, and a private business’ policies all aim to answer that question. But as the Colorado movie theater shooting shows, enforcement isn’t always possible. Like many other states, Colorado requires a permit for an adult to carry a concealed handgun. But the permit is not valid everywhere. Some places are off-limits to concealed handguns, pursuant to federal law. In Colorado, site of the Columbine massacre in 1999, public schools are also generally off-limits to concealed-carry permit holders....

After news broke last week that U.S. Marshals arrested a Houston man over $5,700 in unpaid student debt, about 7.6 million people behind on their own loans started to sweat. Threatening calls and letters, garnished wages, and now federal agents showing up at your door? While most of us were blown away by Paul Aker’s arrest, the Marshals Service insists it was business as usual, and that it wasn’t their first attempt to get Aker to appear in federal court....

We all know that soda is bad for us. The sugar, the high fructose corn syrup, and phosphoric acid (!) can’t be too healthy. But diet soda, on the other hand, is better, right? Fewer calories mean diet sodas might actually help us maintain a healthy weight or even lose weight, right? Wrong, according to three federal lawsuits filed against the three largest makers of carbonated beverages in the U.S. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, are all being sued for their marketing of diet sodas that plaintiffs claim mislead consumers into thinking those beverages are healthy, or at least healthier than regular soda....

Dr. Phil’s production company has filed suit against Gawker Media for posting footage of the TV therapist’s interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man behind the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax, on Deadspin.com. The suit was filed Monday in a Texas federal court by Peteski Productions, one of the producers of the Dr. Phil show. The complaint alleges the sports gossip website posted the juiciest parts of the interview online before it had aired in the majority of Dr....

Congressional leaders and President Bush have agreed on a package of measures intended to stimulate economic growth – including new tax rebates for individuals and families, investment incentives for businesses, and a plan that would increase mortgage availability. According to a White House Press Release, the agreement “meets the criteria the President set forward last week to provide an effective, robust, and temporary set of incentives to protect the health of our economy and encourage job creation....

If you’re unemployed, underemployed, or unhappily employed, Craigslist job ads are probably a regular stop in your browser of choice. But if you’re relying on the popular website’s classified ads to find employment opportunities, you also have to watch out for employment scams. Not every job posted on Craigslist reflects a position in the real world that’s worth applying for, according to an article at UnemploymentHandbook.com. It’s a waste of time to write out a resume and cover letter for a job that’s not even there, so here are some signs of a potential scam when you’re looking at job ads online:...

Court trials have begun this week in Mississippi, in two of the thousands of cases filed over the insurance industry’s handling of claims in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, according to an Associated Press (AP) article. The AP also reports that settlement negotiations are underway between State Farm Insurance and Mississippi’s Attorney General, in an attempt to resolve a civil lawsuit filed against the insurer by the State of Mississippi, charging State Farm with wrongful refusal of claims filed by policyholders in the aftermath of Katrina....