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Facebook has carved down its dense Data Policy in an attempt to clarify to users how their data is handled (or sold). According to Forbes, the social networking company is proposing to trim its Data Policy from 9,000 words to a mere 2,700. Some may see this as a move to clear away “legalese” and leave only the straight talk, but is there more going on here? Here are five things users should take away from Facebook’s skinnier Data Policy:...

If you see something, do you say something? We are increasingly asked to be alert to our surroundings and report suspicious behavior that may indicate terrorist activity, so should we be doing that with everything else? And if so, what precisely do we do when we suspect someone is in danger and that person is a stranger? Three women in California who caught a man in a restaurant spiking his date’s drink with a roofie provide some guidance....

Lights… camera… legal action! If you want to sue someone but don’t want a long, drawn-out court battle, there’s another legal channel to turn to: Take your case to “Judge Judy.” But is “Judge Judy” for real? As the announcer says at the beginning of each episode, “The cases are real. The people are real. The rulings are final.” In reality, though, it’s a bit more complicated. Here are some behind-the-bench “secrets” of “Judge Judy” and other TV judge shows that you may not have known:...

Pop star Justin Bieber was involved in a car accident in Beverly Hills, California, this week, just as another accident from last year threatens to drag the singer into court. The latest accident came as Bieber and his entourage were attempting to flee paparazzi, reports the New York Daily News. One of the vehicles in the singer’s caravan, a black Cadillac Escalade, crashed into a car coming out a parking structure....

In 2015, it was discovered that Volkswagen had been cheating consumers and regulators worldwide when it came to the emissions testing of their Turbo Diesel Injected (TDI) engines. The aftermath of the discovery led to mass recalls, several lawsuits, negative PR, and worldwide controversy. The most recent settlement for $1.2 billion, which is set to be approved by a federal judge, means that all affected US consumers who purchased or leased vehicles with the TDI 3....

We all thought that it was funny when the “Don’t tase me, bro!” video popped on YouTube, but the fact is that the devices can be dangerous, and taser deaths are real. The death of Florida resident Adam Spencer Johnson last week proves this. The 33-year-old man died after being tased by a group of 5 on- and off-duty police officers. After celebrating his birthday, Adam Spencer Johnson went to Orlando’s Universal CityWalk, where the events took place....

Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal Bible and Nobel Peace Prize medal must be stored in a safe deposit box that only the court will access, an Atlanta judge ruled. The Bible and medal will remain there until an estate fight over the items between King’s children is resolved, Reuters reports. For the King children, a day of litigation is a day like any other. King’s two sons, Dexter and Martin Luther King III, want to sell the Nobel medal and the Bible....

A defendant who told police that the woman he awakened for sex likely mistook him for her boyfriend is not guilty of rape, a California appeals court ruled. California’s Second District Court of Appeal ruled sex by impersonation is not rape when the woman is unmarried. The court outlined the issue this way: “A man enters the dark bedroom of an unmarried woman after seeing her boyfriend leave late at night, and has sexual intercourse with the woman while pretending to be the boyfriend....

The town of Hoboken will not be the site of the newest Jersey Shore spinoff. Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has denied the show the filming permit it needs to shoot scenes within the town. The town’s film commission weighed the issue. The commission included local heavyweights such as representatives from Health and Human Services and Environmental Services. It seems that their conclusion was simple. Allowing Jersey Shore to film in Hoboken would negatively impact their citizens’ quality of life and safety....

A feature of American law is that it’s difficult to make bold general statements about requirements and penalties. They vary from federal to state law and differ from state to state. But it is safe to say that it is pretty much always bad news when a drunk driver is stopped and charged, across the country. The punishment for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) or Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) varies from state to state, and depends on whether it’s a first or subsequent offense....

Beware NFL fans, the Super Bowl scams are upon us. “It is important for football fans to carefully review the details of any ticket offer or travel promotion before handing over cash or credit card information,” Attorney General Bill Ryan of Pennsylvania said. “Scam artists are counting on the fact that enthusiastic fans will get caught up in the excitement of the Super Bowl and will not be as attentive as they should be....

The kind of actions the jury found in this case are just the type the Romans must have had in mind when they coined the phrase “caveat emptor.” Of course the Romans didn’t have to contend with hundreds of illegally calibrated gas pumps that rip you off. But that is what Texans had to contend with, found a Harris County jury, when they delivered their verdict against SunMart convenience stores November 9....

What is double jeopardy – legally speaking, that is? While we do appreciate the TV game show “Jeopardy!,” we aren’t referring to the round where you get double the money for every correct answer-in-the-form-of-a-question. In this case, double jeopardy refers to a much-misunderstood constitutional right. That would be the right to not “be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb,” as the Fifth Amendment states....

You’ve probably heard of sexting by now. The word is a mashup between sex and texting and the act amounts to electronically conveying lewd and suggestive images with a smartphone or other technology. Just as we now have new vocabulary associated with technologies that have infiltrated our lives, so do we have new crimes. But little legislation directly addresses sexting per se. Instead, prosecutors charge people using existing laws. Perhaps surprisingly, much sexting is charged as child pornography....

Your guilty pleasure is now a real-life legal drama: Two stars from Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey” have been indicted on federal fraud charges. Teresa Giudice and her husband Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice were charged Monday in a 39-count indictment with conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud – mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, and making false statements on loan applications – as well as bankruptcy fraud. Though the Giudices are innocent until proven guilty, the lesson here is clear: You must always tell the truth when dealing with courts, paying taxes and applying for loans or mortgages....

Only “The Good Wife” could use a coming together to show just how far its characters are fracturing apart. Howard and Jackie’s Ketubah signing at Alicia’s condo becomes a discussion of divorce, decampment, and a dissolving criminal case. Who’s in love with whom? Who’s in Diane’s new female-led firm? Who’s out on their own, and who’s out of the woods in Peter’s corruption investigation? Here are the legal ins and outs of last night’s episode, “Party....

A voluntary recall issued last month for California peaches, plums, nectarines and pluots that may be contaminated with listeria bacteria has been expanded. The initial recall was issued July 19th for fruit packed by the Wawona Packing Company in Cutler, California from June 1st through July 12th. The expansion of the recall now includes fruit packed by the company through July 18th, reports USA Today. No Cases of Listeriosis Reported Although no illnesses have been linked to the recalled fruit yet, the company isn’t taking any chances....

Suspended Ohio police chief Chad Dojack resigned from office to begin his sentence of 50 days of home confinement, putting an end to the Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker surrogate scandal. Dojack was found guilty on dereliction of duties charges for neglecting to investigate or question former Martins Ferry police chief Barry Carpenter after a meeting with celebrity photographers about items from the home of a local woman carrying twins for actress Sarah Jessica Parker....

In a blow to a consumer group and its efforts to make physicians Medicare claims information more transparent, a federal court of appeals has ruled that a consumer group is not entitled to access to a set of records on Medicare claims from the government that it had requested. The AP reported that the case was seen as “an important battle in the effort to remake the nation’s health care system to provide higher quality service and waste less” and was “being closely watched by employers, insurers and consumer advocates”....

To keep tabs on a piece of private property suspected of growing marijuana, the Drug Enforcement Administration set up warrantless hidden cameras. The cameras did their job and the DEA allegedly found Manuel Mendoza and Marco Magana of Green Bay, Wis. growing over 1000 marijuana plants on Magana’s property. But the defendants asked the court to discard evidence obtained from the hidden cameras as a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights....