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Last week, it was erroneously reported by several media outlets that a child custody settlement had been reached between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in their divorce case. However, last Friday, Pitt filed papers with the court that clearly indicate that the divorce and child custody battle is still on. The announcement of their marriage, and then their divorce, each have caused a media frenzy as the couple has been one of the most popular celebrity couples of all time....

Sylvester Stallone takes his image seriously. Or at least his Rocky gloves seriously. After Sly got wind that a Hollywood memorabilia company was set to auction off a pair of gloves he reportedly used during the six-part boxing saga, he threatened to sue. The cease and desist letter sent by Sylvester Stallone to Profiles In History–a fairly reputable dealer in Hollywood artifacts–claims that the Rocky gloves are fakes. It, however, doesn’t explain how the actor knows this....

Celebrities: They’re just like us! They break the law, they sue each other! By virtue of their excessive wealth and often even more excessive lifestyles, celebrities rarely fail to generate interesting legal headlines. Likewise the entertainment industry as a whole: There’s almost never a shortage of lawsuits, legal intrigue, or brewing scandal when movies, music, and television are involved. So what were 2014’s hottest celeb-related legal stories? Here are this year’s 10 most popular stories from FindLaw’s Celebrity Justice blog:...

Tires are important to the functioning of your car. Although they remain relatively basic, compared to the other kinds of changes in automobile design – like autopilot! – you just can’t drive without a full set of tires, with treads, that all have air. That is why Bridgestone-Firestone last Friday announced that it will recall tens of thousands of tires that are susceptible to a very disconcerting defect, according to the Associated Press....

Every week, there seems to be another announcement of consumer data breach. We’ve all gotten those letters in the mail saying that the company will pay for a year’s worth of identity theft services, which generally cost consumers about $10 per month. However, these hacks have become so commonplace that most consumers have already purchased this service, as a prophylactic measure, since identity theft can be so financially damaging. We have all gotten so scared, yet so accustomed, to data breaches, it’s hard to know when to act and when to relax....

We now know for certain that police are tracking us on social media. First Google put out its report on police requests for user data, and now Twitter has also released its numbers. The number of requests for both platforms is high. Both companies also noted that while some requests come with a warrant, many more come with a subpoena that doesn’t require a judge’s approval. We know that police want the information, and in many cases they’re able to get it....

A Texas woman was arrested after she allegedly outed an undercover cop on her Facebook page. Users of social media sites like Facebook should be warned: what you tweet and post online can come back and haunt you. Melissa Walthall may have thought she was exacting some revenge against the undercover cop who testified against her friend. Instead, the 30-year-old woman may have put the cop’s life in danger. In August, the undercover cop reportedly testified against Walthall’s friend, George Pickens, in a drug case....

Stealth headsets are stealthy indeed. They might make you sick. Xbox headset maker Turtle Beach is recalling Ear Force XO Four Stealth gaming headsets manufactured between April and June of this year for mold spores. Gamers with chronic health problems are particularly at risk for respiratory illnesses or infections caused by the mold spore, the company states on its website. The recall is partial and voluntary and Turtle Beach is cooperating with the U....

As with so many trends, the celebs might start things off, but we civilians pick up on it soon enough. Last year saw the first ever libel suit via Twitter. As discussed in previous posts on FindLaw’s Injured Blog, former Hole front woman Courtney Love Cobain was sued for a nasty 140 characters she warbled about a L.A. dress designer. That case is on-going. As of last Wednesday however, regular person Amanda Bonnen had her Twitter libel (coined “twibel” by smarties at the Citizen Media Law Project), case dismissed by a Chicago court....

In the aftermath of last week’s deadly shooting in Santa Barbara, California, shock is turning into anger for many who feel that lax gun laws are at least partially to blame. Others argue that if California’s gun laws, already some of the most onerous in the nation, couldn’t prevent this shooting that no amount of rules will. What are some saying could have been done to prevent the shooting? ‘When Will Enough People Say, Stop This Madness?...

A leader of an Amish sect and all 15 of his followers were convicted of hate crimes for cutting off the beards of Amish rivals. If you’re not familiar with the Amish faith, hair and beards are considered sacred symbols of righteousness, writes NBC. When someone forcibly cuts these off, it is a big deal. So a bishop of a Amish sect in Ohio, Samuel J. Mullet Sr., was accused of a particular heinous hate crime when he was charged with ordering his 15 minions to target nine religious rivals last year and cut off their hair and beards, reports NBC....

The Boston Marathon bombing suspects, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamleran Tsarnaev, have been called both “accomplices” and “conspirators” in news reports. But legally speaking, what do these terms actually mean? Here are the legal differences between conspiracy, accomplice liability, and another criminal term you may be hearing with regard to the Boston bombings: being an accessory to a crime. Criminal law defines conspiracy as two parties who knowingly agree to commit a criminal act....

A young dad accused of putting his crying baby in a freezer and then falling asleep is being held on $1 million bail. Tyler Deutsch, 25, of Roy, Washington, was apparently tired of hearing his 6-week-old daughter cry. So he put her in the freezer, and then took a nap. When the baby’s 22-year-old mother returned and found her daughter in the freezer, it was an hour later. The infant’s body temperature had dropped to 84 degrees, Seattle’s KOMO-TV reports....

A judge has ordered rapper DMX’s royalty checks to be garnished to provide monthly child support payments to his ex-wife. Of course DMX, aka Earl Simmons, is no stranger to the courtroom, having faced a multitude of criminal charges – including reckless driving and sneaking drugs into prison – as well as a number of civil lawsuits over the last five years. According to TMZ, DMX’s latest legal troubles are of the family law variety, involving his ex-wife Tanesha Simmons and the couple’s four children....

Though it may seem like many employers are requiring social media passwords as a condition of employment, in reality, that doesn’t appear to be the case. In fact, only 3 percent of Americans have been asked by an employer to fork over their social media passwords, a new FindLaw survey reveals. Happy News for Employees The rarity of password collection by employers is welcome news to employees. In fact, 83 percent of American adults say that employers should not be allowed to obtain passwords to personal social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, according to the FindLaw survey....

Federal officials have filed securities fraud charges against two former Credit Suisse brokers, accusing the pair of securities fraud in connection with the purchase of auction rate securities (ARS) tied to high-risk subprime debt. The charges are part of the federal government’s probe of wrongdoing in the ARS market. In criminal charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and a separate civil complaint brought by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Eric Butler and Julian Tzolov are accused of purchasing more than $1 billion in auction rate securities for their clients, and misrepresenting that the investments were backed by federally-guaranteed collateral like student loans....

The American Bar Association (ABA) accused President Bush of abusing his executive power under the Constitution by his use of “signing statements” – the practice of approving a law while reserving the right to disregard certain parts of it at a later time. Officials in the U.S. Justice Department deemed the criticism unwarranted, declaring that the current President’s use of signing statements is legitimate under the law, and is no different than practices employed by past presidents....

This week marks the 50th anniversary of National Poison Prevention Week. Organized by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the week is dedicated to educating the public about unintentional poisoning and the ways such injuries can be prevented. Though unintentional poisoning is a leading cause of injury to children, it also affects adults. Most poison-related emergencies involve children, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, but most deaths involve adults....

Popular music band No Doubt settled its lawsuit with video game maker Activision over use of the band members’ likenesses in the game Band Hero. The lawsuit had nothing to do with using virtual images of Gwen Stefani and other members of No Doubt to sing Just a Girl or Don’t Speak. Instead, the lawsuit centered around the use of No Doubt members to virtually sing hit songs from other bands....

A study released Monday examines health care costs for Americans who have no health insurance, and reports on financial trends related to health care spending on the uninsured in the U.S. Uninsured Americans will spend about $30 billion on health care in 2008, and the cost to provide health care to all uninsured Americans would amount to more than $200 billion, according to the study Covering the Uninsured in 2008: Current Costs, Sources of Payment, and Incremental Costs, authored by researchers at George Mason University and the Urban Institute....