The Goodson Blogson

Over the weekend, the news media reported on a sushi-related discrimination lawsuit currently working its way through the Los Angeles County trial court system. David Martin visited a southern California sushi house and ordered its all-you-can-eat buffet for $28. But when restaurateur Jay Oh noticed leftover nuggets of rice on Martin’s plate, he argued that Martin should be charged the higher price for sashimi (raw fish without rice) than for nigiri (raw fish served atop a hand-packed wad of vinegared rice). Since sashimi is traditionally priced higher than nigiri, the restaurant’s policy for the sushi buffet requires diners to clean their plates completely in order to receive the next round of food. Martin responded with a lawsuit, alleging that A Ca-Shi Restaurant’s requirement that patrons consume the sushi rice along with the fish in order to qualify for the all-you-can-eat price constituted discrimination against diabetics like him. Though several news sources picked up this stor...

Some things never change. In spring 2009, the Goodson Blogson came to the rescue of frustrated Duke Law 1Ls with a post about formatting tables of contents and tables of authorities , just in time to turn in their LARW appellate briefs. And while those lucky students are now set to graduate in May (hopefully expert in the art of table-generation), the same questions have recurred every subsequent spring with each new crop of 1Ls. Since new versions of popular word-processing programs have debuted since our last post (some dramatically changing the instructions for generating these tables), it's high time for an update. Tables of contents and tables of authorities were most likely not required in undergraduate writing projects, so they can be entirely new ground for many first-year law students. Don’t fall into the trap of creating these tables from scratch — most word-processing programs can generate them automatically. Since instructions will vary depending on what product you ar...

If you’re like most people, you probably have your W-2s and other financial paperwork in a stack at home, but that’s as far as you’ve gotten on your income tax preparation. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service has even requested that some people not file their 2010 returns until mid-February , so its processors have time to prepare for changes made by 2010’s tax law overhaul. It looks like 2011 will be an especially good year for tax procrastinators: the little-known Washington, D.C. holiday of Emancipation Day ( CNN story ) will be observed on the usual tax deadline of April 15, pushing back the dreaded day an extra weekend to Monday, April 18 instead. However, most taxpayers can file 2010 returns as soon as they are ready, and just need to find the time and energy to tackle their taxes. Although the Goodson Law Library staff is not able to answer substantive tax-related questions (such as “what forms do I need to file?” or help with interpreting the form instructions), the Goods...

Duke Law and food trucks go together like radishes on a taco (and if that simile is puzzling, you’ve never had a real taco). After all, the Law School’s Epicurean Society founded Carpe Durham , the local food blog which frequently reviews new trucks and recently released a beta map tracking current truck locations via Twitter . In 2009, two students enrolled in Entertainment Law used our Student Media Workshop to assist in the preparation of their class project: a short film called Tacomentary: The Durham Taco Story , which featured interviews with local truck vendors. And though they’ve mostly shifted to late-night hours parking on West Campus, the OnlyBurger truck used to be a common lunchtime choice for Law School students and staff. So it’s no surprise that the Goodson Blogson was interested to read yesterday’s Bull City Rising article, discussing current food truck legal controversies in the Triangle . Food truck vendors are subject to a dizzying number of local ordinances, ad...

Encouraging news continues to be published about U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords , the intended target of the January 8 assassination attempt at a Safeway supermarket in Tuscon, Arizona. Giffords was critically injured in the attack, along with thirteen bystanders. Six other victims were killed, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll ( FJC biography ) and nine-year-old Christina Green, who had come to the Representative’s “Congress on Your Corner” event to learn more about the political process. (Read NY Times profiles of the victims here ). The alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, faces several federal charges related to the attempted murder of Rep. Giffords and the murders of a Giffords staffer and Judge Roll (read the federal filing ); state charges are in the works for the deaths and injuries of the other victims. Amazingly, Rep. Giffords survived the shooting, despite receiving a gunshot wound to the head at point-blank range. Barely a week after the att...