Kansas City Legal Blog

Kansas residents who watched the recent HBO documentary 'Finding Neverland" are undoubtedly aware that it did not paint a very flattering picture of Michael Jackson. The deceased pop star's estate was not pleased when HBO announced that it planned to air the film and filed a lawsuit in February claiming that the network violated an agreement it signed with Jackson in 1992. The agreement allowed HBO to show footage of a Michael Jackson concert that took place in Bucharest if it agreed to not disparage the singer in the future.

HBO wants to move the case to arbitration and says that 'Finding Neverland" was released long after their 1992 deal with Jackson had been terminated. The network disputes the estate's interpretation of the 1992 agreement and also maintains that the documentary only mentioned the Bucharest concert in passing. HBO's efforts to resolve the case in arbitration are based on a provision of the 1992 agreement that calls for all legal issues arising from it to be settled in a private court.

Those who are found driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol on a Kansas road may face many different penalties, ranging from a fine to time in jail. It is also possible that a driver who is convicted of impaired driving will be required to have an ignition interlock device installed on his or her vehicle. Such a device won't allow a car to start if it a driver has a blood alcohol level of .02 or higher.

A judge could also require that driver to go to traffic school or other driver education courses. Failure to comply with an order to complete an education or rehabilitation program may result in a longer license suspension. It may also result in additional sanctions handed down by that judge. A license could be revoked completely if an individual has been convicted of drunk driving in the past.

If you have a child with certain special needs, you may understand and accept that your child will never have the ability to fully control his or her own life. You may not have had to worry about this issue much because, as the parent, you have done your best to care for your child and handle his or her affairs already. However, as your child reaches the legal age of adulthood, you may need to take steps to maintain that ability.

When your child reaches the age of 18, you lose the ability to legally handle certain aspects of his or her life. If you know that your child will not be able to maintain a home, attend to medical needs or handle financial obligations due to a mental or physical disability, you may want to take steps to obtain guardianship.

Residents of Kansas who are on the popular keto diet for health and weight loss might want to hear about a curious drunk driving case that happened earlier this year. The Houston-area attorney for a man who was charged with DUI got the charges dropped after discovering that his client was on the keto diet. The attorney claims that a positive breath test was reading alcohol on the man's breath that was not there because he had been drinking, but because he was in ketosis.

The keto diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that puts the body in a metabolic state called ketosis. In ketosis, the body becomes more efficient at burning fat. But ketosis also creates acetone in the body, which can be released through the breath as isopropyl alcohol.