Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly reports a lawyer has filed "the first libel and defamation lawsuit brought on behalf of a herd of goats."

In the suit, filed in federal district court in Springfield, the herd of Nigerian dwarf goats alleges continued baad behavior on the part of two rival breeders - who are also judges at goat shows - including repeatedly bleating out rumors that the goats are "impure." Not for mutton, one of the allegations was that the goats were being bred with larger goats to produce offspring with bigger udders, which apparently judges, if not male goats, find more attractive. The lawsuit also gruffly charges the two butted heads with the herd's breeder at a show in Grafton, accusing him of being a cross dresser.

Photo by Joe Stammers. Used under this Creative Commons license.

Brian Hopkins, a New Yorker up in Boston for a little barhopping a few years back, sued Amtrak in 2008, alleging the railroad failed to alert him that climbing on top of a train at 4 a.m. and grabbing hold of the overhead wires might result in such severe burns that he'd lose one of his arms.

Hopkins has since added the MBTA to his lawsuit (of course). As is often the case with federal lawsuits, the wheels grind slowly. Hopkins' lawyers now want Amtrak to hand over all the documentation they have on people who have ever been electrocuted by grabbing catenary wires in general and dating back to 1991 at South Station specifically.

Maybe you have to be a lawyer to read the decision in Clean Harbors Environmental Services vs. Boston Basement Technologies and not go: WTF?

The man, identified in his suit only as John Doe, claims that in 2006, a "Cops" camera crew accompanying some Worcester officers illegally broke into his house and filmed the cops arresting him as he lay in his bed, naked and cowering in fear.

Two people who sued Home Depot for charging sales tax on the value of coupons on some batteries and light bulbs have just had their suit dismissed by the Massachusetts Appeals Court - which ordered them to reimburse Home Depot for eight years' worth of court costs in the case.

The Living Room, an Atlantic Avenue restaurant, filed suit yesterday against Starwood Hotels, which is about to open a restaurant called the Living Room in its new W hotel on Stuart Street in the Back Bay.

In its suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, the original Living Room says the new Living Room would confuse Boston diners, that it's trademarked the name for use as a restaurant and that it was here first - it opened in 2002. The W Living Room is scheduled to open on Thursday.

Complete Living Room complaint.

Globe story in which the reporter worries we're not hip enough for a W hotel.

Earlier:
The restaurant tomato fight.

A group of seven current and former employees of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel today filed a federal civil-right suit alleging several years of harassment because of their religion and Moroccan background.