11th Circuit Court

Disbarred Ga. Real Estate Closing Attorney Faces Federal Charges re Alleged $1.5M Fraud

A Duluth, Ga., attorney disbarred in 2009 was arrested Friday morning on charges that he covered various personal expenses by misappropriating as much as $1.5 million from real estate closings, beginning in 2007. Neal Landers, 45, is expected to be arraigned Friday on charges including bank fraud, money laundering and…

Mar 30, 2012 4:20 PM CDT

Fifth Amendment Protects Child Porn Suspect Who Refuses to Unlock Hard Drive, 11th Circuit Rules

A suspect in a child pornography investigation may assert his Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to unlock encrypted hard drives, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is apparently the first by a federal appeals court to protect a person…

Feb 24, 2012 1:44 PM CST

After F Grade, Firm Sues Better Business Bureau in Federal Court Over Rating System

A law firm given a F grade last year by the Better Business Bureau of Central Florida for a claimed pattern of unresolved client complaints is firing back. The KEL law firm has filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando against the local BBB and related defendants, contending that its business…

Feb 21, 2012 11:08 PM CST

Fined $14K in Fed’l Court for Frivolous Filings, Lawyer Is Suspended, Fined $21K by Top Fla. Court

Ordered by a bankruptcy judge to pay a $14,000 penalty for frivolous filings, in a sanction later upheld (PDF) by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a Florida attorney has now been suspended from practice for three months for the same conduct. The Florida Supreme Court order imposing the…

Feb 17, 2012 2:20 PM CST

Lawyers Get Paid, 1 Client Gets $5K, 125K Others Zip If Judge OKs Pact in Suit Against Law Firm

When thousands of clients retained a Maryland-based law firm to help them reduce their consumer debt, they weren’t made aware of a few key facts, a federal class action lawsuit contends. Among them: That the money they paid would go first to cover attorney fees to Persels & Associates. Hence,…

Feb 14, 2012 7:32 PM CST

11th Circuit Upholds Dismissal of Suit by Worker Who Wouldn’t Give Same-Sex Relationship Counseling

A federal appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by a former counselor who claimed her constitutional rights were violated when she was laid off after refusing to provide relationship counseling to a gay woman. In a ruling (PDF) Tuesday, the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals…

Feb 8, 2012 12:22 AM CST

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Life Sentences for Child Porn Trafficking, Nixes Restitution

A federal appeals court has affirmed the life sentences given to seven participants in an international child pornography trafficking ring, but it has vacated a $3.3 million restitution award against one of the defendants on behalf of one of the victims. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in…

Feb 7, 2012 7:17 PM CST

Will Hustler Magazine Pay $19.6M, $250K or Zip for Running Nude Photos of Slain Woman Without OK?

After a professional wrestler made headlines by killing his wife, his son and himself in 2007, a magazine known for its hard-core pornography published, without permission, nude photos from decades earlier that it obtained of Chris Benoit’s wife, Nancy. A federal jury in Georgia last year awarded $19.6 million in…

Jan 26, 2012 8:53 PM CST

Federal Jury Says TD Bank Must Pay $67M to Investors Swindled by Ex-Attorney Scott Rothstein

After four hours of deliberation, a federal jury in Miami yesterday decided that a South Florida bank must pay $67 million to a group of 27 investors swindled by then-attorney Scott Rothstein. The award, which includes $35 million in punitive damages, is based on a determination that officials of TD…

Jan 19, 2012 6:05 PM CST

Jailed Lawyer Says He Doesn’t Remember Teen Sex-Sting Guilty Plea, Seeks Do-Over

When he signed a plea agreement last year concerning a trip to Florida for the alleged purpose of helping a 14-year-old boy explore intimacy, he wasn’t in his right mind, a Maryland lawyer told a federal court in Orlando in a handwritten motion yesterday. Stressed, anxious, tearful and suicidal, he…

Jan 13, 2012 9:50 PM CST

Defense Counsel Asks Judge to Order US Attorney to Remove Press Release from Website

Defense counsel for an Alabama pharmacy owner facing criminal charges for allegedly violating Medicaid rules have taken the unusual tack of asking a federal judge in Mobile to order the U.S. Attorney’s office to take down an online press release. In the Internet age, such publicity threatens Chris Vernon’s right…

Dec 22, 2011 9:33 PM CST

Convicted in $1.2B Ponzi Scheme, Scott Rothstein Said in Depo That 2 Law Firm Partners Benefited

Disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein pointed the finger at two ex-partners of his bankrupt South Florida law firm during a deposition, the Associated Press and South Florida Business Journal report. Convicted of running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme while at the helm of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm and sentenced…

Dec 22, 2011 12:19 AM CST

SEC Targets Mortgage-Fraud Fighter Lawyer in Criminal and Civil Cases re Corporate Counsel Role

A California-licensed lawyer known for his efforts to combat mortgage fraud has been indicted and arrested in a federal securities-fraud case in Florida. Mitchell J. Stein, who has a home in Boca Raton, Fla., and whose California law firm has an office there, is facing charges including mail and wire…

Dec 21, 2011 12:12 AM CST

Transgender Woman Returns to Georgia Legislature Job After 11th Circuit Ruling

Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who lost her legislative editor job with the Georgia Office of Legislative Counsel, is back at work now after an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that her termination violated her civil rights. “I never should have been fired in the first place.…

Dec 14, 2011 9:10 PM CST

Scott Rothstein Says Other Law Firms Aided $1.2B Fraud by Turning Blind Eye to His Lies

Convicted swindler Scott Rothstein has emerged from the federal witness protection program and is being deposed by 30 attorneys in federal court in Miami, in a high-security closed-door bankruptcy proceeding that began yesterday and is expected to take about two weeks. The 49-year-old disbarred Florida lawyer is naming names, says…

Dec 13, 2011 1:32 PM CST