Singer Lauryn Hill Faces Tax Case re Allegedly Unfiled Federal Returns

Grammy-award winning singer Lauryn Hill faces a federal tax case. In a criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., she is accused of failing to file returns with the Internal Revenue Service for 2005, 2006 and 2007 while earning millions in income, reports Bloomberg. The fact that…

Jun 7, 2012 4:12 PM CDT

Ex-Client Sues Stradley Ronon, Says Securitization Errors re $200M Subprime Loans Cost It Big Bucks

A former client of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young sued the Philadelphia-based law firm on Monday, contending that errors in documenting some $200 million in loans to a subprime lender cost a bank involved in making the loans millions of dollars. After the subprime lender, Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage…

Jun 6, 2012 10:38 PM CDT

Supreme Court Reinstates Accomplice Conviction, Says 3rd Circuit Failed to Respect Jury Role

The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated the accomplice and co-conspirator conviction of a Pennsylvania man accused in a 1995 shotgun death. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction of defendant Lorenzo Johnson. The Supreme Court reversed in a per…

May 29, 2012 2:54 PM CDT

Onetime BigLaw Associate, 2 Co-Defendants Part of $33M Insider-Trading Settlement

Updated: A former attorney at four major law firms who pleaded guilty last year in an insider trading case in federal court in Newark, N.J., has agreed, with two co-defendants, to settle a civil case for $33 million. Matthew Kluger, who is now in his early 50s, agreed to pay…

Apr 25, 2012 10:12 PM CDT

2nd Lawyer Takes Plea in NJ Tax-Lien Bid-Rigging Case; Federal Probe Is Ongoing

A second lawyer has taken a plea in a federal case over alleged collusive bidding in sales of tax liens in New Jersey. Robert E. Rothman, 59, a lawyer and owner of Rothman Realty Corp. in Englewood, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Newark to bid-rigging at auctions between…

Mar 27, 2012 10:02 PM CDT

Phila. PI Attorney Who Stole $2.1M From Clients, Law Firm and Family Gets 5 Years in Club Fed

Sentenced today to five years in federal prison for fleecing at least 10 victims, including his clients, then-law partner and family members of $2.1 million between 2005 and 2008, a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer was taken directly into custody. Jeffrey Abramowitz, 48, “spun a web of lies, hoaxes and bogus…

Mar 9, 2012 10:56 PM CST

Good Cop, Bad Citizen? As Cellphone Recording Increases, Officers Are Uneasy

Mar 1, 2012 9:40 AM CST

Partner Tells Federal Jury Work Done by His Law Firm Was Legit, Not Part of a Lawmaker Bribe Scheme

Testifying in a federal bribery case that began this week in Oklahoma City against a former state senate leader who is also an attorney, a former law partner of another defendant in the case said said his law firm had performed legitimate legal work. “I had no knowledge of any…

Feb 17, 2012 6:52 PM CST

Once-Powerful Lawmaker On Trial for Bribery re $8K-Per-Month Law Firm Retainer Payments

A former longtime New Jersey lawmaker is being tried in federal court in Trenton, on charges that the $8,000-per-month retainer payments his law firm received from 2004 to 2006 from an attorney for a North Carolina developer were in fact bribes. Onetime state senator Wayne Bryant, 64, is accused of…

Feb 2, 2012 7:34 PM CST

Prosecutors Claim Federal Judge Bias in Lawyer’s Racketeering Case, Ask 3rd Circuit for New Judge

Prosecutors are seeking the recusal of the federal judge assigned to hear a criminal racketeering case against a prominent New Jersey defense attorney, contending that U.S. District Judge William Martini is biased against the government. Among other issues, they have contended that Martini erred by severing witness murder conspiracy charges…

Jan 25, 2012 8:37 PM CST

Federal Judge Delays Racketeering Trial of NJ Lawyer, Says Prosecutors Mischaracterized Court

A federal judge in Newark today postponed a racketeering trial scheduled to start next week for a high-profile New Jersey defense attorney accused of orchestrating a variety of criminal enterprises, including a cocaine operation, in connection with his law practice. Prompting the decision by U.S. District Judge William J. Martini…

Jan 13, 2012 1:19 AM CST

An Arresting Development: Courts Split Over DNA Testing for Those Merely Charged with a Crime

Jan 1, 2012 9:20 AM CST

Life Sentence for Gang Member Convicted in Plot to Murder Chief NJ Federal Judge

As he was sentenced to life Friday in federal court in Camden, N.J., 39-year-old Derrick Menter insisted he is innocent of plotting to kill the chief federal district court judge in New Jersey. Menter, who will not be eligible for parole, was convicted in July in a murder conspiracy in…

Dec 13, 2011 12:08 PM CST

School Dist. Faces New Suit re Alleged Laptop Webcam Spying, By Sister of Teen Who Got $175K

A suburban Philadelphia school district reacted with outrage today, after learning that it had been sued again, by the sister of a teen student to whom it had made a $175,000 settlement, concerning alleged illegal webcam monitoring in their home on a Harriton High School-supplied laptop. Paige Robbins, 18, says…

Dec 9, 2011 3:33 PM CST

New Smartphone Suit re Data-Sharing Software Targets Apple, Wireless Cos., Device Makers, Carrier IQ

In at least the third would-be class action filed since technology blogger Trevor Eckhart last month reported that smartphones are providing carriers with private information about individual users, eight major defendants are accused in a federal lawsuit (PDF) filed Dec. 2 in Delaware of violating wiretap law via their common…

Dec 6, 2011 1:44 AM CST