3rd Circuit Court

Student Warned Defendant School Dist. in ‘08 of Potential Webcam Privacy Peril

In 2008, as a suburban Philadelphia school district was beginning a noble experiment intended to guarantee that every student had access to a state-of-the-art computer, a high school student saw a potential problem. Lower Merion School District would have the ability to monitor students remotely, via the laptops’ webcams, and…

May 3, 2010 11:30 PM CDT

Judge Nixes RICO Charges, But Defense Lawyer Still Faces 36 Counts, Including Murder

A New Jersey defense lawyer and former prosecutor accused of participating in a variety of criminal acts up to and including murder will not face three racketeering charges, a federal judge in Newark has decided. Paul Bergrin still faces 36 other counts, reports the New Jersey Law Journal in an…

Apr 23, 2010 8:31 PM CDT

School District Snapped 56,000 Images on Student Webcams

An upscale suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly snapping photos of high school students at home via webcams on their district-issued laptop computers has completed an investigation. And it apparently supports at least some of the claims made in a federal lawsuit filed by the parents of one sophomore.…

Apr 20, 2010 5:57 PM CDT

Filing: School District Took Thousands of Pics of Students at Home Via Laptop Webcams

When news broke in February that an upscale suburban Philadelphia school district had been accused of spying on students at home via remotely activated webcams on their district-issued laptop computers, officials said the webcams were only activated if a computer had been reported missing or stolen. But that wasn’t true,…

Apr 19, 2010 7:57 PM CDT

3rd Circuit to Decide Whether Lawyer’s $184M Suit over Jets Taping Can Go Forward

A New York Jets fan who is also a lawyer will get a federal appeals hearing today on whether his $184 million suit against the New England Patriots can go forward. The suit by Princeton, N.J., lawyer Carl Mayer contends the Patriots and their coach, Bill Belichick, deprived ticket holders…

Apr 14, 2010 12:35 PM CDT

While Winning $1.25B in Bet-the-Farm Case, Lead Trial Lawyers Also Were Divorcing Each Other

As one of the top trial lawyers in California, partner Linda Smith of O’Melveny & Myers was an obvious choice to work on a major antitrust case against Intel Corp. on behalf of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. And so was her husband, O’Melveny partner and litigation star Chuck Diamond. The…

Apr 13, 2010 8:54 PM CDT

Students Disciplined for Fake MySpace Profiles of Principals Get 3rd Circuit Rehearing

Students who were disciplined for creating fake MySpace profiles that portrayed their principals as a heavy drinker in one case and a sex addict in the other will get a rehearing on their First Amendment claims before an en banc federal appeals court. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of…

Apr 13, 2010 1:57 PM CDT

Supreme Court to Decide Whether Compensation Law Bars Vaccine Suits

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a federal law bars a lawsuit that claims a vaccine caused a child’s seizures and developmental delays. The parents of Hannah Bruesewitz claim the girl was injured as a result of a design defect in the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine made by Wyeth,…

Mar 8, 2010 7:30 PM CST

Sgt.‘s Suit Says ‘Messed Up’ Character in ‘Hurt Locker’ Made Him Look Bad

A journalist who was embedded with his three-man unit during the Iraq war to write an article for Playboy, wound up making him look bad, a soldier says, by reworking it into a screenplay for The Hurt Locker that falsely portrayed him as a “messed up” bomb disposal officer. In…

Mar 4, 2010 7:46 PM CST

Federal Judge Steps Aside, Allows Del. Court to Decide Claimed Cravath Conflict Issue

A federal judge in Philadelphia has stepped aside from a lawsuit seeking to disqualify Cravath Swaine & Moore from serving as counsel to a company seeking to take over a former client of the law firm. Because Delaware Chancery Court is to address the same conflict issue on an expedited…

Feb 24, 2010 12:17 AM CST

School District in Laptop-Spying Case Ordered to Shut Off Webcams

Seeking to prevent a repeat of the alleged use of a school-issued laptop computer to spy on a suburban Philadelphia student at his home, a federal judge has approved a consent order intended to put a stop to the potential invasion of privacy. It prohibits Lower Merion School District from…

Feb 23, 2010 9:00 PM CST

Cravath Fires Back in Conflict Case, Says Ex-Client is Doing Battle in Wrong Court

Responding to a former client’s claims of a conflict of interest that could potentially derail Cravath Swaine & Moore’s representation of a current client in a hard-fought $5.1 billion corporate takeover battle, the law firm says in a reply brief that ex-client Airgas Inc. is pursuing the issue in the…

Feb 22, 2010 2:00 PM CST

Accused of Spying on Student at Home Via School Laptop, District Says It Didn’t

An upscale suburban Philadelphia school district accused in a lawsuit of spying on a student at home via the webcam in his school-provided laptop computer says it didn’t do it. The Lower Merion School District only activated the webcams when it was looking for a missing laptop among the 2,300…

Feb 19, 2010 6:56 PM CST

Suit Says School Spied on Student at Home Via Laptop Webcam, Seeks Class Action Status

A lawsuit filed by a the parents of a teenage student contends that his upscale suburban Philadelphia high school spied on him via a webcam on the laptop computer it issued to him that could be remotely activated. The suit, which was filed last week in federal court by Michael…

Feb 18, 2010 10:00 PM CST

Ex-Client of Cravath Battles Firm’s Current Client in Conflict Case Venue War

Updated: Today was the day that a Pennsylvania state-court judge was supposed to conduct a hearing on a former client’s claim that Cravath Swaine & Moore is conflicted out of representing a competing company in a $5.1 billion takeover bid. But that didn’t happen, because Cravath and its current client,…

Feb 16, 2010 11:28 PM CST