8th Circuit Court

Ex-Client Sues Law Firm, Says Sex Trial Statements Cost Him $21.5M

Once a high-flying real estate mogul in South Dakota, Doug Hamilton says he lost his entire net worth of over $21.5 million as a result of adverse testimony and arguments by a former employee and her counsel at his sexual harassment trial. Now he is trying to regain at least…

Jan 21, 2010 6:08 PM CST

Judges Are Believers in Meditation Program for Parolees

Approached by a stranger business suit who wanted to teach prison inmates in Missouri to meditate, “I thought he was crazy at first,” state Circuit Judge David Mason tells the Washington Post. But now, some 14 years later, Mason has long been persuaded of the wide-ranging stress-reduction benefits of the…

Dec 14, 2009 10:38 PM CST

Offenders Face Bans on Gambling, Alcohol, Live-in Boyfriends, Computers

Courts are grappling with supervised release terms that go beyond the usual restrictions on drug use and law-breaking. Some felons convicted in federal courts are challenging restrictions on their post-prison life that they contend are arbitrary or too broad, the Wall Street Journal reports. The restrictions include bans on gambling,…

Aug 13, 2009 1:46 PM CDT

Wyeth Paid for Articles Promoting Use of Company’s Hormone-Replacement Drugs

Evidence unsealed last month in a complex federal case against a drug manufacturer shows that Wyeth paid for at least 40 ghostwritten articles in medical journals promoting the use of replacement hormones in menopausal women. The practice of publishing ghostwritten articles is controversial, because bioethicists say it obscures the connection…

Aug 6, 2009 10:25 PM CDT

8th Circuit Says Lawyer Can’t Discharge $360K in Student Debt

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Minnesota lawyer can’t discharge more than $360,000 in student debt in his Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Mark Allen Jesperson had claimed he shouldn’t be responsible for paying the loans under an “undue hardship” exception to the general rule that student loans can’t be…

Jul 10, 2009 6:11 PM CDT

Helping Client Gets Minn. Attorney Suspended for 2 Years

Attorney Benjamin Houge had argued that his conduct merited only a reprimand. But the Minnesota Supreme Court suspended the Twin Cities practitioner for two years over his representation of a client who had previously been involved in mortgage frauds. The court found that Houge had aided a client’s probation violation…

May 6, 2009 7:04 PM CDT

Catch Me If You Can

For years, Howard Kieffer dazzled clients, judges and lawyers with his federal sentencing expertise. Then they found out why he knew so much.

Apr 2, 2009 3:19 AM CDT

Alleged $3.5B Petters Ponzi Scheme Racks Up Another $1.6M in Legal Bills

An alleged $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme that a Minnesota businessman is accused of operating for a decade is keeping a number of Twin Cities law firms busy. The latest legal fee requests concerning the ongoing civil and criminal cases against Tom Petters total $1.6 million, reports the Star Tribune. The…

Feb 24, 2009 6:54 PM CST

Plaintiffs Question Judge’s Son’s Law Firm Link in Medtronic Case

U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle says he didn’t have any idea that his son’s law firm had performed work, in unrelated matters, for a defendant in a massive case he was hearing. But after plaintiff lawyers found out about Fredrikson & Byron’s connection to the litigation against Medtronic Inc., some…

Feb 13, 2009 6:04 PM CST

8th Circuit Sides With Dorsey & Whitney in $900K Malpractice Case

After a decade of litigation, Dorsey & Whitney won a ruling (PDF) Thursday from the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that overturns earlier federal court judgments holding the law firm liable in a failed casino lending deal. Because the more than two dozen banks that sued the…

Jan 16, 2009 11:43 PM CST

A Debt-Defying Act

Courts say part of embattled bankruptcy law violates First Amendment

Jan 1, 2009 6:40 AM CST

Appeals Court Allows Protests at Soldiers’ Funerals

The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who regularly make headlines and anger grieving families by showing up and staging protests during funerals. The court’s ruling Friday (PDF) is a reaffirmation that the Kansas church can keep on picketing…

Nov 3, 2008 5:13 PM CST

8th Circuit Restores Halloween Restrictions on Sex Offenders in Missouri

A federal appeals court is permitting enforcement of a Missouri law that restricts sex offenders from contact with children on Halloween. The law requires sex offenders to stay at home the evening of Halloween unless they are required to be elsewhere for just cause, and bars them from “Halloween-related contact”…

Oct 31, 2008 12:00 PM CDT

After Major ICE Raid, Iowa Hits Kosher Meat Plant With $10M in Labor Fines

A kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa has been hit with not quite $10 million in fines by the state labor commission for alleged violation of wage laws after a May raid on the plant by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in which about 390 people were arrested. At…

Oct 29, 2008 6:58 PM CDT

Defendant’s Focus on Federal Judge Gets Him an Extra Conviction

A Minnesota tax protester who tried to haul the federal judge assigned to his case into “common law court” now has an extra conviction on his record as a result. After being convicted of fraud and tax evasion by a federal jury in his May trial, which went forward as…

Oct 28, 2008 3:14 PM CDT