Celebrities

Refile Brief Without So Many Blackouts & Expect Public Sentence, Judge Tells Son Of Michael Douglas

Lawyers for the son of actor Michael Douglas need to refile his plea for a leniency without so many blackouts and he should expect a public sentence, a federal judge in New York said today. “Huge portions” of the inch-thick filing were originally hidden from the public by blackouts, including…

Apr 16, 2010 9:46 PM CDT

Judge Weighs Why Restaurant Asked Lawyer, Ex-NBA Star to Give Up Seats; Defense Cites ‘Gentility’

Motivation is becoming a central issue in a discrimination lawsuit filed against an Atlanta restaurant by a lawyer and a former NBA star, both African-Americans, who were asked to give up their bar seats to two white women. Former NBA all-star Joe Barry Carroll and Atlanta lawyer Joseph Shaw see…

Apr 15, 2010 12:55 PM CDT

Must Criminal Contempt Occur in Court? 7th Cir. Mulls Judge’s Reaction to E-Mail Flood

As lawyers today debated before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals whether a federal district judge should have sentenced an informercial pitchman to 30 days for flooding his in-box with e-mail, the three-judge panel honed in on whether criminal contempt can occur outside the physical boundaries of a courtroom.…

Apr 8, 2010 9:35 PM CDT

Now Practicing Law, 2 Ex-NFL Players Have Won Some $100M in Football-Related Worker’s Comp Awards

An unusually liberal worker’s compensation system in California, as far as professional athletes are concerned, made the New York Times this week when the wife of former National Football League player Ralph Wenzel filed an apparently unique test case over early-onset dementia that she contends is related to her 67-year-old…

Apr 8, 2010 12:07 AM CDT

5 Years of Small-Town Practice Was Plenty, John Grisham Tells Yale Law Students

John Grisham spent a decade in small-town law practice before his success as a best-selling writer of legal thrillers made it possible for him to stop working as an attorney. And that was at least five years more than he wanted to spend at the job, Grisham told students at…

Apr 6, 2010 6:47 PM CDT

Tiger Woods’ Teacher Hires Gloria Allred, Seeks Retraction of Schoolyard Story

The woman who taught Tiger Woods’ kindergarten class has retained Gloria Allred to pursue a retraction from the now world-famous golfer of a story he told in a book about his first day of school, reports the New York Daily News. According to Woods, he first became aware of the…

Apr 2, 2010 7:50 PM CDT

Michael Jackson’s Dad Plans to Sue Doc, Says Delayed 911 Call Likely Caused Son’s Death

Michael Jackson’s father plans to sue the doctor who was treating his son at the time of the famous pop singer’s death in Los Angeles last year, from what the Los Angeles coroner determined to be “acute propofol intoxication.” The powerful intravenous anesthetic allegedly was administered by Dr. Conrad Murray,…

Mar 30, 2010 5:29 PM CDT

9th Cir.: Anna Nicole Smith Gets Zip, Zero, Zilch of Texas Billionaire’s Estate

A hard-fought 15-year court battle by the late celebrity model Anna Nicole Smith and her heirs over the estate of the Texas oil billionaire she married when she was 26 and he was 89 may have finally ended in complete defeat of her claims. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of…

Mar 19, 2010 8:29 PM CDT

Fighting Extradition in Child-Sex Case, Polanski Claims More Long-Ago Judicial Misconduct

Fighting to keep famed film director Roman Polanski from being extradited from Switzerland to face sentencing in a decades-old California child-sex case from which he fled following conviction, his lawyers are now making new allegations of long-ago judicial misconduct. Among them: That the now-deceased judge in the case met in…

Mar 18, 2010 11:14 PM CDT

Phil Spector Appeals Murder Rap, Citing Error, Misconduct

Lawyers for Phil Spector, who was convicted and sentenced to 19 years to life for the second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson, asked the California Second District Court of Appeal this week to reverse the verdict and order a new trial. The appeal focused on Judge Larry Paul Fidler’s decision…

Mar 12, 2010 8:29 PM CST

Letterman Blackmail Suspect Pleads Guilty, Gets 6 Months

Robert “Joe” Halderman, the former CBS producer charged with attempted grand larceny in a scheme to extort $2 million from David Letterman, pleaded guilty this afternoon. “I feel great remorse for what I’ve done,” Halderman said in court, according to Dow Jones. Halderman was accused of demanding Letterman pay him…

Mar 9, 2010 10:14 PM CST

Lindsay Lohan Files $100M Suit Over E-Trade’s ‘Milkaholic’ Baby

Updated: Lindsay Lohan claims in a $100 million lawsuit that the boyfriend-stealing, milkaholic baby featured in an E-Trade ad is modeled after her. The ad debuted during the Super Bowl, the New York Post reports. It portrays a baby boy apologizing to his girlfriend via an online video chat for…

Mar 9, 2010 2:32 PM CST

Oscar Night’s ‘Lady Kanye’ Had Been in Legal Dispute with Director

One of the most talked about moments of Sunday night’s Oscars was the acceptance speech for the winners of the Documentary Short category. Cameras followed Music by Prudence producer-director Roger Ross Williams to the stage and he started his speech, but was cut off when co-producer Elinor Burkett zipped into…

Mar 8, 2010 9:13 PM CST

Judge OKs Gift of O.J. Simpson ‘Lucky Suit,’ But Smithsonian Turns Down Donation

Any relief that a California judge may have felt over an agreement to settle a 13-year litigation battle by donating O.J. Simpson’s lucky suit to the Smithsonian Institution was short-lived. Hard on the heels of the agreement that the donation would settle a dispute over the ownership of the tan…

Mar 2, 2010 11:30 PM CST

Man Punched on ‘Jersey Shore’ Episode Sues to Block DVD Release

A man who was beaten on an episode of Jersey Shore is suing to prevent Tuesday’s planned DVD release of the first season as well as any re-airings of both that episode and a subsequent one in which cast member Ronnie Ortiz-Magro “brags about the beating.” Stephen Izzo Jr. filed…

Feb 22, 2010 7:08 PM CST