Appellate Practice

Lawyer crossed line by taking water bottle for DNA test without permission, panel says

Updated: A North Carolina lawyer crossed an ethical line by taking a water bottle from a woman’s home without her permission and using it for a DNA test, a state bar disciplinary panel said Thursday. However, it found that Christine Mumma, who serves as director of the North Carolina Center…

Jan 14, 2016 3:05 PM CST

Judge’s battle to stay on bench ends at SCOTUS, but ethics case is still ongoing

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal by a former Florida judge of the state supreme court’s decision to remove her from the bench last year. However, while the denial of former Broward Circuit Judge Laura Watson’s certiorari petition ends her quest to get her judicial job…

Jan 12, 2016 4:45 PM CST

Would-be lawyer won’t have $260K in student loans erased; SCOTUS refuses to hear appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal by a would-be lawyer who has been seeking to discharge more than $260,000 in business and law school debt in bankruptcy. Mark Tetzlaff, 57, graduated from Florida Coastal School of Law, but has repeatedly failed the bar exam. He said…

Jan 11, 2016 3:05 PM CST

SCOTUS same-sex marriage ruling did not make commitment ceremonies marriages, state court says

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage does not make commitment ceremonies into marriages under New York law, an appeals court there ruled Tuesday. According to the New York Law Journal, the state court system’s Appellate Division, First Department, ruled in Estate of Mauricio Leyton that Leyton’s 2002…

Jan 6, 2016 2:45 PM CST

Obama commutes sentences of 95 federal prisoners, grants 2 pardons

Updated: More than doubling the number of federal prison sentences he has commuted during his entire time in office, President Barack Obama on Friday granted clemency to 95 inmates and pardoned two. Most were nonviolent drug offenders. A total of 184 prisoners have now been granted clemency by Obama while…

Dec 18, 2015 1:40 PM CST

Doctor may owe third party for not warning patient about drugs’ effects, top state court says

Carving an exception into a general rule that hospitals and doctors owe a duty of care only to their patients, the top appeals court in New York has OK’d a third-party lawsuit against a physician and hospital over an auto accident. School bus driver Edwin Davis, whose bus was allegedly…

Dec 17, 2015 2:35 PM CST

Mom did not neglect sons by letting them play outside, state agrees after legal battle

A Chicago mother initially found to have neglected her three children by allowing them to play in a park next to their home in 2013 has been cleared with the help of a major corporate law firm. An Illinois appeals court dismissed the case Monday after the state Department of…

Dec 16, 2015 12:25 PM CST

Retraction of Stephen Glass article follows critical opinion by California Supreme Court

Readers of Harper’s Magazine may have the California Supreme Court to thank for the latest correction of a purported nonfiction article by Stephen Glass. Published in 1998, the “Prophets and Losses” article has now been retracted by Harper’s after a recent letter from Glass. It is the first retracted article…

Dec 15, 2015 4:40 PM CST

Did juror’s crush on prosecutor affect verdict? Defense lawyer mulls appeal options

No one else knew that Juror No. 6 had an unrequited crush on the prosecutor, it seems, before a guilty verdict was rendered earlier this year in a Toronto-area drug case. But afterward she made her feelings known in a series of notes to Robert Johnston, who is married, and…

Dec 14, 2015 10:25 AM CST

Federal judge acquits 2 attorneys on multiple counts in movie tax-fraud case

A federal judge on Wednesday reversed multiple jury convictions against a prominent New Orleans attorney and a Hollywood movie producer who is also an attorney. Nearly a dozen counts against attorney Michael Arata were nixed by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who said prosecutors in the case used “mean-spirited hype,”…

Dec 9, 2015 4:40 PM CST

Despite Holder’s call for clemency to free over 10,000, actual number so far is much lower

Updated: In a 2013 speech delivered at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new “Smart on Crime” initiative and called for a number of changes to reduce “shameful” sentencing disparities that often affect drug offenders. Among the measures he suggested was clemency. Yet…

Dec 9, 2015 3:20 PM CST

Man is released from prison after 15 years when DNA testing points finger at his brother

After serving more than 15 years in prison for the slaying of his teenage sister-in-law, a Kansas man was freed Tuesday because recent DNA testing pointed the finger at his brother. A Jefferson County judge overturned convictions of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated indecent liberties against Floyd Bledsoe, 39,…

Dec 8, 2015 4:50 PM CST

Judge used wrong standard to disqualify law firm in major case, top state court says

After initially agreeing with a trial judge and an intermediate appeals court that Bickel & Brewer should be disqualified from representing the plaintiff in a $60 million case between business partners, the Texas Supreme Court reversed course. It conditionally granted a petition for a writ of mandamus on Friday, ruling…

Dec 7, 2015 11:40 AM CST

Tennessee Supreme Court affirms Nashville lawyer’s six-month suspension

The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed the six-month suspension of a Nashville lawyer who challenged the constitutionality of the state’s disciplinary process. The court, in a ruling (PDF) Thursday, said lawyer Paul J. Walwyn’s claims were without merit, the Tennessean reports. It also said that Walwyn’s arguments to the contrary…

Dec 4, 2015 12:20 PM CST

Focus on hiring recent grads creates basis for age-discrimination suit, 11th Circuit says

A seasoned 49-year-old applicant who said he did not get a response when he applied for a sales job with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 2007 can use a disparate impact theory to sue for age discrimination, a federal appeals court has ruled. Reversing a federal trial court judge in…

Dec 4, 2015 8:45 AM CST