Appellate Practice

En banc 1st Circuit ruling nixes state-funded sex-change surgery for prison inmate

Reversing a federal district judge and a three-judge appellate panel, an en banc federal appeals court on Tuesday said Massachusetts does not have to pay for sex-change surgery for a prison inmate serving a life term for a domestic slaying. Rejecting an argument that refusing needed medical treatment for Michelle…

Dec 16, 2014 2:45 PM CST

2nd Circuit reverses 2 insider-trading convictions, narrowing scope of future prosecutions

In a blow to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed the insider-trading convictions of two former hedge fund portfolio managers. Finding that the government failed to prove defendants Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman had prerequisite knowledge of wrongdoing, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit…

Dec 10, 2014 2:30 PM CST

Pro se cert petitioner can’t be located; his SCOTUS brief is due soon

A Baltimore property owner who persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case has gone missing. The court granted cert last month based on a petition written by property owner Bobby Chen without the help of a lawyer, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. A reporter who visited…

Dec 10, 2014 7:19 AM CST

BigLaw patent lawyer faces possible sanction over petition filed with US Supreme Court

A Washington, D.C., lawyer is facing an unusual U.S. Supreme Court attorney discipline case over a petition he filed with the court in a patent case. In a brief Monday order (PDF, scroll down), the court gives Foley & Lardner partner Howard Shipley 40 days to show cause why he…

Dec 9, 2014 5:05 PM CST

66 lawyers have outsize influence on cert grants; are they part of an elite SCOTUS ‘echo chamber’?

Out of 17,000 private lawyers who sought cert before the U.S. Supreme Court in a nine-year period, 66 stand out for their remarkable success rate. The 66 lawyers were six times more likely to persuade the court to hear their cases, according to part one of a special report by…

Dec 8, 2014 12:05 PM CST

Billionaire’s ex-wife appeals $995M award in divorce case

After 25 years of marriage, a divorce award of nearly $1 billion isn’t enough, says the ex-wife of an Oklahoma oil baron with an estimated net worth of $10.7 billion to $18 billion. So Sue Ann Arnall, a lawyer and economist, has filed an appeal of last month’s ruling in…

Dec 5, 2014 4:50 PM CST

Top state court nixes lawyer’s drunken-driving conviction over blocked effort to consult counsel

Arrested under suspicion of drunken driving in 2013, an Iowa family law attorney tried to consult with a criminal defense lawyer before taking a Breathalyzer test to determine his alcohol level at the Polk County Jail. But when David Hellstern asked the arresting officer to let him speak privately over…

Nov 26, 2014 12:35 PM CST

Posner: ‘Outlandish’ attorney fees in glucosamine settlement were part of a ‘selfish deal’

A nationwide class-action settlement calling for the payment of $1.93 million in attorney fees represented “a selfish deal” between class counsel and a company that makes glucosamine pills, a federal appeals court has ruled in an opinion by Judge Richard Posner. The settlement by NBTY and its subsidiary Rexall Sundown…

Nov 25, 2014 10:03 AM CST

Judge resentences polo mogul to 16 years in DUI manslaughter case, denies bond during appeal

Saying that a onetime billionaire who founded a Palm Beach polo club had resources that would make it easy for him to flee, a Florida judge on Friday resentenced John Goodman to a 16-year term in a DUI manslaughter case and refused to release him on bond while he is…

Nov 24, 2014 12:35 PM CST

10 years after fatal accident, conviction is reversed; GM knew its car was to blame but kept quiet

Convicted of negligent homicide in a fatal 2004 crash that killed her fiance, a Texas woman has lived with guilt and public disapprobation and worried about her limited career options for nearly a decade. But on Monday, almost exactly a decade after the accident, a Van Zandt County judge granted…

Nov 24, 2014 12:05 PM CST

Dozens of lawyers have missed habeas deadlines, resulting in just one sanction

Lawyers in at least 80 habeas appeals have missed a filing deadline, yet only one has only been sanctioned by disciplinary authorities—in the form of a simple censure. The Marshall Project, a new nonprofit news organization, covered the issue in a two-part story here and here. Its investigation found that…

Nov 18, 2014 6:15 AM CST

Seven SCOTUS clerks join Jones Day, snagging hefty hiring bonuses

Seven former U.S. Supreme Court clerks will join Jones Day as associates in what appears to be a trend at the law firm. Jones Day hired six Supreme Court clerks in 2012 and again in 2013, bringing to 19 the firm’s total number of SCOTUS clerk hires in three years,…

Nov 6, 2014 6:15 AM CST

Federal appeals court blasts attorney for forwarding chief judge’s congratulatory email

After receiving a congratulatory email earlier this year from the sitting chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a prominent patent lawyer did what the email expressly suggested and forwarded the praise to others. Edward Reines sent the email to more than 70 current or…

Nov 5, 2014 4:18 PM CST

Florida law restricting doctors’ gun discussions should be overturned, ABA says in amicus brief

The ABA has filed an amicus brief urging the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant en banc review in a challenge to a Florida law that restricts doctors’ gun discussions with patients. The 11th Circuit accepted the brief (PDF) for filing on Tuesday, according to an ABA…

Nov 5, 2014 6:15 AM CST

Judge calls former state supreme court judge’s apology letters ‘unsatisfactory,’ orders a do-over

A convicted former justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court won’t have to volunteer at a soup kitchen, the judge overseeing her sentencing has decided. But Joan Orie Melvin does have to send out new letters of apology, Allegheny Common Pleas Judge Lester Nauhaus ruled Tuesday. He described court-ordered letters her…

Nov 4, 2014 5:15 PM CST