Appellate Practice

Actor Jason Patric wins sperm-donor appeal, can try to show he is presumed parent of biological son

A California appeals court Wednesday agreed with actor Jason Patric that the Lost Boys star should be allowed to pursue a paternity claim concerning his biological son. A Los Angeles County trial judge had ruled that Patric, under a sperm donor agreement he made with his ex-girlfriend and state law,…

May 14, 2014 10:50 PM CDT

Public defenders file more than 400 motions seeking to reopen Delaware drug cases

The public defender’s office in Delaware has filed more than 400 motions since April 30 seeking to reopen the cases of individuals convicted of drug offenses, based on evidence issues concerning the testing laboratory at the state medical examiner’s office. “We intend to keep filing [motions] every day, or as…

May 13, 2014 10:50 PM CDT

5th Circuit issues last-minute execution stay based on claim Texas concealed inmate’s low IQ

Unpersuaded by an injection-drug argument Monday, a federal appeals court nonetheless issued a last-minute stay of execution Tuesday in the case of a Texas inmate. The argument that won the day for Robert James Campbell, 41, was based on his intellectual capacity, the New York Times (reg. req.) reports. His…

May 13, 2014 9:59 PM CDT

Top state court reverses $37M default judgment, calls efforts to serve bar owner insufficient

A $37 million default judgment against a bar accused of overserving a patron was reversed Friday by Alabama’s top state court, which found that insufficient efforts were made to notify the owner of Club Volcano about the suit. Daryl Williams was eventually noticed by publication. The family of Derric Edwin…

May 9, 2014 5:50 PM CDT

Lawyer who sued Apple last year over porn addiction now wants to marry his computer

Last year, a Tennessee lawyer made headlines when he filed a product liability suit contending that Apple Inc. was responsible for the pornography addiction that he says resulted when he mistyped a Web address into a MacBook Pro laptop. Now Chris Sevier is taking a different tack in federal litigation…

May 8, 2014 6:50 PM CDT

Majority of poll respondents favor SCOTUS reforms, think justices’ political views skew decisions

If voters had their way, U.S. Supreme Court justices would no longer serve life terms, would be compelled to put cameras in the courtroom, and would be bound by tighter ethical and financial disclosure rules, according to a recent poll. The Huffington Post reported Wednesday noted the poll (PDF) which…

May 7, 2014 11:12 PM CDT

Airlines and World Trade Center leaseholder don’t have to pay cleanup costs for 9/11 attacks

An appellate court has upheld a decision shielding American Airlines, United Airlines and the World Trade Center leaseholder from paying environmental cleanup costs relating to the 9/11 attacks in New York City. According to Reuters, a unanimous three-judge panel for the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held…

May 2, 2014 9:36 PM CDT

Federal appeals judges failed to recuse themselves for financial conflicts of interest, study finds

More than a dozen judges on the U.S. circuit courts sat on panels deciding cases in which they had financial interest in one of the parties, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity. In reviewing financial disclosures of 255 of the 258 judges on the 13 appellate…

Apr 28, 2014 5:05 PM CDT

Appellate panel says trial judge had right to jail prosecutor over his tactics in theft case

Saying that a Pennsylvania judge acted within the scope of his authority by ordering a prosecutor to jail for civil contempt for refusing to answer his questions, an appellate panel has denied a request by Luzerne County district attorney’s office to block the contempt ruling, require the jurist’s recusal and…

Apr 28, 2014 12:25 PM CDT

Murder defendant’s claim of ‘secret signal’ launches unusual ethics probe against DA

For 25 years, says Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill, he has asked complaining witnesses in criminal cases whether they can identify the perpetrator, regardless of whether the answer to that question is yes or no. But now the DA is facing an unusual legal ethics investigation, based on a…

Apr 24, 2014 6:50 PM CDT

2nd Circuit revives racketeer suit against tobacco company, says RICO law covers conduct outside US

A trial judge should not have dismissed a racketeering lawsuit in which 26 foreign countries accuse a major U.S. tobacco company of involvement in an international money-laundering scheme linked to organized crime groups, a federal appeals court has ruled. Also disagreeing with the trial judge’s finding of a diversity problem,…

Apr 24, 2014 4:45 PM CDT

Scalia uses ‘Ministry of Truth’ example from Orwell book as SCOTUS mulls Ohio law on political lies

The U.S. Supreme Court is only being asked to decide whether an anti-abortion group has standing in federal district court to challenge an Ohio law that criminalizes political lies. But members of the nation’s top court on Tuesday couldn’t resist offering a preview of what they think about the constitutionality…

Apr 23, 2014 4:05 PM CDT

Federal jury awards $18M each to 2 men in wrongful conviction case

It took less than two hours of deliberation Thursday for a federal jury in New York to decide to award $18 million, each, to two men in a wrongful conviction case. The jury had already decided last week that a now-deceased Nassau County detective violated the civil rights of Dennis…

Apr 17, 2014 9:40 PM CDT

9th Circuit affirms lawyer’s conviction for attempting to extort rabbi by threat of court testimony

A suspended California lawyer serving a federal three-year sentence for attempted extortion and trying to obstruct a grand jury investigation has lost his bid to overturn his conviction. Although a federal appeals court agreed with Alfred Nash Villalobos that a jury instruction concerning what threats are “wrongful” had been improper,…

Apr 15, 2014 2:55 PM CDT

3rd Circuit frees email hacker ‘weev’; says feds tried and convicted him in wrong venue

The controversial conviction of an email hacker has been vacated by a federal appeals court, not because of issues with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act but because Andrew Auernheimer was tried and convicted in the wrong venue. Known as “weev,” Auernheimer was released on Friday from a federal prison…

Apr 14, 2014 8:00 PM CDT