Appellate Practice

Disbelieved and accused of making a false rape report, now-vindicated victim sues

Despite physical evidence that supported her story that a stranger had bound, gagged, raped and photographed her in 2008 in the transitional housing apartment in which she was living, an 18-year-old Washington state woman was disbelieved. Pressured by police into recanting, she was criminally charged for making a false rape…

Jun 11, 2013 8:00 PM CDT

US drops appeal over morning-after pill, paving way for sale without age restrictions

The United States won’t appeal a federal judge’s scathing ruling allowing unrestricted sales of the morning-after pill. The Justice Department announced plans to drop the appeal on Monday in a letter to U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of Brooklyn, report the New York Times and the Washington Post. Korman ruled…

Jun 11, 2013 12:48 PM CDT

F. Lee Bailey wins ruling opening door to bar admission in Maine

Famous trial attorney F. Lee Bailey, disbarred nearly a decade ago in Florida and Massachusetts for mishandling a client’s stock, appears likely to obtain a law license in another state. Overturning a 5-4 decision by the state Board of Bar Examiners, the Maine Supreme Court on Friday ruled (PDF) that…

Jun 10, 2013 7:40 PM CDT

Son and lawyer of elderly heiress Brooke Astor are both headed to prison over $60M fraud

The son of heiress Brooke Astor and her former lawyer have exhausted their appeals in a $60 million fraud case concerning her estate and are headed to prison. The New York Daily News reports that state’s highest appellate court on Friday denied appeals by Anthony Marshall, the 88-year-old son of…

Jun 10, 2013 6:30 PM CDT

Judge who angrily lectured appellate counsel in death-penalty case is suspended with pay

A senior Kentucky judge has been suspended with pay after threatening last year, as a figure of speech, to strangle a lawyer who was making an appellate argument in a high-profile death-penalty case if he ever again called the jurist’s cellphone. (The lawyer had done so with opposing counsel’s permission,…

Jun 6, 2013 9:40 PM CDT

Federal judge calls herself ‘Hulk,’ clashes with prosecutors over info that could extend sentences

A former federal prosecutor now serving as a federal judge has clashed with federal prosecutors in Iowa over information she has sought in several cases that could be used to extend defendants’ sentences. Already under appeal is a sentence in a weapons case imposed on convicted drug dealer Bryan Holm…

Jun 5, 2013 8:00 PM CDT

5th Circuit parses runny-egg rule, issues sunny-side-up decision for nursing home

A Texas nursing home sizzling over severe penalties imposed after a state inspection found two residents had been served unpasteurized eggs that were inadequately cooked has presumably simmered down after the latest chapter in the runny-egg saga. Reversing an administrative law judge and the U.S. Department of Health and Human…

May 28, 2013 3:20 PM CDT

SCOTUS: Actual innocence may excuse blown habeas deadline; Scalia blasts ‘shiny new exception’

A blown deadline isn’t an automatic bar to habeas review for an inmate who shows actual innocence of the crime, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. In a 5-4 opinion (PDF), the court said a missed deadline isn’t an absolute bar to review, but “unjustified delay” does count against the…

May 28, 2013 3:12 PM CDT

9th Circuit OKs discharge of $53K in student-loan debt for law grad working as a probation officer

After a 10-year legal battle, a 1997 graduate of an Oregon law school has not only won a federal appeals court ruling that eliminates more than half of his student loan debt, but has established favorable precedent for other recent grads struggling with major debt and minimal job prospects. Finding…

May 28, 2013 3:01 PM CDT

Woman who filed vaccine suit too late can still get attorney fees, Supreme Court says

Melissa Cloer filed suit too late to win any potential damages for her claimed injury from hepatitis B vaccines. But that doesn’t preclude an award of attorney fees under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Monday opinion (PDF) authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.…

May 20, 2013 5:30 PM CDT

Lawyer testifies OJ Simpson knew about guns, said ‘No deal. No way.’ when told of plea offer

Reluctantly testifying about his former client, O.J. Simpson, a Miami attorney on Friday contradicted key aspects of Simpson’s earlier testimony during a hearing about whether the former football great should be granted a new trial in his Nevada armed robbery case. Called to the stand by prosecutors and reminded that…

May 17, 2013 10:35 PM CDT

Judge’s tendency to ‘interrupt, patronize and admonish’ plaintiff lawyer requires new med-mal trial

A New York appellate court has reversed a defense verdict in a medical malpractice case, saying that the trial judge’s tendency to “interrupt, patronize and admonish” the plaintiff’s lawyer prevented the plaintiff from getting a fair trial, Reuters reports. While the lawyer, Anthony Pirrotti, “may have been overly aggressive, and…

May 16, 2013 9:10 PM CDT

OJ Simpson: I gave $500K to lead lawyer for costs; he was supposed to defend me for free

Testifying this week at a hearing in which he hopes to win a new armed robbery trial, O.J. Simpson said he gave $500,000 to his lead defense lawyer, Yale Galanter. But that was for expert witnesses and other costs, Simpson contended—Galanter was supposed to defend the former football great for…

May 16, 2013 7:33 PM CDT

Appeals court upholds 20-year sentence for ex-judge convicted of stealing $80K

A 20-year prison term for a former Miami judge has been upheld by a Florida appeals court. Former Circuit Judge Phillip Davis had argued that the sentence was excessive, because he had turned down a plea deal that could have gotten him only a four-year prison term. But the 3rd…

May 16, 2013 3:45 PM CDT

Something unusual occurred when Holly Van Voast took off her shirt this spring: She wasn’t arrested

It’s been over 20 years since the top New York appeals court ruled that women, like men, may take off their shirts in public without risking criminal charges for doing so, as long as it’s for noncommercial purposes. However, at least until recently, it appears that not everyone had gotten…

May 15, 2013 9:09 PM CDT