Contracts

Scruggs, Firm in Criminal Contempt Case

A well-known Mississippi plaintiffs attorney and his law firm have been charged with criminal contempt by special federal prosecutors after they defied a federal judge’s order to return internal claims documents to an insurance company. Appointed by U.S. District Judge William M. Acker Jr. after the local U.S. attorney in…

Aug 22, 2007 4:44 PM CDT

Relief for Lawyers in $20 M Lender Bounced-Checks Case

There is relief in sight for lawyers in Georgia and elsewhere who covered perhaps $20 million in bounced checks issued by a mortgage lender. After hearing from Edwin R. Neel, a veteran Atlanta real estate attorney who said he put up his own home to pay for HomeBanc Mortgage Corp.’s…

Aug 21, 2007 6:46 PM CDT

Sperm Donor Meets the Kids

For years, Thomas Anthony Donahoe, a 50-year-old Massachusetts family therapist, has wondered about his children. He has never married. But, when he was recovering from a leg injury and needed the money, he donated sperm about 30 or 40 times in the late 1980s. Now the phone is starting to…

Aug 21, 2007 5:48 PM CDT

Sex Offender Neighbor Violates Lease

A New York judge has ruled an upstate couple can terminate their lease without penalty because a sex offender moved in next door. Watertown City Court Judge James C. Harberson Jr. said the couple was entitled to break the lease, citing a New York law that bars conditions that are…

Aug 21, 2007 3:29 PM CDT

Florida Mermaids in Lease Battle

Things are hardly going swimmingly right now for a group of Florida mermaids. Their historic tourist attraction, Weeki Wachee Springs, is in a lawsuit battle with a state agency known as Swiftmud. At issue: the validity of the one-mile-square city’s 30-year lease of the land on which it is built,…

Aug 17, 2007 3:39 PM CDT

Violent Femmes Bassist Blisters Over Royalties

The ’80s American folk-punk band known widely for its song “Blister in the Sun” is now embroiled in litigation. Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie has filed a federal suit in New York against the band’s lead singer Gordon Gano, accusing him of failing to pay a fair share of royalties,…

Aug 16, 2007 4:28 PM CDT

Cost of Biggest Data Breach: $256 Million

It will cost at least $256 million to correct a massive data breach involving the theft of computerized information about 45 million credit and debit cards. Reportedly the biggest such security breach ever to occur in the U.S., the yearlong theft of computer data from TJX Cos., based in Framingham,…

Aug 15, 2007 6:31 PM CDT

FL Fights for Internal State Farm Docs

A battle between Florida regulators and the state’s biggest property insurer is capturing the attention of lawyers there and elsewhere, because of what’s really at issue. Property insurance rate-setting is the official topic. But attorneys on both sides are waiting to see whether State Farm, a Bloomington, Ill.-based insurer, has…

Aug 15, 2007 5:26 PM CDT

First Legal Action in Bridge Collapse

The first litigation has reportedly been filed in the Minneapolis bridge collapse case, by a law firm seeking access in order to investigate before the site is cleaned up. It was filed Monday in federal court because the firm, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben of Minneapolis, has been told that federal…

Aug 14, 2007 7:41 PM CDT

Imus Settles With CBS, Seeks New Show

Shock jock Don Imus has reportedly agreed to settle a threatened $120 million breach-of-contract suit against CBS Radio for an undisclosed amount, and is in negotiations to return to network radio with ABC. The confidential settlement agreement includes a clause that requires Imus, who was fired April 12 after making…

Aug 14, 2007 4:11 PM CDT

OJ Simpson Book to be Published

A book by O.J. Simpson that reportedly contains a hypothetical account of how he might have murdered his former wife, Nicole, if he had actually done so, will soon be in bookstores nationwide after all. Withdrawn from publication last year, following a firestorm of criticism, it has been accepted anew…

Aug 13, 2007 8:18 PM CDT

San Diego Sues Willkie Farr

San Diego’s city attorney has filed a malpractice suit against Willkie Farr & Gallagher. It claims that the high-powered New York City-based law firm overbilled and exceeded the scope of its agreed representation to help a consultant and municipal audit committee prepare a report on the city’s financial failures. After…

Aug 9, 2007 5:16 PM CDT

Are FedEx Drivers Really Contractors?

Are Federal Express drivers independent contractors? That is the potentially very expensive question to be answered by a federal case in South Bend, Ind., where a judge is to hold a hearing later this month about whether similar claims from drivers in 29 states that they are actually employees should…

Aug 8, 2007 4:12 PM CDT

Bloomberg: Insurers Aren’t Paying Claims

Despite having had to cover Hurricane Katrina, the worst U.S. disaster in the history of insurance, carriers are earning record profits. One reason why is that many don’t pay claims to the extent promised in insurance policies, a news agency says. “Insurers often pay 30-60 percent of the cost of…

Aug 3, 2007 8:47 PM CDT

Blame Game Begins in Bridge Tragedy

Although it’s too early to know exactly what caused Wednesday’s horrific rush-hour collapse of the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis, fingers are pointing in various directions, and some are thinking about possible litigation. Likely potential targets would include state and federal government entities and private contractors responsible for constructing and…

Aug 3, 2007 7:50 PM CDT