Evidence

Contract Lawyers, Search Terms Blamed for Late-Disclosed McAfee E-Mails

A Howrey lawyer who headed an internal investigation of backdating at McAfee partly pinned the blame on contract lawyers when he told a judge yesterday why five corporate e-mails weren’t disclosed sooner. The e-mail had been turned over on the eve of trial for the company’s former general counsel, Kent…

Sep 19, 2008 11:08 AM CDT

Seattle Police Uniform Won’t Include Wearable Video Cameras

It seemed like a good idea to some: Police in Seattle would wear small video cameras to record crime scenes and their interactions with suspects during arrests. However, the idea, which was briefly tested late last month, raised privacy concerns—both for suspects, and for police, whose every work-shift word and…

Sep 18, 2008 9:14 PM CDT

11th Circuit Tosses Taser Case; YouTube Video of Incident Lets Viewers Judge

A video showing a motorist who was jolted three times with a Taser as he sat on the ground crying has ended up on YouTube (Video) after a lawsuit over the incident was tossed by a federal appeals court. The 2-1 Sept. 9 unpublished decision (PDF) by the Atlanta-based 11th…

Sep 18, 2008 1:55 PM CDT

Judge Says ‘Heads Have to Roll’ Over Late-Disclosed McAfee E-Mails

A San Francisco federal judge is demanding that lawyers for McAfee Inc. appear at a hearing today to explain why 18 pages of corporate e-mails weren’t disclosed until the eve of the backdating trial of the company’s former general counsel. The e-mails were turned over at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday after…

Sep 18, 2008 11:44 AM CDT

Jurors Read Newspaper in Jury Room; Judge Voids Verdict

Jurors in a medical malpractice case against a prominent Washington state physician accused of abusing his minor patients weren’t told at trial about an important issue concerning the plaintiffs’ damages. If they determined that he had communicated with minors for immoral purposes, the plaintiffs could get attorney fees. But they…

Sep 17, 2008 8:57 PM CDT

Exonerated By a Fingerprint, ID Theft Victim Sues Over Criminal Ordeal

Tallie Gainer III didn’t have any criminal record. A college graduate, a youth pastor and a happily married father of four children, he wasn’t a likely suspect in a bad-check case. But after his wallet was stolen at a Denny’s not far from his Florida home, Gainer suddenly found himself…

Sep 16, 2008 6:35 PM CDT

Tobacco Makers Sift Through Thousands of Documents in $1B Hospital Suit

A 10-year-old lawsuit filed by Missouri hospitals against cigarette makers seeking $1 billion for the cost of treating tobacco-related illnesses has been stalled in discovery. The tobacco companies are sifting through tens of thousands of records for indigent patients provided by more than 30 hospitals under a court order, the…

Sep 15, 2008 5:54 PM CDT

Feds Searched Wash. Lawyer’s Office in Witness-Tampering Probe

Underlining the risk to lawyers who are suspected of crossing the line from client representation to assisting in alleged criminal conduct, a Washington state newspaper reports that the office and home of an attorney representing a millionaire defendant in a child porn case have been searched. Although the unnamed “third…

Sep 11, 2008 10:41 PM CDT

OK, Discovery’s a Problem, But What Can Be Done About It?

An interim report (reg. req.) on a recent survey of trial lawyers about the American civil justice system has confirmed what many feared: Out-of-control discovery, among other issues, is making it difficult or impossible to pursue many cases that traditionally would have been brought, as parties settle or even decide…

Sep 11, 2008 6:30 PM CDT

Prominent NY Lawyer Accused of Seeking to ‘Neutralize’ Witnesses

A prominent New York criminal defense lawyer has been charged with obstruction of justice and witness tampering based on allegations he sought to bribe and “neutralize” witnesses in a case against an accused drug kingpin. Lawyer Robert Simels is accused of telling a man who turned out to be a…

Sep 11, 2008 12:41 PM CDT

2 Colorado Judges Censured for Prosecutorial Work Years Ago

Two former Colorado prosecutors who didn’t turn over potentially exculpatory information to the defense in a first-degree murder case have been censured for their role in sending a man who says he is innocent to prison for almost a decade. That man, Timothy Masters, was released earlier this year, after…

Sep 10, 2008 7:42 PM CDT

Congress Approves Rule Protecting Privileged Documents

Congress has passed and sent to the president a new federal evidence rule that protects privileged materials inadvertently disclosed during discovery. Federal Rule of Evidence 502 says attorney-client and work-product privilege is not waived when a protected document is inadvertently disclosed, as long as the privilege holder took reasonable steps…

Sep 10, 2008 5:32 PM CDT

Hood Execution Halted; Defense Alleged Judge-Prosecutor Affair

There’s no word about what was said at depositions yesterday and today of a former prosecutor and a retired judge accused of having had an affair more than a decade ago during a convicted murderer’s trial. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has called a halt to tomorrow’s scheduled…

Sep 9, 2008 10:09 PM CDT

Litigation Too Costly, E-Discovery a ‘Morass,’ Trial Lawyers Say

Updated: The civil justice system in the United States is so bogged down in a “morass” of e-discovery that it is often too expensive for litigants to take their cases to trial, according to a survey of trial lawyers. Now the next step is to fix this increasingly dysfunctional system,…

Sep 9, 2008 3:00 PM CDT

Opponent ‘Bought’ Privileged Docs, Used Them to Seek More

A struggling mortgage lender in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case may have opened up a major new battlefield in the legal malpractice arena. Eager to put an end to a fraud suit brought by a software developer, New Century Mortgage agreed, as part of a settlement in federal bankruptcy court…

Sep 5, 2008 6:46 PM CDT