Evidence

E-Discovery Disclosure Goof Waived Attorney-Client Privilege, Judge Rules

A federal magistrate in Baltimore has ruled a company sued for infringement has no attorney-client privilege in 165 documents mistakenly turned over to its opponent in e-discovery. The documents included several communications between the company Creative Pipe Inc. and its lawyers. U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm ruled Creative Pipe…

Jun 4, 2008 11:12 AM CDT

Judge in R. Kelly Trial Threatens to Jail Reporter for Not Testifying

A Chicago judge overseeing the child pornography trial of R. Kelly has threatened to jail a newspaper reporter who failed to appear today to testify as scheduled. Jim DeRogatis, a music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, was supposed to testify about his role in receiving from an anonymous source and…

Jun 3, 2008 7:41 PM CDT

Texas Judge Returns 400-Plus FLDS Kids to Their Parents

After a Texas Supreme Court ruling Thursday that officials overstepped its authority by removing some 468 children from their homes at a ranch run by a religious sect that advocates polygamy, a judge signed an order (PDF) today returning custody to their parents. Families from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus…

Jun 2, 2008 7:58 PM CDT

Paralegal Testifies Fen-Phen Lawyer Told Her to Destroy Documents

A legal assistant testified Friday that a lawyer accused of misappropriating fen-phen settlement money told her to destroy legal documents showing how clients were paid. Rebecca Phipps said she ignored the directive by lawyer William Gallion and instead locked the records in a cabinet and hid the key, the Louisville…

Jun 2, 2008 12:52 PM CDT

Academics Give Bad Advice for the Right Price, Angry Law Prof Says

In a highly unusual upcoming Stanford Law Review article, an angry academic criticizes colleagues by name for allegedly giving bad legal advice when the price is right. “The Market for Bad Legal Advice,” a “take-no-prisoners” article by Columbia Law School professor William Simon, criticizes noted academics as “enablers of pernicious…

May 30, 2008 3:58 PM CDT

Alleged College Grad Graffiti Tagger in YouTube Videos Could Get 14 Years

An unusually prolific alleged graffiti tagger, who is a college graduate and works in a white-collar job, faces up to 14 years in prison if he is convicted in a California court of 32 counts of felony vandalism. However, he could be sentenced to much less time; another prolific tagger…

May 29, 2008 11:27 PM CDT

Swayed by Defendant’s Testimony, Jurors Puzzle Lawyers With Verdict

Demetrius Carey was charged as a triggerman, at age 14, in an alleged robbery-gone-bad that resulted in the death of a 56-year-old South Florida woman on her front steps as she was returning from the grocery store. But the now-16-year-old defendant apparently may have saved himself from a potential life…

May 29, 2008 9:12 PM CDT

The Big Ear of the Law: High-Tech Microphones Help Locate Gunshots

A former physics professor has turned his talents to fighting crime by tweaking sensors used to locate earthquakes. Robert Showen founded ShotSpotter Inc. to sell microphones he developed that pinpoint the location of gunshots and relay the information to police departments, the Wall Street Journal reports. The devices can be…

May 29, 2008 1:36 PM CDT

Oops. Can Lawyers Prove Damages in Auction-Rate Securities Cases?

Plaintiffs lawyers have been pursuing a few dozen potential class actions since March over auction-rate securities allegedly sold to investors based on promises that they could easily resell them. In fact, that proved not to be true of many of the securities, after the credit crisis led other investors to…

May 28, 2008 4:08 PM CDT

Sent Home With Wrong Family, Now-Adult Twin Sues

An identical twin who discovered, as an adult, that she had been sent home from a Canary Islands hospital in Spain with the wrong family has sued over the alleged mix-up. Now 35, the unnamed woman discovered she had a twin when she was mistaken for her sister by a…

May 28, 2008 3:34 PM CDT

D.C. Area Law Firm Sues Over Outsourced Legal Work, Alleges Privilege Issue

Updated: Outsourcing legal work to India permits the U.S. government to intercept confidential documents, violating attorney-client privilege and the constitutional rights of those accused of wrongdoing, a Washington, D.C., area law firm contends in a federal lawsuit. The government interception is possible because the National Security Agency is free to…

May 23, 2008 8:38 PM CDT

State Wrongly Removed 400 FLDS Kids, Texas Appeals Court Says

Updated: Texas officials exceeded their authority by taking some 400 children of a religious sect from their parents at the Yearning for Zion ranch last month and putting them in foster care, a state appeals court says. Responding to a mandamus filing by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, the Third Court…

May 22, 2008 5:38 PM CDT

University Says Privilege Limits Ex-GC’s Right to Sue for Discrimination

The former general counsel of Florida Gulf Coast University sued her former client in federal court in April, alleging systemic employment discrimination and violation of Title IX. However, in a responding counterclaim, the university says Wendy Morris is barred by attorney-client privilege from pursuing at least some of her claims…

May 20, 2008 7:21 PM CDT

Breath Tests Axed in 49 Ariz. DUI Cases; Could Be Statewide Issue

A municipal judge in Tucson, Ariz., has excluded breath tests as evidence in 49 driving under the influence cases because the company that made the machine that conducted the alcohol-content examinations didn’t disclose the source code that controls its inner workings to the defense. The same issue could also potentially…

May 20, 2008 6:14 PM CDT

Experts Explain: How to Help Company Records Custodians Help You

Lawyers seeking documents from corporate records custodians will find that time spent explaining their requests pays dividends. Although the litigation process may seem clear to the attorneys involved, it can be an unusual, confusing and frightening experience for the company employees asked to provide documents in discovery, two experts point…

May 16, 2008 8:13 PM CDT