Family Law

Man Sought for Questioning in Ex-Wife’s Slaying Is Charged with Threatening Her Lawyer

A 63-year-old security guard being sought for questioning as a person of interest in the slaying of his ex-wife over the weekend has been charged with making terroristic threats several months ago to the woman’s New Jersey divorce lawyer. A criminal complaint in the Boonton case alleges that Anthony Novellino…

Jun 25, 2010 10:30 AM CDT

Testimony: Slain in Law Office Parking Lot, Attorney Foresaw Her Fate But Stayed on Case

First Jason Cai allegedly threatened to ruin Xia Zhao’s career if the California lawyer didn’t drop a civil wrongful death case in which he was accused of drowning his wife in 2006. And then he killed her, the government contends. Witnesses in Cai’s current murder case said they saw an…

Jun 24, 2010 7:09 PM CDT

Divorce Lawyer Changes Approach After Her Own Marriage Crumbles

Maryland divorce lawyer Regina DeMeo changed the way she practices law after her own marriage ended. Before her divorce, DeMeo took a businesslike approach when counseling divorce clients, the Washington Post reports. “OK, come on,” she would think. “Get yourself together and let’s move on.” Then DeMeo herself divorced after…

Jun 23, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Stabbed by Client’s Ex-Husband, Lawyer, 54, Has ‘Horrible Injuries’ But Is Recovering

A Minnesota attorney suffered “horrible injuries” but is expected to survive being stabbed a dozen times in her Fridley office a week ago, according to Anoka County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Paul Sommer. Within an hour or so, a client’s ex-husband confessed to the attack on Terri Melcher that took place a…

Jun 18, 2010 1:26 AM CDT

Law Firm Loses Bid to Force Client’s Ex-Wife to Pay Part of Its Fee, as a Matter of Equity

Haas & Gottlieb had an agreement with its client, David Addison, that one-third of any money recovered in a bankruptcy litigation would go to the law firm. But the Scarsdale, N.Y., firm didn’t have that same arrangement with his ex-wife, who was entitled to half of Addison’s recovery under an…

Jun 17, 2010 8:15 PM CDT

BigLaw Firm Hit with Big-Bucks Sanction for Pursuing Billionaire’s ‘Ridiculous’ Claim

A BigLaw firm and another well-known partnership face a likely seven-figure sanction for pursuing what a New Jersey judge described as a “ridiculous” frivolous claim on behalf of billionaire Ronald Perelman. Perelman, represented by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison along with Lowenstein Sandler, had contended that his 85-year-old former…

Jun 16, 2010 6:50 PM CDT

Opposing Counsel’s Warning Comes Too Late; Lawyer, 54, Is Stabbed 12 Times in Her Office

Updated: In a new incident among a spate of case-related violent attacks on lawyers in recent weeks, a Minnesota man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing his ex-wife’s attorney a dozen times in her law office Friday. Terri Ann Melcher, 54, was alone in her Fridley, Minn.,…

Jun 14, 2010 10:46 PM CDT

Girl, 16, on Solo Sail Round the World Is Found Alive After Being Feared Lost at Sea

Upated: A 16-year-old girl from California on a solo round-the-world sailing trip who had sent a distress signal to her family and was feared to be lost at sea in the frigid Southern Indian was Ocean was found unharmed late Thursday night. At around 4 a.m., California time Thursday, Abby…

Jun 10, 2010 9:04 PM CDT

Woman Charged with Adultery After Alleged Public Sex on Picnic Table

In a case some might have thought to be a relic of legal history, a 41-year-old woman has been charged with adultery after allegedly having sex on a picnic table in a public park in Genesee County, N.Y. It is reportedly only the 13th adultery case pursued in New York…

Jun 10, 2010 5:13 PM CDT

Tax Lawyer’s True Tales Include High Cost of Bigamy When It’s Time to ‘Divorce’

More brain than brawn, tax lawyers have a more interesting practice than many give them credit for, writes tax lawyer Robert Wood in a Forbes column. Among his own most interesting cases was a divorcing couple who expected to take advantage of a rule that property is divided among the…

Jun 9, 2010 8:19 PM CDT

Ex-White House Lawyer Posts $750K Bail in Case Over Alleged Murder Attempt on Attorney Wife

Accused of beating his attorney wife with a metal flashlight so severely that her mental functioning was impaired, a former White House lawyer charged with attempted murder and first-degree strangulation has now posted $750,000 bail and been released to a mental hospital for treatment. John Michael Farren, 57, will be…

Jun 8, 2010 8:06 PM CDT

Mom Resolves Cold Parental Kidnap Case by Surfing Facebook

A California mom successfully used Facebook to search for the two children she hadn’t seen in nearly 15 years, after their father allegedly took them and told her she would never see them again. After finding her now-17-year-old daughter’s profile on the social networking website, Prince Segala made contact but…

Jun 7, 2010 11:30 PM CDT

Lawyer Got 25 Years for Brokering Hit on Client’s Husband But ‘Black Widow’ Gets Only 12 Years Today

Attorney Manuel Martinez was sentenced to 25 years to life after being convicted of arranging for a client’s wealthy husband to be murdered during a bitter divorce trial in 1990. But the victim’s wife, so-called “Black Widow” Barbara Kogan, got only a 12-year term today. In a best-case scenario, the…

Jun 4, 2010 7:58 PM CDT

Seeming Case-Related Slayings This Week: 3 Judges, 2 Clerks, 1 Lawyer, 11 Others

A magistrate judge and a court clerk were shot to death today in Belgium as they were in a courtroom working on a civil case near the Palais de Justice in Brussels. It is the first time in the country’s history that a magistrate has been killed in a courtroom,…

Jun 3, 2010 7:06 PM CDT

‘Open Season’ on Parents: Mom Put on Probation for Posting on Son’s Facebook Account

An Arkansas mother who posted messages on her 17-year-old son’s Facebook account, making it look as though social networking messages she wrote came from him, has been convicted of harassment and sentenced to a year of probation. Denise New faces 30 days in jail if she violates the probation, which…

Jun 1, 2010 6:06 PM CDT