Georgia

Firm Takes Client Entertainment Cue from Boston Legal

When you try to picture the new rooftop deck at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough’s Atlanta office, think Boston. More specifically, Boston Legal, the hit ABC drama featuring William Shatner as Denny Crane and David Spader as Alan Shore. At the end of each episode, the pair sits on their…

Dec 17, 2007 9:03 PM CST

Disbarred Lawyer Woos Women, Gets Up to $1M—and 5 Years

Law practice didn’t work out for Hillard Quint, who gave up his Georgia license in 1997 to resolve a disciplinary matter. So the enterprising ex-attorney apparently found another way to make a living—scamming women. Reportedly, the seemingly successful business executive may have extracted at least $1 million from women in…

Dec 14, 2007 6:00 PM CST

Chitwood Wins Motley Face-Off; Former Lawyers Spin Off Again

A year-and-a-half after Chitwood Harley Harnes settled claims against four former lawyers who set up a rival securities litigation shop at a new Atlanta office of Motley Rice, the Chitwood firm apparently has prevailed in a head-to-head battle for clients. Motley is closing its Atlanta office, and the four former…

Dec 10, 2007 11:27 PM CST

Pregnant Lawyer May Have Been Kidnapped Due to Dad’s Case

A pregnant Ohio lawyer’s kidnapping and release may have involved a case involving her father, who is a municipal court judge, the lawyer’s husband said. Karyn McConnell Hancock was released unharmed Saturday morning, three days after her abduction near Six Flags Over Georgia, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported. She said she…

Dec 10, 2007 4:47 PM CST

Police Informant Sues Over Job Loss

A confidential police informant in Atlanta who lost his job after his identity was revealed because of a furor of publicity over a botched drug raid has sued the city for damages. Alex White contends in his federal lawsuit that he made about $25,000 annually from this work and seeks…

Dec 6, 2007 10:47 PM CST

Court Rules Against State in Tax Federalism Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that federal courts may consider challenges to state accounting formulas used to value railroad property for tax purposes. Fox News describes CSX Transportation v. State Board of Equalization as “a federalism case through and through” that would appear to have little impact beyond the…

Dec 4, 2007 3:48 PM CST

Tests Reveal Lawyer’s Fellow Air Travelers Free of TB

Tests reveal no one was sickened with tuberculosis while flying alongside an Atlanta trial lawyer in May. About 250 passengers from the Atlanta-to-Paris Air France flight were tested, the Associated Press is reporting, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Canadian health officials reportedly made similar findings…

Nov 29, 2007 12:03 AM CST

Youth Accepts Plea Deal in Teen Sex Case

A Georgia teen who received a mandatory 10-year sentence for consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl will be released from prison within days under a plea deal. A Georgia judge agreed to the deal for Joshua Widner yesterday, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. Widner had taken his case…

Nov 27, 2007 4:14 PM CST

Rape Defendants: 3 Boys, 8, 9 and 9

In a case that is sure to be controversial, three boys in from a working-class Acworth, Ga., neighborhood have been charged in the alleged kidnapping and rape of an 11-year-old girl who reportedly is one of their regular playmates. “The victim said they were playing outdoors and the girl was…

Nov 20, 2007 12:19 AM CST

Sheriff Charged With Ordering Inmates to Pay for Jailing

Some justice officials in a southern Georgia county are accused of hitting criminal defendants with improper court fees and then requiring those who were jailed to pay for room and board. A courthouse clerk in Clinch County pleaded guilty to fraud last month for paying county employees with improper $10…

Nov 16, 2007 3:14 PM CST

Beleaguered Ga. Judge Won’t Respond to Prosecutors’ Filing in Nichols Case

A respected Georgia judge under fire for requiring the state to pay defense costs it says it can’t afford in a complex capital murder trial won’t contest a state supreme court filing seeking to force him off the case. Instead, Superior Court Judge Hilton M. Fuller Jr. has sent a…

Nov 8, 2007 12:19 AM CST

Squeezing Student by Throat Constitutional

A Georgia teacher who grabbed a 14-year-old boy by the throat and squeezed his neck as he tried to leave her classroom did not violate the youth’s civil rights, a federal appeals court has ruled. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the teacher’s action, which left bruises,…

Nov 7, 2007 4:32 PM CST

GA Judge in Capital Defense Cost Maelstrom Lawyers Up

A Georgia judge who has become a lightning rod for criticism over the high cost of defending a death penalty case has now got his own counsel. Profiled in a recent New York Times article as judicial scapegoat for those seeking to blame someone for what it costs to represent…

Nov 6, 2007 8:03 PM CST

Prosecutor Seeks to Oust Judge in Courthouse Shooting Case

The Atlanta prosecutor who is pursuing charges against alleged courthouse gunman Brian Nichols is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to remove the judge who is presiding in the case. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. argues that Judge Hilton Fuller Jr. exceeded his authority in regard to lawyer funding…

Nov 5, 2007 4:14 PM CST

Atlanta Firm Holds Down Associate Pay—and Billables

A 136-lawyer Atlanta law firm is refusing to match the $145,000 annual starting salaries paid by the city’s other big firms. In past years, Arnall Golden Gregory had always matched pay, managing partner William Kitchens told the Fulton County Daily Report. But it will keep starting pay at $130,000 in…

Nov 2, 2007 6:08 PM CDT