Iowa

Training-video sanction for deposition interruptions by Jones Day partner is tossed on appeal

A Jones Day partner won’t have to make a training video explaining the impropriety of excessive deposition interruptions as a result of a ruling by a federal appeals court. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports. The decision…

Aug 31, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Judge delays civil trial because of lawyer’s Facebook post

An Iowa judge has delayed a civil trial because of a Facebook post by a high-profile trial lawyer. In a ruling last week, the Polk County judge delayed the trial until November because of the post by lawyer Roxanne Conlin of Des Moines, the Des Moines Register reports in an…

Jul 14, 2015 10:37 AM CDT

Immigrant who won NY court OK to practice faces political-protest probation roadblock

A Mexican immigrant illegally brought to this country as a young child won a landmark ruling last month from a New York appeals court. It said Cesar Vargas, now a 31-year-old law graduate, can be licensed to practice law in New York despite his immigration status. However, because he is…

Jul 8, 2015 4:15 PM CDT

Jurors reject law prof’s claim of anti-conservative bias in hiring

A federal jury in Iowa has rejected a conservative law professor’s claim that the University of Iowa law school rejected her for a promotion because of her political views and associations. Jurors in Danvenport ruled against Teresa Manning on Monday after a six-day trial, report the Associated Press, Radio Iowa…

Jun 30, 2015 11:22 AM CDT

Judge dismisses entire 112-member jury pool over lack of racial diversity

An Iowa judge on Tuesday called a halt to a black man’s murder trial and dismissed the entire jury pool of over 100 people because it didn’t have racial diversity. Defendant Tyrone Washington Jr., 41, had previously been granted a change of venue to have the case tried in Webster…

May 13, 2015 3:55 PM CDT

Touch screen rules on Miss Kitty slot machine voided jackpot mistake, state supreme court says

In 87-year-old Illinois grandmother was entitled only to $1.85 in a penny slots win, even though her Miss Kitty slot machine announced a bonus of nearly $41.8 million, according to the Iowa Supreme Court. Pauline McKee of Antioch, Illinois, was playing on the machine in July 2011 at the Isle…

Apr 27, 2015 11:04 AM CDT

On-the-lam ex-attorney wanted in client ‘charity’ and tax-fraud case is captured

After five years on the lam, a former Iowa lawyer wanted in a federal fraud case has been captured in Colorado. Dennis Bjorklund, 50, was federally indicted in Iowa in 2010. He is accused of defrauding clients he represented in drunken-driving cases by persuading them to donate to a “charity”…

Apr 23, 2015 9:50 AM CDT

Ex-lawmaker charged with felony sex abuse is acquitted by jury

A former state lawmaker being criminally tried in an unusual sexual-abuse case, based on his late wife’s dementia, was acquitted Wednesday by an Iowa jury. Henry Rayhons was charged in the felony case after staff at the nursing home at which Donna Rayhons was then living determined, with the help…

Apr 22, 2015 4:10 PM CDT

Courthouse workers build nesting box on 5th-floor ledge after peregrine falcon eggs fall off edge

Add another pair of peregrine falcons to the courthouse nesting trend. A couple of the rare birds recently set up a new home on a fifth-floor ledge outside the Dubuque County Courthouse in Dubuque, Iowa, reports the Telegraph Herald. Unfortunately, two eggs that were laid rolled off over the weekend…

Apr 16, 2015 4:15 PM CDT

Egg executives get jail sentences, fines for salmonella outbreak

A former owner of an egg company and his son were sentenced to three months in jail on Monday after pleading guilty in connection with a salmonella outbreak. Austin “Jack” DeCoster, 81,and his son, Peter DeCoster, 51,were sentenced to jail and ordered to each pay a $100,000 fine, report the…

Apr 14, 2015 11:04 AM CDT

Meet Paul Deck, the oldest practicing lawyer in Nebraska and Iowa

Paul Deck turned 100 on Sunday, making him the oldest practicing lawyer in Nebraska and Iowa. Deck still works at his Sioux City law practice, handling mostly divorce and custody cases, the Omaha World-Herald reports in a story also published by the Norfolk Daily News. He practices law with two…

Mar 30, 2015 11:15 AM CDT

Receiver appointed for law firm $10M in debt; loans taken out by partner before suicide contested

Rejecting a law firm’s argument that having a third party deal with its $10 million in debt would be “overkill,” an Iowa judge has appointed a receiver to oversee the dissolution of Gallagher Langlas and Gallagher. Veridian Credit Union, whose loans to the Waterloo firm are being contested in litigation,…

Mar 26, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Lawyer pays bonus to employees who carry guns

A lawyer in Davenport, Iowa, is encouraging employees to exercise their Second Amendment rights by paying a $50 monthly bonus to those who carry a gun. Lawyer Eric Puryear of Puryear Law, who is a certified National Rifle Association instructor, says he began offering the bonus about four years ago,…

Mar 20, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Law firm is closing down in wake of claimed thefts by former president, attorney says

An Iowa law firm remains open following multiple allegations of wrongdoing against its deceased former president. However, that is largely so that the firm can resolve the claims it is facing from former clients, according to attorney Greg Lederer, reports the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. “I think it is fair to…

Feb 13, 2015 10:00 AM CST

Judge blasts disbarred lawyer for paying no restitution in $837K client fraud, gives her 4-year max

A disbarred Iowa lawyer was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum prison term for wire fraud by a federal judge who expressed “extreme disappointment” that Susan Hense has so far paid nothing toward restitution for more than one dozen victims. That amounts to over four years behind bars for Susan Hense,…

Jan 9, 2015 9:35 AM CST