Massachusetts

‘Indigent’ Defendants Must Prove Financial Status and Tap Retirement Accounts, Top Mass. Court Rules

In a series of rulings, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has ratcheted up the requirements for obtaining a taxpayer-funded defense in criminal cases, the Associated Press reports. It is up to the defendant to prove his or her indigent status, by a preponderance of the evidence, the court held…

Jul 13, 2012 7:54 PM CDT

AT&T Drops Federal Suit Over $1M Hack-Attack Phone Bill, But Says It Had a Legal Right to Collect

A hard-fought legal battle over a Massachusetts company’s $1 million phone bill quickly racked up, at a rate of $22 per minute, by hackers calling Somalia, came to an abrupt end after news of the dispute captured public attention. Although still maintaining that it has a legal right to collect,…

Jul 9, 2012 5:17 PM CDT

Glaxo Agrees to Misdemeanor Plea, Will Pay $3B in Record Health Care Fraud Settlement with Feds

A British drug manufacturer has agreed to pay $1 billion in criminal fines and $2 billion in civil fines and revamp its compliance procedures to settle wide-ranging allegations by U.S. officials of wrongdoing in the company’s marketing and promotion of its products over a period of nearly a decade. The…

Jul 2, 2012 6:10 PM CDT

UMass Announces 3-Year Law School Tuition Freeze

Amidst reports nationwide of a decrease in applications that suggest law school may be becoming much more of a buyer’s market, a state university that’s already at the low end tuition-wise is becoming even more competitive. The University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth announced Thursday that it will…

Jun 21, 2012 7:05 PM CDT

More Than 50 Would-Be Associates Have Now Applied for $10,000-a-Year Boston Law Firm Job

Partner Larry O’Bryan understands that the $10,000 a year his small Boston law firm wants to pay a new associate isn’t a big enough salary for most new law graduates to live on, since many have hefty student loans. In fact, he may well understand that better than most, since…

Jun 11, 2012 5:35 PM CDT

Massachusetts Teen Sentenced to Prison for Causing Fatal Crash After Texting

Saying he needed to deter others from texting while driving, a Massachusetts judge on Wednesday sentenced a teen to prison for causing a fatal crash. Judge Stephen Abany sentenced Aaron Deveau to 2½ years in prison, but said he would suspend all but one year of the sentence, report the…

Jun 7, 2012 12:06 PM CDT

9th Circuit Won’t Hear Appeal of Prop 8 Same-Sex Marriage Case, Putting It on Fast Track to Supremes

In a move that could allow the U.S. Supreme Court to hear as early as this fall an expected appeal of a federal judge’s ruling that California ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to review, en banc, an earlier decision by a…

Jun 5, 2012 10:46 PM CDT

Boston Law Firm Got 32 Applicants for Attorney Job Paying $10,000 a Year, Partner Says

A small Boston law firm that hit the headlines when it advertised a job for a new law graduate paying $10,000 a year got 32 applicants for the position, a partner of Gilbert & O’Bryan tells the Boston Business Journal. Although observers note that the the pay is less than…

May 31, 2012 10:35 PM CDT

Feds Kick Off Lawyer’s Money-Laundering Conspiracy Trial by Playing Tape of Talk with DEA Snitch

A high-profile Boston criminal defense lawyer was in the hot seat himself Wednesday as the government began presenting its side of a money-laundering conspiracy trial against attorney Robert “Bob” George by introducing a recording of a talk with a Drug Enforcement Administration snitch. During the April 6, 2009 conversation with…

May 31, 2012 4:52 PM CDT

Counsel for Lawyer Being Tried in Federal Money-Laundering Case Says Witness Ex-Client Ran Scheme

Opening arguments began Wednesday in the trial of a prominent Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer accused in a money laundering case. Robert A. George is charged with seven counts in federal court in Boston, including money laundering, conspiracy and structuring transactions, the Cape Cod Times reports. The government says he was…

May 30, 2012 7:11 PM CDT

Mass. Bar Task Force: Legal Education Could Take a Page from Medical Education’s Book

The Massachusetts Bar Association’s Task Force on the Law, the Economy and Underemployment released a report last week exploring the causes of and solutions for underemployment of law school graduates. The task force, made up of 12 licensed lawyers, one law student and one university pre-law adviser devoted six months…

May 21, 2012 9:30 PM CDT

City of Boston Claims Lawyer Mocked Labor Negotiators with Fake Lisp, ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’ Response

The city of Boston is fed up with a prominent lawyer representing firefighters in contract negotiations. A letter dispatched to the Massachusetts Division of Labor Relations claims lawyer E. David Wanger was vulgar and vitriolic at a meeting on Tuesday, the Boston Globe reports. According to the allegations, Wanger mocked…

May 21, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Divorce Trifecta Results in Discipline for Counsel, Attorney Client and Lawyer Employer

A Massachusetts disciplinary matter concerning the handling of an attorney’s divorce has resulted in a legal ethics trifecta: The counsel who handled the divorce has been reprimanded, the attorney client was suspended from practice for three months and her lawyer employer was suspended for one month, the Legal Profession Blog…

May 1, 2012 9:18 PM CDT

Bar Board Nixes Discipline for Associate Who Looked at Mintz Levin Docs Anticipating Personal Suit

Rejecting a hearing panel’s reprimand recommendation, the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers has declined to discipline a former associate of a Boston law firm who had complained that the firm discriminated against her due to her gender and status as a new mother. In a seven-page decision (PDF) released on…

Apr 26, 2012 1:45 PM CDT

Mass. Judge Under Ethics Probe for Alleged Bias Questions Agency’s Power

Under investigation concerning a claimed pro-criminal-defendant bias during his 21 years on the bench, a Massachusetts state-court judge is challenging the authority of the Commission on Judicial Conduct to probe into his thinking concerning the rulings he made. Judge Raymond G. Dougan, joined by a number of retired state and…

Apr 6, 2012 9:24 PM CDT