Massachusetts

Appeals Court OKs Summary Contempt Ruling re Lawyer Sentenced to 90 Days for In-Court Diatribe

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has upheld a judge’s summary contempt ruling concerning a lawyer who was sentenced to 90 days after diatribing at length in court when jury selection didn’t go his way. The outburst by Barry Wilson during his client’s Suffolk Superior Court murder trial was “atrocious. It’s the…

Mar 20, 2012 4:50 PM CDT

Prosecutors Notify Court of Two Whitey Bulger Memoirs and Include Them on Evidence List

Prosecutors plan to use two memoirs that may have been written by alleged mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger when he is tried on charges of participating in 19 murders. Prosecutors say it’s unclear whether Bulger wrote the manuscript My Life in the Irish Mafia Wars found in 1995 at his…

Mar 14, 2012 12:35 PM CDT

News Reports: Handcuffed Defendant in Leg Irons Knocked Down Court Officer as Trial Concluded

Although handcuffed and wearing leg irons, a Massachusetts criminal defendant reportedly swung his arms and knocked a court officer down on Monday afternoon as he was being led from Plymouth District Court into a holding cell, prompting a nine-car response from state, county and local police. The unidentified defendant and…

Mar 7, 2012 7:12 PM CST

Handwritten Journals of Lizzie Borden’s Lawyer Reveal New Details About Infamous Murder Trial

A grandson of one of the lawyers who helped Lizzie Borden win an acquittal in an infamous ax-murder trial nearly 120 years ago has donated the attorney’s trial journals to the local historical society in Fall River, Mass. Found in a hip bath in the attic of the home of…

Mar 5, 2012 6:27 PM CST

Judge Orders Man Charged with Drunken Driving for the 7th Time Held Without Bail as Public Danger

A Massachusetts man charged, for the seventh time, with drunken driving is being held without bond as a public danger until trial. John P. Sawicki, 49, is also charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, after having been found, police said, in its driver’s seat, as it sat parked in…

Feb 13, 2012 8:21 PM CST

Paralegal Who Falsely Claimed to Be a Doctor, Then Became a Lawyer, Has Law License Suspended

In the latest example of a law firm burned after apparently failing to confirm a worker’s credentials, the Legal Profession Blog is reporting that a Massachusetts attorney’s law license has been suspended for two years because she falsely held herself out as a physician. Susan Friery, who had taken courses…

Feb 4, 2012 12:53 AM CST

Lawyer Admits Stealing Case File, Got Law License Despite Prior Bomb-Threat Charge

A Massachusetts lawyer told a judge last Thursday that he should have heeded the advice of the state Board of Bar Examiners, which had warned him not to start a solo practice because of the stress it entailed. The board issued a law license for the lawyer, Ilya Ablavsky, even…

Jan 30, 2012 12:00 PM CST

Judges and Mass. Bar Seek More Money for State Courts in Billboard Advertising Campaign

Massachusetts, like a number of states, is dealing with budget cuts that have stretched judicial resources to the breaking point. But the judiciary is taking an unusual approach to funding constraints, collaborating with the Massachusetts Bar Association to mount a public outreach campaign about the effects of underfunded courts. Meanwhile,…

Jan 18, 2012 11:19 PM CST

Appeals Court Overturns Judge Who Ordered Sterilization for Schizophrenic Pregnant Woman

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has overturned an order by a now-retired probate judge who authorized an abortion for a schizophrenic woman and decided sua sponte that she should be sterilized. The appeals court reversed the sterilization order and called for a new evidentiary hearing on the issue of whether the…

Jan 18, 2012 1:15 PM CST

Fed’l Judge OKs Suit Over Alleged Cut-and-Paste Patent Work by Ropes & Gray Ex-Partner

A federal judge in Massachusetts has given a former client of Ropes & Gray the green light to proceed with a malpractice suit over claimed cut-and-paste work done on patent applications by a former partner whose company billed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory about $10,000 for its work. Cold Spring contends…

Jan 18, 2012 12:16 AM CST

Ex-Partners’ Suit Says Law Firm Leader’s Affair with Another Practice Group Lawyer Forced Them Out

Two attorneys have sued a well-known Boston law firm and its managing partner, contending that his alleged affair with one plaintiff’s wife, who is also a lawyer there, cost both their jobs. Now partners at Nixon Peabody, estate planning attorneys Lawrence Cohen and Jay Rosenbaum say they were forced out…

Jan 14, 2012 12:07 AM CST

Labor Law Firm Fisher & Phillips Plants Flags in Massachusetts and Tennessee

A growing national labor and employment boutique is expanding into Massachusetts and Tennessee with the additions of well-known senior practitioners from other firms to its attorney roster. Fisher & Phillips has brought in Joseph W. Ambash, who formerly co-chaired the practice group at the Boston office of Greenberg Traurig, to…

Jan 10, 2012 7:20 PM CST

Plea Deal In Money Laundering Case Connected to Prominent Boston Lawyer

A Dover, Mass., man pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday in connection with a money laundering scheme that allegedly included prominent Boston lawyer Robert A. George. George, the target of a federal sting operation, is accused of arranging for Michael F. Hansen to help launder drug money. He faces federal…

Jan 6, 2012 7:06 PM CST

Mass. Top Court Rules Legal Immigrants Improperly Barred from Subsidized Insurance Program

The highest court in Massachusetts has ruled that a law barring legal immigrants from a subsidized insurance program violated their rights to equal protection under the state constitution. The opinion by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court could cost the state up to $150 million, report the Boston Globe, the Associated…

Jan 6, 2012 4:43 PM CST

New Smartphone Suit re Data-Sharing Software Targets Apple, Wireless Cos., Device Makers, Carrier IQ

In at least the third would-be class action filed since technology blogger Trevor Eckhart last month reported that smartphones are providing carriers with private information about individual users, eight major defendants are accused in a federal lawsuit (PDF) filed Dec. 2 in Delaware of violating wiretap law via their common…

Dec 6, 2011 1:44 AM CST