Massachusetts

1st Day OpenCourt Live-Blog News: $100 Fine; Lunch Break; Should Video Archive Access Be Banned?

An experimental OpenCourt project is under way in Quincy, Mass., where information in real time about arraignments and similar doings in Quincy District Court will now be available online through Twitter, live Web streaming and a live blog that provides the text of the tweets. News on the project’s first…

May 3, 2011 12:06 AM CDT

Mass. High Court Upholds Role of Lawyers Before, During and After Real Estate Closings

Massachusetts’ top court has partly sided with lawyers in a turf battle between the real-estate bar and a Pittsburgh mortgage service company. In a ruling on Monday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said ethics rules require “substantive participation” by lawyers in real-estate closings, the Boston Globe reports. Just showing up…

Apr 26, 2011 1:39 PM CDT

Feds Probe: Does Harvard Law School Sexual Harassment Complaint Policy Violate Title IX?

Responding to complaints made by an attorney on behalf of a Harvard Law School student, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating whether the HLS policy for handling sexual harassment complaints violates Title IX. Attorney Wendy Murphy, who is a professor at New England School of…

Apr 21, 2011 9:34 PM CDT

Prosecutor Wants Lenient Judge Ousted From All Criminal Cases

Corrected: A veteran Boston municipal court judge known as “Judge Let Me Go” is coming under scrutiny for being overly lenient, prompting a local district attorney to wage an unusual campaign to remove the judge from presiding over criminal trials. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley has instructed his prosecutors…

Apr 18, 2011 3:18 PM CDT

Judge Investigates Claims That 3 Jurors Lied in Death Penalty Case

A federal judge is investigating whether jurors who voted to send a confessed killer to death lied on their jury questionnaires and by doing so tainted the verdict. The case involving Gary Lee Sampson was the first federal death penalty case in Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reports. In November, U.S.…

Apr 18, 2011 1:32 PM CDT

Mass. Lawyer Suspended for 6 Months for Craigslist Term Paper Offer

Damian R. Bonazzoli, a Massachusetts lawyer who allegedly placed three advertisements on Craigslist to write students’ term papers and essays, was recently suspended from practice for six months. Additionally, Bonazzoli lost his job with the Massachusetts Appeals Court, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Advertising writing services, for a…

Apr 13, 2011 4:41 PM CDT

Bingham Seeks Court Ruling That Firm Met Its Obligations to Ex-Client, LA Dodgers Owner McCourt

Apparently hoping to avert a malpractice claim in a high-profile California marital matter and potentially collect some additional legal fees, Bingham McCutchen has filed suit in Massachusetts state court seeking a declaratory judgment. The firm wants a court to rule that it met its obligations to then-client Frank McCourt, owner…

Apr 12, 2011 10:00 AM CDT

Legal Fee-Sharing Dispute re $400K Wasn’t Covered by Malpractice Insurance, Federal Court Rules

When attorney Adam Clermont left Freedman DeRosa & Rondeau to form his own firm, he took several plaintiff’s personal injury files with him. He and his former firm agreed to split the fees 50-50, but after Clermont got a $686,000 payout on one of them he didn’t ante up, writes…

Apr 11, 2011 4:55 PM CDT

Mom at Trial in Attempted Murder Case for Failing to Give Her Son His Cancer Meds

A mom in Massachusetts says the side effects from cancer medication made her autistic son, Jeremy Fraser, so sick she was afraid they would kill him. So she stopped giving him the drugs that his oncologist says might have given the boy an 85 percent or 90 percent chance of…

Apr 8, 2011 8:05 PM CDT

Mass. Lawyer Is Suspended for 6 Months Due to Multiple Misrepresentations on Resume

Contrary to what his resumé said, Wade Jensen never earned an LLM degree in taxation from Boston University, although he was enrolled and attended classes there. Nor did the 1997 Purdue University graduate earn a bachelor of science degree from Tufts University in 1997, let alone letter there in hockey…

Apr 4, 2011 11:09 PM CDT

Driver Crashes Into Law Office, Destroys Name Partner’s Desk

Ordinarily, attorney Michael Ready spends much of the time he is in the office at his desk. So he has to feel fortunate that the driver who crashed into the Ready Kiernan & McNally law offices in New Bedford, Mass., and destroyed his office did so yesterday morning, rather than…

Apr 4, 2011 9:04 PM CDT

Well-Known Criminal Defense Lawyer Is Charged with Laundering $225K in Alleged Drug Proceeds

A prominent Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer was arrested at his home today and charged in a money-laundering case. Robert George, 56, is accused of conspiring to launder or actually laundering $225,000 in alleged drug proceeds—with the help of a mortgage company owner—over a two-year period. He pleaded not guilty in…

Mar 23, 2011 9:55 PM CDT

Harvard Law Prof Known for ‘Stuntzian’ Views Dies at 52

William Stuntz was the man who put the Stuntz in “Stuntzian.” An influential Harvard Law School professor particularly known for his views on criminal justice, Stuntz died at his home in Massachusetts last week after three years of treatment for metastatic colon cancer, reports the New York Times. He was…

Mar 21, 2011 11:39 PM CDT

‘Crockefeller’ Charged with Murder re 1985 Disappearance of Calif. Couple

Twenty-six years after a young couple vanished from their San Marino home, prosecutors in California have charged a German national known as “Crockefeller” with murder concerning the death of the man. John Sohus’ apparent skeleton was found in 1994 as the yard was being dug up for a swimming pool.…

Mar 15, 2011 11:31 PM CDT

Lawyers Oppose Mass. Gov’s Budget Proposal to Replace Contract Lawyers with Full-Time PDs

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick suggested in his 2012 budget proposal that the state eliminate 3,000 contract attorney positions from its indigent legal defense program in an effort to save $48 million. The contract attorneys in the Committee for Public Counsel Services would be replaced with 1,000 public defenders, according to…

Mar 14, 2011 5:44 PM CDT