‘Garden of Eden’ defense re overgrown lawn doesn’t cut it, but pro se defendant wins on jurisdiction

Ken Conklin had what you might call a “Garden of Eden” defense to an overgrown-lawn case brought against him by the city of St. Petersburg, Fla. Even faced with the threat of a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail, he just didn’t want to mow the waist-high weeds in…

Mar 4, 2013 9:21 PM CST

Forbidden to randomly seize unattended homeless belongings, city asks SCOTUS to overturn ruling

The city of Los Angeles is expected to ask the U.S. Supreme Court today to overturn an injunction preventing the removal and destruction of personal property left unattended on sidewalks by the homeless, the Los Angeles Times reports. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction…

Feb 28, 2013 10:04 PM CST

Stranger’s lost diamond ring leads to criminal charge for lawyer who found it

A Georgia lawyer is facing a felony theft case after allegedly failing to return a valuable diamond ring that was lost Feb. 7 in a restaurant parking lot by a woman she apparently does not know. Alexia Dawn Davis, 31, was charged with theft of lost or mislaid property and…

Feb 27, 2013 5:54 PM CST

Legal know-how and yen for gin helps retired litigation chief launch new business

After years of running a litigation team as a Verizon in-house lawyer, Michael Lowe soon found that practicing his yoga moves could only keep him busy for a limited amount of time in retirement. So the 63-year-old former Navy officer launched a craft distillery with his son-in-law, investing about $1…

Feb 11, 2013 2:37 PM CST

Newly found skeleton of Richard III creates winter of discontent for 2 cities vying to claim bones

Slain more than 500 years ago on a British battlefield, King Richard III was recently determined to have been unceremoniously buried in nearby Leicester without a coffin. Now that his bones have been identified after being excavated from beneath a parking lot, two cities are vying to claim possession of…

Feb 7, 2013 9:55 PM CST

4 lawyers exit McCarter & English for Holland & Knight

Three partners and a special counsel have exited McCarter & English for the Boston office of Holland & Knight. Brian Leary, Diane McDermott and Jeffrey Stoler will all be partners at Holland & Knight; Richard Holtz, who had been at the 400-attorney northeast regional firm only about one year, will…

Feb 6, 2013 5:45 PM CST

Supreme Court weighs whether Virginia can deny public records to noncitizens

Feb 1, 2013 9:19 AM CST

Some HOAs act as though their bylaws are etched in stone

Feb 1, 2013 6:50 AM CST

Multiple lawyers admit guilt in mortgage-related criminal cases

Multiple attorneys have recently been making headlines as defendants in mortgage-related criminal cases. Last Friday, Pennsylvania attorney Lisa Gerideau-Williams, 46, pleaded guilty in federal court to 16 counts including wire fraud and filing false income tax returns, concerning what prosecutors described as a multi-faceted $1.7 million fraud, reports the Pittsburgh…

Jan 30, 2013 5:51 PM CST

Did a judge-to-be unethically help a jurist in a real estate matter?

After investigating a landowner’s complaint, a grievance committee of the state bar has recommended that Florida Circuit Judge Andrew J. Decker III should face legal ethics charges concerning his handling of a foreclosure matter, as a private attorney, before he became a judge. The complainant, Daniel A. Dukes, was a…

Jan 30, 2013 5:02 PM CST

US Attorney bullying? This time charge is lobbed by budget motel owner who fought to keep property

A U.S. Attorney under fire for her prosecution of an Internet activist is back in the news after a judge refused prosecutors’ bid to seize a family-owned budget motel. On Jan. 17, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz defended her office’s prosecution of 26-year-old “hactivist” Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide as he…

Jan 30, 2013 12:00 PM CST

‘The People’s Attorney’ radio host is charged in $10M mortgage fraud

A suburban Chicago attorney who hosts a syndicated national radio program is facing a federal mortgage fraud case. Warren Ballentine is accused of helping unqualified buyers obtain mortgages by falsely stating in real estate closing documents that they intended to occupy the homes they were purchasing, according to the Chicago…

Jan 28, 2013 11:57 PM CST

Robosigning law has unintended consequences, Nevada Realtors say

Some Nevada Realtors believes a 2011 robosigning law is to blame for a drop in foreclosures that is keeping abandoned homes off the market. The law requires lenders to sign an affidavit saying they have personal knowledge of a property’s document history before they can foreclose. The Nevada Association of…

Jan 25, 2013 11:30 AM CST

Three dead, one wounded in courthouse shooting

A retired Canadian journalist shot and killed the pediatric surgeon who had pursued a malicious mischief case against him and the doctor’s lawyer on Tuesday before dying himself in a courthouse in the Philippines, authorities said. There are conflicting accounts about whether the shooting suspect, John Pope, 63, was killed…

Jan 22, 2013 4:27 PM CST

Indictment: Now-deceased lawyer helped funnel $8M through secret accounts to win HOA contracts

As two lawyers among the latest 11 defendants federally indicted in a massive Nevada homeowner association corruption case pleaded not guilty in a Las Vegas courtroom on Wednesday, a news report described another local attorney, who died last year, as a key figure in the alleged funneling of $8 million…

Jan 17, 2013 8:35 PM CST