States

Staff Lawyer Claims Bosses Whitewashed Ethics Complaints

A former staff lawyer for a New York disciplinary committee has filed a lawsuit that claims her bosses whitewashed and dismissed complaints against select lawyers. Christine Anderson claims in her federal suit that she was fired in retaliation for complaining in violation of the First Amendment, the New York Law…

Oct 30, 2007 10:49 AM CDT

Suits Target Chemical Used in Medical Tests

Plaintiffs lawyers are filing lawsuits against companies involved in the manufacture of a contrast dye used to help capture images for medical tests. The suits claims the heavy metal, gadolinium, can cause a disease called nephrogenic system fibrosis that hardens the skin, the Recorder reports. The Food and Drug Administration…

Oct 30, 2007 10:30 AM CDT

Guilty Lawyer Still Blames His Murder Victim

In his first public comment after being sentenced to 12 years in prison for breaking into a neighbor’s home and stabbing him to death, a 30-year-old Connecticut lawyer says he still believes his wife’s accusation that the victim molested their young daughter. However, police say there is no evidence this…

Oct 29, 2007 11:35 PM CDT

Jezebel on a Broomstick & Salem Witch Judge

When Eve LaPlante, a Boston area writer, starts thinking about a possible book topic, she doesn’t have to go far from home. In the last several years she has written two books about family forbears, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans and…

Oct 29, 2007 11:02 PM CDT

Wildfire Volunteer Lawyers Can Sue Gov’t, Even FEMA

Volunteer lawyers who help victims of the recent Southern California wildfires will no longer be restricted in the kinds of lawsuits they can bring on behalf of their clients. Now lawyers can sue local, state and federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which sponsors the disaster legal aid…

Oct 29, 2007 8:15 PM CDT

1,700 CT Attys Suspended Over $110 Bill

In a payment enforcement mechanism that some see as draconian, the Client Security Fund in the state of Connecticut has slapped 1,700 lawyers with an administrative suspension for failing to pay a $110 annual fee. The “striking” number of suspensions includes all lawyers who haven’t paid the fee during any…

Oct 29, 2007 7:11 PM CDT

Black Counsel Scarce at US Supreme Court

For the first time in more than a year, an African-American lawyer should be arguing before the U.S Supreme Court today. Even more unusual, Drew Days III is representing a corporate client. The argument will be his 24th before the nation’s highest court, reports the Associated Press, solidly establishing Days…

Oct 29, 2007 6:16 PM CDT

Traffic Cameras Mean More Rear-Enders

Just as authorities thought they would, traffic cameras encourage motorists to put on the brakes rather than speed through intersections on red lights. But, in an unintended consequence, they also significantly increase the number of rear-end accidents, reports the Miami Herald. As some motorists slam on the brakes, fearful of…

Oct 29, 2007 4:33 PM CDT

Watching Turtles is FL Litigator’s ‘Zen Thing’

By all accounts, Stuart Rosenfeldt isn’t a stereotypical angry litigator. The easygoing Florida employment attorney believes in karma, and looks to the rare New Guinea sea turtles he keeps in tanks in his office to provide what the Miami Herald refers to as his “Zen thing”—a spoken mantra, habit, or…

Oct 29, 2007 4:09 PM CDT

Fire Fear for Illegal Residents: Deportation

As residents throughout many areas of Southern California worry about potential damage from the wildfires that have been burning for the past week, illegal immigrants have had a particular cause for concern. Although authorities say they are not using emergency shelters as an opportunity to check the residency status of…

Oct 29, 2007 3:50 PM CDT

Rest Easy: Plan for the Inevitable

Although lots of folks say they intend to plan for the inevitable, most don’t. Some 70 percent of Americans die without making a will or any other arrangement for distributing assets after their deaths—although, in some cases, that makes sense, reports the Los Angeles Times in a detailed article discussing…

Oct 29, 2007 3:28 PM CDT

Suit Contends Oracle Destroyed Discovery Docs

A shareholder lawsuit against Oracle Corp. alleges that hundreds of e-mails and financial records have not been turned over to plaintiffs. Documents in the case recently unsealed at the request of the National Law Journal include a motion for default judgment against the company as a sanction for document destruction,…

Oct 29, 2007 3:11 PM CDT

Sperm Donor Loses Suit for Parental Rights

A sperm donor who wants a relationship with his children has failed to overturn a Kansas law that bars parental rights absent a written agreement. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled the law did not violate state or federal constitutional due process and equal protection provisions, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports. Daryl…

Oct 29, 2007 2:24 PM CDT

Army Overturns Rushed 1944 Conviction of Black Soldiers in Lynching

Updated: An Army review board has overturned the conviction of African-Americans court-martialed for lynching an Italian prisoner of war at a Seattle military base in 1944. The board concluded the trial, which resulted in the convictions of 28 African-Americans, was “fundamentally unfair.” Four men requested the review, but the ruling…

Oct 29, 2007 1:35 PM CDT

GA Supreme Court: Teen’s 10-Year Sentence Cruel & Unusual

UPDATED: Upholding a lower court ruling that a 10-year prison sentence imposed on a young man who, at 17, was videotaped having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl was cruel and unusual punishment, the Georgia Supreme Court today ordered his release. Genarlow Wilson, now 21, was convicted of felony…

Oct 27, 2007 12:59 AM CDT