States

GA Judge Tells County to Pay for Alleged Gunman’s Lawyer

A Georgia judge has ordered county officials to pay legal fees to the lead lawyer defending alleged courthouse gunman Brian Nichols. The lawyer, Henderson Hill, is charging $175 an hour, nearly double the state rate of $95 an hour. Judge Hilton Fuller said Fulton County should pay Hill’s legal bills…

Oct 12, 2007 3:10 PM CDT

IL Requires Silence at Start of School Day

The Illinois Legislature has approved a law requiring a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day. Lawmakers acted to override a veto by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who said the law could erode the separation between church and state, the Chicago Tribune reports. The law is likely to…

Oct 12, 2007 2:51 PM CDT

IL Chief Justice Settles Libel Case

The chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court has settled his libel suit against a Chicago suburban newspaper for a reported $3 million. The agreement settles ongoing litigation after a $7 million libel verdict for Justice Robert Thomas against the Kane County Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Chronicle also…

Oct 12, 2007 2:35 PM CDT

Judge Censured for ‘Nice Butt’ Remarks

A New York town court judge who made light of a defendant’s assertion that his lawyer was “cute” and had “a nice butt” has been censured for the “misguided attempt at humor.” Justice Edmund V. Caplicki Jr. of LaGrange Town Court in Dutchess County informed the lawyer of the remarks…

Oct 12, 2007 1:22 PM CDT

Menopause Drug Verdict: $134.5 M

Three Nevada women who claimed Prempro and Premarin caused their breast cancer have won a $134.5 verdict against the maker of the hormone-replacement drugs. The Reno jury delivered the verdict late Wednesday and will return to the courtroom today to consider punitive damages, the Associated Press reports. The compensatory damages…

Oct 12, 2007 12:57 PM CDT

Civ Pro Helps Joel Steinberg Overturn $5 M Award

The law of collateral estoppel has resulted in a partial victory in New York’s highest court for disbarred lawyer Joel Steinberg, convicted of manslaughter for killing his adopted daughter. The Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a judge improperly relied on Steinberg’s criminal conviction to find him liable in a…

Oct 12, 2007 12:23 PM CDT

Law Firm Claims Right to Partner’s Invention

An intellectual property law firm is claiming it owns the patents on inventions by one of its partners. That’s the claim in a lawsuit against Google by a company that bought the right to the patents from a lawyer who worked for Fish & Richardson, the Recorder reports. The suit…

Oct 12, 2007 11:36 AM CDT

Sharper Image Purifier Settlement Nixed

A proposal to settle a class action against Sharper Image with $19 coupons for buyers of its Ionic Breeze purifers has been rejected by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga rejected the proposal as inadequate, the Daily Business Review reports. The legal publication calls the decision a…

Oct 12, 2007 11:06 AM CDT

Jena Six Teen Back in Jail

Mychal Bell, one of the six teens at the center of the Jena Six civil rights controversy, is back in jail. Yesterday Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. ordered Bell to serve 18 months in jail, saying his participation in the beating of a white classmate violated probation for a previous juvenile…

Oct 12, 2007 10:44 AM CDT

Federal, State Judges in Sentencing Spat

A career criminal’s almost-successful effort to circumvent a lengthy federal sentence by persuading a state court judge to vacate an earlier conviction has been foiled after the state court judge changed her mind about doing so. But U.S. District Court Judge William Young obviously was still irked about the incident…

Oct 11, 2007 11:39 PM CDT

Bondage Case to Define Too-Unsafe Sex?

Both the victim and the perpetrator are dead. But the estates of two men who died as a result of a dangerous sexual practice are involved in a cutting-edge tort case that could help define what adults can and cannot consent to do. Adrian Exley, a 32-year-old British stripper known…

Oct 11, 2007 9:39 PM CDT

Law Firm to Clients: Feds Tapped Our Phones

Lawyers at a Vermont firm that represents clients being held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan believe the federal government may be wiretapping their law office phones. So Gensburg, Atwell & Broderick sent a letter to other clients of the firm on Oct. 2, warning…

Oct 11, 2007 6:48 PM CDT

Lawyer’s ‘Bombast’ Gets Verdict Tossed

Colorado lawyer Mark Brennan is firing back at a judge who ordered a new trial in an employment case because of “boorish and unprofessional” behavior by the lawyer. U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn of Denver recently overturned a $1.2 million jury verdict for Brennan’s client in an age discrimination case…

Oct 11, 2007 6:33 PM CDT

Judge Targeted for Refusing After-Hours Lethal Injection Appeal

Twenty lawyers have filed an ethics complaint against the presiding judge of Texas’ top criminal court contending she should have kept the court open past 5 p.m. to accept an emergency appeal on behalf of a death-row inmate scheduled to die later that day. The complaint against Presiding Judge Sharon…

Oct 11, 2007 4:42 PM CDT

Regent 2L in Trouble for Robertson Post

A Regent University law student says he faces discipline for posting an online photo of school president Pat Robertson in which he is scratching his face with his middle finger. Adam Key, who describes himself as a liberal Christian, posted the image on his Facebook page, the Virginian-Pilot reports. He…

Oct 11, 2007 3:15 PM CDT