Trials & Litigation

Cost of Judge’s Gifts to Jurors and Plaintiff Is New Trial

A judge who gave holiday gifts to jurors and candy to the 4-year-old plaintiff denied a fair trial to the defense, according to a New York state appeals court. The court ordered a new trial before a different judge in the medical malpractice case because of the cumulative effect of…

Dec 14, 2007 1:12 PM CST

$2.5M Settlement in Rare Clery Act Case re Murdered Student

Eastern Michigan University has agreed to pay a $2.5 million settlement to the family of a murdered student apparently slain in her dorm room, in an unusual case related to violations of the federal Clery Act due to non-disclosure of campus safety information. EMU and the family of Laura Dickinson…

Dec 14, 2007 12:56 AM CST

Mistrial in Sears Tower Terror Case

The so-called Liberty City 7 trial in federal court in Miami over alleged, abortive plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings in other major cities has fizzled out for now. One defendant was acquitted and the jury deadlocked concerning the other six, concluding the case…

Dec 13, 2007 11:02 PM CST

Bianca Jagger Evicted in NYC

Rock legend Mick Jagger’s ex-wife has been evicted from the rent-stabilized New York City apartment she has called home for 20 years, potentially allowing the landlord to up the ante from the mere $4,600-per-month regulated rent that Bianca Jagger was paying to a fair-market rate. The 62-year-old model-turned-activist had been…

Dec 13, 2007 10:10 PM CST

Realtors Win, FTC Loses Multilist Case

An administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., has sided with a Realtor group against the Federal Trade Commission, in one case in an ongoing national legal battle over efforts by Realtors to protect their turf from discount brokers. Realcomp II Ltd., of Farmington Hills, Mich., near Detroit, does not have…

Dec 13, 2007 9:19 PM CST

Suits Claim ‘Organic’ Milk Not the Real Thing

Recent class-action lawsuits take issue with the “organic” label on milk sold by several retailers. The suits claim the milk, produced by Aurora Organic Dairy of Boulder, Colo., wasn’t really organic, the Associated Press reports. The company recently agreed to change its practices after an investigation by the U.S. Department…

Dec 13, 2007 6:44 PM CST

Judge Finds BAR/BRI ‘Puffing’ Not Actionable

A New York federal judge has ruled that advertising claims by BAR/BRI were mere puffery that cannot be the basis for a lawsuit. The suit had claimed BAR/BRI engaged in false advertising and caused tens of thousands of law students to overpay for the bar review course. U.S. District Judge…

Dec 13, 2007 3:08 PM CST

Billionaire Pleads, Pays $52M Tax Bill

Igor Olenicoff didn’t do as well in his latest court battle with the IRS as he did the last time around. In one of the biggest-bucks tax cases ever, concerning an individual in southern California, the 65-year-old real estate entrepreneur pleaded guilty to one count of lying on his tax…

Dec 13, 2007 12:50 AM CST

Kansas Agog Over AG Sex Scandal

An admitted extramarital affair is the least of it. A longtime employee in the Johnson County, Kan., district attorney’s office says she was sexually harassed by the new state attorney general as part of a two-year affair that involved courthouse trysts and alleged interference with cases being prosecuted by her…

Dec 12, 2007 11:57 PM CST

Judge Sentences Priest to Say Psalms

Echoing a sentence famously given to a world-renowned scientist by the Catholic Church in a heresy case centuries ago, a Chilean judge has ordered a priest who says he can’t afford either to park his car legally or to pay a $100 parking fine to say seven psalms daily for…

Dec 12, 2007 11:14 PM CST

eBay Owes $30M for ‘Buy It Now’ Patent Infringement

A $30 million payday is pending for a Virginia company that owns a patent on the “Buy It Now” mechanism that allows online eBay auction bidders the alternative of purchasing an item immediately at a preset price. A federal judge in Norfolk, Va., declined yesterday to overturn a previous jury…

Dec 12, 2007 10:43 PM CST

Former Judge v. ‘Sopranos’ Creator

A former prosecutor and judge is squaring off in federal court with the creator of the Sopranos television series, contending that he is entitled to compensation for coming up with the idea of the show. Jury selection was to begin today in Trenton, N.J., in the culmination of a five-year…

Dec 12, 2007 9:08 PM CST

Tribal Courts a Tough Gig for Judges

Underfunded and something of an afterthought in the nation’s legal scheme, tribal courts present special challenges for the judges who oversee them. Judge Joseph Thomas Flies-Away, for instance, sounded much like a social worker as he talked informally during a recent court session with a defendant who was not represented…

Dec 12, 2007 8:26 PM CST

Serial Killer Studied Law Enforcement to Avoid Detection

A confessed Midwest serial killer avoided detection for decades, apparently utilizing information gleaned from his law enforcement education to do so. Although Timothy Krajcir had begun murdering women by 1977 and spent years of his life in prison for other sex-related crimes, he was only charged this year with some…

Dec 12, 2007 5:43 PM CST

9th Circuit Backs Judge Despite Work Given to Friends

Backing a federal judge accused by a newspaper of awarding more than $4.8 million in judgments and fees to individuals with whom he had political and business ties without fully disclosing the personal relationships, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided today to dismiss a complaint against…

Dec 12, 2007 12:12 AM CST