Verdicts & Settlements

4942 ABA Journal Verdicts & Settlements articles.

F-word settlement refusal doesn’t require tossing lawyer from case, federal judge rules

A federal judge in New Jersey has declined to toss a lawyer from a case for responding to a settlement demand with an F-word refusal. U.S. District Judge Esther Salas of Newark upheld (PDF) a magistrate judge’s refusal to disqualify lawyer Wayne Paulter, the New Jersey Law Journal (sub. req.)…

Mar 31, 2016 9:11 AM CDT

Suit by laid-off lawyers says Reilly Pozner jettisoned 17 at law firm to avoid sharing $391M verdict

One of the top trial law firms in Colorado laid off 17 workers last year in order to avoid sharing with them a $391 million verdict they helped win a few months earlier, a lawsuit contends. Filed by husband-and-wife attorneys Wendy and Eric Fisher in Denver District Court, suit alleges…

Mar 30, 2016 4:45 PM CDT

Will Milano suit settlement kill Trader Joe’s competing brand? No word on how cookies may crumble

News of the settlement of a federal lawsuit over claimed infringement of the iconic Milano cookie brand marketed by Pepperidge Farm leaves unanswered an important question to lovers of baked goods. Does the pact mean that Trader Joe’s will stop marketing its competing Crispy Cookies filled with Belgian chocolate? What…

Mar 30, 2016 3:55 PM CDT

In first GM ignition-switch case to go to verdict, jury awards zip, saying defect didn’t cause crash

Both sides proclaimed victory Wednesday after the first jury verdict in a General Motors ignition-switch case. That’s because the jury, while finding a 2007 Saturn Sky unreasonably dangerous because of an ignition-switch defect, also found that the defect did not cause the plaintiff driver to lose control on an icy…

Mar 30, 2016 3:20 PM CDT

Pro se plaintiff awarded $203K in mixed jury verdict in employment discrimination case

Brian Vukadinovich says a number of lawyers were interested in representing him in an age-discrimination and retaliation case against his former employer. But the Indiana teacher and former law firm employee has long had an interest in legal matters and wanted to represent himself at the weeklong trial of his…

Mar 29, 2016 4:45 PM CDT

Man admits to Facebook threats against federal judge, agrees to 366-day prison term

A Nevada man has pleaded guilty to threatening a federal judge on Facebook, in exchange for a prison term of just over a year. Jason Andre Willis, 41, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court in Las Vegas to a felony charge of threatening interstate communications, reports the Las Vegas…

Mar 29, 2016 12:50 PM CDT

Prison a ‘blessing in disguise’ for jailhouse lawyer who got a new trial and a paralegal job

After years of insisting that he did not commit the carjackings and armed robberies for which he was originally sentenced a decade ago, a Flint, Michigan, man was set free on Monday—at least for now. A federal judge in Detroit ordered that Omar Rashad Pouncy, 28, be released on a…

Mar 29, 2016 12:20 PM CDT

Retailer must make website accessible to visually impaired and pay plaintiff legal fees, judge rules

In what a lawyer for the plaintiff is calling a landmark decision, a California judge has ordered a luggage retailer to make its website accessible to those who are visually impaired. Bag’n Baggage must also pay $4,000 plus attorney’s fees for plaintiff Edward Davis, which are expected to top $100,000,…

Mar 25, 2016 4:20 PM CDT

Lawyer gets 30 days for contempt after admitting he took money from ex-judge’s ‘honey pot’ estate

A New York lawyer was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days for contempt for not complying with a court order requiring him to account for $2.28 million received from the sale of a deceased former judge’s real estate in 2012. The sentence came after attorney Frank Racano, 54, admitted during a…

Mar 25, 2016 2:20 PM CDT

Convicted of UPL, former bar president with no law degree ‘provided a good service,’ her lawyer says

A former county bar association president in Pennsylvania who never earned a law degree was convicted Thursday in an unauthorized practice of law case. Kimberly Kitchen, now 46, worked as an estate planning lawyer at BMZ Law in Huntingdon County. Kitchen had made partner at the firm before her lack…

Mar 25, 2016 11:20 AM CDT

Former state supreme court judge fined $50K over objectionable emails, but keeps pension

A former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice who resigned last week has been fined $50,000 for sending and receiving objectionable emails, mostly or entirely on a private account. But J. Michael Eakin will keep his $153,000-a-year pension, because a judicial tribunal agreed to accept an ethics-case prosecutor’s recommendation to drop the…

Mar 24, 2016 5:00 PM CDT

Jury rejects law grad’s case over claim that Thomas Jefferson job stats were inflated

A California jury on Thursday rejected a claim by a 2008 graduate of Thomas Jefferson School of Law that she was entitled to damages because the San Diego institution inflated job-placement data concerning its alumni. Plaintiff Anna Alaburda said she has been unable to find full-time work as a lawyer…

Mar 24, 2016 4:15 PM CDT

Judge who reduced verdict from $5M to $1M, expecting campaign gift, gets 10 years in bribe case

A former Arkansas judge was sentenced Thursday to a maximum 10-year prison term for admittedly reducing a jury verdict in the expectation of a contribution to his planned campaign for a state appeals court seat. Michael Maggio, now 54, lost his seat on the Faulkner County Circuit Court bench after…

Mar 24, 2016 3:30 PM CDT

Longtime lawyer and CEO of failed bank gets 11 years in fraud case

A longtime Nebraska lawyer who later served as the CEO of TierOne Bank when it became insolvent was sentenced Wednesday to an 11-year federal prison term. He was also ordered to pay a $1.2 million fine and undetermined restitution. Gilbert Lundstrom, 74, was accused by the government of causing more…

Mar 23, 2016 5:00 PM CDT

Judge rules woman’s alleged confession to counselor about grandmother’s death is admissible

Angela Judd had gotten away with murder, authorities say, before she confessed to a social worker in late January that she had smothered her 92-year-old grandmother to death a month earlier. But it wasn’t until Tuesday that Judd was charged with murder in the death of Nada Bodholdt, after an…

Mar 23, 2016 4:10 PM CDT

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