Verdicts & Settlements

4943 ABA Journal Verdicts & Settlements articles.

Jury says towns dominated by polygamous sect put religion above the law; awards $2.2M to 6 people

After nearly two months of trial and three days of deliberation, on Monday a federal jury in Phoenix found that two adjacent towns dominated by a polygamous sect have violated the rights of nonbelievers living within their precincts. Discriminatory policing and provision of municipal services such as water hookups violated…

Mar 8, 2016 11:56 AM CST

How much is a year of wrongful incarceration worth? $1.5M is too high, federal judge rules

A federal judge in Manhattan has cut the award for a man wrongfully convicted of rape from $18 million to $12 million. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin reduced the award to Alan Newton in a decision (PDF) on Friday, the New York Times, the New York Daily News and Reuters…

Mar 8, 2016 6:15 AM CST

Jury awards $55M to sportscaster Erin Andrews in lawsuit over nude video

After about eight hours of deliberation, a Nashville jury on Monday awarded $55 million to sportscaster Erin Andrews in her lawsuit over a nude video taken from an adjoining hotel room by a stalker. While the jury found Michael David Barrett 51 percent responsible for taking the videos through a…

Mar 7, 2016 5:15 PM CST

Federal appeals court partially blocks FCC rules cutting cost of prison phone calls

As a lawsuit continues seeking to overturn new Federal Communications Commission rules cutting the cost prisoners pay for phone calls, a federal appeals court has partially stayed the imposition of the new rules. The Hill provides a copy of the order (PDF) on Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals…

Mar 7, 2016 4:50 PM CST

First-time offender blames lawyers for 33-year DUI term, but judge points to beer pong video

Lawyers for Kenneth Richard Jenkins had hoped for a four- to eight-year prison term in his driving-under-the-influence case because he was a first-time offender and expressed remorse for the accident he caused that killed three people. But a judge gave Jenkins nearly 33 years at his 2011 sentencing, unfavorably influenced…

Mar 7, 2016 4:10 PM CST

Supreme Court blocks enforcement of Louisiana abortion clinic restrictions

Last month, a federal appeals court in New Orleans refused to block a Louisiana law that could close three of the state’s four abortion clinics, staying an injunction issued by a trial court. But on Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively reversed that 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling…

Mar 4, 2016 4:55 PM CST

Judge sequesters jury after courthouse hallway fight, then declares mistrial

An action-packed four days of trial in an Omaha, Nebraska, double-murder case came to an abrupt conclusion Friday morning when the judge declared a mistrial at the request of the defense. However, the prosecution did not object, following a difficult day on Thursday when a key government witness against Charles…

Mar 4, 2016 12:10 PM CST

‘Intolerable’ DNA mixup not grounds for dropping murder retrial, judge rules

Kareem Johnson was once sentenced to death after being convicted in the 2002 slaying of a man found dead outside a North Philadelphia lounge, but he saw his capital murder conviction overturned due to a DNA mixup at trial. However, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge on Thursday declined to…

Mar 4, 2016 11:05 AM CST

Appeals court OKs $3M whistleblower award to fired university attorney

An Illinois appellate court on Wednesday OK’d a $3 million whistleblower award to a former Chicago State University attorney who said he was fired and discredited because he insisted on following the law. With accrued interest, the award will be closer to $5 million, reports the Chicago Tribune (reg. req.).…

Mar 4, 2016 9:00 AM CST

Top state court OKs artist’s UPS suit over missing paintings, says federal law doesn’t trump

When artist Ivana Vidovic Mlinar sent two paintings from Florida to a New York art exhibit in 2005, she didn’t buy insurance even though she says they were worth $30,000. Packed at a shipping store, they were sent via UPS. At some point a UPS representative opened the mailing tube…

Mar 3, 2016 4:45 PM CST

South Africa’s top court ends Pistorius murder appeal; sentencing now looms

The top court in South Africa has denied Oscar Pistorius leave to appeal his murder conviction in the 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend, law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp. A spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority said the Constitutional Court made the ruling Thursday, finding the appeal had “no…

Mar 3, 2016 4:05 PM CST

Judge OKs first ‘assisted death,’ with help of physician, in Canada

For the first time in Canadian history, a judge has OK’d a plan for physicians to provide an “assisted death” to a patient, in this case a retired psychologist suffering from ALS. The unidentified woman made her case last week in a private, in camera hearing before an Alberta Court…

Mar 1, 2016 4:05 PM CST

2 of 3 suspects take pleas in armed invasion of federal judge’s home

Two of three suspects in a December invasion of a federal judge’s home in which she and her attorney husband were held at gunpoint have taken pleas. Darrell Kinney and Terry Jackson Jr., both 21, are expected to get hefty prison terms and could serve nearly 20 years behind bars…

Mar 1, 2016 3:40 PM CST

5th Circuit mimics filing’s ‘strange hypothetical conversation’ in their ruling denying motion

Apparently hoping to tell a story that a federal appeals court would find compelling, a Texas lawyer opened his motion for a panel rehearing with a hypothetical talk between lawyer and client. “Sometimes, in deciding a case, the Court ought to put itself ‘into the shoes of the attorney’ before…

Mar 1, 2016 3:10 PM CST

Chadbourne settles suit by investors burned by convicted Ponzi schemer

Chadbourne & Parke has settled a suit claiming a former partner aided fraud by convicted Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford. Terms of the settlement with defrauded investors are undisclosed, the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) reports. Stanford’s former lawyer, Thomas Sjoblom, worked at Chadbourne before joining Proskauer Rose. Sjoblom and…

Mar 1, 2016 11:36 AM CST

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