Verdicts & Settlements

Ex-lawyer gets 3 years in theft and UPL case; judge blasts ‘disingenuous’ child-support excuse

A disbarred New Jersey lawyer was sentenced Friday to three years in prison after pleading guilty earlier to theft, unauthorized practice of law while his license was suspended and writing bad checks. Neil Lawence Gross, 47, said at his sentencing in the Morristown Superior Court case that he had not…

Mar 11, 2016 4:25 PM CST

Nation’s largest youth football league settles suit over brain disease

The nation’s largest youth football league has settled a lawsuit that claimed that hits to the head from playing the game caused a degenerative brain disease that led a 25-year-old man to commit suicide. The Pop Warner organization settled for an undisclosed amount, report the New York Times and the…

Mar 11, 2016 6:15 AM CST

Landmark sleep apnea ruling helps plaintiffs collect $6M in Greyhound crash

A court-ordered sleep apnea test of a Greyhound Lines bus driver is said to have paved the way for a $6 million settlement in a Texas rollover crash case. This was the first such overnight assessment ever OK’d by a trial court and upheld on appeal, according to attorney Ryan…

Mar 10, 2016 5:00 PM CST

Repeat offender who met with clients at bar association law library gets time for posing as attorney

A nonlawyer who brazenly offered his services as an immigration attorney and met with clients in the Brooklyn Bar Association’s law library, which he called his office, has been sentenced to a 2- to 4-year prison term. Howard Seidler, 70, pleaded guilty last month to grand larceny and immigrant services…

Mar 10, 2016 10:40 AM CST

Attorney who defended himself at trial found guilty of trying to put contract hit on wife

A former bankruptcy practitioner in one of the collar counties outside Chicago has been convicted after a bench trial of unsuccessfully attempting to arrange a contract hit on his then-wife. Rejecting an argument by Robert Gold-Smith, who defended himself at trial, that a jailhouse “snitch” had faked a recording in…

Mar 9, 2016 2:50 PM CST

Lawyer gets 17 years for helping fugitive client with stock scheme

A Texas lawyer convicted in 2014 of helping a fugitive client with fraudulent stock sales while the man was on the run was sentenced Monday to a 17-year federal prison term. Attorney Patrick Lanier, 67, also was ordered to pay $37 million in restitution after his release, the Houston Chronicle…

Mar 9, 2016 11:35 AM CST

Home Depot to pay nearly $20M over 2014 data breach that affected more than 40M customers

A 2014 data breach that affected more than 40 million credit and debit cardholders is going to cost Home Depot nearly $20 million in consumer compensation in order to resolve a federal lawsuit. Without admitting liability, the company has agreed to improve data security plus pay $13 million in reimbursement…

Mar 8, 2016 4:10 PM CST

Man accused of threatening lives of federal judge and FBI on Twitter gets probation

After being held nearly three months behind bars without bail, a Minnesota man accused of threatening the lives of a federal judge and FBI agents on Twitter took a plea Tuesday morning as his case was about to go to trial. Originally charged with felonies that could have put him…

Mar 8, 2016 2:30 PM CST

Appellate judge pleads guilty, in private, in airport gun-possession case

A Michigan Appeals Court judge waived arraignment and pleaded guilty Tuesday, in private, to a misdemeanor gun-possession charge. It concerned the loaded handgun reportedly found by Detroit Metropolitan Airport security screeners last month in the carry-on luggage of Judge Henry William Saad. The Wayne County prosecutor’s office said in a…

Mar 8, 2016 12:45 PM CST

Disbarred securities lawyer pleads guilty to evading $1.5M in taxes

A New York securities law attorney who moved to Florida in 1998 has pleaded guilty to tax evasion concerning $1.5 million the feds say he didn’t pay the government in income tax. Court documents say William J. Reilly, 62, who practiced law in both states, used law firm bank accounts…

Mar 8, 2016 12:15 PM CST

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