Verdicts & Settlements

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

Jury awards $175K in false imprisonment case against private probation company

An Augusta, Georgia, jury on Friday found that a private probation company repeatedly jailed a probationer for simply not being able to pay its fees. The jury awarded her $50,000, plus attorney fees of $125,000, the Augusta Chronicle reports. The trial in Richmond County Superior Court was the first of…

Feb 29, 2016 3:05 PM CST

Citing changed ‘risk assessment’ after Scalia’s death, Dow settles class action for $835M

Dow Chemical has decided to settle a class-action suit alleging price fixing in polyurethane sales rather than risk Supreme Court action that could let stand or affirm a $1.06 billion judgment. Dow agreed to settle for $835 million, report the National Law Journal (sub. req.), the Wall Street Journal (sub.…

Feb 29, 2016 7:41 AM CST

Top Kansas court strikes law making it a crime to refuse a warrantless DUI test

Kansas drivers who refuse a blood test, a breath test or an analysis of some other bodily substance to determine whether they are under the influence cannot be criminally punished for doing so when there is no search warrant requiring their cooperation, the Kansas Supreme Court has ruled. In four…

Feb 26, 2016 3:50 PM CST

Jury deadlocks in case against lawyer accused of neglect causing his dad’s death

A jury has deadlocked in the case of a suburban Philadelphia lawyer accused of causing his father’s death by moving the elderly man to his home, using some of his father’s pension income for his own benefit and withholding needed care. After nine hours of deliberation ended in an impasse…

Feb 26, 2016 2:35 PM CST

Detroit agrees to pay $100K to man whose dog was killed in police shooting caught on dashcam

The city of Detroit has agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to a man whose dog was fatally shot by police outside his home last year, the plaintiff’s lawyer says. The pet, a Dogue de Bordeaux named Babycakes, was on a 10-foot steel cable attached to a fence outside the…

Feb 26, 2016 8:40 AM CST