BigLaw firm to review Chicago in-house team after police shooting defense verdict is struck

The longtime chief of a major Chicago-based international law firm has been put in charge of a third-party review of the conduct of a division of Chicago in-house lawyers. Announced last week, in the wake of a stunning civil rights trial loss, the review is to be headed by Dan…

Jan 11, 2016 11:50 AM CST

Ex-law firm worker stole $500K to pay for medical bills, $40K boat and $55K vehicle

Originally accused of stealing more than $1 million from a suburban Chicago law firm during a six-year period, a former accounting department worker pleaded guilty on Friday to taking over $500,000. Le Anna Kelty, 55, is expected to get between four and 15 years in prison when she is sentenced…

Jan 11, 2016 9:40 AM CST

Judge tosses $21.5M verdict for cruise-ship door injury, cites deleted emails

A federal judge in Seattle has vacated a $21.5 million verdict awarded to a man injured by a closing cruise-ship door in 2011, saying he deleted emails that should have been produced in discovery. U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein tossed the verdict for James Hausman on Monday and ordered a…

Jan 6, 2016 7:45 AM CST

Teacher raped by prison inmate settles suit against Arizona for $3M

An Arizona prison teacher will receive $3 million to settle her lawsuit against the state after being stabbed and raped by an inmate when she was left unguarded in a classroom, the Associated Press reports. In January 2014, the teacher was giving a high-school equivalency test to about a half-dozen…

Jan 5, 2016 2:45 PM CST

Chicago pays reparations to 57 victims of torture by renegade police squad

Chicago announced Monday that it is paying $5.5 million in reparations to victims of a police unit that for decades systematically tortured African-Americans in detention, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The payments followed an agreement by the City Council last spring—just a week after sometimes-violent protests in Baltimore over the death…

Jan 5, 2016 2:20 PM CST

Tug-of-war over interpretations of patent law continues between Federal Circuit and SCOTUS

Jan 1, 2016 3:00 AM CST

Georgia law firm accused of running more like ‘a factory’ agrees to $3.1M settlement

A Georgia law firm has agreed to pay $3.1 million to resolve allegations that it “operates less like a law firm than a factory” in its collection of consumer debt. Frederick J. Hanna & Associates resolved the suit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without admitting wrongdoing, report the Daily…

Dec 29, 2015 10:25 AM CST

10 most important legal stories of 2015

As the ABA Journal staff looked back over the past year, these were the 10 legal stories which seemed the most important and prominent. ABA Journal legal affairs writer Victor Li provides a summary of each below. 1. Love wins. Proponents of marriage equality couldn’t have asked for a better…

Dec 29, 2015 8:15 AM CST

Judge nixes suit against prison food vendor which claimed that menu change posed a safety threat

Last-minute substitution of food served to Michigan inmates, when prisons run out of popular menu items, has prompted a demand by the state that a private vendor comply with its contract. But feeding prisoners peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of promised sausage and waffles doesn’t rise to the level…

Dec 18, 2015 2:40 PM CST

LifeLock agrees to record $100M settlement in FTC order enforcement action

LifeLock has agreed to pay $100 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the company violated a 2010 court order to secure customers’ information and stop deceptive advertising. The amount is the largest monetary award ever obtained by the FTC in an order enforcement action, according to a press…

Dec 18, 2015 9:58 AM CST

Dog avoids death sentence for biting 4-year-old after $10K legal defense

A Florida dog has dodged a likely death sentence for biting a 4-year-old boy earlier this year, after a judge found a state law concerning dog-bite incidents unconstitutional. Veterinarian Paul Gartenberg, who owns Padi, a Labrador mix, credits his ability to pay $10,000 in legal fees for the trial victory,…

Dec 17, 2015 4:45 PM CST

Doctor may owe third party for not warning patient about drugs’ effects, top state court says

Carving an exception into a general rule that hospitals and doctors owe a duty of care only to their patients, the top appeals court in New York has OK’d a third-party lawsuit against a physician and hospital over an auto accident. School bus driver Edwin Davis, whose bus was allegedly…

Dec 17, 2015 2:35 PM CST

Judge who caused ‘national spectacle’ by challenging public defender to fistfight loses his job

Rejecting a recommended 120-day suspension and $50,000 fine for a Florida judge who challenged a public defender to a fistfight last year, the state supreme court on Thursday removed him from office. Calling the June 2014 incident in Brevard County Judge John Murphy’s courtroom a “national spectacle” that was “fundamentally…

Dec 17, 2015 1:05 PM CST

Judge tosses felony case against pair who handed out jury nullification leaflets near courthouse

A Colorado judge has dismissed a felony prosecution for jury tampering against two men who handed out leaflets about jury nullification outside the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver. Wednesday’s dismissal of the state court criminal case against Mark Iannicelli and Eric Brandt follows a federal court ruling in a civil rights…

Dec 16, 2015 4:30 PM CST

Skadden, staffing agency OK payment of $75K to doc-review lawyer trio to settle overtime suit

Updated: Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and a staffing agency have agreed to settle for $75,000 a federal lawsuit by three document review attorneys seeking overtime pay. The case is David Lola v. Skadden. Name plaintiff David Lola first sued Skadden and Tower Legal Staffing in 2013, accusing them…

Dec 16, 2015 4:00 PM CST