Verdicts & Settlements

New courthouse nativity display puts founding fathers, Lady Liberty next to Bill of Rights in manger

A longstanding tradition of having a nativity scene outside an Indiana courthouse will expand significantly this holiday season. New displays at the Franklin County courthouse in Brookville, in addition to the traditional portrayal of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in a manger, will include one by the Freedom from Religion…

Nov 24, 2015 12:00 PM CST

DNA clears man jailed 16 years; meanwhile, ‘Teardrop Rapist’ committed more crimes

Convicted of three California sexual assaults, Luis Lorenzo Vargas argued at his 1999 sentencing that the real perpetrator was still out there. “That individual that really did these crimes might really be raping someone out there,” he told a Los Angeles County judge, according to a court transcript. The judge…

Nov 23, 2015 2:50 PM CST

Disbarred lawyer admits collecting $247K in disability benefits while still in practice

A former New York bankruptcy lawyer who was disbarred and has served time for taking money from clients without doing promised work is in trouble again. Christopher Chadick, 63, pleaded guilty Monday in a Syracuse federal disability fraud case, Syracuse.com reports. He admitted that he obtained $247,000 in Social Security…

Nov 23, 2015 2:00 PM CST

Federal judge says IRS must pay $239K to lawyers in FOIA case, but nixes multiplier

When Public.Resource.org asked the Internal Revenue Service to provide so-called 990 forms filed by nine tax-exempt organizations, in the original digital format, the IRS said it would be too expensive to comply with the Freedom of Information Act request. CIting a claimed $6,200 in needed training and technology, the IRS…

Nov 23, 2015 11:10 AM CST

Barefoot Bandit can’t profit from crime spree but studio pays $1M restitution to tell his life story

When the so-called Barefoot Bandit took a plea in 2011, part of the deal was that the then 20-year-old could not profit from his two-year crime spree, ABC News reported at the time. However, a Hollywood studio was allowed to pay $1 million in restitution to victims on behalf of…

Nov 23, 2015 10:30 AM CST

Lawyer is ordered to tell future clients he is a crook, cheat, thief and liar

A Wisconsin judge who sentenced a lawyer to five days in jail on Thursday thought it appropriate to continue the punishment with a condition he deemed a “moving jail.” Judge Philip Kirk of Waupaca County told Appleton lawyer Michael Petersen that during his 12 months of probation he will have…

Nov 23, 2015 5:45 AM CST

Senior judge reprimanded for Facebook posts about his trials

A senior judge in Minnesota was reprimanded Friday for posting on Facebook about trials he was overseeing. The reprimand (PDF) issued by the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards said the posts by Judge Edward Bearse cast doubt on his impartiality and violated rules requiring jurists to be “dignified and courteous…

Nov 20, 2015 4:10 PM CST

Nightclub owners get probation in contempt case over stampede that killed 21

After a 12-year legal saga, an Illinois judge on Friday imposed probation sentences on two owners of a Chicago nightclub at which 21 people died in a 2003 stampede. Calvin Hollins Jr. and Dwain Kyles were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter. But they were found guilty of contempt for violating a…

Nov 20, 2015 3:35 PM CST

DC agrees to pay more than $16M to man who served 27 years for rape and murder he didn’t commit

After a federal jury on Wednesday found that two Washington D.C. police officers withheld evidence in a criminal prosecution of a man who served 27 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn’t commit, the city didn’t wait to hear what its damages award would be in the…

Nov 20, 2015 11:40 AM CST

Ex-client wins nearly $500K in malpractice and domestic assault suit against lawyer

A former client won a jury award of nearly $500,000 on Wednesday in a malpractice and domestic assault lawsuit against the Iowa lawyer who represented her in a divorce case. The award against Anthony Zane Blessum, a West Des Moines practitioner who formerly served for 11 years as the top…

Nov 20, 2015 10:35 AM CST

Ex-prosecutor takes plea in child-porn case involving client’s children

Already sentenced in September to 50 years in a state-court child-rape case, a former South Dakota county prosecutor pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a federal child-pornography case that involved abuse of a client’s children. Christopher Jansen, 35, even used the one boy’s photo as an avatar on a website that…

Nov 18, 2015 3:00 PM CST

Judge nixes Vanguard tax lawyer’s whistleblower suit, says it violates legal ethics rules

A former in-house lawyer for a mutual fund giant has lost his bid to collect whistleblower fees for his allegations that the company underpaid $1 billion in federal and state income tax over a period of decades. Because attorney David Danon was still working in-house as counsel for Vanguard Group…

Nov 18, 2015 9:40 AM CST

This BigLaw firm is found liable for nearly $200M in malpractice trial

A jury in Harris County, Texas, has found Andrews Kurth liable for $196 million in a malpractice suit filed by a former client. The damages assessed by jurors on Nov. 11 do not include interest, Above the Law reports. The plaintiffs’ motion for entry of judgment (PDF) is pending. The…

Nov 18, 2015 7:31 AM CST

Top state court says litigation funding is subject to consumer lending law

A litigation finance company has lost its bid to persuade the Colorado Supreme Court that providing interim funding to allow a tort lawsuit to proceed is more like making an investment than making a loan. In a Monday decision (PDF), the state’s top court declined to issue a declaratory judgment…

Nov 17, 2015 4:50 PM CST

As execution looms, appellate lawyers fight client’s effort to get new counsel and seek clemency

Scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for setting a house fire that killed three children almost 15 years ago, a 36-year-old death row inmate in Texas has effectively been abandoned by his court-appointed appellate counsel, some observers say. Raphael Deon Holiday sent letter after letter from prison seeking to find…

Nov 17, 2015 2:00 PM CST