2nd Circuit Court

Lawyer Sanctioned for Katrina Suit

A testy federal judge has ordered a New York City lawyer to pay $24,000 in a fine and attorney fees for filing a frivolous suit on behalf of a Hurricane Katrina victim who was evicted by Catholic Charities. The Albany judge said the suit against the Catholic church by lawyer…

Sep 19, 2007 11:32 AM CDT

Hearing Transcripts to Go Online

The policy-making arm of the nation’s federal courts voted today to make it easier for both lawyers and the public to access court materials. For lawyers, the big news is the plan approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States to put transcripts of district and bankruptcy court proceedings…

Sep 18, 2007 7:01 PM CDT

Yale Profs Lose Military Recruiter Appeal

A federal appeals court has ruled that the federal government may deny funding to Yale Law School for barring military recruiters from campus. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Solomon Amendment, which bars certain federal funding to schools that reject…

Sep 18, 2007 12:38 PM CDT

2nd Circuit Ponders Frat Life

A federal appeals court wrote about the strange rituals of fraternity life in an opinion (PDF) that allowed a New York college to deny recognition to a frat because it admits only men. The New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a preliminary injunction that had required…

Sep 14, 2007 7:05 PM CDT

Judge Slashes Fees Using Contingency Standard

A federal judge has rejected an attorney’s fee request that would have consumed nearly two-thirds of a $100,000 settlement for a man wrongly accused in a drug case. Judge David Hurd of Utica, N.Y., slashed fees from $63,000 to $29,000, the New York Law Journal reports. The lawyer and his…

Sep 14, 2007 1:21 PM CDT

NY to Rewrite Calorie-Posting Rule

New York’s health department will go back to the drawing board to craft a regulation able to withstand judicial scrutiny that will require restaurants to post calorie counts. At the same time the city is considering an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday that the regulation conflicted with…

Sep 13, 2007 6:52 PM CDT

Jurors May Hear 9/11 Cockpit Recording

Updated: A federal judge in New York has ruled that a jury may hear part of the cockpit voice recording made in the minutes before the crash of a plane hijacked by the Sept. 11 terrorists. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said two parts of the recording are likely to be relevant,…

Sep 13, 2007 5:20 PM CDT

Late Lawyer Not Ineffective

A lawyer who returns to a trial 20 minutes late from a lunch break does not necessarily provide ineffective assistance of counsel, a federal appeals court has ruled. The defendant, an alleged cigarette smuggler, contended his lawyer was absent during a critical stage of the trial, which amounted to ineffective…

Sep 13, 2007 3:33 PM CDT

1031 Exchange Firms Fail, Cost Investors

A number of successful real estate investors set for retirement are now scrambling to recover their money and facing big tax bills. The problem is, their assets reportedly were held by two so-called 1031 exchange companies that failed, leading to lawsuits and calls for regulation. Among them is Marsha Slotten,…

Sep 12, 2007 4:35 PM CDT

Judge Tosses Calorie-Posting Rule

A federal judge has ruled New York City did not have the authority to require fast-food restaurants to post calorie information. The New York regulation, which applied to restaurants that had already voluntarily disclosed calorie information, required them to make it more accessible by measures such as posting it on…

Sep 11, 2007 6:02 PM CDT

Gay Marriage Blurb Brings Suit

Two men are suing American University for publishing an announcement in an alumni magazine that said they had married each other. In a suit filed Aug. 30 in Manhattan federal court, Ross Weil and Brett Royce say the blurb defamed them because the false statement “imputes homosexual behavior” between the…

Sep 11, 2007 4:32 PM CDT

Guilty Plea in Tax Shelter Case

One of five remaining defendants has pleaded guilty in the government’s prosecution of advisers accused of working with KPMG to set up phony tax shelters. David Amir Makov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit tax fraud and agreed to repay $10 million, the Wall Street Journal reports…

Sep 11, 2007 2:07 PM CDT

Politics on Trial Along With Oil Man

The defense attorney for Texas oil man Oscar Wyatt argued yesterday that the federal prosecution of his client for paying kickbacks to buy Iraqi oil is “the United States at its hypocritical worst.” Gerald Shargel told Manhattan jurors that his 83-year-old client had long helped the United States in the…

Sep 11, 2007 11:45 AM CDT

Prisons Tossing Religious Books

Prisons are dismantling collections of religious books as part of an effort to block access to materials that can be used by militant Islamic and other radical groups. The Bureau of Prisons has created lists of up to 150 approved books for each of 20 religions or religious categories, and…

Sep 10, 2007 4:26 PM CDT

Patriot Act Ruling Could Curtail FBI Technique

A federal judge’s decision yesterday striking down parts of the USA Patriot Act could cut the FBI’s use of national security letters to gather customer information from telecommunications companies for terrorism investigations. The decision said the revisions violated the First Amendment by giving the FBI wide discretion to make case-by-case…

Sep 7, 2007 1:23 PM CDT