Administrative Law

Law Firms Hire Physicians to Help Defend Medical Billing Cases

It isn’t just plaintiffs lawyers who are looking to hire professionals with medical expertise to help point the way toward high-value tort claims. A number of well-known law firms have recently hired nonlawyer physicians to bolster their defense practices, the On the Docket blog of Forbes magazine reports. Among them…

May 11, 2010 5:09 PM CDT

6th Circuit Reinstates Ex-Inmate’s Pro Se Suit Over Lack of Toothpaste

Jerry Flanory doesn’t have a lawyer—yet. But after scoring a pro se civil rights victory in federal appellate court in Detroit yesterday that could soon change. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Flanory’s constitutional case against officials of the Michigan prison at which he formerly served time for…

May 7, 2010 9:39 PM CDT

Zero Tolerance for Junk Food at Lunch Puts Girl in School Detention for Week

Updated: A third-grader in Texas is paying the price for eating a Jolly Rancher candy at lunch–one week’s detention during lunch and recess periods. The seemingly harsh penalty is necessary, officials at Brazos Independent School District say, because the district risks losing funding if it violates a state guideline by…

May 7, 2010 6:49 PM CDT

Despite Male-to-Female Sex Change, Woman Is Still a Man Under Texas Marriage Law

The attorney general of Texas is a staunch supporter of the state law requiring marriage (and, he says, by extension divorce) to be between a man and a woman. But a request last month by the El Paso County Attorney for a ruling concerning one woman’s plan to marry another…

May 5, 2010 6:20 PM CDT

Times Square Car-Bomb Suspect Nearly Escaped Due to No-Fly-List Flaw

A suspect in a failed car-bombing attempt in New York City’s Times Square had actually boarded a plane about to take off for Dubai before he was arrested because of a flaw in the no-fly-list process. Although Faisal Shahzad had been put on the list more than 10 hours earlier,…

May 5, 2010 5:13 PM CDT

Woman Claims She Was Fired Over Increased Breast-Cancer Risk

A woman whose genetic makeup may put her at increased risk of breast cancer has reportedly filed first-of-its-kind administrative complaints in Connecticut alleging that she was illegally fired from her job at MXenergy last month because she tested positive for the BRCA2 gene. Pamela Fink says in complaints filed with…

Apr 28, 2010 6:18 PM CDT

Pistol-Packing Texas Gov Isn’t Sorry He Shot Coyote, Despite Legal Questions

When a coyote threatened his labrador retriever puppy during an early morning jog in the Austin area, Texas Gov. Rick Perry reportedly killed it with a single shot from his laser-sighted pistol. He says he has no regrets about using his .380 Ruger pistol, loaded with hollow-point bullets, to take…

Apr 28, 2010 5:37 PM CDT

Feds Waited Too Long to Pursue In-House Lawyer in False Claims Act Case, Judge Rules

On the eve of trial, a judge dismissed a False Claims Act case against a onetime general counsel of Tenet Health Care Corp., finding that the government waited too long to pursue its case against Christi Sulzbach. A whistle-blower had accused the then-corporate integrity officer as far back as 1997…

Apr 22, 2010 3:58 PM CDT

Longtime Justice of Peace Resigns Over Claimed Crude Comments to Court Workers

For years, an Oregon justice of the peace allegedly commented to clerks and parties in cases at Central Lane Justice Court about their sex lives, among other objectionable topics. But it wasn’t until five female clerks complained together to Lane County officials in December that an investigation began into the…

Apr 20, 2010 11:32 PM CDT

IG Says SEC Largely Ignored Likely Allen Stanford Ponzi Scheme for a Decade

Although the Securities and Exchange Commission suspected as early as 1997 that R. Allen Stanford was running a Ponzi scheme, and its examiners concluded four times between 1997 and 2004 that his businesses were fraudulent, the federal regulatory watchdog didn’t pursue Stanford seriously until around the time that Bernard Madoff’s…

Apr 17, 2010 1:47 AM CDT

Mining Companies Stall Tougher Safety Laws with 18K Backlogged Appeals

Since tougher mining safety laws passed in 2006, coal companies are increasingly appealing citations, creating a backlog of 18,000 pending cases. The 2006 laws gave the federal government new powers to crack down on coal mines with repeated violations, but coal companies have reacted by appealing one out of four…

Apr 9, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Effort to Fine Toyota $16.4M Could Speed Up Plaintiffs’ Discovery in Acceleration Cases

A record fine of $16.4 million that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking to impose on Toyota Motor Corp. will probably help the plaintiffs in hundreds of lawsuits filed against the company over alleged sudden acceleration issues and other vehicle concerns, even though the fine isn’t expected to…

Apr 6, 2010 5:53 PM CDT

D.C. Circuit Rules Against FCC in Net Neutrality Case

A federal appeals court has ruled for Comcast in a lawsuit challenging the government’s authority to require so-called “net neutrality.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Federal Communications Commission does not have authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to…

Apr 6, 2010 3:49 PM CDT

US Seeks to Impose Record $16.4M Auto Safety Fine on Toyota

Adding to the legal woes of the embattled Toyota Motor Corp. is facing over reported sudden-acceleration problems in its vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation today announced that it is seeking to impose a record-breaking auto safety fine of $16.375 million on the company. Federal law requires possible safety defects…

Apr 5, 2010 11:09 PM CDT

ABA Says Proposed FTC Rule on Mortgage Relief Over-Regulates Attorneys

Already in the forefront of efforts to quash a so-called Red Flags Rule promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission concerning identity theft issues, the American Bar Association is now raising the alarm about another proposed FTC rule that would impact practicing lawyers. The “Mortgage Assistance Relief Services” rule again so…

Mar 30, 2010 11:21 PM CDT