Alaska

Legal aid agency serving the Navajo Nation to close 3 offices

A legal aid office serving a heavily Navajo clientele is shutting three of its nine offices for financial reasons, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Thursday. DNA-People’s Legal Services is responding to several years in which its expenses fell short of revenues. Santa Fe City Councilor Peter Ives, a member…

Aug 21, 2017 4:00 PM CDT

Alaska law tells divorce judges to consider well-being of pets

An Alaska law that took effect this month requires divorce court judges to consider the well-being of pets when making decisions about which spouse gets to keep the animals. The law (PDF), which amended Alaska’s divorce statutes, “is making waves in the world of animal law,” the Washington Post reports.…

Jan 31, 2017 10:26 AM CST

Lawyers may not use ‘web bugs’ to track email sent to opposing counsel, ethics opinion says

Lawyers should not plant “web bugs” to track the location and use of emails sent to opposing counsel, according to an Alaska ethics opinion.

Nov 8, 2016 8:00 AM CST

Species may be called endangered based on projected climate change, 9th Circuit rules

Federal agencies may classify species as threatened based on projected habitat loss due to climate change, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday. The ruling came in a challenge to classification of Pacific bearded seals as threatened, according to the Los Angeles Times. The National Marine Fisheries Services…

Oct 25, 2016 3:00 PM CDT

Supreme Court gives moose hunter another chance in battle over conflicting hovercraft regulations

The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated a federal appeals court decision finding the National Park Service had the authority to ban hovercraft on Alaska’s Nation River. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached a “surprising conclusion” and took a “topsy-turvy approach” in its reading of a federal…

Mar 22, 2016 12:12 PM CDT

Former prosecutor guilty in Alaska’s largest money laundering conviction

A former municipal prosecutor in Anchorage has been convicted of defrauding a widow out of $52 million, KTUU reported Tuesday. A federal jury found Mark Avery, 57, guilty of wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud and making false statements to a bank, all felonies. Federal prosecutors say the money laundering…

Mar 2, 2016 4:40 PM CST

2nd trial begins for ex-prosecutor accused of siphoning $52M from elderly woman’s trust

A former prosecutor who took over a lucrative trust practice from his father’s estate is now facing a second trial in one of the biggest alleged frauds in Alaska history. Initially sentenced to eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to 15 felonies, Mark James Avery successfully appealed his…

Feb 11, 2016 3:00 PM CST

‘Fairbanks Four’ freed in teenager’s 1997 murder

An Alaska state court judge has vacated the convictions of four men in the 1997 murder of a Fairbanks teenager. Three of the four men, known as the “Fairbanks Four,” were released after an unscheduled hearing Thursday on a settlement offer by the state. The fourth man was freed on…

Dec 21, 2015 5:15 PM CST

Censure is recommended for apologetic judge who remarked on ‘temptresses’ who are ‘asking for it’

The Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct has recommended a public censure for a judge who apologized for inappropriate comments and said he has “quit going off script.” The commission made the recommendation after a disciplinary hearing on Thursday in the ethics case against Judge Timothy Dooley of Nome superior court,…

Dec 14, 2015 5:51 AM CST

Baby born on China Airlines flight diverted to Alaska eligible for US citizenship, official says

A Taiwanese woman who gave birth on Oct. 8 aboard a China Airlines flight to Los Angeles that was diverted to Alaska may have succeeded in what local media in Taiwan have portrayed as an effort to gain U.S. citizenship for the baby. A state official in Alaska says an…

Oct 23, 2015 2:00 PM CDT

Woman is liable for springing traps, Alaska judge says, but he awards hunter no damages

An Alaska trapper said he filed a small claims suit against a Juneau woman for springing several of his lawfully set traps to teach her a lesson. But after a several-day trial it appears that the case may have been a learning experience for both sides. Hiker Kathleen Turley is…

Oct 16, 2015 3:40 PM CDT

ABA brief urges appointment of counsel in Alaska custody case where opponent has private lawyer

The Alaska Constitution requires the appointment of counsel for an indigent parent in a child custody case when the opposing party is represented by a private lawyer, the American Bar Association asserts in an amicus brief. The Alaska Supreme Court invited the ABA to submit the brief (PDF), according to…

Sep 11, 2015 2:47 PM CDT

Alaska’s first law school is satellite Seattle U campus

A long-planned satellite campus of Seattle University School of Law is opening in Anchorage, Alaska, establishing the state’s first law school. Available to law students throughout the country, the one-year program is for third-year students. It is intended to help those who intend to practice in Alaska after they graduate…

Aug 24, 2015 6:30 AM CDT

Using hot sauce on boy for ‘Dr. Phil’ show was bid for attention, not discipline, court rules

Determining what constitutes “reasonable parental discipline” can be difficult, because this standard is vague, argued an Alaska mom famous for forcing an adopted child to consume hot sauce as a punishment—and a state appellate court agreed. But that wasn’t the issue in Jessica Beagley’s case, the Alaska Court of Appeals…

Aug 3, 2015 1:15 PM CDT

Judge who remarked on ‘temptresses’ who are ‘asking for it’ faces ethics complaint

An Alaska judge is accused in an ethics complaint of making insensitive remarks, including statements about “temptresses” who are “asking for it.” Judge Timothy Dooley of Nome is accused of making insensitive statements on six occasions between May 2013 and September 2014, report the Alaska Dispatch News and KTUU. The…

May 27, 2015 7:15 AM CDT