Appellate Practice

Stop Smoking or You Will Get the Max, Judge Tells Woman Freed Early for Heart Transplant

A New York judge was clearly irked yesterday after learning that a woman he freed early so she could have a heart transplant is not cooperating with efforts to provide her with the potentially life-saving operation. If Diane McCloud, 48, doesn’t stop smoking by June 10, Nassau County District Court…

Apr 26, 2011 9:26 PM CDT

Appeals Court OKs Lawsuit Over Woman’s Alleged Web Deception Drama Involving 20 Fictional Personas

Extending the scope of a tort claim that has traditionally been asserted in a business setting, an Illinois appellate court has given the green light to a lawsuit over an alleged multiyear Internet-based deception in which the plaintiff says she was tricked into seeming romance and friendship with individuals who…

Apr 26, 2011 4:20 PM CDT

Wis. Supreme Court to Hear Challenge of Appellate Court Fines Over Lack of Brief Documentation

When Wisconsin lawyers don’t adequately support their appellate briefs with requisite documentation, they are hit with public fines of $150. Last year, a record 17 so-called summary sanctions were issued, based on findings by Court of Appeals that lawyers inaccurately certified their briefs were complete. But the fines are controversial…

Apr 26, 2011 12:17 AM CDT

Top SD Court Raps Ex-Prosecutor, Says He Shouldn’t Have Put Grand Jury Transcripts on Web

A former prosecutor should be publicly censured for putting grand jury transcripts on the Internet, the South Dakota Supreme Court has ruled, even though he obtained a court order authorizing him to do so. Now a state lawmaker, Lance Russsell (R-Hot Springs) also erred as Fall River County’s state’s attorney…

Apr 22, 2011 8:31 PM CDT

Neo-Nazi Conviction Nixed; Gov’t Said He Targeted Juror in Trial re Soliciting Murder of Fed’l Judge

A federal district judge has reversed a jury conviction earlier this year of a self-avowed neo-Nazi accused of using a now-defunct website to solicit harm to the foreman of a federal jury. The government argued that William White, although he did not expressly call for jury foreman Mark Hoffman to…

Apr 20, 2011 4:53 PM CDT

Transgender Inmate Asks Appellate Court to Require Calif. to Pay for Sex-Change Operation

An appellate court is poised potentially to make California the first state in the nation to require prisons to provide sex-change surgery for at least some inmates who seek the operation. The issue is complex, as a Los Angeles Times article explains. While some transgender inmates who consider themselves female…

Apr 19, 2011 11:55 PM CDT

Wife of Jailed Ex-Judge Appeals Home Forfeiture, Seeks 3rd Circuit Ruling Protecting Her Interest

The wife of a retired Pennsylvania judge serving a federal prison sentence for insurance fraud is appealing a court order requiring that their home be forfeited to help pay restitution for the crime. Joanne Joyce, 58, filed an appeal yesterday of a federal judge’s ruling last month that the interests…

Apr 19, 2011 4:58 PM CDT

Federal Circuit Tosses 30-Year-Old Agent Orange Litigation on Jurisdictional Grounds

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has dismissed a petition in Agent Orange litigation originally filed more than 30 years ago. The Federal Circuit ruled it had no jurisdiction in the case, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports. The original suit had challenged a Veterans Administration…

Apr 19, 2011 1:38 PM CDT

Appeals Court Nixes $650K Legal Fees Award, Says Parties Never Mutually Agreed to Arbitrate

At first, it was former clients of Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs & Shapiro who wanted binding arbitration to settle a dispute over the legal fees they were charged. Then, after the Los Angeles law firm rejected the written offer from art gallery owners George and Esther Goff, it changed its…

Apr 18, 2011 10:29 PM CDT

5th Cir OKs Louisiana’s Refusal to List Same-Sex Couple as Parents on New Birth Cert for Adopted Son

Reversing its own 2010 decision that the state must issue a revised birth certificate for a Louisiana-born baby who has been adopted in New York by two men, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday in an en banc ruling said the state was within its rights…

Apr 13, 2011 5:56 PM CDT

Rabbi Charged with Perjury Allegedly Paid Child $10K to Testify in Another Rabbi’s Child-Molest Case

Developing: A rabbi’s conviction and up to 32-year prison sentence for child molestation should stand, New York prosecutors say, despite the fact that another rabbi has been charged with perjury and other crimes for allegedly paying a child $10,000 to testify against him. The bizarre situation made headlines today as…

Apr 13, 2011 5:10 PM CDT

When Is a Law Firm Allegedly Part of a RICO Criminal Enterprise? 3rd Circuit Explains

A federal district judge erred in dismissing racketeering counts against a prominent New Jersey defense attorney and former prosecutor accused of using his law offices as part of a criminal enterprise, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. Although the judge was understandably concerned about the complexity of the case against…

Apr 13, 2011 3:46 PM CDT

3rd Circuit Says Ex-Prosecutor Accused of Plotting to Murder Witness Must Also Face RICO Charges

Criminal defense lawyer Paul Bergrin must face federal racketeering charges in addition to a lengthy list of other counts, a federal appeals court has ruled. Although a federal judge in Newark last year said the crimes of which he and other defendants are accused are too loosely connected to establish…

Apr 12, 2011 4:29 PM CDT

Top Fla. Court to Address High-Profile Foreclosure Case Based on Inaccurate Loan Documents

Can a bank that files a mortgage foreclosure case based on inaccurate documents simply withdraw it when the lack of an appropriate foundation for the litigation becomes clear? That is a central issue in a high-profile case being taken up by the Florida Supreme Court, reports the Heard Along the…

Apr 12, 2011 12:06 PM CDT

5th Circuit Rules Lawyer and Client Violated Gag Order; Lawyer Gets $5K Fine, 120-Day Suspension

A federal appeals court ruled (PDF) that a former Dallas mayor pro tem violated a gag order and thus gets another 30 days on top of the 18-year prison sentence he received in 2009 for corruption. And his lawyer, who also spoke out of bounds during the same television interview,…

Apr 7, 2011 5:10 PM CDT