Appellate Practice

Judge puts on hold landmark San Francisco law mandating sugary beverage ad warnings

A plan to require warning labels on ads for sugar-added drinks in San Francisco is on hold, as the beverage industry pursues an appeal. After initially denying an injunction last month concerning the landmark legislation, which is believed to be the first law of its kind in the nation, a…

Jun 10, 2016 12:10 PM CDT

7th Circuit: Judge should have appointed lawyer for mentally ill woman who missed appeal deadline

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived the untimely appeal of an imprisoned Indiana woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend in 2001. Anastazia Schmid was found guilty but mentally ill, which removed capital punishment as a possibility in her sentencing. Because Schmid was determined to be mentally ill, a federal…

Jun 8, 2016 2:50 PM CDT

Man should not have been shackled at trial, top state court says, but his conviction still stands

There was some good news, some bad news and a little bit more good news from Connecticut’s top court Monday for a man convicted of burglary and assault in a 2009 trial over a violent home invasion and sentenced to 30 years. The good news was that the Connecticut Supreme…

Jun 6, 2016 5:22 PM CDT

How do state supreme courts deal with tie votes?

Only 16 states follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s “ties happen” approach when vacancies leave high courts evenly divided, according to a tally by a Texas Supreme Court justice on Donald Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist. The other 34 states use temporary judges to avert deadlocks, though the details vary, Texas Justice…

Jun 1, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

En banc 4th Circuit OKs tracking cellphone location without a warrant

Eliminating a circuit split, the en banc 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed its own earlier decision by a three-judge panel and held that a warrant is not required for law enforcement to track location information for a subject’s cellphone. Instead, a court order based simply on…

May 31, 2016 4:45 PM CDT

Top state court vacates murder conviction, based on now-discredited bite-mark evidence and new law

Corrected: It took a state law. But on Thursday the California Supreme Court granted a habeas petition and vacated the 1997 conviction of a man convicted of murdering his wife, in which bite-mark evidence played a significant role. The dentist who testified against William Richards at trial, Dr. Norman Sperber,…

May 27, 2016 10:00 AM CDT

Tom Brady and NFL players union seek 2nd Circuit en banc rehearing of Deflategate ruling

When quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots recently added superstar appellate lawyer Ted Olson to his team, it appeared that he might be anticipating a U.S. Supreme Court appeal of his four-game suspension imposed over the so-called Deflategate incident last year. But, at least initially, Brady and the…

May 23, 2016 2:20 PM CDT

Lawyer for former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle asks 7th Circuit for reduced sentence

A lawyer for former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle told a federal appeals court on Friday that Fogle’s sentence should be reduced because it was partly based on his fantasies that were never carried out. The lawyer, Ron Elberger, told the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Fogle’s sentence…

May 20, 2016 3:23 PM CDT

Supreme Court favors white males in amicus appointments, study says

A law professor’s review of 59 lawyers invited to argue as an amicus before the Supreme Court found that a disproportionate number of those picked are white males. The study by Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law professor Katherine Shaw found that about 10 percent of those who received the…

May 17, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

Coffeemaker win lacks perk for lawyer who asked for $180K in fees but got $6,800

Plaintiff Pamella Montgomery still gets the $250 settlement she was promised after a more than two-year legal battle with Kraft Foods Global Inc. and Starbucks Corp. over her purchase of a single-serve coffee maker. But the Michigan woman’s lawyer is receiving $6,800 in attorney fees and costs rather than the…

May 16, 2016 5:02 PM CDT

9th Circuit removes judge who slashed attorney fees from BarBri antitrust class action

A trial judge cannot simply cut by 70 percent the requested $1.9 million attorney fee award in a winning antitrust class action without providing a detailed explanation why he did so, a federal appeals court has ruled. A Wednesday opinion (PDF) by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of…

May 12, 2016 2:00 PM CDT

Law partner who had lifeguard job sees age-discrimination suit over Speedo rule revived on appeal

A Long Island bankruptcy attorney who moonlights as a lifeguard is back in the swim of things, as far as his age-discrimination suit against the state of New York over a required bathing suit is concerned. In a decision last week, the Appellate Division, Second Department, said a trial court…

May 10, 2016 11:00 AM CDT

White House announces another 58 sentence commutations

Another 58 prison sentences, a number of them life terms, have been commuted by President Barack Obama, the White House announced Thursday. The president has now commuted a total of 306 sentences and intends to grant relief to more prisoners while he remains in office, according to Reuters and the…

May 6, 2016 7:45 AM CDT

Crime lab chemist was high almost daily, cooked crack cocaine at work, state AG says

A state chemist responsible for testing drug evidence in Massachusetts criminal cases was high at work and while testifying in court almost daily between 2005 and 2013, says an investigative report by the state attorney general. Released Tuesday, the report by AG Maura Healey says Sonja Farak, who worked at…

May 5, 2016 6:30 AM CDT

Sued after posting video of brawl with neighbor, law partner loses bid for SLAPP protection

The chief of Sedgwick’s cybersecurity practice has lost a round in personal litigation over a brawl with a neighbor. In an opinion last week that contained a “Reader Discretion Advised” disclaimer because of “an abundance of obscene language,” the California Court of Appeal, Second District, said partner John Stephens can’t…

May 3, 2016 6:15 AM CDT