Connecticut

Insurer to Pay $72.5M to Settle Alleged Structured Settlement Fraud in Earlier Cases

A federal judge in Connecticut has given a preliminary thumbs-up to an insurer’s agreement to pay $72.5 million to settle a class action over the structured settlements it provided to plaintiffs in earlier workers’ compensation and accident cases. A spokesman for the Hartford still says the company did nothing wrong…

Jun 11, 2010 4:36 PM CDT

Wily Real Estate Agents Found a Way to ‘Flop,’ Scamming Lenders on Short Sales

Banks have made it harder to get a mortgage in recent years, after a national lending spree to buyers with dubious qualifications that contributed to an ongoing foreclosure crisis. But, adjusting their tactics to the new economic reality, two wily Connecticut real estate agents found a way to profit despite…

Jun 10, 2010 6:46 PM CDT

Ex-White House Lawyer Posts $750K Bail in Case Over Alleged Murder Attempt on Attorney Wife

Accused of beating his attorney wife with a metal flashlight so severely that her mental functioning was impaired, a former White House lawyer charged with attempted murder and first-degree strangulation has now posted $750,000 bail and been released to a mental hospital for treatment. John Michael Farren, 57, will be…

Jun 8, 2010 8:06 PM CDT

Would-Be AG Is Knocked Off Ballot, Lacks Legal Experience, Top Conn. Court Finds

A Connecticut lawyer lacks the legal experience to seek election as attorney general even though she has served for years as secretary of state. Today’s ruling by the Connecticut Supreme Court almost certainly ends Susan Bysiewicz’s hard-fought legal ballot to get on the ballot for the attorney general’s race, reports…

May 18, 2010 9:42 PM CDT

Conn. AG Made ‘Plainly Untrue’ Remarks About Military Service, NYT Says

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal avoided service in Vietnam with at least five military deferments, but that isn’t the impression he left during veterans’ events. Some of Blumenthal’s remarks were “plainly untrue,” the New York Times reports. “At other times, he has used more ambiguous language, but the impression left…

May 18, 2010 11:45 AM CDT

Judge Rules for Elderly Sister in Lottery Dispute, But Can’t ‘Repair the Discord’

A Connecticut judge has ruled an 87-year-old woman doesn’t have to share her $500,000 lottery jackpot with her 84-year-old sister because their contract to split winnings had already ended. Judge Cynthia Swienton ruled the sisters’ notarized contract ended in 2004 during a spat over a few hundred dollars, according to…

May 13, 2010 2:40 PM CDT

Sober Since 1981, Lawyer Has Helped Many Others With Wide Array of Issues

William “Bill” Leary never drank at work. But he often hit the booze at night, decades ago, and was never as good the next day as he otherwise would have been, he tells the Connecticut Law Tribune in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.). After multiple efforts…

May 11, 2010 6:56 PM CDT

Embarassing Depo Wins Conn. Sect’y of State the Right to Run for AG Job

The embarrassing deposition was apparently worthwhile: A Duke University law graduate now serving as Connecticut’s secretary of state has won a court ruling that she has sufficient legal experience to run for election as the state’s attorney general. Hartford Superior Court Judge Michael Sheldon ruled today that Susan Bysiewicz’s work…

May 5, 2010 7:56 PM CDT

Shipman & Goodwin Opens in D.C. with 6-Lawer Hogan Lovells Group & New Client

A six-attorney group has departed Hogan & Hartson on the eve of the Hogan Lovells merger to open a new Washington, D.C. , office for a smaller, Connecticut-based law firm. Led by partner James Ruggeri, it will continue to provide legal services to The Hartford Financial Services Group at the…

May 3, 2010 4:59 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

Prior Law Practice Experience Is a Big Plus for Pioneering Pastor

Sara Smith had been in practice only three years after earning her law degree from the University of Houston in 1988 before she decided to pursue a different career—the ministry. But her experience as a trial lawyer for the U.S. Department of Labor and, while earning a master’s degree in…

Apr 19, 2010 8:25 PM CDT

Watch the Video: Would-Be AG Says She’s Qualified Despite Zero Trial Experience

A deposition that has made headlines in Connecticut–especially after counsel for the deponent, secretary of state and would-be Democratic attorney general candidate Susan Bysiewicz, briefly sought a protective order to prevent disclosure of the transcript and video of the three-day session–has now been made public. As her testimony on March…

Apr 8, 2010 8:40 PM CDT

Does Connecticut Hate the Net?

State is a battleground for online legal services

Apr 1, 2010 6:30 AM CDT

Missing Lawyer Turns Up in Rehab as Ethics Officials Investigate

A Connecticut lawyer who disappeared after proclaiming in an e-mail that he was “out of here” has turned up at a Florida rehab center. Deron Drumm sent the e-mail to an associate at his two-lawyer firm in Avon on March 12, two days after a real estate closing that brought…

Mar 30, 2010 2:15 PM CDT

Ex-White House Lawyer Takes 5th in Wife’s $15M Damages Suit Over Alleged Murder Attempt

She had endured “years of emotional and verbal abuse” from her husband, former White House attorney John Michael Farren, testified his wife, attorney Mary Farren, in a Connecticut court hearing yesterday. But when she refused to withdraw her divorce filing, he snapped, Mary Farren, 44, told a Stamford Superior Court…

Mar 23, 2010 9:00 PM CDT