Judiciary

R.I. Chief Justice to Head Terror Review Panel

The Defense Department has announced that Rhode Island Chief Justice Frank J. Williams will head the military appeals panel that reviews terror cases. Williams replaces Chief Judge Griffin Bell as the senior member of the Court of Military Commissions Review, according to a DOD release. Williams has been a member…

Nov 27, 2007 10:33 PM CST

Sniper Judge Gets Appellate Court Nod

The Virginia judge who presided over the first Washington, D.C.-area sniper trial has been named to the state court of appeals. Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr.’s handling of the case against John Allen Muhammad was cited as one of the reasons for the eight-year appointment, the Washington Post reports. A…

Nov 27, 2007 6:33 PM CST

Judges Become Robin Hoods With Extra Settlement Money

Law schools, legal aid groups and other charities are raking in leftover money from class-action settlements. In just the past few months, George Washington University Law School got $5 million from an antitrust settlement and the Illinois Institute of Technology got $5 million from a settlement involving a diabetes drug,…

Nov 26, 2007 2:46 PM CST

BP Victims Blast ‘Shockingly Lenient’ Plea

Updated: More than a dozen victims of a 2005 Texas refinery explosion have blasted a planned criminal plea deal with BP and successfully sought the recusal of the federal judge in the case. The deal announced last month calls for BP to plead guilty to an environmental crime and pay…

Nov 21, 2007 4:37 PM CST

Concerned re Web Privacy, Ohio Courts Mull Paper Records Removal

Updated: As county courts in Ohio moved to make a number of dockets and case records available online, concerns arose about how that might adversely affect individual privacy. So a judicial commission was appointed to study the issue. Now, under its proposed recommendations, it appears that new rules may not…

Nov 20, 2007 9:49 PM CST

S.C. Supreme Court: ‘Understandable Concerns’ About Bar Exam

Responding to what it describes as “understandable concerns” about the unusual manner in which some who took the South Carolina bar exam in July 2007 belatedly learned that they had passed, the state supreme court has offered an additional explanation of what happened. A scrivener’s error resulted in one examinee’s…

Nov 20, 2007 7:34 PM CST

La. Criminal Defense Bar Draft Not a Hot Ticket for Lawyers

An attempt by a Louisiana judge to draft criminal defense lawyers to help out, on a pro bono basis, with a backlog of indigent cases was not an overwhelming success. Only 17 of the 33 lawyers notified last month that they should appear Friday in the courtroom of Orleans Parish…

Nov 19, 2007 7:52 PM CST

Judge Gets 33 Months in Alleged Mob Money Case

A former New York judge was sentenced to a 33-month prison term today for conspiring with a reputed mobster to launder $400,000 in claimed proceeds from stolen jewelry. David Gross, 45, who served on the Nassau County District Court bench from 1999 to 2005, could have been sentenced to as…

Nov 17, 2007 12:13 AM CST

President Bush Blasts Senate’s ‘Search and Destroy’ Judicial Review

UPDATED: President Bush spoke to the Federalist Society on Thursday, complaining that “judicial lawlessness” threatens democracy and must be stopped. According to a White House release, the president says that too many people interpret the Senate’s advise-and-consent role in federal judiciary confirmations to mean “search and destroy.” The president is…

Nov 15, 2007 10:00 PM CST

Federal Judge Hit for ‘Unseemly Haste’ in Dismissing Case

A federal appeals court said Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Manuel Real acted with “unseemly haste” when he dismissed a case brought by a no-show lawyer with a good excuse. The lawyer, Stanley Raskin, received e-mail notice of a hearing even though there was no evidence he had agreed to…

Nov 15, 2007 11:28 AM CST

It’s Confirmed: Judge Who Sued Over Lost Pants Lost His Job

The administrative judge who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million for losing his pants will not be reappointed, a Washington, D.C., lawyer has confirmed. Sources had told the Washington Post and the Examiner last month that Judge Roy Pearson will not be reappointed. Now the city’s general counsel, responding…

Nov 14, 2007 2:57 PM CST

March on Washington Nov. 14 to Support Pakistan Lawyers

Updated: In a highly unusual move, the American Bar Association is spearheading a lawyers’ march on Washington, D.C., tomorrow that is also being promoted by state and local bar associations throughout the country. It is intended to support protesting lawyers in Pakistan, who have been at the forefront of efforts…

Nov 13, 2007 9:42 PM CST

Plot Thickens: Bar Exam Chief Wasn’t Told of Grading Change

Updated: The South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision to change the bar exam results for 20 test-takers was a surprise to the man who oversees the state Board of Law Examiners. Board chairman George Hearn told TheState.com that neither the court nor any of his board members informed him of the…

Nov 13, 2007 7:30 PM CST

5,000 Pakistan Lawyers Reported Arrested

Thousands of lawyers in Pakistan have been jailed during the past 10 days, after the country’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared a state of emergency Nov. 3. One of them is Aitzaz Ahsan, a 63-year-old Cambridge University graduate and the president of the country’s Supreme Court Bar. His crime, reports…

Nov 13, 2007 12:50 AM CST

Ginsburg: If Male, I’d Be a Retired Partner

It wasn’t only former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who, famously, had trouble finding work as a lawyer after graduating at the top of her class from a renowned law school back in the day when law practice was almost exclusively a male domain. Her female colleague on the U.S. Supreme…

Nov 12, 2007 10:59 PM CST