Kentucky

California’s Top Court is Most Influential, Kentucky’s is Least, Study Says

The California Supreme Court is the nation’s most influential state court and the Kentucky Supreme Court is the least, according to a study of citations recently published in a law review. California leads with the most opinions followed in a study of 65 years of decisions ending in 2005, the…

Mar 11, 2008 12:07 PM CDT

Client Who Decked Counsel Sentenced to 6 Months

A disgruntled client who decked his appointed defense counsel last month got the new lawyer he was seeking … and more. Although public defender Doug Crickmer said at the time that he forgave Peter Hafer, the Kentucky judicial system apparently wasn’t ready to turn the other cheek. Hafer—whose punch to…

Mar 4, 2008 12:58 AM CST

Ky. Judge Bans Prosecutor Objections in Probable Cause Hearings

A Kentucky judge has threatened to hold prosecutors in contempt if they don’t stop making “obnoxious, ridiculous, abundant and useless objections” during probable cause hearings. Jefferson District Judge Sean Delahanty told prosecutors on Tuesday to cool it, saying that their excessive objections were wasting time and disrupting probable cause hearings,…

Feb 7, 2008 12:08 AM CST

Client Decks Counsel, Gets New Lawyer

An unhappy client punched his legal counsel in a Kentucky courtroom Monday, saying that he wanted new representation. And Scott Hafer got his wish after punching public defender Doug Crickmer in the jaw and sending him to the floor in an incident that was recorded by a courtroom camera in…

Feb 6, 2008 4:54 PM CST

Five Profs Resign at American Justice Law School, Call for Dean’s Ouster

Five professors at the American Justice School of Law in Paducah, Ky.—about one-fourth of the faculty—resigned effective Friday, saying they won’t come back until the dean of the for-profit school submits his resignation. Dean Paul Hendrick has been named in a $120 million lawsuit by more than 30 students. The…

Feb 4, 2008 11:51 AM CST

Judge Orders Courtroom Scrubbed After Learning of Lawyer’s Meningitis

A Kentucky judge ordered her courtroom scrubbed after learning a lawyer had been quarantined for possible meningitis. Judge Leigh Ann Stephens of Perry County pitched in to help, WKYT.com reports. “We’ve got some Clorox and the janitors are coming up; we’re going to just make sure that everything’s clean,” she…

Jan 23, 2008 2:50 PM CST

Lawyer Brothers Represent Opposing Parties in Med-Mal Case

Louisville, Ky., lawyers Tyler and Todd Thompson represent opposing parties in a medical malpractice case. The suit against hospital chain HCA Inc. claims more than 100 patients were injured by an incompetent surgeon who never finished his residency. It is the first time the brothers have been on opposite sides…

Jan 3, 2008 2:33 PM CST

Students Accuse Law School of Mismanagement, Racketeering

Students at a private Kentucky law school have a chance to show their administrators what they’ve learned. They’ve filed a federal suit against the 2-year-old American Justice School of Law, alleging abuse of office, conspiracy and racketeering, the Associated Press reports. Among other things, members of the school’s administration are…

Nov 26, 2007 6:22 PM CST

Plaintiffs Win Right to Lawyers’ Championship Horse

More than 400 plaintiffs who claimed their lawyers defrauded them out of money due in a pharmaceutical settlement have been awarded a 20 percent stake in champion race horse Curlin. Judge William Wehr of Kentucky awarded the plaintiffs a right to 20 percent of the proceeds from the future sale…

Nov 5, 2007 5:03 PM CST

Counsel: PI Lawyer’s Aide Was FBI Mole

A former legal assistant to one of three jailed personal injury lawyers accused of bilking $65 million from clients in diet drug litigation allegedly spied on her boss for the FBI and wore a wire to confidential attorney-client meetings. In a federal-court filing in Kentucky last week, counsel representing Melbourne…

Oct 9, 2007 8:01 PM CDT

$6.1 M Award in McDonald’s Strip Search

A Kentucky jury has awarded $6.1 million to a young McDonald’s employee who was pressured by a supervisor into cooperating with a strip search and bizarre requests made over the telephone by a male caller pretending to be a police officer investigating a theft. Louise Ogborn, who was 18 at…

Oct 5, 2007 7:55 PM CDT

Shackled Fen-Phen Lawyers Seek Release, Judge Says No

Shackled and attired in faded gray-and-white-striped jail uniforms, three personal injury attorneys involved in mega-bucks fen-phen litigation attended a federal court hearing in Kentucky today to seek their release. Accused of bilking clients out of $64 million from a $200 million litigation settlement in 2001 concerning the diet drug combination,…

Sep 11, 2007 8:10 PM CDT

Former KY Bar Ass’n Prez Disbarred

Four years ago, Stephen B. Catron was president of the Kentucky Bar Association. Today he’s no longer a lawyer, having been disbarred last week by the Kentucky Supreme Court. Catron, who is accused of having mishandled $500,000 in public funds, says the allegation is unfounded. However, he apparently didn’t fight…

Aug 28, 2007 7:47 PM CDT

Editorial Hits ‘Kentucky Trial Derby’

A Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) editorial takes aim at Kentucky for its lax oversight of three tort lawyers accused of overpaying themselves as much as $62 million in a diet drug settlement. The case has become “a black eye for Kentucky’s legal establishment,” the newspaper says. It takes issue…

Aug 20, 2007 2:02 PM CDT

3 Fen-Phen Lawyers Jailed Pending Trial

Updated: Seeking a several-month delay of a criminal fraud trial for allegedly bilking clients of $64 million in diet drug litigation settlement proceeds has cost three lawyers their freedom. Melbourne Mills, 76, William Gallion, 56, and Shirley Cunningham Jr., 52, were jailed after their bond was revoked today by U.S.…

Aug 10, 2007 9:27 PM CDT