Judge was too quick to find contempt and too slow to write opinions, ethics complaint says

An ethics complaint filed Tuesday against a Philadelphia family court judge claims that the judge was too quick to fine or jail people for contempt but too slow to write opinions in cases involving child abuse and neglect. The ethics complaint against Judge Lyris Younge was filed after state appeals…

Aug 22, 2019 1:01 PM CDT

2 former prosecutors suspended for failing to report suspect’s beating

Two former prosecutors with the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office have been suspended from law practice for failing to immediately report a detective’s beating of a suspect. The Missouri Supreme Court indefinitely suspended Ambry Nichole Schuessler and Katherine Anne Dierdorf on Tuesday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has coverage, while the…

Aug 15, 2019 3:06 PM CDT

Former Ohio judge who wrongly defined rape, made demeaning comments gets suspension

A former Ohio judge has been suspended from law practice for a range of misconduct that included failing to follow precedent when he ruled that a defendant had not committed rape because he didn’t penetrate the victim far enough. The Ohio Supreme Court suspended former Judge James Burge of Lorain…

Aug 14, 2019 3:15 PM CDT

Blagojevich faces new ethics complaint amid Trump’s talk of possible clemency

President Donald Trump has suggested that he might commute Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence for political corruption, but that wouldn’t put an end to all the former Illinois governor’s legal troubles. Illinois legal ethics regulators filed a new ethics complaint against Blagojevich on Aug. 1 that cites his federal conviction, the…

Aug 12, 2019 4:54 PM CDT

Lawyer who threatened to pursue citizen’s arrest of judge is suspended for 30 days

A Tennessee lawyer has been suspended for a courtroom confrontation in which he threatened to pursue a judge’s citizen’s arrest and later criticized the judge on social media and in an ad he placed in the local newspaper. Edward Lee Kershaw of Greeneville was suspended for 30 days and placed…

Aug 8, 2019 2:48 PM CDT

Judge admonished for ‘deep-seated antagonism’ blames overzealous protection of child’s interests

A Texas judge has been publicly admonished for showing a “deep-seated antagonism” toward a father seeking to retain parental rights to a baby named Luke who was placed in a foster home.

Aug 6, 2019 1:21 PM CDT

Suspended lawyer can’t shield home in bankruptcy from malpractice judgment, 7th Circuit says

A suspended Illinois lawyer who had owned his home as a tenant by the entirety before his wife’s death won’t be able to shield the property in bankruptcy from a former client who won a default malpractice judgment.

Aug 6, 2019 10:13 AM CDT

Lawyer’s hip-hop defense fails in case involving ‘an overarching pattern of misconduct’

Maryland’s highest court has disbarred a lawyer for a “myriad of rule violations” that included calling a social worker who testified in one of his cases a “bitch.” The Maryland Court of Appeals explained why it disbarred Garland Montgomery Jarrat Sanderson in a July 23 opinion noted by the Legal…

Aug 1, 2019 10:13 AM CDT

11th Circuit affirms removal of ‘horrifying’ juror who ‘laid on the couch,’ disrespected female jurors

A federal appeals court has affirmed a decision to remove a holdout juror from a case after he called female jurors “bitches” and referred to others as “white asses.” The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta ruled in an unpublished, per curiam opinion Monday, Law360 reports. A federal…

Jul 30, 2019 10:34 AM CDT

Ethics panel, citing ‘egregious’ violations, recommends 33-month suspension for Larry Klayman

Jul 29, 2019 3:46 PM CDT

Lawyer suspended for disclosing client info in ‘vindictive’ bid to collect fees

The Ohio Supreme Court has suspended a lawyer for threatening to disclose confidential information in a bid to collect a fee and then carrying out the threat. The court indefinitely suspended lawyer Timothy Andrew Shimko, of Westlake, Ohio, in a July 18 opinion, report Court News Ohio and the Legal…

Jul 26, 2019 1:05 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: US to resume federal executions; immigration lawyer accused of paying bribes for roster lists

• The U.S. Department of Justice plans to resume executions after a 16-year hiatus. Attorney General William Barr adopted a new lethal-injection protocol that replaces a three-drug cocktail with a single drug—pentobarbital. Executions have been scheduled for five death-row inmates. (The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Department of…

Jul 25, 2019 4:53 PM CDT

7 reasons why the legal profession often gets no sympathy

The legal profession is a noble one. But is that the impression that the public has of attorneys? Lawyer Marcel Strigberger shares his thoughts on why the profession is generally viewed unsympathetically.

Jul 25, 2019 6:30 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Lawyer pleads guilty to courthouse parachute jump; cat declawing banned in this state

• The U.S. Department of Justice has informed former special counsel Robert Mueller that he is expected to confine his congressional testimony Wednesday to the boundaries of his public report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The DOJ warned that Mueller shouldn’t discuss the conduct of uncharged third…

Jul 23, 2019 4:24 PM CDT

Lawyer accused of defrauding his law firm by secretly referring its clients to outside lawyers

Federal prosecutors have accused a Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer of defrauding his law firm out of about $4.2 million in legal fees and costs by secretly referring its clients to outside lawyers and taking a cut of the recovery. Prosecutors in Philadelphia charged 64-year-old Neil Mittin of Huntingdon Valley with…

Jul 23, 2019 3:37 PM CDT