Ohio

Woman Can’t Take Her Pet Monkey to Restaurants, Federal Judge Rules

A Missouri woman has lost her legal bid to have her monkey, Richard, accompany her to restaurants and other business establishments. Richard is a pet, not a service animal to the disabled, U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr ruled Wednesday, and his owner, Debby Rose, is not disabled under the Americans…

Oct 23, 2009 11:41 PM CDT

Ohio-Based Buckingham Firm Axes 16, Appoints New Management Team

A nearly 100-year-old Ohio based law firm has let 16 attorneys and staff members go and appointed a new executive committee and managing partner, as part of a restructuring effort to cope with its overly rapid expansion in recent years. The move by Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs implements strategy recommended…

Oct 23, 2009 9:15 PM CDT

Court Fines 2 Cos. $6.4M for Unauthorized Law Practice, Bans Them From State

The Ohio Supreme Court has fined two “trust mill” companies $6.4 million for the unauthorized practice of law and banned them from doing business in the state. Its ruling this morning imposed $6,387,990 in penalties against American Family Prepaid Legal Corporation; Heritage Marketing and Insurance Services Inc.; and co-owners Jeffrey…

Oct 14, 2009 8:36 PM CDT

Lawyer who Badmouthed His Client Gave a ‘Brilliant’ Argument, Scalia Says

U.S. Supreme Court justices differed Tuesday over the trial strategy of a criminal defense lawyer who called his neo-Nazi client “demented” and invited jurors to “smell the death” of the murder scene. The defendant, Frank Spisak, “celebrated his killings in court and openly discussed his hateful views,” the Associated Press…

Oct 14, 2009 2:04 PM CDT

Identical Twin Doctors in Related Pedophilia Cases Get Separate Trials

In a criminal case that sounds like a law school exam hypothetical, two identical twin pediatricians in Ohio are both accused of having sex with underage males, including some patients, and are expected to go to trial at roughly the same time. But the 53-year-old physicians will be tried separately,…

Oct 9, 2009 9:29 PM CDT

Law Prof Appointed to Copyright Case Sees Parallels to Erin Brokovich

Ohio State University law professor Deborah Jones Merritt didn’t shy away from media interviews about her first Supreme Court argument. She told the Columbus Dispatch how she practiced before large photos of the nine justices. She confessed to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times that she felt like “the…

Oct 8, 2009 2:33 PM CDT

Lawyer Pleads in Appraisal Bribe Scheme; Prosecutors Seek $3.2M Restitution

A lawyer involved in an alleged scheme to obtain $21 million in appraisal contracts by paying Cuyahoga County officials $1.3 million in bribes has accepted a plea bargain. Attorney Bruce Zaccagnini, 48, pleaded guilty to a public corruption charge yesterday and agreed to cooperate with the feds, reports the Cleveland…

Oct 2, 2009 8:37 PM CDT

2 Lawyers Charged in Alleged Government Property Valuation Scheme

For almost a decade, attorneys at Armstrong, Mitchell, Damiani and Zaccagnini in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County helped government and commercial clients persuade the county’s Board of Revision that the assessed valuations on which their property tax is based were too high. The law firm was particularly expert at doing so, officials…

Sep 22, 2009 5:05 PM CDT

Despite Inmate’s Efforts to Help, Executioners Couldn’t Find Suitable Vein

An Ohio inmate has gotten a week’s reprieve after an execution team was unable to find a usable vein for a lethal injection, despite his efforts to help. Romell Broom had been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl. The execution team spent more than…

Sep 16, 2009 6:01 PM CDT

Probe Finds No Evidence of Threats Against High-Profile Teen Runaway

An Ohio teen caused a furor when she ran away to Florida, claiming that she was at risk of a so-called honor killing if she continued to live with her Muslim family after converting to Christianity. Her family said that wasn’t so, and now a Florida Department of Law Enforcement…

Sep 14, 2009 9:16 PM CDT

Probable Cause Hearing Goes from Bad to Worse for Duct-Taped Defendant

A municipal court judge in Canton, Ohio, told a bailiff to get the duct tape—and use it to silence an argumentative defendant at a preliminary hearing in a shoplifting case last week—after the defendant, who was unhappy about his public defender, continued to interrupt the judge, reports the Repository. Before…

Sep 1, 2009 11:18 PM CDT

Mom Loses Case Over Unauthorized 10 a.m. Breast-Pumping Bathroom Break

A ruling last week by a divided Ohio Supreme Court in a pregnancy discrimination case is igniting controversy on the Internet. Although the court didn’t reach the key issue of whether an employer violated a state law barring discrimination against pregnant women, its final dismissal of the claim brought by…

Aug 31, 2009 11:42 PM CDT

Paralegal Guilty in Fake-Libel-Suit Scam That Briefly Won $3M

A credulous paralegal is facing a potential two-and-a-half-year federal prison term after apparently being duped by a convicted child molester into participating in a bizarre alleged civil litigation scheme. Its claimed purpose was to “coerce or fool” the now-adult victim of the molestation into recanting, via a faked defamation suit…

Aug 24, 2009 7:00 PM CDT

Some Staff Layoffs May Follow Dinsmore Acquisition of Woodward Hobson

A growing Cincinnati-based regional law partnership is acquiring a 92-year-old Kentucky firm, enhancing its mass tort and labor and employment practice groups. Although Dinsmore & Shohl will retain all 54 attorneys from Woodward Hobson and Fulton, however, there may be some staff layoffs, Dinsmore managing partner George Vincent tells the…

Aug 21, 2009 8:18 PM CDT

Dayton Law Prof Sang for Sha Na Na at Woodstock

A University of Dayton law professor performed at the Woodstock music festival just before Jimi Hendrix took the stage. Law professor Dennis Greene performed with the 1950s revival group Sha Na Na in a Woodstock performance that offered quite a contrast to Hendrix. Greene called the festival “an amazing moment”…

Aug 14, 2009 2:21 PM CDT