States

Brooks & Dunn to Headline PI Lawyer’s Holiday Party

Country music stars Brooks & Dunn will headline this year’s holiday party hosted by Houston lawyer Mark Lanier. The plaintiffs lawyer invites thousands of people to his annual bash at his 20-acre estate, including judges, politicians and legal journalists, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. This year’s invitation was…

Nov 14, 2007 3:14 PM 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

Fired Book Publisher Sues, Claims ‘Deliberate Smear Campaign’

Former book publisher Judith Regan, fired after her decision to publish a book by O.J. Simpson called If I Did It, claims in a lawsuit filed yesterday that she lost her job based on a trumped-up charge. The $100 million suit (PDF posted by the New York Times) also claims…

Nov 14, 2007 2:41 PM CST

Judge to Decide Whether Pillsbury Should Give Up $4M-Plus Fee

A bankruptcy case involving alleged conflicts of interest by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman has reinforced the need for disclosure. A San Jose, Calif., bankruptcy judge will consider whether the law firm should give up its $4 million-plus fees in the bankruptcy case of client SonicBlue following an investigation by the…

Nov 14, 2007 11:38 AM CST

100 Protest N.J. Dog’s Death Sentence

More than 100 people protested outside Princetown Township Municipal Court in New Jersey over a judge’s order to euthanize a dog. The 2-and-a-half-year-old German Shepherd named Congo was determined to be vicious after he attacked and mauled a landscaper who came into his yard last June, reports an ABC-affiliated station…

Nov 13, 2007 11:59 PM CST

Pedophile Blogger Banned from Oregon Bus

A self-proclaimed pedophile who has sparked innovative legal efforts to restrict his activities in Southern California has now reportedly had the same effect in the neighboring state of Oregon. Jack McClellan, who says he only looks at girls and doesn’t act on his admittedly illicit interest in them, was recently…

Nov 13, 2007 11:03 PM CST

Illinois Judge Axes Med-Mal Damages Cap

In a test case that is expected to go farther, an Illinois trial judge ruled today that a 2005 state statutory cap on noneconomic damages in some medical malpractice cases should not be applied to a specific plaintiff. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Joan Larsen held that the law…

Nov 13, 2007 7:56 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

Scruggs to Challenge Special Prosecutors in Hearing Next Week

Mississippi plaintiffs lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs will be arraigned next week on a criminal contempt charge for failing to return documents related to State Farm’s handling of Hurricane Katrina claims. Scruggs got the documents from two sisters who worked for a State Farm contractor. Rather than returning them, he gave…

Nov 13, 2007 6:56 PM CST

Fla. Mortgage Fraud Monolith: Building Had Most Bad Deals

Although there has been an explosion of mortgage foreclosures throughout the country during the past year, one 43-story building in Miami’s international banking district is at what could be considered ground zero in this real estate debacle. It is, reports Reuters, perhaps the most mortgage fraud-riddled residential building in the…

Nov 13, 2007 4:03 PM CST

Federal Oil Spill Charges Possible

Federal prosecutors are investigating an oil spill last week in the San Francisco Bay, a move that could signal charges against crew members of the damaged ship that spilled 58,000 gallons of fuel. The owner of the ship, which hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, is Regal Stone of Hong…

Nov 13, 2007 2:42 PM CST

Lawyer Calls Bookkeeper Brother ‘Diabolical’ for Alleged Embezzlement

A partner at a Garden City, N.Y., law firm says there was no reason to suspect his brother was embezzling. Bookkeeper Anthony Galasso has been accused of taking $4.3 million from an escrow account at Galasso Langione & Botter over a two-and-a-half year period, the New York Law Journal reports.…

Nov 13, 2007 1:43 PM CST

N.Y. Court Dismisses Kaye Scholer Malpractice Suit

A New York appellate court has ordered the dismissal of a malpractice suit filed against Kaye Scholer and one of its lawyers by former accounting employees of Computer Associates. The three plaintiffs lost their jobs in an accounting scandal that resulted in the securities fraud conviction of company CEO Sanjay…

Nov 13, 2007 12:28 PM CST

SEC Won’t Act in Several High-Tech Backdating Probes

Several high-tech companies are reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission won’t be taking any action against them for backdating stock options. The SEC has closed its investigations of Electronic Arts, Linear Technology Corp., Nvidia Corp., PMC-Sierra Inc. and Zoran Corp., the Recorder reports. Marc Fagel, the enforcement chief of…

Nov 13, 2007 12:01 PM CST

Should Parents Be Able to Disinherit Minor Children?

Everyone agrees that Anthony “Corky” Sliwkowski loved his daughters. Yet when the Rhode Island dentist died in 2004, it turned out that he had disinherited the girls, then aged 11 and 13, and a grown son, cutting them all out of his $3 million estate. Their mother sued, hoping to…

Nov 12, 2007 11:57 PM CST