Trials & Litigation

Marine’s Dad Gets $11M for Funeral Picketing

In a verdict that is sure to catch the attention of First Amendment advocates, a federal jury in Baltimore has awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages to a father of a fallen Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of a fringe Kansas church.…

Oct 31, 2007 11:48 PM CDT

TX Prosecutor Cites Execution Moratorium

In the latest example of an apparent death penalty moratorium being voluntarily imposed in states throughout the country, a Texas prosecutor in the county with the highest number of death sentences in the nation says she will not seek further executions until the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in an…

Oct 31, 2007 10:28 PM CDT

Ex-Prosecutor Acquitted in ‘Political’ Case

A federal prosecutor accused of intentionally withholding evidence that would have helped the defense in a high-profile 2003 terrorism trial has been found not guilty on all charges in a jury verdict today. Outside the courtroom after the verdict, former assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino decried the case against him…

Oct 31, 2007 8:54 PM CDT

Full 4th Circuit Hears ‘Enemy Combatant’ Case

Whether the president has the power to hold a legal U.S. resident in military custody as a so-called enemy combatant is being argued today before the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Va.-based 4th Circuit ruled in June that the president does not,…

Oct 31, 2007 7:23 PM CDT

Partner Sentenced in Car Vandalism Case

After over-imbibing at his mother’s 80th birthday party, a senior partner at a well-known Scottish real estate law firm went a bit wild. However, solicitor Paul Hutcheson, 43, has taken steps to make restitution to the owners of 11 cars parked outside the golf club at which the party was…

Oct 31, 2007 6:46 PM CDT

Halloween Means Murder—and Justice—to Victim’s Family

For nearly 25 years, there’s been no trick-or-treating at the California home of the Hoynes family Halloween in 1984 was the day when the family found out that one of their four girls, 21-year-old Robin, had been murdered at her job as a manager of a fast-food restaurant in nearby…

Oct 31, 2007 5:24 PM CDT

Legal Secretary to Plead in $272K Theft

A longtime legal secretary who was the sole employee of a sole practitioner in Virginia is expected to plead guilty today in a case alleging that she embezzled $272,000 from an estate client of the law firm. Shelia Mae Boone was federally indicted in August after complaints from the family…

Oct 31, 2007 4:17 PM CDT

Breathing ‘Butter’ Vapors Leads to Lawsuits

Even some of those allegedly affected with the problem could hardly believe it: Breathing in vapors from butter flavoring commonly used on microwave popcorn can cause a debilitating lung disease. But now that diacetyl—a chemical used to create an artificial butter taste in the flavoring—has been identified, many believe, as…

Oct 31, 2007 3:35 PM CDT

Survey Says US-Style Litigation Coming to UK

Although class actions have long been unique to America, that is starting to change—and fast, one major U.S. law firm is predicting. It is basing this projection, in part, on what potential corporate defendants themselves expect to see happening in Europe soon. A survey sponsored by St. Louis-based Bryan Cave…

Oct 31, 2007 1:19 AM CDT

Cost to Keep Ex in Health Plan: Law License

Misrepresenting himself as still married to his ex-wife for six years, so that she could continue to be covered under his health insurance, has cost a former New York state government lawyer his job and a two-year suspension from practice. Carmine Clemente, 64, also agreed under a plea deal in…

Oct 31, 2007 1:00 AM CDT

Scary Halloween Story to Employers: Retaliation Case Award of $5.5M

In a wake-up call to employers in California who haven’t yet familiarized themselves with the legal requirements concerning discrimination complaints, a federal jury in San Francisco has awarded $5.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the plaintiff in a retaliation case. Kiran Pande, a former Chevron Corp. engineer, had…

Oct 31, 2007 12:32 AM CDT

Supreme Court Halts Execution in MS

A last-minute decision tonight by the U.S. Supreme Court to call off the scheduled execution of a Mississippi murderer seemingly signals that there is now a de facto death penalty moratorium in place nationwide. The decision—which was made a mere 15 minutes or so before Earl W. Berry was scheduled…

Oct 30, 2007 11:44 PM CDT

Legal Malpractice Defense: We Had No Case, Plaintiffs Lawyers Now Say

Named as defendants in a legal malpractice claim, a group of personal injury lawyers in New York has responded with an unusual defense. The medical malpractice suit they filed on behalf of their now-former client was meritless, they essentially contend. Thus, a legal malpractice case brought over the allegedly botched…

Oct 30, 2007 11:03 PM CDT

Mob Moll: Mafia Solved Civil Rights Case

In the latest revelation in the ongoing murder trial of a former FBI supervisor in New York, the longtime mistress of a Mafia enforcer has testified that the FBI relied on mob muscle to solve an infamous 1964 civil rights case. (It was dramatized in the movie Mississippi Burning.) Witness…

Oct 30, 2007 8:35 PM CDT

Noose Use Up Nationwide Since Jena March

Displaying a hangman’s noose has become an increasingly common practice throughout the country since a civil rights march in Jena, La., last month over a racially charged schoolyard attack that reportedly occurred after a noose was hung in a tree near the tiny town’s high school. Since then, nooses have…

Oct 30, 2007 7:10 PM CDT