Trials & Litigation

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

Court: CA Judge Complaints Confidential

If a police officer acts improperly during an arrest, a defendant in a California criminal case has a right to obtain in camera judicial review of that officer’s personnel file to see if it contains relevant material about the issue that should be produced in discovery and potentially introduced as…

Oct 30, 2007 6:27 PM CDT

McGuireWoods Lawyers to Reap about $12M in BAR/BRI Suit

Lawyers from McGuireWoods who represented students in an antitrust suit against a bar review company are expected to be awarded more than $12 million in attorney fees. Former McGuireWoods lawyer Eliot Disner is expected to get about one-third of those fees, the National Law Journal reports. Disner was fired from…

Oct 30, 2007 12:20 PM CDT

Suits Target Chemical Used in Medical Tests

Plaintiffs lawyers are filing lawsuits against companies involved in the manufacture of a contrast dye used to help capture images for medical tests. The suits claims the heavy metal, gadolinium, can cause a disease called nephrogenic system fibrosis that hardens the skin, the Recorder reports. The Food and Drug Administration…

Oct 30, 2007 10:30 AM CDT

Jezebel on a Broomstick & Salem Witch Judge

When Eve LaPlante, a Boston area writer, starts thinking about a possible book topic, she doesn’t have to go far from home. In the last several years she has written two books about family forbears, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans and…

Oct 29, 2007 11:02 PM CDT

No Blackwater Case Due to Immunity Grant?

In addition to other obstacles that could well prevent prosecution of private Blackwater USA security guards who reportedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad last month, there’s one more major issue that recently came to light. The security guards were apparently promised immunity by the U.S. State Department early on…

Oct 29, 2007 10:31 PM CDT

Black Counsel Scarce at US Supreme Court

For the first time in more than a year, an African-American lawyer should be arguing before the U.S Supreme Court today. Even more unusual, Drew Days III is representing a corporate client. The argument will be his 24th before the nation’s highest court, reports the Associated Press, solidly establishing Days…

Oct 29, 2007 6:16 PM CDT