Trials & Litigation

WA, Not Parents to Fund Child Mental Care?

In a ruling that could help struggling families, the Washington Supreme Court says the state must help some children who need mental health services even if their parents aren’t unfit. Ordinarily, parents must care for their children unless they abuse or neglect them. But after “Henry’s” parents paid some $200,000…

Oct 12, 2007 11:17 PM CDT

CA v. Court in Sex Offender Residency Sweep

In a showdown between California’s governor and the state supreme court, parole officers yesterday began arresting hundreds of convicted sex offenders for violating a new state law. It prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park, as well as a number of other areas where…

Oct 12, 2007 10:31 PM CDT

Suit Planned in Deer Custody Case

A lawyer for an Oregon family who nursed a deformed deer back to health after finding her as a fawn on a road five years ago says his clients are considering a lawsuit to regain custody of the animal. The pet deer, known as Snowball, was taken about a month…

Oct 12, 2007 9:14 PM CDT

Court Fines Law Firm Over Partner’s Tax Levy

When the IRS levied a New York personal injury firm to collect $1.2 million that partner A. Sheldon Edelman allegedly owed in unpaid taxes, Edelman—who was responsible for handling firm accounts—reportedly ignored the levies and continued paying himself and a junior partner their usual weekly draws. Because a draw is…

Oct 12, 2007 7:44 PM CDT

Vatican Publishes Medieval Trial Docs

Documents from controversial trials 700 years ago that still fascinate many today are to be published by the Vatican later this month in a limited, leather-bound edition of 799 numbered copies. It features reproductions of handwritten parchment minutes of trials between 1307 and 1312 of members of the Knights Templar,…

Oct 12, 2007 5:31 PM CDT

Menopause Drug Verdict: $134.5 M

Three Nevada women who claimed Prempro and Premarin caused their breast cancer have won a $134.5 verdict against the maker of the hormone-replacement drugs. The Reno jury delivered the verdict late Wednesday and will return to the courtroom today to consider punitive damages, the Associated Press reports. The compensatory damages…

Oct 12, 2007 12:57 PM CDT

Law Firm Claims Right to Partner’s Invention

An intellectual property law firm is claiming it owns the patents on inventions by one of its partners. That’s the claim in a lawsuit against Google by a company that bought the right to the patents from a lawyer who worked for Fish & Richardson, the Recorder reports. The suit…

Oct 12, 2007 11:36 AM CDT

Sharper Image Purifier Settlement Nixed

A proposal to settle a class action against Sharper Image with $19 coupons for buyers of its Ionic Breeze purifers has been rejected by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga rejected the proposal as inadequate, the Daily Business Review reports. The legal publication calls the decision a…

Oct 12, 2007 11:06 AM CDT

Bondage Case to Define Too-Unsafe Sex?

Both the victim and the perpetrator are dead. But the estates of two men who died as a result of a dangerous sexual practice are involved in a cutting-edge tort case that could help define what adults can and cannot consent to do. Adrian Exley, a 32-year-old British stripper known…

Oct 11, 2007 9:39 PM CDT

Big Legal Bill for Exec’s Backdating Defense

Major corporations commonly agree to indemnify officers and directors for legal costs, should they be sued or prosecuted as a result of their work. Otherwise, even CEOs often would find it difficult or impossible to pay the cost of a standard defense. However, the defense price tag can be noteworthy…

Oct 11, 2007 7:56 PM CDT

Families of Dead Iraqis Sue Blackwater

In an unusual effort to hold a private military contractor in Iraq civilly liable for alleged wrongdoing, the families of three dead Iraq civilians and one survivor of a recent Baghdad shooting sued Blackwater USA and its affiliates in federal court in Washington, D.C., this morning. Filed by the Center…

Oct 11, 2007 7:13 PM CDT

Law Firm to Clients: Feds Tapped Our Phones

Lawyers at a Vermont firm that represents clients being held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan believe the federal government may be wiretapping their law office phones. So Gensburg, Atwell & Broderick sent a letter to other clients of the firm on Oct. 2, warning…

Oct 11, 2007 6:48 PM CDT

Survey: Lawyers Split on Required Retirement

Although half of the law firms discussed in a recent survey have mandatory retirement policies, only a little more than one-third of the responding lawyers agree with such policies. That suggests it may be time for law firms to rethink mandatory retirement, says James Cotterman, a principal of the Altman…

Oct 11, 2007 5:57 PM CDT

Foreclosure Crisis, Widespread Risky Debt

Mortgage foreclosures nationwide last month were down a bit from August’s blistering pace, but were still nearly double the number in September 2006. And, although a so-called subprime mortgage meltdown in certain segments of the country has been widely blamed for the number of homeowners losing the battle to pay…

Oct 11, 2007 3:53 PM CDT

Record $102 M in McCartney Divorce?

A rumored $102 million settlement to be paid by Paul McCartney to end his five-year marriage to Heather Mills would be the largest ever in a contested divorce case in the British courts, which have been trending toward bigger American-style awards in recent years. The British press estimates the former…

Oct 11, 2007 3:16 PM CDT