Trials & Litigation

Diversity Issue Heats Up in Miami Courts

A simmering controversy over a series of insensitive remarks recently made by Miami area judges has heated up further, following the resignation of a Broward County jurist chairing the court’s newly created diversity board. Elijah H. Williams, the first black to be appointed to the Broward County bench in 20…

Jul 18, 2007 8:35 PM CDT

Suit: Legal Fees Draining Fund

A suit by Sept. 11 rescue workers claims a $1 billion insurance fund set up to compensate them is being drained by overhead and attorney fees. The fund has spent $74 million on legal bills and the costs of operation, paying only $45,000 to a worker who was injured by…

Jul 18, 2007 8:17 PM CDT

Texas Firms Pay $447 K to Defend Judge

Law firms and attorneys in Texas donated $447,000 to help an embattled state supreme court justice defend his integrity, according to recently revealed expense reports. With the help of these contributions, Justice Nathan Hecht prevailed in his appeal of an ethics citation for allegedly misusing his judicial office to help…

Jul 18, 2007 7:47 PM CDT

Parents on Trial for ‘Quiet Gathering’

Officials describe a bacchanalian scene: a basement that smelled of alcohol and was littered with beer cans as teens played beer pong on the family ping-pong table. But Jeffrey and Sara Hutsell say they were shocked to find out, after teens who had been at the party in their suburban…

Jul 18, 2007 5:46 PM CDT

Feds to 150 LA Landlords: Evict or Else

A number of government officials in California, including at least one federal judge, have been openly unenthusiastic about helping the feds’ wage an all-out war on drugs as far as medicinal marijuana—which is legal under state law—is concerned. So the feds are trying another tactic. In a recent letter-writing blitz,…

Jul 18, 2007 1:15 AM CDT

Suit Says New Harry Potter Book Heisted

The new Harry Potter book doesn’t officially debut until Saturday. But lawyers are already in court over what appears to be a bootlegged copy whizzing around on the Internet. Photos of what appear to be actual pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—with someone’s fingers visibly holding the book…

Jul 17, 2007 10:27 PM CDT

Libyan Medics’ HIV Sentences Now Life

Libya’s High Judicial Council has commuted to life imprisonment the death sentences initially imposed on six foreign medics convicted in a controversial case of having intentionally started an HIV epidemic in a children’s hospital. The commutation today was prompted by a foreign financial settlement of $460 million to be paid…

Jul 17, 2007 9:47 PM CDT

12 Dead at Pakistan Lawyers’ Rally

A suicide bomb blast today at a Pakistan rally for lawyers supporting the country’s embattled chief justice has killed at least 12 people. Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was not injured; the bomb went off near the podium where he was to speak in Islamabad, the country’s capital, but while…

Jul 17, 2007 9:07 PM CDT

Taxpayer v IRS in Sex-Change Claim

A ground-breaking tax case is scheduled to go to trial next week over an IRS denial of a taxpayer’s medical expense deduction. Rhiannon O’Donnabhain, 63, wrote off $25,000 in surgery expenses. But the Internal Revenue Service disallowed them, saying that her sex-change operation six years ago, from male to female,…

Jul 17, 2007 8:16 PM CDT

Makeover Show Claims Dismissed

ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” was able to change a three-bedroom house into a nine-bedroom mansion, but it didn’t have to provide a happy ending for five orphans who lived there, a judge has ruled. Judge Paul Gutman said the children had failed to prove claims that the show promised…

Jul 17, 2007 7:32 PM CDT

Accused Doc Sues La. AG

A physician who stuck it out at a New Orleans hospital in disastrous conditions following Hurricane Katrina has filed a lawsuit against the state attorney general who accused her of killing four patients. The lawsuit by Dr. Anna Pou claims some patients could not be saved in the chaotic situation…

Jul 17, 2007 5:16 PM CDT

Ex-Software CEO Can Sue Lawyers

The California Supreme Court has cleared the way for malicious prosecution suit by the founder of a software company. The decision allows Siebel Systems founder Thomas Siebel to sue two lawyers who represented a woman in a suit against Siebel and the company, the Recorder reports. Siebel Systems was later…

Jul 17, 2007 12:37 PM CDT

Gitmo Lawyer: U.S. Agents Seized Notes

A Canadian attorney representing an accused enemy combatant held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison says he was harassed and had his legal notes reviewed on Saturday by U.S. authorities. On his way home after meeting with his client, Omar Khadr, 20, Dennis Edney was singled out by U.S. customs…

Jul 17, 2007 12:56 AM CDT

Murderer Loses, Jurors Win Wedding

A murder trial led to matrimony for two Queens, N.Y., jurors who met while sitting on the same jury panel and are to be married next month by the presiding judge in the case. Given all the time that panel members spend together—while under strict instructions to say nothing about…

Jul 17, 2007 12:30 AM CDT

Holy Cow! Sacred Bull Spared in UK Case

At least for the moment, Shambo is safe from the butcher’s knife. Revered by the Hindu Skanda Vale Community in West Wales, the 6-year-old Friesian bull had tested positive for bovine tuberculosis and been ordered slaughtered by the Welsh Assembly. But a High Court judge in Cardiff ruled today in…

Jul 17, 2007 12:09 AM CDT