Verdicts & Settlements

Meet attorney Adam Karp, ‘St. Francis with a briefcase’ who gets five-figure awards in pet slayings

Traditionally, animals were considered property whose only value is what it costs to purchase them or the amount of money they could produce through breeding, sale of their meat or similar business operations. But that view has been changing, and Washington state attorney Adam Karp has been in the forefront…

Jan 24, 2014 11:00 PM CST

Ex-client can sue out-of-state law firm, top Ariz. court rules

Agreeing with an earlier decision by a state appeals court, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that an out-of-state attorney and his firm could be sued by Arizona residents to whom they provided a tax-shelter opinion letter for a $50,000 fee. In a two-page opinion (PDF), the supreme court essentially…

Jan 24, 2014 8:50 PM CST

Man who responded to Craigslist ad for a sperm donor is a dad, must pay child support, judge rules

William Marotta didn’t intend to be a father when he responded to a Craigslist ad for a sperm donor in 2009, and the two women who sought one didn’t want that result, either. But, because they didn’t have a physician perform the artificial insemination procedure, the written waiver of his…

Jan 22, 2014 11:45 PM CST

Lawyer who reviewed messages while driving gets parole after serving a year in hit-and-run case

Brought down by his lies about a hit-and-run accident that occurred while he was reading emails or texts while returning from a county bar association event, a New Jersey criminal defense attorney had his law license temporarily suspended and was sentenced to six years in prison after taking a plea…

Jan 22, 2014 10:30 PM CST

Hasidic merchants won’t have to pay fines for dress-code signs

Seven Hasidic merchants won’t have to pay fine for posting dress-code signs as a result of a settlement on Tuesday with New York City. The city had claimed the signs discriminated against women and non-Orthodox men, the New York Times reports. The signs read: “No shorts, no barefoot, no sleeveless,…

Jan 22, 2014 6:07 PM CST

Documentary on legal battle over T. rex bones kicks off Sundance Film Festival

The stunning discovery in 1990 of a largely complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton near an Indian reservation in South Dakota led to an epic legal battle as multiple parties argued over ownership of the 65-million-year-old bones. The skeleton of the enormous, long-dead dinosaur, known as Sue, was confiscated by the feds…

Jan 21, 2014 9:48 PM CST

Federal appeals court says state must pay for inmate’s sex-change operation

In what is being billed as the first such decision by a federal appeals court, the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday agreed with a trial court judge that the state of Massachusetts must pay for an inmate’s sex-change operation. Upholding a 2012 decision by U.S. District…

Jan 18, 2014 12:32 AM CST

Judge subpoenas sheriff to explain why assistant DA jailed for violating gag order was released

An assistant prosecutor who acts as a spokesman for the New Orleans district attorney’s office was sent to jail for 24 hours Thursday afternoon by a judge who found him in contempt of a gag order for speaking to the media about a murder case. But Assistant Orleans Parish DA…

Jan 17, 2014 10:34 PM CST

Woman gets 5 years for making false rape report

A 38-year-old Michigan woman was sentenced Friday to five years in prison after being convicted last month of making up a story that two men had entered her home about 80 miles from Detroit and raped her. The two men, who attended the same church as Sara Ylen’s ex-husband, likely…

Jan 17, 2014 6:30 PM CST

Man is tried from hospital bed, convicted of murdering his 91-year-old wife

A 49-year-old man whose weight has dwindled to 92 pounds due to periodic fasting over the past year was tried on his hospital bed and convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the death in 2011 of his 91-year-old wife. It was the first case ever tried in D.C. Superior Court…

Jan 16, 2014 10:49 PM CST

Two courts reject appeals in Michael Jackson death cases; insurance suit over $17M policy is settled

Litigation related to the death of pop singer Michael Jackson appears to be nearing a conclusion after the settlement of an insurance coverage case over a $17.5 million policy and a unanimous California appellate court ruling upholding the involuntary manslaughter conviction of his personal physician. Both were announced in court…

Jan 16, 2014 12:20 AM CST

Now-vindicated woman charged with making a false rape report wins $150K settlement

A woman who says she was pressured by police and social workers to recant her truthful report that she was bound, gagged, raped and photographed by a stranger in her transitional housing apartment when she was 18 years old has won a $150,000 settlement from a city in Washington state.…

Jan 15, 2014 10:25 PM CST

Man to get $1.6M for humiliating 3-enema ordeal after traffic stop

A city and county in New Mexico have agreed to settle for $1.6 million their portion of litigation brought by an arrestee who said he was subjected to a humiliating hospital anal exam involving three enemas, a colonoscopy and more after a traffic stop last year. The city of Deming…

Jan 15, 2014 6:15 PM CST

FCC lacked authority to impose ‘Net neutrality’ on broadband carriers, federal appeals court rules

In a victory for Verizon Communications Inc., a federal appeals court has ruled that a government agency does not have the power to require broadband carriers to comply with so-called Net neutrality regulations concerning Internet traffic. Having opted “to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment…

Jan 14, 2014 8:55 PM CST

Federal judge rebukes Apple for its conduct to court-appointed monitor, defends his $1K hourly rate

Weighing in for the first time on a long-simmering dispute between Apple Inc. and a court-appointed monitor, a federal judge in New York on Monday rebuked the company for its treatment of the monitor and defended his $1,100 billable hourly rate. The computer Goliath had sought an order removing Goodwin…

Jan 14, 2014 5:10 PM CST