Verdicts & Settlements

Federal judge finds 2 cities’ public defender programs deficient; will he OK a federal monitor?

Two cities in Washington state’s Skagit County systematically violated the rights of indigent individuals through their inadequate public defender programs and were “willfully blind” to problems caused by cost-cutting, a federal judge has ruled. In a Wednesday opinion (PDF) resulting from a June bench trial of a groundbreaking class action,…

Dec 4, 2013 8:50 PM CST

Lawyer gets 20 years in judicial bribery case, is ordered to pay $12M restitution

A Texas lawyer convicted of racketeering conspiracy and other charges in a Cameron County judicial bribery case was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $12 million in restitution. During a two-day sentencing hearing in Brownsville, a federal judge reversed two mail fraud convictions against…

Dec 4, 2013 5:10 PM CST

Tax shelter misstatement due to legal error merits the max in IRS penalties, Supreme Court says

Resolving a circuit split, the U.S. Supreme court has sided with the Internal Revenue Service in a dispute over the maximum penalty that can be assessed when a taxpayer misstates the value of a tax shelter partnership due to incorrect legal analysis. In a unanimous opinion (PDF) Tuesday authored by…

Dec 4, 2013 2:20 PM CST

Thalidomide plaintiffs agree to $80M settlement in Australian case; discovery continues in US

Decades after women were given Thalidomide to combat morning sickness during pregnancy in the 1950s and 1960s and wound up delivering babies with missing or deformed limbs and other birth defects, survivors are still seeking compensation. Litigation continues in the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain, but more than…

Dec 4, 2013 12:00 AM CST

Inebriated man who drove injured friend to hospital wins acquittal in drunken-driving case

A cigarette break outside during a night of drinking became an emergency last year when Roger Pleau’s friend, Eldon Deegan, fell down some stairs and gashed his head on a metal railing. At that point, the two Canadians realized they were locked out of Deegan’s apartment—their wives, who had gone…

Dec 3, 2013 10:15 PM CST

Federal judge OKs Detroit bankruptcy, says city can cut pensions for retirees

Ruling from the bench on Tuesday, a federal judge said the city of Detroit met eligibility requirements to proceed with its Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The decision by U.S. District Judge Steven Rhodes, which will be followed by a written opinion, sets the stage for the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in this…

Dec 3, 2013 6:25 PM CST

Judy Clarke has a knack for keeping her notorious clients off death row

In a South Carolina courtroom 18 years ago, Judy Clarke stood before a jury of nine men and three women and tried to humanize a client who had committed a horrific and inhuman act. Susan Smith at first claimed that a black man carjacked her and her two sons. She…

Dec 1, 2013 11:20 AM CST

Judge accused of signing blank child-removal orders isn’t immune from suit, federal court rules

Because pre-signing blank court orders for others to fill out after hours is an administrative rather than a judicial function requiring discretion, a Michigan judge who allegedly followed this practice is not immune from liability in a lawsuit filed by parents who briefly lost custody of their child, a federal…

Nov 27, 2013 7:50 PM CST

State appeals court upholds parole board ban on use of social media by sex offenders

Saying that convicted sex offenders pose a danger to the public if they are allowed access to the Internet, a New Jersey appellate court on Tuesday upheld a state parole board ban on the their use of social media.such as Facebook and Twitter. Objectors argued that the rule is overly…

Nov 27, 2013 7:20 PM CST

Law firm to pay nearly $1M to receiver to settle claim it helped client conceal assets

Add another law firm to the list of those that have helped fund a receivership winding up the business affairs of disbarred attorney Arthur Nadel. Without admitting liability, Florida’s Band Weintraub has agreed to pay nearly $1 million in settlement of a lawsuit by the receiver that alleged the firm…

Nov 27, 2013 6:05 PM CST

Terminally ill woman to be issued same-sex marriage license early by judge’s order

A new Illinois law allowing same-sex couples to marry won’t take effect until June 1. But Vernita Gray is set to marry Patricia Ewert before the end of the month, after a federal judge ordered Cook County Clerk David Orr to issue a marriage license to the Chicago couple, reports…

Nov 27, 2013 5:15 PM CST

Former Mass. chemist gets 3 to 5 years as probe of state crime-lab issues continues

A former chemist for a Massachusetts drug laboratory who faked test results in order to appear more productive pleaded guilty Friday to 27 counts, including obstruction of justice and evidence-tampering, and was sentenced to a three-to-five-year prison term. The sentence imposed on Annie Dookhan was above the standard maximum term,…

Nov 22, 2013 11:10 PM CST

Mistrial declared for lawyer accused of helping wife frame school volunteer

After a jury deadlocked 11-1 for conviction, a California judge on Thursday declared a mistrial in the case of a lawyer accused of helping his wife (also a graduate of a prestigious law school) frame a volunteer at their son’s elementary school by planting prescription painkillers, marijuana and drug paraphernalia…

Nov 21, 2013 11:50 PM CST

3 men convicted in infamous ‘Scottsboro Boys’ case are pardoned by Alabama parole board

Closing a chapter in a criminal case that is considered symbolic of racial injustice in the early decades of the 20th Century, the Alabama parole board Thursday granted posthumous pardons to three black men who were convicted by all-white juries of a rape that apparently never occurred in a case…

Nov 21, 2013 6:03 PM CST

Former Ropes & Gray associate loses retaliation case

Jurors deliberated only 2½ hours Wednesday before rejecting a former associate’s retaliation lawsuit against Ropes & Gray. Former associate John Ray III had claimed the law firm retaliated for his complaints about discrimination by refusing to give promised recommendations and later disclosed confidential information about the case to Above the…

Nov 21, 2013 2:25 PM CST