Verdicts & Settlements

17 Years After Passing Bar Exam, Ex-Con Gets His NY Law License

Persistence paid off for a City University of New York law graduate who passed the state bar exam in 1994. Although Neal Wiesner had repeatedly been denied his law license on character and fitness grounds, due to his criminal conduct during the 1980s, a New York appeals court this week…

Mar 21, 2012 4:10 PM CDT

Federal Judge Biery Continues to Vent in School Prayer Case with ‘Non-Kumbaya Order’

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of San Antonio continues to express his irritation with the firestorm over a school prayer case. When Biery approved a settlement in February, he included a personal statement criticizing the politicians who “demagogued this case.” In the latest development, Biery refused to sanction school district…

Mar 21, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Disbarment of Lawyer Who Blew Off ‘Bogus Order to Compel’ Is Reversed on Due Process Grounds

A lawyer who refused to respond to a discovery request in a North Carolina attorney disciplinary matter has had her subsequent disbarment reversed based on a due process violation. Because the evidence presented against attorney Sybil H. Barrett at the trial of the legal ethics case differed from the charges…

Mar 20, 2012 9:35 PM CDT

Appeals Court Rebukes Judge for Dismissing a Dozen Cases Because Prosecutor Was Late

A Canadian appellate court has rebuked a Toronto judge for dismissing the cases of a dozen people facing either conviction or sentencing because a prosecutor was a few minutes late returning after a break, reports the Star. “It is clear that the trial judge had no power to make the…

Mar 20, 2012 8:48 PM CDT

Appeals Court OKs Summary Contempt Ruling re Lawyer Sentenced to 90 Days for In-Court Diatribe

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has upheld a judge’s summary contempt ruling concerning a lawyer who was sentenced to 90 days after diatribing at length in court when jury selection didn’t go his way. The outburst by Barry Wilson during his client’s Suffolk Superior Court murder trial was “atrocious. It’s the…

Mar 20, 2012 4:50 PM CDT

Breast-Feeding Woman Booted from Plane Wins Secret Delta Settlement, 2 Other Carriers to Pay $20K

A New Mexico woman who said she was ordered off a Delta Connections flight in Vermont in 2006 after she refused an offended flight attendant’s demand to cover herself with an airline blanket has settled her civil rights case over the incident. According to Emily Gillette, who is now 32,…

Mar 16, 2012 9:25 PM CDT

Ex-Rutgers Student Guilty on Multiple Counts, Could Get Max in Webcam Hate Crime Case

A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s same-sex tryst has been found guilty on multiple charges but acquitted of bias intimidation today by a Middlesex County, N.J., jury. Nonetheless, 20-year-old Dharun Ravi could face the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison…

Mar 16, 2012 5:12 PM CDT

Jury Awards $4M Each to Families of Two Slain Va. Tech Students; Awards Likely to Be Capped at $100K

Siding with the families of two Virginia Tech students slain in a 2007 campus massacre by another student that left 33 individuals dead, a state-court jury in Christianburg today awarded $4 million to each of the families in a duty-to-warn case. The state, which is the only defendant, immediately filed…

Mar 14, 2012 9:37 PM CDT

NY Lawyer Convicted in Witness-Tampering Case Is Disbarred

The conduct on which New York attorney Robert M. Simels’ federal bribery conviction was based would also constitute a crime under state law, a state appellate court panel has determined. So the Appellate Division, First Department granted today a disciplinary committee petition to disbar him, under a legal ethics rule…

Mar 14, 2012 4:28 PM CDT

Jury Foreman Is Fined $500 for Online Sentencing Research; Judge Calls for Revised Model Instruction

Although a New Jersey judge reminded jurors not only daily but before each break not to do Internet research concerning the case, one juror apparently failed to get the message. After determining, as he thought, through online research that the defendant in a Hackensack drug case would get a minimum…

Mar 13, 2012 9:44 PM CDT

Homeowner on ‘60 Minutes’ Foreclosure Program Will Get $18M Settlement in Whistle-Blower Case

A Florida homeowner and foreclosure fighter who was featured on a 60 Minutes program about the so-called robo-signing scandal concerning improperly attested documents is scheduled to get an $18 million settlement from a whistle-blower case. The money will come from a $95 million settlement between five of the nation’s biggest…

Mar 13, 2012 4:45 PM CDT

Federal Court Dismisses Former Cooley Law Student’s Suit Over Being Kicked Out of School

After being accused of changing an exam answer during an appeal of his grade, a student at Thomas M. Cooley Law School refused to accept a one-term suspension. Amit Ghoshal’s internal appeal resulted in a three-member review board’s determination that he had violated the school’s honor code and a recommendation…

Mar 10, 2012 12:45 AM CST

Houston Jury Says Feds Can Seize $330M From Foreign Bank Accounts Controlled By R. Allen Stanford

In a move that puts the feds a step closer to getting their hands on the assets of onetime billionaire R. Allen Stanford’s business operations, but doesn’t assure that they will beat out competing claimants, a federal court jury in Houston decided on Thursday that Stanford must forfeit to U.S.…

Mar 9, 2012 5:55 PM CST

Federal Judge Nixes Jacoby & Meyers Challenge to Non-Lawyer Firm Ownership, Cites Lack of Standing

Saying that Jacoby & Meyers has no standing to challenge a New York legal ethics rule against non-attorney ownership of law firms because the well-known personal injury firm has not been harmed by the rule, a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday threw out the firm’s lawsuit, Reuters reports. “The…

Mar 9, 2012 3:05 PM CST

DC Court of Appeals Disbars Lawyer for ‘Egregious’ Murder-Case Misconduct While a Federal Prosecutor

Updated: Former assistant U.S. attorney G. Paul Howes was disbarred today by the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals. It is the first time in at least 10 years that a lawyer anywhere in the country has been disbarred by judges over conduct as a federal prosecutor, USA Today reports. Howes…

Mar 8, 2012 7:34 PM CST