Verdicts & Settlements

Fed’l Jury Convicts Lawyer of Hiring Hitman to Kill His Wife with Pipe Bomb

Although his wife stood by him and insisted that attorney Edgar Steele was the victim of a government plot to silence him, the Idaho lawyer today was convicted by a federal jury concerning his alleged contract with a family handyman to kill his spouse with a pipe bomb. Steele, who…

May 5, 2011 7:29 PM CDT

Fortuitious $3.97M Tax Refund Helps Ex-Rothstein Partner Settle with Bankruptcy Trustee for $1.9M

A former name partner in the law firm of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein is going to be able to settle a $10 million suit filed by the bankruptcy trustee overseeing Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler’s dissolution, with the help of a fortuitous tax refund from the Internal Revenue Service. Because Stuart…

May 5, 2011 6:48 PM CDT

Judge Rapped for ‘Injudicious’ Public Comments About Parking in Handicapped Space Without Placard

An Indiana municipal judge has been admonished by a state disciplinary agency for comments he made to a reporter about having parked in a handicapped spot. Although Judge Charles Hunter was not formally charged with an ethics violation, he agreed to the written criticism of his conduct, explains the Indiana…

May 5, 2011 6:02 PM CDT

Fla. Judge Changes Mind, Won’t Hold Ben-Ezra Firm in Contempt, But Imposes $13K in Sanctions

A Florida judge has changed her mind about a February contempt ruling in a mortgage foreclosure case that put Ben-Ezra & Katz in the headlines. Although she initially said she would hold the law firm, managing partner Marc Ben-Ezra and former associate David Cornell in contempt, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maxine…

May 4, 2011 8:06 PM CDT

Blindsided in Courtroom Attack, DA Fights Back, Sends Convicted Murderer to Hospital

An Oklahoma sentencing hearing Monday for a defendant who had just been convicted in a high-profile felony murder case played out like a scene from a Hollywood western, according to eyewitness accounts. Blindsided by Emanuel Mitchell, who came up from behind and punched him in the face as he was…

May 4, 2011 5:51 PM CDT

Secret Jury-Select Plan Appealed in Casey Anthony Murder Case; Similar Issue Wins Reversal in Wash.

As some media organizations today appealed a Florida judge’s rules for offsite jury selection in an upcoming high-profile murder trial, an appeals court in a different state yesterday reversed an unrelated murder conviction because the trial judge briefly closed the courtroom during jury selection. The appeal concerning secret jury selection…

May 3, 2011 11:16 PM CDT

Fla. Lawyer Sued by Colo. AG Is Now Suspended in Fla. Over Alleged Personal Use of Trust Funds

A Florida lawyer recently sued by the Colorado attorney general over his “debt management” work on behalf of clients there is now suspended in his home state, based on apparently unrelated alleged misconduct. After an investigation, Clint Johnson has been charged with using his law firm trust account funds for…

May 3, 2011 10:18 PM CDT

House in Which 2 Spouses Lived for 4 Years, Separated by Sheetrock Wall, Will Be Sold, Judge Rules

A dividing wall made of Sheetrock that was put up in 2007 with court approval in Simon and Chana Taub’s shared house presumably will not be a value-enhancing plus factor. But a New York judge has found another way to split the couple’s abode, ending a six-year divorce battle between…

May 3, 2011 6:44 PM CDT

Top Mass. Court Puts Law Firm Back on Med-Mal Client’s Case, But Says Firm Can Select Attorney

When an individual lawyer at Thomas M. Kiley & Associates cited both a plan to withdraw temporarily from the practice of law and irreconcilable differences with a medical-malpractice client, the state court judge overseeing the case allowed her to withdraw. But he ordered the law firm to continue with the…

May 3, 2011 5:13 PM CDT

1st Day OpenCourt Live-Blog News: $100 Fine; Lunch Break; Should Video Archive Access Be Banned?

An experimental OpenCourt project is under way in Quincy, Mass., where information in real time about arraignments and similar doings in Quincy District Court will now be available online through Twitter, live Web streaming and a live blog that provides the text of the tweets. News on the project’s first…

May 3, 2011 12:06 AM CDT

Ex-Winston Partner Pleads in $19M Scheme; Gov’t Says He Sought Law Firm Status, Not Personal Gain

A former partner at Winston & Strawn pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy concerning a scheme to launder nearly $19 million through attorney escrow accounts under his control. Jonathan Bristol, 55, said he knew celebrity money manager Kenneth Starr had stolen the money from wealthy clients, the New…

May 2, 2011 7:06 PM CDT

Judge to Media: Sign Confidentiality Pact to Find Out Where Casey Anthony Jury Selection Will Occur

Anticipating that the upcoming trial of Casey Anthony for the 2008 murder of her two-year-old daughter will be the biggest courtroom media event in state history, a Florida judge is requiring media organizations to sign a confidentiality agreement if they want to know in advance where the jury will be…

May 2, 2011 5:35 PM CDT

Long-Lost Settlement Funds Are Finally (and Charitably) Disbursed

Antitrust lawyers are undoubtedly familiar with the decades-old U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Grinnell Corp. But what happened to the settlement funds derived from the resolution of the related class action lawsuit may come as a surprise. Nearly 40 years after the civil class action was settled, a portion…

May 1, 2011 8:50 AM CDT

You’re a Lawyer Now, So You Can Stop Sounding Like One

The local bar association asked Angus and Judge Horatio Standwell to do the next Wednesday night program on the “art of persuasion.” So on Monday morning, Judge Standwell showed up at our office with a jug of dark mountain roast coffee and a box of oatmeal raisin cookies from the…

May 1, 2011 7:30 AM CDT

Relentless Reprobates Go All Out to Make a Point

For some folks, living with a minor injustice or a perceived slight is simply not possible. They just don’t have it in them to let it go and move on. They are determined to prevail and emerge the hero (in their own minds, anyway). Neither common sense nor mathematics will…

May 1, 2011 5:09 AM CDT