Verdicts & Settlements

Election Round-Up: Fed’l Judge Smacks Down Conn.‘s Potentional Ban of WWE Garb at Polls

For Connecticut voters who want to wear a Stone Cold Steve Austin costume to the polls on Tuesday, in a nod to Halloween and the retired professional wrestling star, the Christian Science Monitor has good news: They will apparently be allowed to do so, under a federal judge’s ruling that…

Oct 28, 2010 9:00 AM CDT

Federal Judge Shuts Down LimeWire, Says P2P Site Aided ‘Massive’ Infringement

Citing “massive” infringement, a federal judge in New York yesterday ordered LimeWire immediately to shut down its peer-to-peer file-sharing website and gave the company 14 days to report back on the measures it has taken to do so, according to Computerworld and PC World. The ruling came in a permanent…

Oct 27, 2010 11:38 PM CDT

Appeals Court Reinstates Legal Malpractice Claim Because Plaintiff Was Pro Se

A New York appeals court has reinstated a legal malpractice suit because the ex-client suing Koven & Krause ended up pro se because his lawyer was suspended. Under a state statute, the Court of Appeals held in an opinion (PDF) yesterday, Joseph Moray should have been given extra time to…

Oct 27, 2010 9:49 PM CDT

NYC Tree House Prevails in Legal Battle, Winning Permit in Historic District

Score another win for a tree house. A neighbor in her historic New York City neighborhood objected. But artist Melinda Hackett, 49, has won a permit from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the circular, roofed structure with a spiral staircase wrapped around a tree trunk after months of legal battling,…

Oct 27, 2010 5:46 PM CDT

School District Must Pay $81,000 Legal Bill re Teen’s Challenge of Same-Sex Prom Date Ban

Although a high school prom in Mississippi was canceled and Constance McMillen says she was tricked into attending a sham prom after her after she challenged a ban on same-sex dates, McMillen was nonetheless a prevailing plaintiff in a civil rights suit. So a federal judge has ordered the Itawamba…

Oct 26, 2010 10:16 PM CDT

Federal Judge Blocks Gov’t Attempt to Get Amazon Records for Tax Billing

A federal judge in Seattle has nixed an attempt by North Carolina taxing authorities to obtain customer records from Amazon in order to impose sales tax on their purchases. Although N.C. Revenue Department officials say they have no interest in checking to see what customers from the state are buying,…

Oct 26, 2010 9:50 PM CDT

Death Penalty Conviction Axed, New Trial Ordered Due to Judge’s Bias Against Defense Counsel

In what the Ohio Supreme Court describes in a slip opinion (PDF) today as a “highly extraordinary” case, it has vacated a death penalty conviction and ordered a new murder trial because of the trial judge’s bias against defense counsel. As Judge Douglas Rastatter of the Clark County Court of…

Oct 26, 2010 9:22 PM CDT

Study Says Supreme Court Is More Pro-Business Now Than 25 Years Ago

The U.S. Supreme Court is more pro-business now than it was 25 years ago, according to a study by the Constitutional Accountability Center. Taking issue with comments by Justice Stephen Breyer in an interview earlier this month that the court treats business the same as it has for decades, the…

Oct 26, 2010 4:54 PM CDT

Top Calif. Court OKs Dismissal of Up to 300-Plus Criminal Cases Due to Judge Shortage

At least 18 criminal defendants who refused to waive their constitutional right to a speedy trial won’t have to go to trial at all, following a California Supreme Court ruling today that charges against them were properly dismissed due to a lack of available judges in Riverside County to try…

Oct 25, 2010 8:36 PM CDT

Forgotten at Sea, Scuba Diver Is Rescued by Boy Scout, Wins $1.68M Judgment

Corrected: For nearly five hours after Daniel Carlock was accidentally left behind by his charter dive boat, in the Pacific Ocean some 12 miles off the shore of Long Beach, Calif., he thought he might be about to die. But the aerospace engineer got lucky—twice. Rescued in 2004 after he…

Oct 25, 2010 5:52 PM CDT

US to Pay Native American Farmers $680M in Farm Loan Discrimination Case

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced an agreement to provide $680 million in compensation and another $80 million in debt relief to settle a class-action suit by Native American Farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Today’s settlement can never undo wrongs that Native Americans…

Oct 20, 2010 12:41 AM CDT

Humble Maine Home, Ex-Lender Lawyer at Epicenter of Storm Over Defective Docs in Foreclosure Cases

An unprecedented national furor over a deluge of defective filings in mortgage foreclosure cases largely centers on a single unlikely case. Nicolle Bradbury admittedly can’t afford to pay the $474 monthly mortgage on her humble Maine home after losing her job. But she won the mortgage foreclosure lottery when a…

Oct 15, 2010 3:45 PM CDT

Review: Hilary Swank Shines as Sis Who Got JD to Free Sib, But Movie of True Tale Lacks Fire

Hilary Swank shines and Juliette Lewis is thrilling in a much-anticipated movie about a high-school dropout who went to college and earned a juris doctor degree in a successful effort to overturn her brother’s wrongful murder conviction. But the new film is otherwise duller than it should have been, writes…

Oct 15, 2010 1:07 PM CDT

Reporters Can Tweet & Text Trial Plea, But Can’t Broadcast Audio, Ontario Judge Rules

Journalists will be allowed to tweet and send live-text accounts of an expected guilty plea in a high-profile murder trial of an air force commander, a Canadian judge has ruled. And they will even be allowed to take audio clips of the proceedings concerning Col. Russell Williams, 47, Ontario Superior…

Oct 15, 2010 12:00 PM CDT

Municipal Judge Appeals Kibosh on 2nd Gig as Stand-Up Comedian

Nixed when he sought permission to continue with his longstanding sideline as a stand-up comedian, a New Jersey municipal judge will soon explain his position to the state supreme court. It has agreed to hear the appeals of South Hackensack Judge Vincenzo Sicari, 41, from the kibosh put on his…

Oct 15, 2010 11:29 AM CDT