Verdicts & Settlements

Fed’l Judge Says Cheerleading Isn’t a Sport Under Title IX, Points to ‘Roster Manipulation’

Deciding a closely watched case challenging the way that one university attempts to comply with federal requirements concerning gender equality in college sports programs, a federal judge has determined that cheerleading is not a competitive sport. In today’s written decision (PDF) explaining his declaratory judgment in the Bridgeport, Conn., case,…

Jul 21, 2010 8:31 PM CDT

Prosecutor Can Be Personally Sued Over Search of Journalist’s Home, 10th Circuit Rules

Qualified immunity does not apply to protect a former deputy district attorney from being personally sued for approving a search warrant of a student journalist’s home due to a professor’s unhappiness over a parody in a University of Northern Colorado community newspaper, a federal appeals court has ruled. Although the…

Jul 21, 2010 7:02 PM CDT

Appeals Court Revives Fashion Model’s $10M Malpractice Suit Against Boies Schiller

A fashion model who says she was duped into providing evidence to Boies Schiller & Flexner by its promise to represent her individually in a case against modeling agencies can proceed with her malpractice suit against the litigation boutique, a New York appeals court has ruled. The Appellate Division, First…

Jul 21, 2010 6:11 PM CDT

Law Firm Must Pay Ex-Client Legal Fees & Punitives for Filing Bad-Faith Bankruptcy Petition

Finding that a law firm made a bad-faith involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in an effort to force an ex-client to abandon meritorious counterclaims in a fee-dispute case, a federal bankruptcy judge has dismissed the petition and awarded an as-yet-undetermined amount of attorney’s fees and punitive damages to the ex-client.…

Jul 21, 2010 5:38 PM CDT

Traveler Settles Suit Claiming Screaming Child Caused Hearing Loss

An American tourist in Australia has settled a lawsuit against Qantas that claims she suffered permanent hearing loss because of a screaming boy on one of its flights. Terms of the settlement are confidential, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Jean Barnard, 67, claimed in her suit that she was boarding…

Jul 21, 2010 1:24 PM CDT

2-Month Hiatus for ‘Socially Inept’ Judge re Conduct ‘Akin to Stalking’

A 51-year-old Pennsylvania judge who was so clueless with women that he didn’t realize his repeated calls and unannounced visits to the homes and offices of female attorneys might be unwelcome has been suspended without pay for two months. Described by his own lawyer as “socially inept and challenged with…

Jul 20, 2010 10:28 PM CDT

Once-Prominent Lawyer Abandons Effort to Portray Teen as Nazi, Takes Plea in Sex Case

So much for the Nazi-victim-made-me-do-it defense. After a Minnesota judge ruled against admitting a photo that reportedly showed the teenage victim of a claimed sex crime with an Adolf Hitler-like mustache and an arm raised in a Nazi salute, a once-prominent Minneapolis lawyer has taken a plea as his case…

Jul 20, 2010 6:05 PM CDT

Who Really Won? Record $550M SEC Fine No Big Deal to Goldman Sachs, Says NY Times

Goldman Sachs agreed to pay a record-breaking $550 million fine as part of a settlement announced last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of charges that the bank misled investors when it offered mortgage-related securities that turned out to be toxic in a dismal real estate market. But…

Jul 19, 2010 8:53 PM CDT

11th Circuit Upholds 3-Year Term for Actor Wesley Snipes on 3 Misdemeanor Tax Counts

Saying that a federal district judge in Florida had discretion to sentence Wesley Snipes the maximum term, a federal appeals court has upheld the actor’s three consecutive one-year sentences on three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file a tax return. Snipes reportedly owes the Internal Revenue Service some $17…

Jul 19, 2010 6:13 PM CDT

A ‘Disappointed & Shocked’ Top Judge Is Reprimanded for Refusing Execution-Eve Appeal

The top criminal appeals court judge in Texas was reprimanded today for refusing to accept a late appeal hours before an inmate was executed and hence failing in her duty to maintain open access to the courts. The Commission on Judicial Conduct found that Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of the…

Jul 17, 2010 3:14 AM CDT

Ruling From Bench, Calif. Appeals Judge Throws Out $2.3M Dole Verdict and Case

Ruling from the bench in a Los Angeles case, an appellate judge today voided a $2.3 million jury verdict and threw out a pesticide-exposure case against Dole Food Co., due to “deliberate and egregious misconduct” by Nicaraguan lawyers who recruited Central American banana workers as plaintiffs. Due to the misconduct,…

Jul 16, 2010 12:16 AM CDT

Lawyer Takes Plea in Case Over His Hardball Litigation Tactics, Will Be Disbarred

A 42-year-old California lawyer has agreed to plead no contest to one of three felonies he faced after allegedly filing a civil suit against a witness in a stalking case in which his client was a defendant to dissuade the woman from testifying. In exchange, the other two charges against…

Jul 14, 2010 9:22 PM CDT

Naked Biker Was Wearing a Helmet, But Agrees to Say Otherwise and Pay a $50 Fine

Bike-riding in the nude has been found to be a form of constitutionally protected speech in Portland, Ore. But across the river in Vancouver, Wash., the courts apparently take a more minimalist view of the First Amendment. After a Clark County District Court jury deadlocked earlier this year on whether…

Jul 14, 2010 6:38 PM CDT

Lawyer Loses Age Discrimination Case Over In-House Counsel Job Application Ding

First David Reeves lost the competition for an in-house counsel job, watching the post go to another labor and employment lawyer 16 years his junior. Now the 56-year-old lawyer has lost the age discrimination case he filed over the job application ding: A Solano County Superior Court grant of summary…

Jul 13, 2010 6:30 PM CDT

2nd Circuit Strikes FCC Expletive Rule, Says Blanket Ban on F-Word & Others Violates 1st Amendment

Saying that a blanket ban on all use of certain expletives on television is unconstitutionally vague and chills the right of free speech, a federal appeals court has struck down a Federal Communications Commission policy that any use of profanity referring to sex or excrement is inherently indecent and could…

Jul 13, 2010 6:01 PM CDT