Verdicts & Settlements

Man Wrongly Jailed for Murder Helps Make Case for Actual Innocence Test

A little-noticed opinion by a New York judge earlier this month didn’t simply free Fernando Bermudez after 18 years in prison in a murder case. It found that he didn’t commit the crime. By doing so, Manhattan Supreme Court John Cataldo lent further weight to growing concern that not simply…

Nov 24, 2009 12:49 AM CST

As Bar Joke Becomes Habeas Claim, Lawyer Is Target of Hearing

A bar joke more than 20 years ago by a then-deputy attorney general in San Francisco isn’t so funny now. Made to a bartender at Eureka’s Waterfront Cafe, where a waitress happened to be a juror in a capital case, it resulted in an evidentiary hearing earlier this year after…

Nov 23, 2009 9:19 PM CST

Appeals Court OKs $5M in Punitives for Victim of Phone Hoax Strip Search

A Kentucky appeals court cut from $1 million to $400,000 a punitive damages award to a McDonald’s manager who was fired and charged with a crime after she says she was duped into pressuring a young worker to comply with instructions from a prank caller to submit to a strip…

Nov 23, 2009 7:55 PM CST

Jury Says Philip Morris Must Pay $300M to Longtime Smoker

A jury in South Florida says Philip Morris USA must pay $300 million, including $244 million in punitive damages, to a 25-year Benson & Hedges smoker who argued that the cigarette company committed fraud by concealing the dangers of smoking from her. Lawyers for Lucinda “Cindy” Naugle, who is a…

Nov 20, 2009 9:15 PM CST

Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in Web Comment Cost 2 Their Jobs

A hearing officer had discretion to terminate an 11-year government civil service employee over her obnoxious treatment of a co-worker, a New York appeals court has ruled. The fired woman, Penny Sindoni, was an organizer of the “I Hate Teena” club directed at a disliked fellow Tioga County Health Department…

Nov 20, 2009 12:54 AM CST

Malingering Juror With ‘Swine Flu’ Sentenced to 3 Days Watching Trials

A juror in a medical malpractice case in suburban Philadelphia over the summer apparently hesitated to ask for time off because he was feeling ill. So instead Anthony DiCicco said he had just been diagnosed with the swine flu, causing a mistrial and creating worry among fellow jurors who thought…

Nov 19, 2009 11:47 PM CST

Attorney Acquitted in 36-Count Federal Drug & Money-Laundering Case

Corrected: A Georgia attorney and his friends and supporters were jubilant today after a federal jury acquitted him on all 36 counts in a drug and money-laundering case that could have resulted in a life prison sentence. Dabbing at tears as U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land read the verdict…

Nov 18, 2009 9:58 PM CST

Ex-Lawyer Took Fifth, Couldn’t Defend $2.4M Civil Case, Now Gets New Trial

A California judge abused his discretion by effectively denying a tax attorney who took the Fifth during discovery in a civil case brought by a former client the opportunity to present any defense at trial. Hence, the state Court of Appeals threw out a jury verdict against the former attorney,…

Nov 18, 2009 8:25 PM CST

Judge Jails 2 Attorneys for Contempt in 4 Days

It may not be a good time for Georgia practitioners to try the patience of Matthew Simmons, the chief judge of Clayton County Superior Court. Within two business days he has jailed two lawyers for contempt in unrelated cases, according to a Daily Report article reprinted in New York Lawyer…

Nov 18, 2009 7:21 PM CST

Lawyer Who Wrote Voting Law Sues & Collects, as Gov’t Officials Steam Over $4.3M Won

Only one legal group in California is suing to enforce the state’s unique voting rights law. And a key attorney in that group helped draft it and get it enacted. This is aggravating officials of several governmental entities from which the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco…

Nov 16, 2009 9:31 PM CST

Judge Nixes ‘Hackintosher’ Bid to Put Mac OS X in Cloned Computers

Apple won a legal battle over the use of its operating system Friday, when a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Psystar violated copyright law by selling its own cloned computers with Mac OS X. The clone-maker got around Apple’s restrictions on using the operating system in non-Macintosh machines…

Nov 16, 2009 7:28 PM CST

Law Firm Sues, Wins TRO, Over State Ban on Unlicensed Legal Assistants

A law firm has won a temporary restraining order from a state court judge preventing Nevada officials from enforcing new mortgage modification rules that impact private legal practice. Although Cogburn Law Offices supports efforts to protect consumers by regulating the loan modification industry, the Nevada Department of Business and Industry’s…

Nov 16, 2009 6:48 PM CST

9th Circuit Calls for Accounting of Judge’s Handling of $33.8M Trust

Describing a controversial federal judge’s accounting for a $33.8 million trust as “curious,” the 9th Circuit today called for another judge to provide an accounting of how the money was handled. The decision concerns disputed assets of the late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos which were entrusted to Real, who is…

Nov 14, 2009 1:24 AM CST

Woman Gets New DUI Trial, Can Argue She Had to Drive to Avoid Bar Fight

Reversing the drunken-driving conviction of a woman who wasn’t allowed to argue at trial that she had to flee a dangerous bar fight, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled that Lisa Marie Leprowse will get a new trial to present her defense. A Missoula District Court judge had agreed with…

Nov 14, 2009 12:17 AM CST

Universal Settles Newspapers’ Complaints Over Fake Alien Abduction News

A marketing ploy by Universal Pictures has backfired, with the studio agreeing to pay $22,500 for creating fake news reports about alien abductions attributed to seven real media organizations in Alaska. Universal created the online articles to promote its alien-abduction movie, The Fourth Kind, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner…

Nov 13, 2009 2:23 PM CST