Verdicts & Settlements

Can’t Pay Court Costs? Jail Is Alternative, in Florida & Other States

Most people may think of debtors’ prisons as a relic of history. But they arguably still exist in this country, where judges in criminal cases routinely employ a strong-arm collection tactic concerning court-imposed fees that isn’t available to the most aggressive civil creditor: They put people in jail. As courts…

Apr 6, 2009 11:15 PM CDT

Attorney With LA Firm Fined $102K—Plus 200 Pro Bono Hours

NOTE: The sanctions described here against Deborah Klar, Teri Pham and the law firm Liner Grode Stein Yankelevitz Sunshine Regenstreif & Taylor were vacated, in effect, in April 2010 by U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro. A federal magistrate judge in Nevada has not only fined an attorney formerly with…

Apr 6, 2009 9:09 PM CDT

Parrot Appears in Palm Beach Court, Doesn’t Squawk About Justice

Finders aren’t keepers, as far as lost animals are concerned. So a Florida judge today returned an African Grey parrot who flew the coop three years ago to his original owner, after the celebrity bird appeared at a court hearing surrounded by a flock of media, reports the South Florida…

Apr 6, 2009 7:27 PM CDT

Giants Must Pay $1M Bonus to Burress Even Though He Shot Himself

After accidentally shooting himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub last year, Plaxico Burress was suspended for four games by the New York Giants and fined an additional amount equal to one week’s salary. But the combined penalty of a little over $1 million suffered by the star wide…

Apr 6, 2009 6:38 PM CDT

Stevens Debacle Shows More Oversight of Prosecutors is Needed, Experts Say

In the aftermath of a stunning reversal of fortune for once-victorious federal prosecutors in the political corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens, experts—and, it appears, the U.S. attorney general—are calling for increased attention to the issue of government misconduct in other cases. The Alaska Republican’s initial conviction, based on…

Apr 4, 2009 12:44 AM CDT

Paul Weiss Discounts Dreier Charges, Expects to Bill $1.4M

A court-appointed receiver overseeing the wind-up of the Dreier law firm once overseen by New York attorney Marc Dreier says his work essentially is done, now that he and his law firm have secured some $100 million in Dreier assets. So partner Mark Pomerantz and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton &…

Apr 3, 2009 10:03 PM CDT

Pa. Rape Victim Criminally Charged With Lying Loses Damages Case

A Pennsylvania woman criminally charged with making a false police report of being raped at gunpoint before authorities realized she was, in fact, telling the truth has lost her attempt to hold the municipality civilly liable. A damages suit filed against Cranberry and its police department by the woman has…

Apr 3, 2009 8:02 PM CDT

Fed’l Jury Convicts 2 Ex-Lawyers in $95M Fen-Phen Litigation Settlement Scam

It took two trials, but federal prosecutors have now won a criminal conviction in a case against two disbarred Kentucky lawyers accused of scamming almost $95 million from clients in massive diet drug litigation. William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham were found guilty today by a federal jury in Kentucky in…

Apr 3, 2009 6:51 PM CDT

Appeals Court Raps ‘Sophie’s Choice’ Given NJ Plaintiff and Caregiver

A New Jersey judge erred when he gave a plaintiff a “Sophie’s Choice” between pursuing her sex discrimination case against a former employer and caring for her mortally ill 89-year-old father in Florida, a state appellate court has held. It reinstated the case brought by plaintiff Linda Pangione, which Ocean…

Apr 2, 2009 11:55 PM CDT

‘Little Eichmanns’ Prof Wins Case, Is Awarded One Dollar

A controversial former ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder has won his wrongful dismissal case against his former employer after a state court jury apparently found that Ward Churchill’s termination was because of his political views. But the jury awarded Churchill only $1 in damages. Nonetheless,…

Apr 2, 2009 11:45 PM CDT

Afghan ‘Enemy Combatants’ Can Argue Detention in US Courts, Judge Rules

After being held for six years without trial as “enemy combatants” at a United States military base airfield in Afghanistan, three prisoners in the war on terror can challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., has decided. The government, which had sought to distinguish the…

Apr 2, 2009 9:02 PM CDT

Paralegal Loses Sex Claims, But Can Sue Texas PI Lawyer Over Firing & OT

A Texas judge has dismissed a paralegal’s civil litigation claims of sexual misconduct by a well-known plaintiff personal injury attorney, but allowed her to continue with other allegations. Harris County District Judge Tracy Christopher yesterday granted a motion for summary judgment for lack of evidence by attorney Richard Laminack on…

Apr 2, 2009 8:01 PM CDT

NY Judge Slams Mom Who Tried to Seduce Juror After Son’s Murder Trial

The mother of a convicted murderer made Vanity Fair last year by reportedly bleaching her hair, buffing up and going undercover in an effort to discredit—and seduce—a juror in her son’s 2005 trial in Brooklyn, N.Y. But Doreen Giuliano, 46, also incurred the ire of New York Supreme Court Justice…

Apr 2, 2009 7:08 PM CDT

Convicted Teen Spits in Lawyer’s Face; Pa. Judge Orders Him Bound & Gagged

Apparently feeling that he had little to lose, a 17-year-old convicted in February by a Pennsylvania jury of first-degree murder shouted expletives at a court hearing yesterday. As James Canady spouted off—at one point calling the judge, the prosecutor and his own defense attorney “f—ing crackers”—Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart…

Apr 1, 2009 9:51 PM CDT

Counsel’s ‘Kill Them or Hope They Die’ Comment Blamed for $2.1M Verdict

After a hostile takeover of a direct marketing firm in 2003, corporate counsel William Wachtel reportedly said in a management meeting that the best way to avoid paying severance to previous managers was to “kill them or hope they die.” The words, arguably said in jest, have come back to…

Apr 1, 2009 11:10 AM CDT