West Virginia

Copyright King’s Business Model at Risk: Judge Requires Separate Filing Fees in 1,000s of P2P Claims

In less than three months, attorney Kenneth Ford has pursued some 22,000 copyright claims alleging peer-to-peer file-sharing violations, backing his Adult Copyright Company’s offer of “hardcore protection for hardcore content.” But a federal judge in West Virginia has put a spoke in the copyright king’s wheels by requiring Ford to…

Dec 17, 2010 6:45 PM CST

Law Firm Office Manager Pleads Guilty to Perjury in $275,000 Overbilling Case

A former office manager for a West Virginia lawyer has pleaded guilty to one count of perjury concerning an alleged $275,000 scheme to defraud the state public defender’s office for claimed attorney work that wasn’t actually performed by an attorney. Yesterday’s plea by Nancy Burkhart, 52, was for lying to…

Dec 2, 2010 12:06 AM CST

Bank-Robbing Attorney Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $63K From Clients

The law, it seems, wasn’t working out financially for Buffalo, N.Y., attorney Michael W. Rickard II. Earlier this year Rickard, 42, pleaded guilty to holding up two banks in Nashville, Tenn. Yesterday, in the New York State Supreme Court 8th Judicial District, he pleaded guilty to embezzling almost $63,000 from…

Nov 24, 2010 4:16 PM CST

Longtime Jackson Kelly Lawyer’s License Suspended for Filing Incomplete Medical Report

Rejecting a disciplinary panel’s recommendation that the case against a longtime West Virginia lawyer be dismissed, the state supreme court has suspended the law license of Douglas Smoot for a year, finding that the nearly 30-year practitioner violated legal ethics rules by submitting an incomplete medical report to an administrative…

Nov 18, 2010 6:11 PM CST

NJ Lawyer, 2 Affiliated Debt Collectors, Agree to $7.9M Settlement With AG of W.Va.

A New Jersey lawyer and his two affiliated Pennsylvania debt-collection companies have agreed to cancel $7.9 million in charged-off debts, delete records of the claimed debts from the credit reports of 1,922 consumers and pay $45,000 in refunds and consumer education costs, under a settlement with the West Virginia attorney…

Nov 17, 2010 12:30 AM CST

Magistrate’s $79M Powerball Win Is Also a Windfall for His ‘Fearless and Fair’ Predecessor

After cashing in a $79 million winning Powerball ticket that left him with about $30 million after taxes, W. Randy Smith decided to step down from his job as a magistrate judge in Berkeley County, W.Va. And that has left his predecessor in the job, Jim Humphrey, feeling as though…

Sep 13, 2010 7:10 PM CDT

Oops. Juror Calls Defendant Guilty on Facebook, Before Verdict

Updated: A Michigan juror who indicated in a Facebook post that she believed the defendant in her case is guilty—before the case went to verdict—wound up on the hot seat, too, in the Macomb County trial. The defendant was convicted of resisting arrest after an alternate was substituted for juror…

Sep 2, 2010 7:28 PM CDT

Ex-Lawyer Avoids More Jail Time After Plea in Client Bat-Beating Case

A former West Virginia lawyer accused of beating a client with a baseball bat has been sentenced to one to five years of home confinement. Joshua Robinson of Charleston, 38, was sentenced Wednesday after entering a Kennedy plea to unlawful wounding, a felony, in April, according to the Charleston Gazette…

Jul 29, 2010 11:53 AM CDT

W.Va. Governor Picks Lawyer, His Ex-GC, for Byrd Seat

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has picked his former general counsel to fill the Senate seat of the late Sen. Robert Byrd. The Charleston, W.Va., lawyer, 36-year-old Carte Goodwin, will become the youngest member of the Senate, the New York Times reports. He will serve until a special election is…

Jul 19, 2010 11:36 AM CDT

Tennessee’s Allen Kopet Acquires W.Va. Firm, Grows ‘One State at a Time’

The sign on the office of Charleston, W.Va., law firm Francis, Nelson & Brison will be changing soon. The seven-lawyer law firm has been acquired by Allen, Kopet & Associates, a law firm based in Chattanooga, Tenn., the Charleston Daily Mail reports. The acquisition is consistent with Allen Kopet’s website…

Jun 23, 2010 3:42 PM CDT

We’re No. 1!

For the fourth time in a row, West Virginia has taken top honors in the Institute for Legal Reform’s lawsuit climate survey as the state with the worst tort liability system, as perceived by U.S. businesses. The state with the best lawsuit climate? Delaware. And it’s held that honor for…

Jun 1, 2010 8:20 AM CDT

Ex-Lawyer Accused of Collecting $132K from PD Service in Billing Scam

A disbarred lawyer has been charged with fraudulently collecting $132,000 from the West Virginia Public Defender Services by altering vouchers that had been signed by a judge. William Duty, 59, of Williamson, W. Va., was accused of changing the name and other information on the signed vouchers, the Charleston Gazette…

May 20, 2010 3:37 PM CDT

Attorney Charged with Arson & Attempted Arson in Law Firm Fires

A West Virginia attorney has been accused of setting fire in 2007 to the Martinsburg law firm at which she then worked and attempting to set another fire there in 2008. Ashley Shreve, 28, was arrested Wednesday in Virginia and charged in warrants issued by a magistrate in Berkeley County,…

May 7, 2010 5:28 PM CDT

Lawyer Accused of Beating Client with a Baseball Bat Accepts Plea Deal

A suspended West Virginia lawyer set to go to trial on Monday for beating a client with a baseball bat has accepted a plea agreement. Joshua Robinson pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding after prosecutors had trouble locating the alleged victim for the trial, the Charleston Daily Mail reports. Robinson entered…

Apr 20, 2010 1:18 PM CDT

Acquitted Client in Lawyer Home ‘Break-In’ Is Now Alleged Victim of Counsel’s Baseball Bat

A client initially accused of breaking into his legal counsel’s home in December and assaulting the attorney is now regarded by West Virginia authorities as the victim of an alleged criminal attack by the lawyer. Attorney Joshua Robinson was indicted today by a Kanawha County grand jury on felony charges…

Feb 26, 2010 4:02 AM CST