Lawyer - News

An appeals panel has thrown out ex-New York Knick Latrell Sprewell's defamation suit against a sportswriter. In reversing the lower court, the Appellate Division, 1st Department, held that Sprewell failed to present any evidence that "actual malice" motivated Marc Berman to write that the basketball star may have fractured his finger by accidentally punching a wall during a fight at a party on his yacht. The information was not reported as incontrovertible fact, said the judge. No comments

Florida Judge Larry Seidlin, who drew sharp criticism in the legal community for his handling of the February custody fight for the body of tabloid icon Anna Nicole Smith, has announced he is leaving the bench at the end of July. Critics said the Smith proceedings lasted too long, with Seidlin hamming it up for the international television audience. His maudlin performance prompted two separate "Saturday Night Live" parodies. It has been rumored that Seidlin has a TV show in the works. No comments

A federal judge has declined to approve a $49 million settlement with BAR/BRI, owner of the nation's largest provider of bar review courses, citing concerns about incentive awards paid to some class representatives. Several lawyers had said the awards signaled potential "collusion" between plaintiffs counsel and class representatives. At Monday's hearing, more than a dozen lawyers objected to the settlement, including the son of Eliot Disner, an ex-McGuireWoods partner who brought the case in 2005. No comments

A Philadelphia judge has tossed a defamation action brought against Cozen O'Connor by a Main Line building fortune heir involved in a dispute over a family trust. In court papers initially filed in the underlying litigation, Lillian Meyers accused son Lincoln, himself an attorney, of fraud in transferring ownership of a Rolls Royce Corniche belonging to Lillian. The key question in the case was whether attorneys' actions in the events resulting in the litigation were extrajudicial. No comments

The Humane Society of the United States and Weil, Gotshal & Manges have filed what they believe to be the first class action against a U.S. puppy dealer, alleging that the Florida-based company, Wizard of Claws, sold puppies with genetic defects and contagious parasitic infections and failed to reimburse customers for the sick animals or their medical problems. Filed pro bono, the lawsuit represents about 100 class members so far, according to the head of the Humane Society's litigation department. No comments

A federal judge has tossed out a libel suit brought by a local counsel in New York City against a Pennsylvania attorney who hired and fired him. Southern District of New York Judge Shira A. Scheindlin found that the judicial proceedings privilege barred the libel claim, which centered on an e-mail sent to parties regarding a civil suit that was settled. Scheindlin rejected arguments that the remarks could be the basis of a claim because they concerned a fee dispute, not the underlying case. No comments

Motley Crue is suing one of the band's managers for more than $20 million. The suit, filed Monday, claims that Carl Stubner and a company called Sanctuary Group pushed the group's drummer into "bad career moves," including the disastrous reality TV show "Tommy Lee Goes to College," which the suit says portrayed Lee as unable to keep a beat in a school marching band. No comments

Failure to disclose a key insurance document for the Port Authority at the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and other discovery abuses will cost Wiley Rein and Coughlin Duffy. The firms and the insurance company they represented have been sanctioned $1.25 million by a New York judge, who said the company's document destruction and attorneys' misleading statements added millions of dollars to the cost of prosecuting suits on behalf of people who suffered losses in the 2001 attacks. No comments

Lawyers for ex-Brocade CEO Gregory Reyes got kneecapped Tuesday. In the first trial for backdating stock options, the defense has been that Reyes had no idea the practice was wrong. So it couldn't have been pleasant for defense lawyers when prosecutors told them on short notice that they had a witness who'd testify that Reyes told her, "It's not illegal if you don't get caught." U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer will decide today whether the jury will hear that testimony. No comments

This blog, along with several other Long Island authored blogs was reatured in Newsday on June 10th.  Patricia Kitchen, a blogger and Newsday reporter who writes a weekly feature in Sunday Newsday on workplace issues, wrote an article on professionals... No comments