Lawyer - News

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt what is likely to be the final blow to Delaware's plan for a state-sponsored gambling lottery that would have allowed residents to make bets on individual games in several sports. On Tuesday the full court denied the state's request to rehear a panel decision reached last month that struck down the plan as a violation of a 1992 law that bans sports gambling with limited exceptions. No comments

A Stanford University law school graduate will have to serve a year of home detention for failing to pay taxes on money she earned while working as a prostitute. Cristina Warthen, who worked as an escort in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., will also have to pay the government about $243,000 as part of a plea deal. No comments

The estate of author James Joyce has agreed to pay $240,000 in legal costs incurred by a Stanford University scholar following a fair use legal battle over a book about Joyce's daughter. The settlement ends more than a decade of wrangling and brings to a close one of the more prominent academic fair use cases in recent years, which garnered interest partly due to the Joyce estate's aggressive approach to protecting copyrighted material. No comments

Jackie Young took on Broward County, Fla.'s two largest law firms and prevailed. A jury has awarded her $4.9 million in a malpractice case related to litigation that began in 1997. Young, who was turned down by eight or nine lawyers before finding one willing to take her case, says she doesn't think badly of lawyers because of her experiences. In fact, she's considering going to law school. But the litigation that began 12 years ago is not over yet for Young: She will face an appeal before seeing any money. No comments

After 18 years of decidedly un-cuddly court battles, Walt Disney Co. and the estate of Winnie the Pooh licensee Stephen Slesinger are right back where they started. On Friday, Los Angeles federal district court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper granted Disney's motion to dismiss all of Stephen Slesinger Inc.'s remaining infringement claims, committing the parties to continue a business relationship that began in 1961 when Slesinger's widow transferred the Pooh rights to Disney in exchange for royalties. No comments

Stephen Larson, the federal judge who recently announced that he could no longer afford to sit on the bench, will join plaintiffs firm Girardi Keese in Los Angeles as a partner. The opportunity to work for the firm -- and not just Congress' refusal to raise federal judges' base pay of $170,000 -- prompted his career change, he said. "I spent nine years as a prosecutor, prosecuting cases, prosecuting wrongdoing, and that is essentially what Girardi Keese does. They prosecute wrongdoing." No comments

The watchdog of the Securities and Exchange Commission has recommended a new system for handling the thousands of tips and complaints the agency receives to prevent another breakdown like the one that allowed Bernard Madoff's massive fraud to go undetected for 16 years. The proposals from SEC Inspector General David Kotz for the agency's enforcement and inspections operations also include making it easier for junior-level enforcement attorneys to bring their concerns to top managers. No comments

Najibullah Zazi, the former New York coffee cart vendor accused of planning a "Madrid-style" subway bombing in New York, was arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday. Chief Judge Raymond J. Dearie, who took the case after three other judges recused themselves, ordered Zazi held without bail. As evidenced by Tuesday's hearing, in which the lead prosecutor referred to the Classified Information Procedures Act at least a half dozen times, the federal statute will play a prominent role in the prosecution. No comments

The three-year-old controversy over whether New Jersey lawyers can tout their inclusion in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers or other ratings publications is again before the state Supreme Court. Six lawyers have signed up to speak at a hearing today as the court weighs a proposed easing of Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1, which bans advertising that compares a lawyer's services with others. The revision would allow comparisons if the "basis" for them "can be substantiated." No comments

In a tanking economy, lawyers and their clients are increasingly finding themselves on opposing sides instead of sharing the same table in court, as a growing number of firms sue clients over unpaid attorney fees and clients fight back with legal malpractice counterclaims. Attorney Warren Trazenfeld says lawyers suing clients is "one of the top 10 stupidest things a lawyer can do." And Carlton Fields' Charles Rosenberg says lawsuits are sometimes necessary, but overall, suing clients is a lose-lose scenario. No comments