Lawyers in the Proposition 8 trial are keeping an eye on Washington as they draft papers for the federal judge in San Francisco.

The two sides in the legal battle over California's ban on same sex marriage have two more weeks to tell Judge Vaughn Walker exactly how they'd like him to rule and why. As it is expected the federal lawsuit challenging the 2008 ballot initiative to ultimately be decided by the US Supreme court, attorneys are trying to ensure that they've built a case that will satisfy the nation's highest legal authority two years down the line.

The way to get those judges' support, said Boies, is to build as strong a case as possible at the lower level. That's why one of his clients, plaintiff Jeff Zarrillo, feels it's so important to win this trial.

Gov. Bob Riley's gambling task force won another victory Thursday when the Alabama Supreme Court tossed out a court order blocking a raid on the state's largest casino.

In a 7-2 decision, the court said a Macon County judge lacked jurisdiction to halt the pre-dawn raid Jan. 29.

"This is another victory for the rule of law," Gov. Bob Riley said Thursday night.

VictoryLand, 15 miles east of Montgomery, closed its casino Monday night. Shortly before the Supreme Court's ruling came out Thursday, the company closed all other facilities, including its dog track, restaurants and new luxury hotel. The closure was designed to keep the Governor's Task Force on Illegal Gambling from returning without getting a judge to approve a search warrant.

Task force commander John Tyson said last week a search warrant was not needed for the thwarted raid because the casino was open and undercover officers were inside observing the gambling machines. He declined to reveal his next step Thursday night, but said he was reviewing the complete closure of VictoryLand.

Google's latest effort to settle the copyright lawsuit brought against it by The Authors Guild and several publishers in 2005 suffered a setback on Thursday when the U.S. Department of Justice said that copyright and antitrust issues arising from the revised settlement proposal haven't been adequately addressed.

The lawsuit charged that Google's effort to scan and digitize books violates copyright law. Google and the plaintiffs have been trying to reach an agreement that allows Google to make scanned books available in a limited form online and to sell electronic access to digital books with the consent and participation of copyright owners.

The DoJ filed a statement of interest with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York stating that despite good faith negotiations on the part of the parties involved, "the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: It is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation."
A hearing on the proposed amended settlement is scheduled for February 18 and the judge is likely to take the DoJ's concerns seriously. The original settlement, presented in October 2008, was shot down after widespread criticism.

Google in a statement said that the DoJ's filing "recognizes the progress made with the revised settlement, and it once again reinforces the value the agreement can provide in unlocking access to millions of books in the U.S."

The company said that it is looking forward to Judge Chin's review of the DoJ filing and that the settlement, if approved will expand online access to published works and provide authors and publishers with new ways to distribute their works.

In a case that could resonate in Washington, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the state’s five-year-old medical malpractice law because it limited compensation to injured patients for pain, suffering and other non-economic harms.

The ruling came down as federal proposals to cap malpractice awards are receiving fresh attention on Capitol Hill. Republicans enthusiastically support the limits, and they are seen as a potential vehicle for restarting the stalled health care negotiations in Congress with bipartisan impetus. Neither the House bill that Democrats passed late last year nor its Senate counterpart included significant changes to medical malpractice regulations.

In a 4-to-2 ruling, the Illinois court wrote that the legislature, in enacting the 2005 law, violated the state Constitution’s separation of powers clause by imposing decisions that should be reserved for judges and juries. The law established caps of $500,000 for non-economic damages in verdicts against doctors and $1 million in cases against hospitals.

The decision armed opponents of such provisions with fresh ammunition, and held a particular sting for the American Medical Association, which has its headquarters in Chicago.

Weight Watchers International Inc. settled a lawsuit in which it accused rival Jenny Craig Inc. of running a misleading ad campaign.

“Jenny Craig has permanently agreed to terminate its advertising campaign,” Weight Watchers said today in a statement that didn’t mention money damages. Jenny Craig said it paid no damages or costs and admitted no wrongdoing.

In advertisements featuring the actress Valerie Bertinelli, Jenny Craig falsely claimed that independent clinical trials showed its clients on average lost twice as much as customers on “the largest weight loss program,” New York-based Weight Watchers said last month in a federal court complaint in New York. A judge on Jan. 20 issued a temporary court order blocking the ads.

Cleveland-based law firm Ulmer & Berne has signed a lease to occupy 18,000 square feet in the Citigroup Center for a larger Chicago office.

The new office at 500 W. Madison St. signals that the firm plans to expand from its current roster of eight attorneys. The new space can accommodate 30 lawyers plus staff. In September, the firm grew from two lawyers to eight with the addition of litigators from Reed Smith and Levenfeld Pearlstein.

Ulmer & Berne is the third Cleveland firm to enter or move to new offices in the Chicago market in recent months. Baker & Hostetler opened a new office at 191 N. Wacker Drive in November with four attorneys. In September McDonald Hopkins leased 24,000 square feet at 300 N. LaSalle St.