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Bankruptcy filing delays church sex abuse case
Lawyer Blog News |
2009/10/19 16:17
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A sex abuse case against Delaware's Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and a former priest will be delayed after the diocese filed for federal bankruptcy protection on the eve of trial. The bankruptcy filing late Sunday delays a lawsuit that had been set to start Monday in Kent County Superior Court, the first of eight consecutive abuse trials scheduled in Delaware. "This is a painful decision, one that I had hoped and prayed I would never have to make," the Rev. W. Francis Malooly, the bishop of the diocese, said in a statement on the diocese's Web site. Wilmington is the seventh U.S. Catholic diocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since the church abuse scandal erupted seven years ago in the Archdiocese of Boston. The Wilmington diocese covers Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and serves about 230,000 Catholics. Thomas Neuberger, an attorney representing 88 alleged victims, described the bankruptcy filing as a "desperate effort to hide the truth from the public and conceal the thousands of pages of scandalous documents" from being made public in court. |
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Sotomayor says nomination tightly scripted
Headline News |
2009/10/19 13:18
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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says her nomination process was so tightly scripted that even her clothes were chosen for her. Sotomayor made the comments when she appeared at her 30th Yale Law School reunion on Saturday. The New Haven Register reports that Sotomayor spoke to 1,800 alumni, students and faculty, describing her recent grueling nomination process. State Sen. Ed Meyer was among those in attendance. He says Sotomayor became teary at times but kept the crowd laughing. He says Sotomayor talked about shopping for clothes to wear to her acceptance ceremony. Government officials, however, told her to bring five suits and they recommended which one she should wear. Sotomayor, the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, attended a luncheon, coffee reception and a 30th reunion dinner with about 50 guests. |
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Ex-British spy takes book battle to Supreme Court
Legal World News |
2009/10/19 11:17
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A former British spy is asking Britain's Supreme Court to overturn a decision by domestic intelligence agency MI5 to block him from publishing a book about his career. Lawyers for the former MI5 officer, who is not named in court documents, told a hearing Monday that he is seeking a judicial review of the decision. Britain's government says publishing the book could threaten national security. In a famous case in 1998, Britain's government lost a three-year campaign to ban publication of "Spycatcher," a memoir by ex-MI5 officer Peter Wright. Former MI5 chief Stella Rimmington published an autobiography in 2001, after the government censored some sections and said it regretted and disapproved of her decision to write the book.
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Ala. court rejects $274M verdicts in drug cases
Lawyer Blog News |
2009/10/18 18:19
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ma Supreme Court on Friday threw out jury decisions awarding the state more than $274 million from three pharmaceutical companies, ruling they did not defraud the state in pricing Medicaid prescription drugs. The court overturned jury verdicts against the drug companies AstraZeneca, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, accused by the state of fraudulently manipulating prices of drugs for Medicaid recipients. The court ruled 8-1 that the state did not have to rely on the drug companies' information in deciding what prices to pay pharmacists for prescription drugs for Medicaid recipients. The justices said state officials could have done their own research and determined the correct price. The court ruled the state is continuing to rely on the same formulas established by the drug companies to set prices. "The state has never altered its course of conduct since taking issue with the reporting methods," said the majority ruling written by Justice Tom Woodall. Justice Tom Parker cast the lone dissent, saying there was no evidence the drug manufacturers made available to the state the confidential details they used in determining price information. More than 70 lawsuits were filed in 2005 by the state against drug companies. The state has settled its lawsuits against 16 of the drug manufacturers for more than $124 million. |
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Trial law firm launches tire defects Web site
Law Firm News |
2009/10/18 17:20
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The plaintiffs’ product liability law firm of Greene Broillet & Wheeler has launched a Web site designed specifically to give consumers an overview of alleged tire defects and tire safety issues. The Web site, tire-defect-law, includes sections on tire anatomy, tire tread separation, aged tires, valve stem defects, Load Range E tires, tire informational markings and tire recalls. It also includes a list of tire-related cases Greene Broillet & Wheeler either won in court or for which it negotiated settlements. Greene Broillet & Wheeler claims to have conducted successful product liability litigations against most major tire makers. Christine D. Spagnoli, a partner in the firm, is plaintiffs’ liaison counsel for all product liability suits against Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in California, according to a press release. “Unfortunately, tire manufacturers and sellers don’t provide adequate warning or instruction to protect consumers and warn them of tire-related dangers,” Ms. Spagnoli said, explaining why the firm decided to establish a tire defects Web site.
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NC inmates being freed have 256 prison infractions
Legal Career News |
2009/10/18 17:19
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The AlabaThe violent North Carolina criminals set to be freed later this month because of a court ruling and good conduct credits have racked up more than 250 infractions in prison for offenses such as fighting, weapon possession and theft. Department of Correction records reviewed Friday by The Associated Press show the violations go as far back as the 1970s but also appear as recently as 2008, raising questions about whether the prisoners are reformed. Each one of the 20 inmates has at least two infractions, and combined they have a total of 256. They have repeatedly been denied parole. The inmates are scheduled to be released Oct. 29 after state courts sided with one of the inmates, double murderer Bobby Bowden, that a 1970s law defined a life sentence as only 80 years. The state's Fair Sentencing Act in 1981 included a retroactive provision essentially cutting all those sentences in half, and good behavior and other credits have shortened the sentences to the point that they are now complete. Bowden had argued before the Court of Appeals in 2008 that he had accumulated 210 days of good conduct credit, 753 days of meritorious credit, and 1,537 days of gain time credit. But the 60-year-old has also racked up 17 infractions in prison, including two for weapon possession, one for damaging property and several for disobeying orders. |
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