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Agreement reached in Mo. suit against LegalZoom
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/08/23 11:09
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A proposed settlement has been reached in a federal class-action lawsuit against LegalZoom Inc., the online vendor of legal forms and documents.
The lawsuit had been scheduled go to trial Monday in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City.
But California-based LegalZoom has announced an agreement in principle to settle the lawsuit that claimed the company wasn't licensed to provide legal services in Missouri. LegalZoom says it contains no admission of wrongdoing and lets the company continue offering services to Missouri residents with certain changes.
The original plaintiffs were a Missouri resident who used LegalZoom to prepare a will, and two others who used it to organize a remodeling business.
An attorney for the plaintiffs says only that the settlement involves compensation for Missouri customers and changes to how LegalZoom operates. |
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Berman DeValerio Announces Securities Class Action
Class Action News |
2011/08/23 09:10
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The law firm of Berman DeValerio filed a securities class action lawsuit today against Miller Energy Resources, Inc.
The lawsuit alleges violations of United States securities laws on behalf of purchasers of common stock from December 16, 2009 through and including August 1, 2011 (the “Class Period”).
Berman DeValerio (www.bermandevalerio.com) brought the complaint against the Company and certain of its directors and officers (the “Defendants”) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The case is filed as 3:11-cv-00397.
Pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, investors wishing to serve as the lead plaintiff are required to file a motion for appointment with the court no later than October 11, 2011.
The claims arise under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78t(a), (the “Exchange Act”), and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) for class period purchasers.
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Miller, an oil and gas exploration, production and drilling firm, and the other Defendants made material false statements about Miller’s financial results and about the valuation of certain oil-and-gas-producing assets it acquired in Alaska. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Defendants: (1) issued false and misleading consolidated balance sheets, statements of operations and cash flows; (2) failed to properly classify royalty expenses; (3) failed to properly record sufficient compensation expense on equity awards; (4) did not properly calculate the liability for derivative instruments; (5) did not properly consolidate entities under its control; and (6) improperly reported the value of certain oil and gas assets that it acquired in Alaska. As a result of these problems, the Company was required to restate its financial results. Over a series of almost daily disclosures occurring on July 28, 2011, July 29, 2011 and August 1, 2011, Miller’s stock price dropped from $7.04 per share on July 27, 2011 to a close of $3.37 per share on August 2, 2011, a total drop of $3.67 or 52%.
To receive a copy of the complaint, please call Berman DeValerio at (800) 516-9926.
If you are a member of the class, you may, no later than October 11, 2011, request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff for the class. In addition, you may contact the attorneys at Berman DeValerio to discuss your rights and interests in the case. Please note: you may also retain counsel of your choice and need not take any action at this time to be a class member.
Berman DeValerio is a national law firm representing plaintiffs in lawsuits against corporate wrongdoers, chiefly for violations of securities and antitrust laws. The firm has 49 lawyers in Boston, San Francisco and South Florida. |
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Somali gets life in prison for US yacht hijacking
Court Feed News |
2011/08/22 12:19
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A federal judge has sentenced a Somali man to life in prison for his role in the hijacking of yacht that left all four Americans on board dead.
Ali Abdi Mohamed is the first to be sentenced of 11 men who pleaded guilty to piracy in the case. Mohamed expressed remorse before he was sentenced on Monday and said it was never his intent for anyone to get hurt. He says he hopes the victims' families forgive him.
The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death in February several days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman. |
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3 African refugees plead not guilty in fake bomb
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/08/20 16:20
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Three African refugees have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from what police described as a fake bomb found at Phoenix's airport as new details emerged about the case and those who are charged.
Luwiza Daman, Shullu Gorado, and Asa Shani pleaded not guilty in federal court in downtown Phoenix on Friday to a felony charge of causing what appeared to be an explosive device to go through a security checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Daman, Gorado and Shani all come from Eritrea, a war-torn country on the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa. Only Gorado speaks some English, while Daman and Shani speak an African dialect and are relying a translator to understand court proceedings.
Authorities say Daman was carrying the suspicious item in her bag on Aug. 5 as she went through security at the airport intending to board a plane to Des Moines, Iowa. Police say Gorado and Shani gave it to her, and described the three as acquaintances.
An FBI investigator and Phoenix police described as a type of paste-like food inside a container, which had a cell phone taped to it. They said the item had the appearance of a bomb and could have been put through airport security to test its vulnerabilities. |
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Government probe of Standard and Poor's
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/08/19 15:33
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The Justice Department is investigating whether the Standard & Poor's credit ratings agency improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The investigation began before Standard & Poor's cut the United States' AAA credit rating this month, but it's likely to add to the political firestorm created by the downgrade, the newspaper said. Some government officials have since questioned the agency's secretive process, its credibility and the competence of its analysts, claiming to have found an error in its debt calculations.
The Times cites two people interviewed by the government and another briefed on such interviews as its sources. According to people with knowledge of the interviews, the Justice Department has been asking about instances in which the company's analysts wanted to award lower ratings on mortgage bonds but may have been overruled by other S&P business managers.
If the government finds enough evidence to support a case, it could undercut S&P's longstanding claim that its analysts act independently from business concerns. The newspaper said it was unclear whether the Justice Department investigation involves the other two major ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch, or only S&P. |
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Former U.S. attorney Lampton dies at 60
Attorneys News |
2011/08/19 11:32
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Dunn Lampton, a former U.S. attorney in Mississippi who prosecuted two civil rights-era cold cases and a complex corruption case involving a wealthy attorney and state judges, has died. He was 60.
Among Lampton's best known cases was the prosecution of James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman who died in prison this month. Seale was convicted in 2007 of two counts of kidnapping and one of conspiracy to commit kidnapping in the 1964 deaths of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, both 19.
Lampton died Wednesday evening, according to former acting U.S. Attorney Donald Burkhalter, one of the prosecutors who served after Lampton's 2009 retirement
"He was a hell of a trial lawyer and he did a good job as U.S. attorney," Burkhalter said Thursday. "I think he always tried to do the right thing."
The cause of death was not immediately released, but Lampton had been in declining health. The U.S. attorney's office said the funeral will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Jackson. Burial will be private.
President George W. Bush appointed Lampton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi in September 2001, putting him in charge of federal prosecutions in 45 counties.
Among the highlights of Lampton's career were prosecutions in two civil rights-era cases that led to the convictions of reputed Klansmen Seale and Ernest Avants. |
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