Lawyer News
Today's Date: U.S. Attorney News Feed
Man Who Punched His Lawyer Sent to Jail
Court Feed News | 2008/03/05 13:44
A man who punched his lawyer in a Kentucky courtroom last month has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Peter Hafer also has a new lawyer. Mark Bubenzer said his client is sorry and didn't mean to disrespect the court.

But Scott County Circuit Judge Rob Johnson reprimanded Hafer as he sentenced him for contempt of court Monday. The judge said courts would be in chaos if every defendant behaved that way.

Attorney Doug Crickmer got two black eyes when Hafer hit him Feb. 4. Crickmer said he thought his client was just frustrated about being in jail.

The 30-year-old Hafer was initially in court for a burglary charge. That case is still pending.



Mexico criticizes Colombia's Ecuador raid
Legal World News | 2008/03/05 11:34

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday added his voice to regional condemnation of Colombia's military strike on rebels inside Ecuador, and called on the two countries to resolve the problem peacefully.

"We coincide in the rejection of any action that constitutes a violation of territorial sovereignty," Calderon said after a meeting with Salvadoran President Tony Saca in which the two leaders discussed the crisis.

Colombia bombed neighboring Ecuador's territory on Saturday to kill a senior leftist FARC guerrilla, leading Ecuador's ally Venezuela to warn that war could break out in the region. Both Ecuador and Venezuela have mobilized troops.

Mexico's criticism of Colombia came after Brazil condemned the bomb attack on Monday and called on Bogota to offer an explicit apology.

Nicaragua has also condemned Colombia's killing of the rebel commander, and former Cuban President Fidel Castro called the incident a "monstrous crime."

Calderon said Mexico would try to help Colombia and Ecuador resolve the crisis.

"We will spare no effort so that the Colombian and Ecuadorean governments normalize relations as soon as possible through dialogue and diplomatic channels," Calderon said.

Calderon may meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at a regional summit being held in the Dominican Republic on Thursday and Friday, Mexican state news agency Notimex reported.

Dominican government sources have said both Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa might attend the summit.



A law firm's bitter breakup laid bare
Headline News | 2008/03/05 09:45

They call him "psychologically abusive." He insists their "venomous attacks" and "reckless hyperbole" are motivated by greed and personal vendettas.

They say they were appalled by his "fiscal and executive mismanagement" and "reckless and wasteful spending." He dismisses their accusations as "baseless and defamatory."

It's the kind of overheated language that often has aggrieved parties hiring lawyers. But in this case, lawyers themselves are making the angry allegations. And their dispute is detailed in a tell-all lawsuit that lays bare an ugly business divorce, the kind usually settled behind closed doors.

The case, which goes to arbitration this month, involves the acrimonious breakup of the founders of Donovan Hatem, a 50-lawyer Boston law firm. Nine former partners have sued the firm and founder David J. Hatem, whom they describe as jealous, tyrannical, and dictatorial, claiming they are owed a collective $2 million in unpaid compensation.

The lawyers, who left the firm last summer to open a new Boston firm, LeClairRyan, accuse Hatem of manipulating the firm's finances to prevent them from be ing fairly paid. They also allege he wrote off bills for favored clients, spent lavishly on marketing to promote mainly himself, and wasted money on first-class travel that he billed to the firm rather than to his clients.

In legal filings, Hatem has lashed back, arguing that his former partners are trying to humiliate and destroy a firm with which they now compete. He accuses one of them of billing Donovan Hatem for New England Patriots season tickets that went to clients of their new firm, and says the incompetent legal work of two others resulted in a pending malpractice allegation that could cost Donovan Hatem $50,000.

"This is all very much about Mr. Hatem not wanting to pay his partners," said Warren D. Hutchison, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who had worked with Hatem for nearly 20 years. "He really considers nobody of any value other than himself, and he was incapable of recognizing the worth in his former partners."

Hatem's lawyer, Michael E. Mone, did not return a call. But in legal documents, Mone asserts the plaintiffs sued "to embarrass and harm their former partners, particularly Mr. Hatem," and calls their case "an outrageous and salacious effort to leverage a quick payment of money to which they are not entitled."

A call to Hatem was returned by Andrew M. Paven of O'Neill and Associates, a Boston public relations firm. In a statement provided by Paven, the firm described the suit as "baseless and defamatory."

Donovan Hatem was established in 2001 by John A. Donovan Jr., who died of cancer in 2005, and Hatem, who specializes in representing architects, engineers, construction firms, and the companies that insure them. Both men left the Boston firm Burns & Levinson to launch their practice, taking 38 other Burns & Levinson lawyers - a third of the firm - with them.




Death for Pakistani for murder of U.S. diplomat
Legal World News | 2008/03/05 09:41
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced an al Qaeda-linked militant to death on Wednesday for a 2006 suicide attack in Karachi that killed a U.S. diplomat, a government lawyer said.

The blast on March 2, 2006 near the gates of the U.S. consulate killed U.S. diplomat David Foy and three other people, as well as the bomber, on the eve of a visit to Pakistan by U.S. President George W. Bush.

In an August 2006 raid in Karachi, police arrested two suspects, Anwar-ul-Haq and Usman Ghani, who police said were suspected of planning the suicide car-bomb attack.

A court sentenced Haq to death but acquitted Ghani for lack of evidence, said state prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa.

"Anwar-ul-Haq has been sentenced to three counts of life imprisonment and four counts of the death penalty besides being fined 1.5 million rupees ($24,000)," Randhawa said. "Usman Ghani got the benefit of the doubt and has been freed," he said.

At the time of their arrest, police said the two were trained militants with links to al Qaeda and had fought against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Police said the blast, which wounded 49 people, was aimed at disrupting Bush's visit to Pakistan but he went ahead with his trip to the capital, Islamabad, as scheduled.

Pakistan, an important ally in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda members and allied militants since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Pakistan does carry out death sentences, by hanging, but sentences are often overturned by higher courts after appeals.


Canada-U.S. lumber spat gets split court ruling
Legal World News | 2008/03/04 19:32
The London Court of International Arbitration has issued a split ruling on Canadian softwood lumber shipments to the United States in the latest installment of the two countries' long-running trade feud. The ruling, released on Tuesday, addresses the first of two complaints the Bush administration has lodged, alleging that Canada had breached a 2006 trade deal by shipping too much lumber and exacerbating woes for struggling U.S. lumber firms.

The United States accused Canada of misinterpreting the agreement to give its exporters an unfair advantage.

The ruling marked a victory for the Western Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta when the panel found against the U.S. claim that the provinces owed millions of dollars in export taxes aimed at limiting export surges.

Under the deal, Canadian lumber exporters can either pay export charges of up to 15 percent based on their selling price to the United States, or cap the charge at 5 percent along with an export quota that restrains volume.

British Columbia has traditionally produced about half of all the softwood that Canada exports to the United States.

However, the court found that Quebec and Ontario in Canada's east, which are also big producers and use the quota option to limit their exports, had sent too much lumber south.

"Under the panel decision, producers in the east of Canada will be penalized for over-shipping their allowable quota," said Zoltan van Heyningen, executive director of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, the U.S. industry group that has been driving the complaints.

Canada claimed at least partial victory and said the ruling was a healthy step for the bilateral 2006 agreement, which was designed to avert more years of long, expensive lumber lawsuits.

"While Canada believes that it has fully complied with the agreement, we respect the tribunal's ruling ... Today's decision provides clarity with respect to the implementation of the SLA (Softwood Lumber Agreement) in the future," said Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson.

The United States had argued that the starting point for calculating export charges and volumes should be the first quarter of 2007, while Canada argued it should be July 2007. The court sided with the United States on that issue.

The two countries have one month to propose possible remedies for the overshipping issue, which might entail docking future exports, Van Heyningen said.

The U.S. coalition said it disagreed with the findings on the western provinces, which it said "let Canada off the hook regarding past collections of 'surge mechanism' export taxes," which they estimated at up to about $85 million.

The Bush administration has filed a separate complaint at the court, alleging that certain Canadian provinces were improperly propping up their lumber industries.



Guilty Plea in NYC in Quran Desecration
Court Feed News | 2008/03/04 18:35
A man who threw copies of the Quran into a toilet after disputes with Muslims at the college he once attended pleaded guilty Monday to disorderly conduct. A Quran recovered at Pace University in 2006 "was covered in feces," according to a criminal complaint. Muslims view desecration of their holy book as an offense against God.

Stanislav Shmulevich, 24, pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which he must complete 300 hours of community service. The business student was initially charged with two counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

"There was no hate crime here," said defense lawyer Glenn Morak. "He accepts responsibility, and he is repentant."

Detective Faisal Khan said Shmulevich told him "he committed the acts out of anger toward a group of Muslim students with whom he had a recent disagreement."

Shmulevich, the lawyer said, is no longer at Pace, which has about 14,000 students in New York City and suburban Westchester County.



[PREV] [1] ..[906][907][908][909][910][911][912][913][914].. [1268] [NEXT]
   Lawyer News Menu
All
Lawyer Blog News
Court Feed News
Business Law Info
Class Action News
Criminal Law Updates
Employment Law
U.S. Legal News
Legal Career News
Headline News
Law & Politics
Attorney Blogs
Lawyer News
Law Firm Press
Law Firm News
Attorneys News
Legal World News
2008 Metrolink Crash
   Lawyer News Video
   Recent Lawyer News Updates
Tight US House races in Cali..
Election 2024 highlights: Re..
North Carolina Attorney Gene..
Republicans take Senate majo..
Au pair charged in double ho..
A man who threatened to kill..
Ford cuts 2024 earnings guid..
Kenya’s deputy president pl..
South Korean court acquits f..
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to stay..
Supreme Court grapples with ..
Georgia Supreme Court restor..
Court declines Biden’s appe..
Supreme Court will weigh Mex..
Supreme Court leaves in plac..
New rules regarding election..
North Carolina appeals court..
A court in Argentina orders ..
Mexican cartel leader’s son..
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs jailed ..
   Lawyer & Law Firm Links
St. Louis Missouri Criminal Defense Lawyer
St. Charles DUI Attorney
www.lynchlawonline.com
Family Law in East Greenwich, RI
Divorce Lawyer - Erica S. Janton
www.jantonfamilylaw.com/about
San Francisco Trademark Lawyer
San Francisco Copyright Lawyer
www.onulawfirm.com
Raleigh, NC Business Lawyer
www.rothlawgroup.com
Oregon DUI Law Attorney
Eugene DUI Lawyer. Criminal Defense Law
www.mjmlawoffice.com
New York Adoption Lawyers
New York Foster Care Lawyers
Adoption Pre-Certification
www.lawrsm.com
Legal Document Services in Los Angeles, CA
Best Legal Document Preparation
www.tllsg.com
Connecticut Special Education Lawyer
www.fortelawgroup.com
Family Lawyer Rockville Maryland
Divorce lawyer rockville
familylawyersmd.com
© Lawyer News - Law Firm News & Press Releases. All rights reserved.

Attorney News- Find the latest lawyer and law firm news and information. We provide information that surround the activities and careers in the legal industry. We promote legal services, law firms, attorneys as well as news in the legal industry. Review tips and up to date legal news. With up to date legal articles leading the way as a top resource for attorneys and legal practitioners. | Affordable Law Firm Website Design