Milberg Weiss is one of the best-known law firms that bring class actions on behalf of shareholders and customers against large companies. The firm boasts that it has recovered more than $45 billion (£22.3 billion) on behalf of clients in cases connected with financial fraud.

David Bershad, a 67-year-old former managing partner at the law firm, yesterday agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and make false statements under oath. Those charges could attract a sentence of up to five years in prison. Mr Bershad has agreed to return $7.75 million, pay a $250,000 fine and cooperate with the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

For the past seven years, federal prosecutors have been investigating whether Milberg Weiss, the firm, Mr Bershad and his former partner Steven Schulman took part in a scheme to pay millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to shareholders so that they would serve as lead plaintiffs in class action fraud cases.

The prosecutors were trying to ascertain whether, once a case was settled, some of the legal fees due to the firm were paid to the lead plaintiffs. Such payments are illegal because lead plaintiffs have to represent other members of the class action and have to declare that their interests are in line with the others’.

Mr Bershad was indicted last year by a Los Angeles grand jury along with Mr Schulman for making such payments in cases where the firm was paid $216 million. Milberg Weiss and Mr Schulman, who has since retired, pleaded not guilty. The trial is to due to start in January.

In a statement, Milberg Weiss & Bershad said: “We understand David Bershad will plead guilty today to conspiracy to obstruct justice. Mr Bershad had been on a leave of absence since May 2006 and his relationship with Milberg Weiss LLP has been terminated. We remain confident that his actions will have no effect on the firm’s commitment to its clients and its ongoing work to protect public shareholders and consumers.”

Federal investigators finally got lucky in the long-running inquiry in May last year. Los Angeles prosecutors secured a guilty plea from Howard Vogel, who admitted that he and his family had received $2.5 million in illegal payments from the law firm in return for becoming lead plaintiffs in a number of class actions. Mr Vogel named four partners at Milberg Weiss and also agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Mr Bershad had responsibility for overseeing the finances and accounting processes of Milberg Weiss, according to court papers.

City spokesman Matt Allen declined to comment, telling The Detroit News the city does not normally comment on litigation or personnel issues.

McBride, who joined the planning department in 2000, says problems started a year ago when the co-worker, who isn't identified in the lawsuit, transferred into her department.

"This employee not only wore a strong scent, but also plugged in a scented room deodorizer," the lawsuit states. "Ms. McBride was overcome by the smell almost instantly, causing her to go home sick."

The co-worker later agreed to stop using the room deodorizer, but kept using perfume, the lawsuit states.

Attorneys representing the shareholders of Tyco International Ltd. said Friday PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has agreed to pay $225 million to settle a class action lawsuit.

Tyco (nyse: TYC - news - people ) shareholders pursuing the lawsuit had claimed that as Tyco's independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to uncover fraud in an accounting scandal at the conglomerate. Tyco's chief executive and chief financial officer were convicted in the scandal.

In May, Tyco agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to shareholders in association with the case. Investors who purchased or acquired Tyco securities from December 13, 1999 to June 7, 2002 are covered by the settlement. Calls to PricewaterhouseCoopers were not immediately returned. Shares of Tyco International rose 7 cents to close at $53.17.

Sainz is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 16 in Superior Court, and will likely face 15 years to life in prison.

While it was unclear how the head trauma occurred, the baby also suffered from bleeding from the eyes, which is common when a baby is shaken vigorously, said Deputy District Attorney Stephen Foley.

"Whether the baby was hit against a wall, or just shook, we don't know," he said.

Sainz's baby was brought to an area hospital on Dec. 29 in a "non-responsive, labored breathing state," according to a police statement, and died at another hospital on Jan. 1.

A man accused of a dismemberment killing has lost a unique legal challenge of Manitoba’s jury system in which he claimed the right to be tried by a jury composed mostly of natives like himself.

Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Marc Monnin handed down a decision Wednesday, ruling Sydney Teerhuis’ rights are not being violated by the current system.

Teerhuis, 35, argued last fall the jury selection process doesn’t allow for a true representation of the public to hear a criminal case and is a violation of his charter rights.

Teerhuis is accused of dismembering, beheading and castrating Robin Greene, 38, inside a Winnipeg hotel in the summer of 2003. Police were led to the body after a man walked into the Public Safety Building and allegedly confessed.

Investigators initially believed they were responding to a prank call and were stunned to find the victim inside the bathtub of a hotel suite on July 2, 2003 — cut into eight pieces.

Police have been unable to locate some internal organs  — including the heart and intestines — and their disposition remains a disturbing mystery.

Police also recovered inside the suite a necklace that had been stolen one day earlier from the set of the Hollywood movie, Shall We Dance?, starring Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere.

The movie was being filmed in Winnipeg. The $4,000 necklace belonged to Sarandon but played no role in the killing in terms of motive, according to police.

The celebrity link to the gruesome case sparked interest in the United States from gossip magazines, tabloid newspapers and entertainment talk shows.

Greene and his alleged killer weren’t known to each other, but apparently met just prior to the homicide and agreed to return to the hotel for consensual sex.

One of Teerhuis’ main arguments about the jury process was that aboriginals are unfairly barred from jury duty because of a rule that states jurors can’t have criminal records.

Teerhuis cited statistics that show 61 per cent of people in prison are native.

Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky claimed justice officials have created a system where the only people selected for jury duty are “the elderly and the unemployed.”

Jury co-ordinator Gail Hildebrand told court that about 1,600 jury notices were sent out in anticipation of the Teerhuis trial, which was set to begin last September.

She said the list of names was randomly generated through provincial health records and she didn’t know how many people on it were native.

Crown attorney Deborah Carlson said there is no evidence anything improper occurred when dismissing prospective jurors.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is the rightful owner of the buildings and other property of a conservative La Crescenta congregation that broke away from the diocese last year, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

The decision by Judge John Shepard Wiley Jr. against St. Luke's of the Mountains came more than a week after an appeals court panel in Orange County ruled in favor of the six-county Los Angeles Diocese in a similar property dispute with three other parishes.

The judge said Tuesday that he could not ignore the higher court's extensive June 25 ruling on comparable issues, but said he expected an appeal in the St. Luke's dispute as well.

"This case is far from over, but it's over in this court," he said.

In February 2006, a majority of St. Luke's congregants voted to pull out of the diocese and the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church because of differences over biblical authority and interpretation, including the Episcopal Church's 2003 decision to consecrate an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire.

The other dissident congregations — St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints Church in Long Beach and St. David's Church in North Hollywood — broke away in August 2004 over largely the same issues. Each has placed itself under the authority of a conservative Anglican bishop in Uganda.

The diocese sued, arguing that the congregations held their buildings and other property in trust for the diocese and the Episcopal Church as a whole. An Orange County trial judge, in separate decisions, had ruled in favor of the three parishes.

But a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana overturned those opinions last week.

In Tuesday's hearing, Wiley said that before the appellate court's detailed, 77-page ruling, he had been leaning toward a decision for St. Luke's. But after the appellate ruling, he was obliged to defer to the higher court and its analysis of church property precedents in California and elsewhere, he said.

Outside the courtroom, officials and attorneys for St. Luke's said they were disappointed by the judge's decision, but not surprised.

"This doesn't change our decision to withdraw from the diocese and the Episcopal Church, and to uphold the decisions of the wider Anglican Communion," said the Rev. Ronald W. Jackson, the church's rector. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.

Jackson said he continued to believe that the St. Luke's property was owned by the congregation itself, not the diocese.

"We're a vibrant, growing congregation and we're going to continue the ministry that Christ has called us to," he said.

Eric Sohlgren, lead attorney for St. Luke's and the other dissident local parishes, said St. Luke's officials were expected to quickly decide whether to appeal. Sohlgren repeated his view that the appellate ruling was contrary to three decades of legal precedent in California and that it probably would be overturned.

But the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Los Angeles Diocese, said he was happy with Tuesday's decision and eager to reconcile with St. Luke's parishioners and leaders, many of whom he has known for years.

"We want to sit down with them, to understand their pain, have them understand ours and come back together," Bruno said.

The Southern California parishes are among about four dozen congregations that have seceded from the Episcopal Church since the consecration of the gay bishop in 2003. Many of those are in similar legal struggles over church property.