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Ex-Detroit lawyer loses case over 'ghetto' remark
Headline News |
2012/03/09 12:33
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A former top lawyer for the city of Detroit who lost her job for describing a local court as "ghetto" has lost an appeal over her dismissal.
A federal appeals court says Friday that Kathleen Leavey's comments in 2009 were not protected under the First Amendment because they were made as part of her job.
Leavey, who is white, has said she used the word "ghetto" in a conversation with a court employee to describe Detroit's 36th District Court as inefficient and poor in serving the public. The chief judge, who is black, heard about the comment and contacted city hall. The angry call to a deputy mayor led to Leavey's departure.
The appeals court says the Constitution does not shield certain expressions made during official duties. |
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Federal Law Entitles You to an Accurate Credit Report
Headline News |
2012/03/06 13:35
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Indianapolis Credit Reporting Law Firm
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (the FCRA), a federal statute passed in 1970 to regulate the collection and use of consumer credit information, requires consumer reporting agencies (also known as credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus) to maintain the “maximum possible accuracy” of the credit information they collect and use to create consumer reports (also known as credit reports). When a consumer reporting agency fails to maintain this level of accuracy and errors occur, this federal law gives consumers the right to dispute information in their credit files and, when necessary, bring suit against those agencies and the furnishers of credit information to those agencies, to recover damages for those inaccuracies and errors.
Riley Bennett & Egloff Law combines experience and efficiency in credit reporting law to render their clients high quality legal representation. Their attorneys represents cosumers whose rights have been violated by the credit reporting agencies and runishers of credit information. Having represented a number of parties involved with these kinds of claims in federal court, their work has been acknowledged throughout the Indianapolis area.
www.rbelaw.com. |
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Cook County court building named after famed Judge
Headline News |
2012/03/02 17:12
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After decades of merely being known as 26th and California, the Cook County Criminal Courts building on Chicago's southwest side has been officially named "The Honorable George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building."
Members of the Cook County Board voted unanimously Thursday to rename the building after the 99-year-old Leighton — a county judge who was the first African American to sit on the Illinois Appellate Court, and later was named a federal judge.
Leighton wasn't at the meeting, but his daughter, son-in-law and grandson were in attendance.
Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Tim Evans, who was a student of Leighton's when he taught at Chicago's John Marshall Law School, called the renaming of the building a well-deserved honor. He added that Leighton was his "star in the judicial constellation." |
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Back Pay Award Reduced Based on Laches in Class Action
Headline News |
2012/03/01 11:56
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The Indiana Supreme Court recently decided what could prove to be a landmark decision on the doctrine of laches in Richmond State Hospital v. Brattain, Cause No. 49S02-1106-CV-327. If you are dealing with a case involving laches, this decision is a must read.
In this class action, employees who worked in "state institutions" claimed that the State had breached its contractual duty to provide equal pay for equal work by requiring that they work 40 hours per week for the same pay as employees in "state offices" who were only required to work 37.5 hours per week. The trial court found in favor of the employees and awarded 20 years of back pay, amounting to $42,422,788. The Court of Appeals reduced that award substantially by limiting back pay to a few months for merit employees but for non-merit employees, affirmed a recovery for 20 years of damages or about $18.7 million.
The Indiana Supreme Court granted transfer and then failed to reach a majority on numerous issues, dividing 2-2. Justice Sullivan did not participate, presumably because he served as State Budget Director during the period in dispute. As a result of the 2-2 split, the Supreme Court summarily affirmed the Court of Appeals on the merit employees' claims. As to the non-merit employees, the Supreme Court was able to reach a consensus, largely in favor of the State's laches defense. |
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BP 'ready for long court battle over Gulf spill'
Headline News |
2012/02/27 15:44
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BP chief executive Bob Dudley said the company is able to fight a lengthy court battle over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dudley, who took control of BP in October 2012 after former chief executive Tony Hayward resigned amid criticism over the way he had handled the oil spill, told the Sunday Telegraph that BP can continue to function even if the court case that begins in New Orleans today continues for years.
"We have to remember we are a business that invests in decade-long cycles," he said.
"For the vast majority of people now at BP, the company is back on its feet and it is starting to move forward," he said.
BP has set aside US$40 billion to deal with fines and associated costs of the April 20, 2010 blowout of BP's deepwater Macondo well which killed 11 workers and injured 17. The burning drilling rig Deepwater Horizon toppled and sank to the Gulf floor, where it sits today.
It took engineers 85 days to permanently cap the well.
By then, more than 750 million litres of oil leaked from the well and had covered much of the northern half of the Gulf of Mexico endangering fisheries, killing marine life and shutting down offshore oil drilling operations.
President Barack Obama called the BP spill "the worst environmental disaster the nation has ever faced."
Dudley said BP had improved safety standards on its rigs, five of which are working again in the Gulf of Mexico, and that the company was still committed to deepwater drilling.
"We had a choice whether or not to back away from the offshore industry and the deep water industry but we have a lot of great strengths in this area and so, rather than move away, we have gone in with even more commitment, more time and more people, more expertise," he said. |
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Ousted Ind. official sentenced in voter fraud case
Headline News |
2012/02/24 17:29
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Indiana's ousted top elections official was sentenced Thursday to a year of home detention for six felony convictions that a judge refused to reduce to lesser crimes — a ruling that, if upheld on appeal, will likely cost him not only his office but also his law license and livelihood.
Hamilton Superior Court Judge Steven Nation said the intentional disregard that Secretary of State Charlie White showed for the law outweighed portrayals of him as a loving father and husband. The judge refused to reduce the six felony convictions to misdemeanors that would have given the 42-year-old Republican a chance to hold onto his office.
"I believe he violated the trust of the people," Nation said.
White told the judge he would appeal the one year's detention on each of the six felonies, to be served concurrently, and Nation stayed the sentence pending that. The judge also fined White $1,000 and ordered him to serve 30 hours of community service.
But White, his wife, and his attorney said his legal problems have cost him much more than part of his freedom and his political and legal career. Defense attorney Carl Brizzi said White and his wife, Michelle, have stopped making mortgage payments on the condo that was at the heart of his legal troubles and likely will lose ownership of it. White said his assets have dwindled to whatever equity he might have in the home and small stock and bank accounts and a 5-year-old, beat-up Jaguar automobile. |
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