Daily Record (Kansas City, MO) articles from May 2006

Daily Record (Kansas City, MO) archives from May 2006

MO COA, Western District finds parole board miscalculated prior commitments.
May 3, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan A prisoner won his appeal and significantly reduced the time he has to serve before becoming eligible for parole. Jon Ridinger appealed a Cole County Circuit Court grant of summary judgment in favor of the...

Western District finds parole board miscalculated prior commitments.
May 3, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan

Federal court in St. Louis to debut Judicial Learning Center.
May 3, 2006... Byline: Emily Umbright (This article was originally published in The Daily Record, St. Louis, MO., another Dolan Media publication). Long before the American Bar Association released its August 2005 study showing just 48 percent of...

Another view of lobbying puts emphasis on public interest and legal expertise.
May 3, 2006... Byline: Barbara Rabinovitz (This article was originally published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication). From Abscam to Abramoff, the lobbying landscape is littered with the fallout of scandals dating back a...

Commentary: Internet telephony drawing closer to reality.
May 3, 2006... Byline: Larry Fiorino (This article was originally published in The Daily Record, Baltimore, MD., another Dolan Media publication). One of the fastest growing types of phone service is called Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP. In...

MO Legal Ethics Counsel: Traffic plea deals not violations of Rules of Professional Conduct.
May 4, 2006... Byline: Charles Emerick A state ethics committee has determined that municipal prosecutors did not violate the Rules of Professional Conduct when they agreed to defective-equipment pleas in the Kansas City Municipal Division. In a...

Missouri judges debate over not having a raise in nearly six years.
May 4, 2006... Byline: Tammy Worth (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication.) Missouri judges haven't gotten a raise in nearly six years, and the governor, legislators and bar...

Commentary: IP issues to consider regarding internet blogs.
May 4, 2006... Byline: John E. Ottaviani (This article was originally published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Boston, MA, another Dolan Media-owned publication.) Your new client calls with a question. She has heard about other business owners who...

Commentary: Memorial Day.
May 4, 2006... Byline: Christine Ann Hughes At the end of this month we will celebrate Memorial Day, originally referred to as Decoration Day, a day set aside to remember those who had died in the Civil War. In 1868, General John A. Logan declared in...

Commentary: 8th Circuit upholds settlement agreements.
May 4, 2006... Byline: Marshall Tanick (This article was originally published in Minnesota Lawyer, Minneapolis, Minn., another Dolan Media publication.) The law strongly prefers settlements, and when disputes arise over those arrangements, the courts...

MO Chamber to offer OSHA courses.
May 5, 2006... Byline: Cathy Lenny (This article was originally published in the St. Charles County Business Record, another Dolan Media publication). Since the inception of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration in 1970, occupational...

MO Chamber to offer OSHA courses.
May 5, 2006... Byline: Cathy Lenny

Unauthorized workers discuss living, working away from home.
May 5, 2006... Byline: Joe Grundle (This article was originally published in The Daily Reporter, Milwaukee, Wis., another Dolan Media publication). With jobs in his hometown scarce and a family in need of support, Miguel left Mexico a dozen years ago...

Offshoring of construction industry jobs becomes issue.
May 5, 2006... Byline: Sean Ryan (This article was originally published in The Daily Reporter, Milwaukee, WI., another Dolan Media publication). Professional associations and business interests are visiting Congress to give their ideas on how to...

Missouri jury rules in favor of contractor and designer in house fire suit.
May 5, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication). An insurance company's claim that faulty workmanship led to a house fire failed to ignite favor...

Commentary: Can we talk? Don't wonder about clients' concerns - ask!
May 5, 2006... Byline: Edward Poll (This article was originally published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication). Consumer Reports recently published a study that listed the top 10 cars. None of them were made by companies...

Employment lawyers opening doors to foreign clients.
May 6, 2006... Byline: Reni Gertner Representing immigrant clients carries its own set of challenges - language, outreach and client fears about jeopardizing their stay in this country. But the potential rewards are enormous. "Many law firms have...

Regulatory burdens on smaller public companies could decrease.
May 6, 2006... Byline: John Cunningham Relief may be on the horizon for smaller public companies burdened by the regulatory requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. A report from the SEC's Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies is expected to...

Breakup.com.
May 6, 2006... Byline: Nora Lockwood Tooher A decade after the launch of online dating services, family lawyers are starting to see the first wave of couples who met online. Some are coming in for prenuptial agreements before marrying. Others are...

Commentary: The Internet isn't the only place for tech advances; check your gas tank.
May 6, 2006... Byline: Larry Fiorino Rising gas prices have many of us wondering where America's next fuel source is going to come from. Some, including corn producers, have touted ethanol as a possible alternative fuel. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is...

High Court proposes changes to electronic discovery rules.
May 7, 2006... Byline: Tony Anderson During the past two decades, the shift from storing information in paper files to creating and storing it electronically has led to a sea of change in discovery practices. Courts have begun to address the issue of...

How to ... Choose an executive search firm.
May 7, 2006... Byline: Bernadette Starzee A search for an executive often starts with a search for an executive search firm. The right search firm will be able to efficiently tap into its network of contacts and save you time in finding the right...

Supreme Court considers issue of retaliation.
May 7, 2006... Byline: Dick Dahl How far can an employer go in retaliating against a troublesome employee before it breaks the law? This was the question before the U.S. Supreme Court recently. The case, Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v....

Commentary: What's wrong with health care can be clearly seen in my colonoscopy.
May 7, 2006... Byline: Allan Roth For those confused as to why I am writing about my colonoscopy in a personal finance column, let me simply say that it has turned out to be a microcosm of why health care costs are out of control. Medically or...

Board had authority to automatically revoke license, Missouri Board of Appeals says.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan A pathologist still doesn't know if a hit and run accident that took the life of a pedestrian has ended his professional career because the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, said the trial court had no...

Tapping into culture key to doing business in China.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Amy Gillentine China is a place of paradoxes, and opportunities - but only for business people who take the time to learn about the country's diverse culture. That's the message from Dr. Richard Kwor, a professor at the...

Call center worker awarded $114,000 in employee discrimination suit.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff A federal jury sided with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a disabled call-center worker by taking a stand against workplace discrimination and awarding the young man $114,265.22 in back...

Commentary: Sensational journalism takes the cake.
May 8, 2006... Byline: John Kiernan Maybe it began with the widely covered trial of Bruno Hauptmann following his arrest in the Lindbergh "crime of the century" kidnapping. It certainly continued when Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were arrested on espionage...

Failure to state claim deprives court of jurisdiction, rules MO Court of Appeals, W. District.
May 9, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan The dismissal of a child support ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, has one attorney scratching his head. Rarely does the Western District give more than a cursory discussion of cases...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia advocates a 'static Constitution'.
May 9, 2006... Byline: Donna Walter (This article was originally published in The Daily Record, St. Louis, Mo., another Dolan Media publication.) The people, not unelected judges, should be the ones to decide moral questions, argued U.S. Supreme...

Employer concerns grow over increased employee use of Internet.
May 9, 2006... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication.) If you're at work reading this story on the Internet, you may be in trouble. ...

Commentary: Hope you've been keeping score; time for a quiz!
May 9, 2006... Byline: Jim Wirken Every business needs five things to survive and thrive. "Clients" or "customers," "administrative procedures," procedures for "getting the work done," a "method to bill," and a way to "collect the bill." In the past...

Commentary: Wal-Mart has woes, but wins two discrimination cases.
May 9, 2006... Byline: Marshall Tanick (This article was originally published in Minnesota Lawyer, Minneapolis, Minn., another Dolan Media publication.) Wal-Mart has its share of legal problems these days. The litany includes ongoing disputes with...

Independence attorney Bob Welch is always ready to flex his muscles for a victory.
May 10, 2006... Byline: Charles Emerick Bob Welch has a grip that would make any man proud. Lock hands with the 72-year-old attorney and he'll give you a firm shake. And at times Welch will show his youthful feistiness. "Squeeze. Squeeze! No....

New Jersey case has employment lawyers worried.
May 10, 2006... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication). Already facing concerns about lost productivity and possible network security risks, employers are...

Integrated juries deliberate more thoroughly.
May 10, 2006... Byline: Dick Dahl (This article was originally published in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication). When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a black death-row inmate in Texas last year due to strong evidence of...

New bankruptcy law raises liability risks for lawyers.
May 11, 2006... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson (This article was originally published in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication). Marc Stern, a solo practitioner in Seattle, Wash., recently had to give a client the debt relief agency disclosures...

Buchanan County jury rules for defense in medical malpractice case.
May 11, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication). A rare form of cancer helped convince the Buchanan County jury in Eva Todd v. Orlyn Lockard,...

American Bar Assn. raises fresh concerns regarding surveillance.
May 11, 2006... Byline: KC Daily Record Staff American Bar Association President Michael S. Greco has called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to carry out "a thorough inquiry into the nature and extent of the warrantless domestic surveillance conducted...

Hunting accident results in $500,000 settlement.
May 11, 2006... Byline: Charles Emerick An 11-year-old boy who was accidentally shot by a friend has settled his personal injury claim for $500,000. Jeremiah Barnes suffered a gun shot wound to his left arm and chest while he and Dylan Bruhn were...

Jackson County jury finds boating accident victim 50 percent at fault.
May 11, 2006... Byline: Charles Emerick A Jackson County jury determined a man seriously injured in a 1988 boating accident was 50 percent at fault for the incident that left him with a partially amputated right leg. Robert Ard was struck by the...

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District sends dispute over excavation back to trial court.
May 12, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan A large hole impermissibly dug in a Jackson County park could turn into a money pit. Money issues will be involved next, now that the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, has reversed Jackson County...

Dispute over excavation headed back to trial court.
May 12, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan

Green building pioneers finally see the industry come of age.
May 12, 2006... Byline: Sean Ryan (This article was originally published in The Daily Reporter, Milwaukee, Wis., another Dolan Media publication.) Three buddies from Amherst, Wis., decided to start a green home-building company in 1987. It wasn't...

$600K award reached in work zone collision near Rolla, Mo.
May 12, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication.) A construction worker, struck and injured by a tractor trailer while working in a...

Commentary: East Coast whiners won't solve nation's energy crisis.
May 12, 2006... Byline: Mark Singletary (This article was originally published in New Orleans CityBusiness, another Dolan Media publication.) I've lived my whole life in the Oil Patch. The latest talking points from folks living and reporting from...

Commentary: Pay more attention to the data behind the files.
May 12, 2006... Byline: Tony Anderson (This article was originally published in the Wisconsin Law Journal, Milwaukee, Wis., another Dolan Media publication.) Consider the following scenario - a regular client comes into your office asking you to draft...

NYU professor says 'CSI effect' may work in reverse.
May 13, 2006... Byline: Dick Dahl The much ballyhooed "CSI effect" may not be all it's cracked up to be - in fact, the popular TV crime show may have the opposite effect on juries than observers have assumed. According to law professor Tom Tyler,...

State Bar to post attorney discipline records online.
May 13, 2006... Byline: Donna Walter Missouri is joining the growing number of states that post online the names of attorneys subjected to discipline. The state Supreme Court decided in April to post the names of those attorneys it disbars, suspends...

Credit card fees squeeze merchants.
May 13, 2006... Byline: Ben Mook You've gone for a quick take-out lunch, or maybe popped into the corner convenience store for a paper and a coffee. Just as you reach the cash register comes the realization: You don't have enough cash with you, and the...

Commentary: More isn't always better.
May 13, 2006... Byline: Andrew Baida Although I did not know it at the time, my verbal SAT score taught me one of the best lessons I have learned about the relationship between numbers - be it the number of points on a test, or the number of cases or...

Court of Appeals rules company lacks standing to appeal Gaming Commission ruling.
May 14, 2006... Byline: Joy Simmons A casino company and owners of property near a proposed casino site did not have standing to appeal a decision by the Missouri Gaming Commission, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District ruled. At...

How to . . . Choose a labor law firm.
May 14, 2006... Byline: Bernadette Starzee It's a litigious society we live in, and all businesses face the possibility of dealing with a lawsuit brought by an employee or former employee. A company's best defense against potential lawsuits is to arm...

U.S. Supreme Court sasy taking of house violated Constitution.
May 14, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff If notice of a tax sale is sent to a property owner and returned undelivered, the government is constitutionally required to take additional reasonable steps to provide notice before taking the property,...

Commentary: 'Radical' changes proposed by USPTO will alter patent process.
May 14, 2006... Byline: Leslie A. McDonell As the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office endeavors to find solutions for managing its vast workload, it is considering changes that, if accepted, will significantly alter the course of the patent process. ...

Missouri Court of Appeals says liability limitation provision misapplied by trial court.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan It's a fine line between victory and defeat. Just ask Rockwell Automation, Inc. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, just put a $97.6 million defeat right back at its door. Rockwell caught a break...

Missouri tax credit program among most successful.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Elizabeth Fast Missouri has a substantial number of tax incentives designed to encourage economic development. Missouri's historic rehabilitation tax credit program is recognized as one of the most successful tax credit programs in...

Plaintiffs cruising into the courtroom.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Reni Gertner In the state of Florida, a small group of lawyers has made it their mission to sail the world's biggest cruise lines into the courtroom. While many of the slip-and-fall, repetitive stress or other personal injury...

Commentary: Apple defends 99 cent downloads.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Larry Fiorino Last week, Apple announced that it would be keeping its cost to download music tracks at 99 cents. During the process of renewing contracts with the four largest record companies, EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and...

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District finds lack of written findings in custody ruling.
May 16, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan Could it be the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, is done telling trial judges to do their homework in domestic matters? One of the shortest reversals by the court may signal end of these cases given a...

Speculation swirls over Missouri attorneys running license fee offices.
May 16, 2006... Byline: Geri L. Dreiling (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication.) When Derrick Good was awarded a contract to run a license fee office in High Ridge last year,...

Amendment before General Assembly could increase Missouri judicial salaries.
May 16, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication.) Bills addressing salaries for judges and other elected state officials, changes in the whistle-blower law and...

Commentary: It all comes down to this.
May 16, 2006... Byline: Jim Wirken As you know if you have been reading these articles, every business needs five things to survive and thrive. "Clients" or "customers," "administrative procedures," procedures for "getting the work done," a "method to...

MO COA, Western District looks to history, case law to define 'moneyed corporation'.
May 17, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, broke new ground, according to one attorney, in a ruling involving moneyed corporations. The court determined that businesses such as Bann-Cor Mortgage and The...

Western District looks to history, case law to define 'moneyed corporation'.
May 17, 2006... Byline: Denise G. Callahan

Clients provide push for new technology.
May 17, 2006... Byline: Allison Retka (This article was originally published in The Daily Record, St. Louis, Mo., another Dolan Media publication). Smack in the middle of the "year of electronic discovery," legal technology experts say client demand...

Missouri courts discuss whether license fee contractors can be fired based on political ties.
May 17, 2006... Byline: Geri L. Dreiling (This article was originally published in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication). For more than two decades, the question of whether license fee contractors can be fired based solely on their...

Commentary: Recent representational removal rulings require remand.
May 17, 2006... Byline: Marshall Tanick (This article was originally published in Minnesota Lawyer, Minneapolis, Minn., another Dolan Media publication). Since it went into effect in mid-February 2005, the federal Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) has...

Missouri Court of Appeals rules that termination is allowed in sexual favoritism case.
May 18, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole Being fired to placate the boss's wife after flirting with the boss does not constitute sexual discrimination under Title VII. That's the determination the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made in an April 28...

Worker's comp law now gives medical providers a better chance of getting paid.
May 18, 2006... Byline: Donna Walter Missouri medical providers stand a better chance at getting paid in workers' compensation cases now that the state appeals court has said state law prohibits the Division of Workers' Compensation from rejecting...

Lawyers: Style, along with substance, wins the day.
May 18, 2006... Byline: Claude Solnik Being late is never a good thing, in life or in litigation. So when Donald Jay Schwartz, partner in charge of Forchelli, Curto, Schwartz, Mineo, Carlino & Cohn's litigation department, left recently for a case in...

Commentary: Finding a thief: Personal red flags of fraud.
May 18, 2006... Byline: Tracy Coenen As victims of occupational fraud reflect on crimes committed against their companies, they wonder if there were any signs that a fraud was occurring. They wonder how a trusted employee could steal from the company....

Missouri condo market is booming but can be considered risky.
May 19, 2006... Byline: G. William Quatman (This article was originally published in The Daily Record, St. Louis, Mo., another Dolan Media publication). Residential litigation can be very emotionally charged. Although businesses treat a leaky roof...

Condo market is booming, but can still be considered risky.
May 19, 2006... Byline: G. William Quatman

KC's Konrath Group selected for Music Hall renovation.
May 19, 2006... Byline: KC Daily Record Staff A local construction management and consulting firm was chosen to lead the $14 million renovation of the Music Hall in Municipal Auditorium. The Capital Improvements Management Office earlier this week...

Critics say roofing industry has too much unskilled labor.
May 19, 2006... Byline: Brian Johnson (This article was originally published in Finance and Commerce, Minneapolis, MN., another Dolan Media publication). Four years ago, Paul Leyendecker was doing OK in the roofing business. He tackled 150 to 200 jobs...

Commentary: The 'comparison employee' trap.
May 19, 2006... Byline: John Finerty (This article was originally published in the Wisconsin Law Journal, Milwaukee, Wis., another Dolan Media publication). Samuel Scaife was an investigator for the Cook County, Illinois sheriff's department. When he...

Commentary: Go low or high to avoid the trees.
May 19, 2006... Byline: Joe Rahnis (This article was originally published in The Daily Record, Baltimore, Md., another Dolan Media publication). Even though the old adage, "trees are 90 percent air" holds true some of the time, it makes for a very...

MO Court of Appeals, E. District rules noncompete deal breached after company violated contract.
May 20, 2006... Byline: Allison Retka If a company fails to hold up its end of an employee contract, the contract is void and can't be used to prosecute an employee who likewise breaches the contract. This was the unanimous opinion of the Missouri...

Company's counsel looks to plaintiffs' lawyers when defending claims.
May 20, 2006... Byline: Sylvia Hsieh When John DeGroote, deputy general counsel for Bearing Point, Inc., looks for outside counsel to assist on a case, take it to trial, or merely provide a second set of eyeballs to assess strategy, he does not limit...

Lawyer overcomes anti-Arab prejudice to win $22 million.
May 20, 2006... Byline: Natalie White A Florida jury recently awarded $22 million to a Saudi Arabian sheik who claimed a Florida-based investment banker bilked him out of millions of dollars. "He just lied to my client and stole from my client," said...

Commentary: How do you measure financial performance?
May 20, 2006... Byline: Edward Poll What management reports do sole and small-firm practitioners look at to determine how well they're doing? It's a very good question. There is much data out there, and most good financial information systems can and do...

Clear communication the key to overcoming conflict.
May 21, 2006... Byline: Jane Pribek Most of us learned how to deal with conflict in our homes as children, and while mom and dad might have many fine qualities, highly refined communication skills could be lacking. In other words, your family life...

Hiring from competitors poses risks.
May 21, 2006... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Most employers in competitive industries will protect themselves against the loss of valuable employees by asking them to sign covenants not to compete. The employees, in turn, may want to market their knowledge...