Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly articles from December 2007

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly archives from December 2007

Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers Admonitions: December 3, 2007.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff BBO Public Reprimand No. 2007-26 IN RE: DONNA J. BOGGS Last known office address: 1215 Main Street Suite 112 Tewksbury, MA 01876 Order (public reprimand) entered by the Board October 30,...

Commentary: 'Tavares': how to answer the chorus of finger-pointers?(Daniel T. Tavares Jr.)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff It is a phenomenon as ugly as it is familiar. A defendant who has had his day in a Massachusetts court commits an unspeakable sin, and a furious parade of finger-pointers directs its ire...

Commentary: In Lawrence, listening in on a big, fat lawsuit.(Lawrence, Massachusetts)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Another installment in my quest to visit 100 Massachusetts courthouses before the calendar year is out "Please, do not take the initiative to visit the scene that concerns this case," Superior...

Hurry up and wait in Massachusetts.(nominations for office)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff As members of Congress return to business in Washington today after a two-week holiday break, onetime U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan's future in the nation's capital could come into sharper...

WBA urges legal community to support Judge Tuttman.(Women's Bar Association encourages support for Kathe M. Tuttman)(Letter to the editor)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: As lawyers, we bear a special responsibility for supporting and promoting judicial independence. The legal community must speak out against the unfair attacks on Superior...

Counsel in guardianship case weighs in on decision.(Letter to the editor)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: I represented the guardians in the Appeals Court case In Re Estelle, so I read with interest your Nov. 5 story about it ("Guardianship can't be split without finding of...

A differing view on the issue of failure-to-brief.(Letter to the editor)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: I write to humbly disagree with my learned colleague Richard L. Neumeier (we are both alumni of Lawyers Weekly's Board of Editors) on his Nov. 26 opinion piece, "A brave new...

Commentary: Essential practice tips for drafting confidentiality stipulations.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Jeffrey M. Rosin In many litigations, the parties agree to a "stipulated protective order" at the outset of discovery, which is designed to protect against the disclosure to the public of proprietary and confidential information of...

Four depart law firm's home office in Boston for smaller intellectual-property firm in Cambridge.(Fish & Richardson lawyers leave for Lowrie, Lando & Anastasi firm)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Three partners and an associate in the high-powered biotechnology practice at Fish & Richardson are taking their leave of that international law firm's home office in Boston and heading across the...

Commentary: Former judge's novel takes legal fiction to new level.(Old City Hall by Gerald D. McLellan )(Book review)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Peter Elikann "Old City Hall" By Gerald D. McLellan Author House, 2007364 pages, $29.95 The genre known as the legal thriller has been an entrenched part of the literary landscape for decades. But, with rare exceptions, it has...

Commentary: Money main issue for would-be solos.(managing of finances of solo practitioners)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Edward Poll My last column addressed making the decision to leave a law firm. In this and subsequent columns we'll consider how to successfully start a practice on your own after leaving, because it's not an easy path to take. ...

Commentary: When to quote and when to say it in your own words.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Julie Baker and Lisa Healy Write On is an occasional feature providing guidance for attorneys on writing legal memoranda and briefs. Legal writers use material from other sources all the time. We refer to sample memoranda and...

Interview with Philip F. Heller: Heller & Associates, Lenox, Mass.(Interview)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Barbara Rabinovitz Alternate Route takes readers into law firms that have chosen to put down stakes outside downtown Boston. This week, reporter Barbara Rabinovitz asks Lenox attorney Philip F. Heller why he chose to hang a shingle...

Verdicts & Settlements December 3, 2007: Vacation-home guest falls down unguarded stairway.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $375,000 settlement The 56-year-old plaintiff was a guest in the Nantucket vacation home of the defendants, when, during the dark, early morning hours of Aug. 12, 2005, she left her bedroom to...

Verdicts & Settlements December 3, 2007: Woman's neck condition exacerbated by collision.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $400,000 settlement The 24-year-old plaintiff was a healthy woman with no known history of spinal cord injury. On April 10, 2001, she was in her car with her 14-month-old son when she was...

Verdicts & Settlements December 3, 2007: Man struck by shopping carts at wholesale store.(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Defense verdict After being struck in the back by shopping carts being moved by an employee at the defendant store, the plaintiff argued that the employee was negligent for pushing too many...

Verdicts & Settlements December 3, 2007: Spouse, children paid years after worker's death.(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $725,000 settlement In December 1989, an employee was killed at his place of employment and was survived by a spouse and three minor children. The case was assumed, and the insurer began...

Embattled Mass. judge could have defended herself.(Kathe M. Tuttman)
December 3, 2007... Byline: David E. Frank Two retired judges, one a former chairman of the Commission on Judicial Conduct, say Superior Court Judge Kathe M. Tuttman erred by not quickly responding to the public outcry over her bail review of convicted...

Mass. Superior Court rules owners can't block costly condominium assessment.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Eric T. Berkman Unit owners in a condominium complex could not bar the condo's board of trustees from levying an assessment for a major renovation project, even where the project is expected to cost $75 million, a Superior Court...

Mixed-use ruling could spawn more 40B projects in Mass.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Noah Schaffer Attorneys who handle cases involving affordable-housing projects say a recent Supreme Judicial Court decision could clear the way for more developments under G.L.c. 40B that include both housing and commercial...

Mass. Supreme Judicial Court awards fees despite lack of demand in brief.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Eric T. Berkman A company that successfully defended a preliminary injunction in an interlocutory appeal before the Supreme Judicial Court, and subsequently prevailed on the merits in its case at trial, was entitled to appellate...

Notices from the Mass. Courts: December 3, 2007.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Division of Insurance issues notice of hearing COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation DIVISION OF INSURANCE NOTICE OF HEARING ...

District Court/BMC Appellate Division Case Summaries: December 3, 2007.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Tort Motor vehicle collision Where the plaintiff has appealed a judgment for the defendant in a motor vehicle tort case, we conclude that her appeal must fail because (1) the judge acted...

Mass. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 3, 2007.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals Judgments affirmed Commonwealth v. George (Lawyers Weekly No. 81-958-07) (3 pages) (open and gross lewdness; claim that the judge abused his discretion by admitting the testimony...

Mass. Supreme Judicial Court Case Summaries: December 3, 2007.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals Appellate counsel fees - Prevailing party Where a plaintiff, having successfully defended a permanent injunction it obtained in a dispute with the defendant city, sought appellate...

Mass. Superior Court Case Summaries: December 3, 2007.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Medicaid - Appeal Where the defendant state agency which administers Medicaid benefits through MassHealth has moved to dismiss the plaintiffs' appeal as untimely, I hold...

1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 3, 2007.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Wire fraud - Sentencing Where a defendant was sentenced to a 46-month prison sentence after he pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to launder...

Massachusetts Lawyers in the News: December 3, 2007.(Obituary)
December 3, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff New associations Christopher M. Flanagan and Douglas S. Stransky have joined Sullivan & Worcester in Boston as partners. Kristin A. Zampell has joined Regnante, Sterio & Osborne in...

Mass. Land Court Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Mortgages Foreclosure by entry Where a plaintiff mortgage company seeks to foreclose by entry and exercise of the power of sale a mortgage given to it by the defendant and his codefendant...

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Disbarment Where a single justice ordered an attorney disbarred from the practice of law and found her in contempt of the judgment of disbarment, we hold that the single justice...

Massachusetts Superior Courts Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Illegal gaming Where a defendant has moved to dismiss charges of organizing and promoting an illegal gaming operation and conspiracy to violate the gaming laws, the motion must...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Mortgage foreclosure Where a mortgage lender has moved for relief from the automatic stay in order to foreclose, the motion should be allowed in light of the debtors'...

1st U.S. Circuit Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Constitutional First Amendment - Town Meeting Where a judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction mandating that plaintiffs, who owned property in a town but were not registered to...

U.S. District Court Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil practice Omnibus dismissal motion Where (1) a plaintiff insurance company has sued several defendants, claiming that they engaged in a fraudulent scheme to obtain insurance benefits...

Commentary: Restructuring of retirement plans promises greater transparency.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Theodore S. Samet and Jay A. Kessler This year likely marks the beginning of a significant restructuring in the defined contribution retirement plan industry as plan providers are forced to become more transparent about the way they...

Commentary: Coach's Corner: Office space will reflect upon your firm.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Edward Poll Our previous look at a sound financial footing for the new firm creates the foundation for determining the nature of its infrastructure -- bricks and mortar, computers and software. Each element is essential, but...

Expert Opinion: Q&A with Mitchell Rait, N.J. employment-law attorney.(New Jersey)(Interview)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff In Expert Opinion, Lawyers Weekly interviews specialists in the management of law firms. This week, reporter Barbara Rabinovitz speaks to Mitchell Rait, a New Jersey employment-law attorney, about...

Seller's Market: Q&A about Boston chapter of Law Firm Media Professionals.(Noah Schaffer of Ropes and Gray)(Interview)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Seller's Market offers practitioners information about marketing their skills and services as attorneys. A group of local law-firm marketing experts has launched a Boston chapter of an...

Verdicts & Settlements December 10, 2007: Woman's complaints lead to below-knee amputation.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $275,000 settlement The 67-year-old plaintiff sought medical treatment from the defendant orthopedic surgeon and defendant vascular surgeon between March 1 and June 3, 2001 for conditions...

Verdicts & Settlements December 10, 2007: Delayed C-section leaves infant with cerebral palsy.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $26.5 million verdict The minor plaintiff was born at Brigham & Women's Hospital on March 13, 1997. His mother had been admitted to the hospital the previous day for induction of labor due to...

Retired judge applauds 'balanced' editorial.(Letter to the editor)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: My congratulations on a balanced editorial on the Tavares "release" ("'Tavares': how to answer the chorus of finger-pointers?," Dec. 3). As noted, it is every judge's...

Massachusetts attorneys say efforts to dismiss Big Dig indictment seen as uphill battle.
December 10, 2007... Byline: David E. Frank A former two-term attorney general predicts that a defense request to dismiss a manslaughter indictment against a corporation in the Big Dig case is destined for failure. At the same time, L. Scott Harshbarger,...

True or False? Crime in Massachusetts is dropping.
December 10, 2007... Byline: David Frank With stories of mounting murder rates, record numbers of teens firing guns and brazen courthouse attacks regularly dominating the headlines, news that crime in Massachusetts has skyrocketed in recent years does not...

Mass. Appeals Courts says whistleblower suit not barred by lack of notice to employer.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Eric T. Berkman A county employee who claimed he was fired for refusing to participate in a supervisor's allegedly illegal acts could sue his employer under the state whistleblower law even though he did not give the employer prior...

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly moves to new office.(Public notice)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly is moving its offices. After 16 years on West Street near the Boston Common, the newspaper is relocating. Lawyers Weekly's new address is 10 Milk St., 10th...

Judicial Vacancies.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff PROBATE & FAMILY COURT Deadline: Dec. 14, 2007 * Barnstable County Division, judge * Norfolk County Division, judge Visit www.mass.gov for complete policy on application process

Notices from the Mass. Courts: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff SJC amends Rules of Civil Procedure COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS At the Supreme Judicial Court holden at Boston within and for said Commonwealth on the twenty-eighth day of November, in...

Notice issued on CM/ECF enhancements issued by U.S. District Court.(Public notice)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NOTICE REGARDING CM/ECF ENHANCEMENTS Civil summons form: On Dec. 3, 2007, the Clerk's Office will implement a new procedure for the electronic issuing of...

1st Circuit, Bankruptcy Appellate Panel to close Dec. 24, 31.(Public notice)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS AND THE BANKRUPTCY APPELLATE PANEL CLOSED FOR BUSINESS ON DEC. 24 AND DEC. 31, 2007 First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Michael Boudin...

Mass. Appellate Tax Board Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Taxation State land - Payments in lieu of taxes Where the city of Quincy has challenged the methodology used to determine the fair cash value of certain state-owned land (the Blue Hills...

District Court/BMC Appellate Division Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Notice of lien - Timeliness Where a judge awarded summary judgment to a defendant in a contract case, the judge acted permissibly on the ground that the plaintiff's notice of...

Mass. Appeals Court Case Summaries: December 10, 2007.(Massachusetts)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals Judgments affirmed Commonwealth v. Jones (Lawyers Weekly No. 81-982-07) (7 pages) (appeal of an order allowing the suppression of (1) statements made by the defendant to a state...

Massachusetts bar celebrates 50th anniversary of the "Red Book".(Massachusetts Family Law Journal)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Barbara Rabinovitz Licensed to practice law in Massachusetts a full 55 years ago, a young Herbert Abrams, browsing the downtown Boston stationery stores in business at that time, quickly realized that his brothers and sisters at...

Commentary: Wine Bar: My favorite "everyday" wines.(Vitiano and La Segreta)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Jason C. Kravitz Like many of you, I receive e-mail newsletters from various wine shops around town. One of those newsletters consistently amuses me because the author takes herself so seriously (she recently described a wine as...

Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers Admonitions: December 10, 2007.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Bar Discipline The following summaries were compiled by the Board of Bar Overseers based on the record filed with the Supreme Judicial Court. The complete Order of the Court is available...

Commentary: Big Dig math adds up.(expenses for Big Dig case go up)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff The numbers attributed in published reports to the state's investigation of the Big Dig admittedly look troubling at first blush. A group of private-firm special prosecutors led by Goodwin...

Massachusetts Judicial Scouting Report: Judge Kathe Tuttman.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff THE LOWDOWN ON JUDGE TUTTMAN Graduated from Suffolk University Law School, cum laude (1988); Brandeis University (1974) Appointed to the bench in April 2006 by Gov. Mitt Romney ...

Commentary: Elect judges? Sure, as long as you don't mind a horror show.(Warren McGraw)(Column)
December 10, 2007... Byline: David Yas In 2004, people in West Virginia started getting strange phone calls. A recorded message would explain that it was important they vote against Warren McGraw, a justice of West Virginia's Supreme Court. McGraw, the...

Fee Arbitration Board in Massachusetts receives C-Minus grade.(Help Abolish Legal Tyranny)(Survey)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff A Washington, D.C., advocacy group calling itself HALT (for Help Abolish Legal Tyranny) has published the results of its first-ever survey of fee-arbitration agencies nationwide, and the Fee...

Boston College Law School student mentions baseball rivalry in wedding vows.(Laura Greenberg)(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff When he is not working at his day job as a Superior Court judge, a black-robed Paul A. Chernoff on occasion can be found presiding over another ceremonial event -- a wedding. And so it was at...

Former judge Mel L. Greenberg appears at oral argument before Massachusetts Appeals Court.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff The attorney who appeared on behalf of a criminal defendant before the Appeals Court last month needed no introduction to the judges. Six months after retiring from the court at the mandatory...

Judges need clearer guidance on issue of public comment.(Letter to the editor)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: I respectfully disagree with comments attributed to two of my former judicial colleagues to the extent that they suggest that the Code of Judicial Conduct permits a judge to add...

Supporting Tuttman during 'difficult time'.(Letter to the editor)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: We have had the privilege of trying, on separate occasions, lengthy, complicated medical-malpractice cases before Superior Court Judge Kathe M. Tuttman during her first year on...

Judges shouldn't have to defend actions.(Letter to the editor)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: I am a former assistant district attorney and a criminal defense attorney in Essex County. During my years of practice, I've had the opportunity to have Superior Court Judge...

ADA, not Tuttman, who 'let down the people'.(Americans for Democratic Action; Kathe M. Tuttman)(Letter to the editor)
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: I have read with great sadness, and with mounting anger, the completely undeserved, politically motivated attacks on Superior Court Judge Kathe M. Tuttman in the media. As a...

Boston attorney lands job as executive director of National Hockey League Players Assn.(Paul Kelly; Association)
December 10, 2007... Byline: David E. Frank Things are so good with local sports right now that even Boston lawyers are cashing in on the karma. Take Paul Kelly, for example. When the white-collar criminal lawyer answered his phone in June, little did...

Verdicts & Settlements December 10, 2007: Patient dies of colon cancer following complaints.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $1 million settlement From 1997 through 2000, the 58-year-old decedent made complaints that were unremarkable for colon cancer. In April 2001, he complained of a new onset of low back pain...

Verdicts & Settlements December 10, 2007: Housing authority employee has fatal heart attack.
December 10, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $175,000 settlement An employee who worked for a local housing authority suffered a fatal heart attack on the job on Jan. 11, 2006, and his widow and surviving children brought claims for...

Commentary: Massachusetts Governor's Council: lawyers wanted.
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff A new state law passed last month gives members of the Governor's Council the same rights to practice law that Massachusetts legislators enjoy. Historically, members of the council (which...

Commentary: Healy on the Hill: Changes in criminal justice field moving slowly.(Martin W. Healy)(Column)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Martin W. Healy "Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered." -- Aristotle Travelers fleeing the state's capital for the busy holiday season are being joined by Beacon Hill denizens eager...

Commentary: Imperfections in Worcester; volleys from Holyoke.
December 17, 2007... Byline: David Yas Another installment in my quest to visit 100 Massachusetts courthouses before the year is out "I don't want to complain," Steven Abraham tells me, surrounded by the impressive furnishings of a gleaming new courthouse....

John M. Moscardelli rejoins Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Commission.
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff The Judicial Nominating Commission has a new member -- sort of. Boston attorney John "Jack" M. Moscardelli, a long-serving member of the JNC under several previous gubernatorial...

Former Donovan Hatem attorneys file suit against firm in Suffolk Superior Court.
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff 'Tis the fortnight before New Year's Eve, and a group of lawyers who used to work in the Boston firm of Donovan Hatem has filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court against name partner David J....

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court says M.D. can be sued after patient hits boy in car crash.(medical doctor)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Eric T. Berkman The mother of a boy who was struck and killed by a car could sue the driver's doctor for failing to warn the driver of the risk of operating a motor vehicle while taking medication he had been prescribed, the...

On the Job: Jeffrey W. Purcell, senior housing-unit attorney for Greater Boston Legal Services.
December 17, 2007... Byline: Barbara Rabinovitz This is another in an occasional On the Job series in which Lawyers Weekly spends a day with a lawyer and reports on what transpired. Thursday is eviction day in the Housing courts of Massachusetts, and the...

Leaders of Massachusetts bar, bench lament pace of judicial appointments.(List)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Barbara Rabinovitz As the first year of Gov. Deval L. Patrick's four-year term draws to a close, the number of unfilled judicial vacancies in the trial courts is arousing concern among leaders of the organized bar and among some of...

Commentary: Law-school-ranking process downright Orwellian.(George Orwell)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Andrej T. Starkis Who would have believed it? In the massive game of deception and delusion that is the law-school-ranking process, there are fouls being committed: schools elbowing one another to climb over the competition in the...

Mass. Appellate Tax Board: December 17, 2007.(Massachusetts)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Taxation Cambridge real estate - Valuation Where the appellant owners of 17 income-producing Cambridge properties are seeking abatements for fiscal years 2001 through 2005, we find that...

Massachusetts Appeals Court: December 17, 2007.
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals Judgments affirmed Adoption of Maisie (and a companion case) (Lawyers Weekly No. 82-009-07) (12 pages) (challenge to a decree dispensing with the need for a mother's consent to...

U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Case Summaries: December 17, 2007.(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Refinancing Where (1) a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge allowed the debtors' motion for leave to refinance the mortgage on their home and (2) a title insurance company, as mortgage...

Mass. Land Court Case Summaries: December 17, 2007.(Massachusetts)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Real property Prescriptive right - Airstrip Where evidence indicates that the plaintiff had permission from the defendant to use a private airstrip on the defendant's property, I find...

Mass. Supreme Judicial Court: December 17, 2007.(Massachusetts)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals G.L.c. 211, Sect. 3 petition Where a petitioner, civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person, sought relief under G.L.c. 211, Sect. 3 after his requests for a speedy trial...

Massachusetts Superior Courts Case Summaries: December 17, 2007.
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal 'Miranda' waiver - Voluntariness Where a defendant charged with statutory rape has moved to suppress statements he made to the police while in custody following his arrest, the...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: December 17, 2007.(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Homestead exemption - Manufactured home - Leased land Where the Chapter 7 trustee has objected to the debtors' claim of a homestead exemption, the objection must be overruled,...