Michigan Lawyers Weekly articles from January 2004

Michigan Lawyers Weekly archives from January 2004

Michigan appellate lawyers are optimistic about 'just-in-time' briefing.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Karen M. Poole Practitioners are expressing cautious optimism over a new twist in the Court of Appeals' delay reduction efforts that would allow appellate lawyers to receive an oral argument date before their brief is due. ...

Michigan Court of Appeals rules worker cannot be convicted of distributing child pornography.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Sonny N. Sheth An employee who turned in his work computer after quitting his job could not be convicted of distributing child sexually abusive material, even though the computer contained child pornography, the Michigan Court of...

Michigan U.S. District Court case summaries: January 12, 2004.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Chapter 7 Automatic Stay - Violation Where a creditor instituted a prepetition garnishment action against the debtor's employer, obtained a postpetition default judgment against the employer...

Michigan Supreme Court case summaries: January 12, 2004.(Brief article)
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Civil Procedure Prejudgment Interest - Accrual During Appellate Proceedings Where MCL 600.6013 unambiguously provides that prejudgment interest is to be calculated from the date the complaint...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: January 12, 2004.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Court Rule Amendments ADM File No. 2003-57 Amendment of Rule 3.217 of the Michigan Court Rules On order of the Court, Rule 3.217 of the Michigan Court Rules is amended, effective...

Michigan attorney promotions and personnel changes.(TerraLex)(Spirit of Excellence Award)
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff NewsMakers Appointments Robert Labe has been re-appointed to the Institute of Continuing Legal Education's Business Advisory Board for a three-year term. Labe, a partner with Williams,...

Verdicts & settlements January 12, 2004: Michigan hotel pays $750K for wrongful death.(Brief article)
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff On Feb 24, 2001, the 22-year-old decedent was a guest at defendant hotel. At approximately 3 p.m., the decedent and his friends went into the hotel's indoor swimming pool. The pool was cloudy and the...

Verdicts & settlements January 12, 2004: Michigan construction co. pays $1.25M for worker's accident.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Plaintiff Steven Steiger was an inexperienced 17-year-old laborer working on a three-story apartment building at heights in excess of 30 feet. Defendant Edward Rose Development Company (d/b/a...

Verdicts & settlements January 12, 2004: Michigan jury awards patient $4.9M in med-mal suit.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Robert Manetta, a 55-year-old employee of the Chrysler Corporation was sent to Mt. Clemens General Hospital for the purpose of obtaining a carotid Doppler. Mt. Clemens General Hospital -- through their...

Employees bound by arbitration agreement, rules U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Michigan.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Sonny N. Sheth Two workers who sued their employer under the Michigan Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) were bound by the arbitration agreement they signed, even though it contained a choice-of-law provision calling for the...

Michigan Supreme Court rules prejudgment interest must include time on appeal.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram An auto accident victim who successfully sued his insurance company for no-fault benefits was entitled to prejudgment interest during the time the case was on appeal, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled in a...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: January 12, 2004.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Law Parole Hearing - Deadline For Hearing Even assuming the parole board did not hold a hearing for petitioner within the 45-day period contained in MCL 791.240a(1), petitioner...

U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit Case Summaries: January 12, 2004.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Sight Drafts - False Reports Of Cash Transactions Where defendants were convicted of offenses arising from the making and offering of fictitious "sight drafts" purporting to be...

Michigan breach of contract fraud tops out as third highest since 1999.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Denise G. Callahan With everyone touting tort reform these days, it appears perhaps that the public has taken matters into its own hands. There were dramatically fewer million dollar-plus verdicts reported in 2003 than in any...

Largest Michigan verdicts of 2003.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff 1. Breach Of Contract Claim Nets $30M Verdict $11.9M In Pre- Judgment Interest Awarded Where the plaintiffs claim the defendant misappropriated a caricature they created, some of the...

Michigan U.S. District Court case summaries: January 19, 2004.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Employment Individual Liability Issue - Emotional Distress Where plaintiffs, female police officers, claimed that sex discrimination was the reason their employer's licensed consulting...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: January 19, 2004.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Reversals And Remands People v. McCoy. SC: 124606; COA: 234042; Wayne CC: 00-009853. On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the August 21, 2003 judgment of the Court of Appeals...

Michigan U.S. Supreme Court case summaries: January 19, 2004.(Brief article)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Negligence Icy Stairs - Lack Of Handrail Where plaintiff slipped and fell on defendant-General Motors' icy stairway, the fact that the stairway was not equipped with a center handrail, as...

Michigan Attorney General announcements.(Brief article)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Constitutional Law Intoxicating Liquor - Advertising Rule 436.1313(1) of the Liquor Control Commission, to the extent it prohibits illuminated advertising of alcoholic beverages by certain...

Michigan attorney promotions and personnel changes.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff NewsMakers Appointments Terilyn Malashanko has been appointed academic support coordinator for the Ave Maria School of Law. Previously, Malashanko was an intern for Eastern District Judge...

Michigan attorney Christine Marie Rossi dies in her home December 26, 2003.(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Christine Marie Rossi, a lawyer dedicated to her family, the law and her faith, died Dec. 26, 2003 at her home in Grosse Pointe Farms. She was 96. Born in Spangler, Penn., Rossi came to Detroit and...

Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Gary R. McDonald dies at 63.(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Court of Appeals Judge Gary R. McDonald died recently. He was 63. McDonald earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan in 1962 and graduated from Wayne State...

Michigan class action verdicts and settlements appear under their own separate headings.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff In the past, Lawyers Weekly included class action verdicts and settlements in the regular listings. Starting this year, however, the million-dollar class action verdicts and settlements reported to...

Oakland County Circuit Court rules delivery driver can't recover for slip & fall on icy steps.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Karen M. Poole A delivery driver who was injured when she slipped and fell on icy steps at a delivery site could not recover from the property owner, even though the steps did not have a center handrail as required by a state and...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: January 19, 2004.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Affirmed Convictions Carrying A Concealed Weapon; Attempted Felonious Assault; Felony Firearm. Probable Cause. Defendant contends that the evidence against him should be suppressed because police...

$16M broker raiding case tops list of million-dollar settlements reported to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff A $16 million broker raiding case topped the list of million-dollar settlements reported to Michigan Lawyers Weekly in 2003. Meanwhile, two medical malpractice birth matters took the second and...

Ex-husband not entitled to life insurance proceeds, rules Michigan Court of Appeals.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram Even though a woman failed to remove her ex-husband as the beneficiary of her life insurance policy before she died, the ex-husband was not entitled to the life insurance proceeds because he had entered into a...

Criminal's conviction for animal cruelty stands, rules Michigan Court of Appeals.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff A man who threw a firecracker into a horse stable, causing a fire that killed 19 horses, was properly convicted under Michigan's animal cruelty statute, the Michigan Court of Appeals has decided in an...

State Bar of Michigan applicant could picket official's home, rules 6th Circuit.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Sonny N. Sheth A State Bar of Michigan applicant who was upset over the way he was treated while applying for his license to practice law had a constitutionally protected right to picket outside the home of a State Bar official,...

U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit Case Summaries: January 19, 2004.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Chapter 11 - Examiner Misconduct Where the Chapter 11 examiner privately negotiated a success fee with three of the estate's unsecured creditors -- by which they would pay him a...

U.S. District Court Eastern District of Mich. Case Summaries: January 19, 2004.
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Chapter 7 Jury Trial Demand - Denial Where plaintiff-debtor sued a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee for failing to preserve an alleged interest in property purchased by land contract, plaintiff's...

Michigan Court of Appeals rules teenage girl cannot seek divorce from her parents.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Sonny N. Sheth A teenage girl could not seek a "divorce" from her parents because she lacked standing to bring the claim and the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over it, the Michigan Court of Appeals has decided. ...

Experts say Michigan lawyers should have a basic understanding in auto law insurance.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Even if you do not specialize in "auto law" you should still have a basic understanding of automobile insurance and Michigan's no-fault system, experts tell Lawyers Weekly. Such knowledge will not...

Michigan Court of Appeals rules decedent's insurance policy is valid despite flaws.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Even though a decedent with a life insurance policy under the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance Act (FEGLIA) did not date the designation-of-beneficiary form, check the box indicating her signature...

Michigan U.S. District Court case summaries: January 26, 2004.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Constitutional Law Free Speech - School's 'Verbal Assault' Policy Where plaintiff-high school student was disciplined for making insulting remarks about school administrators, the discipline is...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: January 26, 2004.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff Court Rule Amendments ADM File No. 2003-57 Amendment of Rule 3.217 of the Michigan Court Rules AMENDMENT TO ORDER On order of the Court, Rule 3.217 is amended, effective immediately,...

Michigan U.S. Supreme Court case summaries: January 26, 2004.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Real Property Condemnation - Public Purpose Where the City of Dearborn seeks to condemn privately held property, the taking is for a public purpose, even though there will be an ancillary...

Michigan attorney promotions and personnel changes.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff NewsMakers Appointments Linda V. Parker has been appointed as director of the Civil Rights Department by the Michigan Civil Service Commission. Parker is currently director of development...

Michigan jury awards real estate broker $889K for breach of contract.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Can a real estate brokerage firm successfully sue a building owner for unpaid lease commissions after the firm's client delayed the lease transaction and eventually signed with the building owner on its...

Verdicts & settlements January 26, 2004: Michigan jury awards $500K for premises liability suit.(Case overview)
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff The plaintiff was descending the upstairs stairway and a step cracked and gave way. The plaintiff grabbed for the side handrail, which became detached from the wall, and she fell down eight to nine...

Verdicts & settlements January 26, 2004: Michigan Elks Lodge pays $330K for premises liability suit.(Case overview)
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff The plaintiff was looking for the restroom at the Elks Lodge in a dimly lit hall. She found the men's room and looked down what she thought to be a hall within six feet of the men's room. That hall...

Verdicts & settlements January 26, 2004: Michigan moving co pays $360K for premises liability matter.(Brief article)(Case overview)
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly staff The plaintiff worked for a moving company. As he was walking up an inside stairway, a tread broke loose from the side risers causing the plaintiff to fall onto the step below with his legs dangling down...

U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit Case Summaries: January 26, 2004.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Law Horse Racing Statutes - No Taking Where plaintiff-race track owners sued defendant-racing commission, challenging the constitutionality of Ohio HB 561 -- concerning the terms...

U.S. District Court Western District Case Summaries: January 26, 2004.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Motion To Disqualify - Denied Where defendant in this product liability suit seek to disqualify plaintiffs' attorneys based on a conflict of interest, the motion is denied. ...

City may proceed with condemnation of property, rules Wayne County Circuit Court.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Karen M. Poole A city's condemnation action against a private property owner may proceed even though a private developer will benefit from the city's plans, the Wayne County Circuit Court has ruled. The property owner and its...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: January 26, 2004.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Affirmed Convictions Armed Robbery; Felony Firearm. Ineffective Assistance. "Defendant claims that his counsel was ineffective at trial because he did not seek to suppress defendant's statement to...