Michigan Lawyers Weekly articles from June 2005

Michigan Lawyers Weekly archives from June 2005

Michigan Supreme Court Case Summaries: June 6, 2005.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Real Property Railroad 'Right Of Way' - Easement The Department of Natural Resources could not operate a snowmobile trail on land conveyed by a railroad because the interest the railroad...

Michigan Court of Appeals holds woman's vision loss is serious impairment of body function.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Todd C. Berg, Esq. A woman who suffered vision loss as a result of a car accident could sue for noneconomic damages under the No-Fault Act, the Michigan Court of Appeals has held. The plaintiff argued her loss of visual acuity...

Will patent reform become a reality?
June 6, 2005... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson (This article orginally ran in Lawyers Weekly USA, Boston, MA, another Dolan Media publication). Patent lawyers may soon find themselves in the same situation as bankruptcy attorneys coping with an...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: June 6, 2005.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Miscellaneous Orders In Re Certified Questions From The United States Court Of Appeals For The Sixth Circuit. Melson v. Prime Ins. Syndicate. SC: 127088; CA-6: 03-1914; ED Mich:...

Michigan Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: June 6, 2005.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Law Public Employee - Disability Retirement Where the State Employees Retirement Board denied the claimant's application for disability retirement, the circuit court erred by...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: June 6, 2005.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointments Wayne State University Law School Professor Robert A. Sedler has been appointed to the WSU Academy of Scholars. Sedler's areas of expertise include constitutional law and conflict...

Commentary: Re-tooling the small law firm.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Michael Giardina Practice management is a challenge for any law firm. However, managing workflow case documents, court calendars, phone calls, e-mails, client contact information, invoices, time sheets, and so on, has grown easier...

Verdicts & Settlements: June 6, 2005: Woman's med-mal matter gets 'no cause'.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff On May 19, 2000, plaintiff Deborah Schippers a 39-year-old single mother who was employed as a factory worker came into the emergency room at Borgess Medical Center, complaining that two of the...

Verdicts & Settlements: June 6, 2005: Construction injury settles for $1.2M.
June 6, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff This personal injury case arose out of a construction site accident caused by the improper use of a rough terrain forklift machine (RTFL) by an untrained, uncertified operator. The accident occurred on...

Commentary: Eliminating preliminary examinations is 'frightening idea'.
June 13, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: I support Lloyd Powell's excellent "Viewpoint" in the May 30 issue of Michigan Lawyers Weekly. (See, "Examination of the need for preliminary examinations.") Mr. Powell opposes...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: June 13, 2005.
June 13, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff NewsMakers Elections Byron Otto Kuxhaus has been elected secretary of the Michigan Chapter of the National Association of Tax Professionals. Kuxhaus, of the Law Office of Byron Otto...

Commentary: Rethinking environmental due diligence issues after Sarbanes-Oxley.
June 13, 2005... Byline: Mark R. High In this post-Enron world, it seems that disclosure has become the primary product manufactured by public companies in this country. Certainly, corporate management has recently spent a great deal of energy trying to...

Michigan Supreme Court finds defendant can't be convicted for distributing child porn.
June 13, 2005... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram, Esq. MSC case An employee could not be convicted of distributing and promoting child sexually abusive material even though the computer he turned in when he quit contained child pornography, the Michigan...

Michigan Supreme Court Case Summaries: June 13, 2005.
June 13, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Distribution Of Child Sexually Abuse Material - Criminal Intent MCL 750.145c(3), which prohibits the distribution or promotion of child sexually abusive material, requires that the...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: June 13, 2005.
June 13, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Court Rule Amendments ADM File No. 2003-20 Amendment of Rule 9.216 of the Michigan Court Rules By order dated January 11, 2005, this Court adopted the amendment of Rule 9.216 of the...

Michigan Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: June 13, 2005.
June 13, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff No-Fault Attendant Care Compensation - No Claim Under Consumer Law A suit brought under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act against a no-fault insurance company for additional compensation for...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: June 20, 2005.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Court Rule Amendments ADM File No. 2004-33 Amendment of Rule 9.221 of the Michigan Court Rules On order of the Court, the need for immediate action having been found, the notice...

Commentary: Tips for lawyers for recognizing a problem client.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Marcia L. Proctor Some of the worst insurance claims in the 1990s were directly attributable to a lawyer's poor judgment in accepting a new client. The client proved to be dishonorable, overbearing, indecisive, financially weak, or...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: June 20, 2005.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff NewsMakers Elections Robert J. Chovanec has been elected president of the National Association for Employee Recognition for a one-year term. Chovanec, a partner with Warner Norcross & Judd...

Commentary: Significant patent law reform legislation pending.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Kevin J. Heinl Congress is currently giving active consideration to several significant changes in the U.S. patent law. Hearings have been held this spring on proposed changes in the patent law believed to likely be passed into law...

Verdicts & Settlements June 20, 2005: Third-party auto negligence claim nets $300K.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff On May 12, 2000, the plaintiff, a 37-year-old employed mother of two, was rear ended while stopped for a school bus. Liability was eventually admitted. The plaintiff suffered injuries to her low back...

Verdicts & Settlements June 20, 2005: DJ wins $10.6M for discrimination.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff According to plaintiff's counsel, plaintiff Erin Weber was the top rated and most profitable on-air personality on Infinity-owned radio station WYCD-FM. The plaintiff showed that the defendant paid...

Verdicts & Settlements June 20, 2005: $8M verdict for burned neonate reduced.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff A neonate suffered burns in a 1997 fire in the Beaumont NICU. The plaintiffs claimed permanent brain damage and lung injuries necessitating a lifetime of 24-hour care. The plaintiffs sought in...

Verdicts & Settlements June 20, 2005: Jury awards $285K for weight bias matter.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff Steve Pasanski was employed as a manager for Continental Rental, Inc., which rents out household items such as furniture and television sets. The plaintiff weighed 360 pounds at the time...

Michigan Supreme Court Decisions: June 20, 2005.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Project Head Start - No Disclosure Of Bid Documents A disappointed bidder who sought to provide a Project Head Start agency with office furniture and supplies has no private...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: June 20, 2005.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Indecent Exposure - 'Open' Exposure A defendant who exposed his erect penis to a minor female house guest committed the crime of indecent exposure even though the exposure was not...

Michigan Attorney General Office Decisions: June 20, 3005.
June 20, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Municipal Law County Road Commission - Highways And Roads County road commissions have no independent authority to require that haul route permits be obtained before trucks carrying...

U.S. District Court Eastern District Case Summaries: June 27, 2005.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Attorney Fees - Creditors' Committee Counsel The bankruptcy court properly denied an attorney fee application submitted by counsel for the creditors' committee after finding that...

U.S. District Court Western District Case Summaries: June 27, 2005.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Constitutional Law First Amendment - Retaliation Claim Against School Officials Defendant-school district is granted summary judgment on claims that it retaliated against a student after she...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: June 27, 2005.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Leave Granted Oral Argument Scheduled People v. Mileski. SC: 127457; COA: 248038; Calhoun CC: 02-003738-FC. On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the November 4, 2004...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: June 27, 2005.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Search And Seizure - Enclosed Porch The police lawfully entered the enclosed front porch of a house without a warrant to knock on the interior door defendant had no reasonable...

Michigan Attorney General Court Case Summaries: June 27, 2005.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Law Education - Michigan Merit Award Board The Michigan Merit Award Scholarship Act, MCL 390.1451 et seq, does not authorize the Michigan Merit Award Board to add a requirement...

Conscientious objector bills back for another round in Michigan House.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Denise G. Callahan While supporters say the latest batch of medical conscientious objector bills fix what doomed similar legislation in the Senate last session, doctors, hospitals and lawyers say the measure is meaningless and...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: June 27, 2005.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Several Dykema Gossett PLLC attorneys have been named as America's Leading Business Lawyers by Chambers USA. They include: J. Michael Bernard, Paul R. Rentenbach and Lloyd A. Semple corporate/M&A;...

Verdicts & Settlements June 27, 2005: $185K verdict for sideswiped plaintiff.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The defendant crossed the center line, sideswiping the plaintiff's van and forcing him off the roadway. The plaintiff suffered injuries to his neck and upper back which still bother him more than five...

Verdicts & Settlements June 27, 2005: Agent receives $500K for commission dispute.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff This was a sales commission dispute involving a sales agency and a wireless services company. The plaintiff obtained substantial new business for the defendant from some major automotive customers...

Verdicts & Settlements June 27, 2005: Personal injury matter nets $1.2M settlement.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff, a 34-year-old man, was rear-ended on a county road after allegedly slowing for a dog which was never mentioned on the police report. No medical treatment was required or requested at the...

Verdicts & Settlements June 27, 2005: Bladder removal results in death.
June 27, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The 74-year-old-decedent, a wife and mother of three adult children, had bladder cancer. She was admitted for surgical removal of her bladder and the creation of an alternative urinary drain by the use...