Lawyers Weekly USA articles from May 2006

Lawyers Weekly USA archives from May 2006

Nebraska Supreme Court rules at-will employee can sue for wrongful discharge.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff An at-will nursing home employee who was fired for reporting abuse to state regulators can sue for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, the Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled. The plaintiff...

5th Circuit Court rules employee not entitled to FMLA leave for chronic diarrhea.(Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff An employee with chronic diarrhea can't sue his employer over the denial of temporary Family and Medical Leave Act leave to accommodate his frequent trips to the restroom, the 5th Circuit has ruled. ...

5th Circuit Court rules FMLA numerosity requirement not a bar to federal jurisdiction.(Family and Medical Leave Act of 199)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A federal court can hear a case brought under the Family Medical Leave Act even if the employer lacks the minimum number of employees under the statute, the 5th Circuit has ruled. The court held that...

Tennessee Supreme Court rules discriminatory pay constitutes continuing violation under state law.(for Boeing Co.)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A claim for allegedly discriminatory pay may be brought at any time within one year of a plaintiff's receipt of discriminatory pay, and back pay is available for the duration of the period of unequal pay,...

Georgia Supreme Court affirms wife's omissions in bankruptcy case don't bar alimony, property claims.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A wife was not barred from seeking alimony and property in her divorce case by her initial failure to list those claims as assets in her bankruptcy petition, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled in affirming...

Pennsylvania court rules surrogate mother has no standing in custody dispute.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A surrogate mother lacks standing to contest a biological father's custody of his children, a Pennsylvania appellate court has ruled. "There is no law in this Commonwealth that accords standing to a...

Indiana Court of Appeals rules unmarried couples can jointly adopt regardless of sexual orientation.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff Unmarried couples, including those of the same sex, can adopt a child through a joint petition granting equal custody, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled. The court interpreted the state adoption...

Michigan Supreme Court rules beneficiary can waive ERISA benefits.(Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff ERISA's preemption provision does not preclude a named beneficiary from waiving the proceeds from a life insurance policy, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled. The issue arose in a divorce proceeding....

U.S. Supreme Court rules Arkansas agency can be reimbursed only for medical expenses.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A state agency seeking reimbursement of Medicaid benefits paid to an accident victim is only entitled to recover settlement expenses paid for medical care, not the entire settlement, the U.S. Supreme Court...

S. C. Supreme Court rules guardian ad litem can seek damages for defamation.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A guardian ad litem could seek damages for a newspaper's alleged defamation in articles critical of her handling of custody matters in a divorce case - she did not need to meet the higher standard...

CA Court rules collateral source rule bars evidence of injured attorney's receipt of salary bonuses.(California Court of Appeal)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff The collateral source rule barred a defendant from introducing, in a personal injury case, evidence that the plaintiff, despite his incapacity, continued to receive his regular salary and bonuses during his...

NJ Court rules that wife exposed to asbestos dust on husband's clothes can sue refinery.(asbestos-related disease)(wrongful death)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A landowner may be held liable for a housewife's fatal exposure to asbestos dust carried home on her husband's work clothes, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled. The plaintiff worked for many years...

Idaho Supreme Court rules state may be liable for inadequate abuse investigation.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A state and its employees may be held liable for allegedly negligently investigating a reported case of child abuse, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled. A two-year-old child was beaten to death by his...

N.J. court rules homeowner can be sued for failing to warn of trampoline's dangers.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff Homeowners could be liable for failing to warn a social guest of the dangers associated with jumping on a backyard trampoline, the New Jersey Appellate Division has ruled. The defendants invited the...

Nebraska Supreme Court rules witness to boat accident is not entitled to damages.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A boat operator who witnessed a fatal Jet Ski accident is not entitled to damages for emotional distress, the Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled. The plaintiff was driving a boat on a state park lake,...

Arizona Court of Appeals rules plaintiff can't sue hospital for vicarious liability.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff Even though a hospital's consent form didn't make clear that the plaintiff's surgeon wasn't an agent of the hospital, the plaintiff couldn't show reliance on the notice and therefore can't sue the hospital...

U.S. Supreme Court rules that taking of plaintiff's house violated Constitution.
May 8, 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,...

U.S. Supreme Court rules 'probate exception' doesn't apply to bankruptcy case.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff The probate exception to federal court jurisdiction doesn't apply to bankruptcy proceedings - and therefore former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith can go forward with her attempts to collect an $88...

10th Circuit Court rules trooper's good faith belief insufficient to justify stop.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A traffic stop that resulted in a drug arrest was illegal, even though a police officer had a good faith belief that the defendant's pickup was subject to random searches under state regulations governing...

Bartender who refused to wear makeup can't sue for sex discrimination.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A bartender who was fired by a casino because she refused to wear makeup to work can't sue under Title VII, the 9th Circuit has ruled. The plaintiff was terminated from her position as a bartender at a...

Wyoming Supreme Court rules employer not liable for workers' drunk-driving accident.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff An employer cannot be held liable for an accident caused by employees who drank alcohol on the job in violation of company policy, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled. The two employees worked on a...

California Supreme Court rules TV writers' assistant can't sue for sexual harassment.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A comedy writers' assistant on the "Friends" TV show can't sue for sexual harassment based on sexually coarse and vulgar language in the workplace, the California Supreme Court has ruled. After the...

Injured ATV rider's negligence claim allowed.(ATV rider)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff The assumption of the risk doctrine does not bar a negligence claim brought by an ATV rider injured in a collision with an underage ATV rider, the California Court of Appeal has ruled. A father allowed...

Florida court says lawyer can't be sued for tortious interference despite paying for client's flight.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A lawyer who paid for another lawyer's client to fly to his office and discuss representation cannot be sued for tortious interference, the Florida Court of Appeal has ruled. The plaintiff represented a...

9th Circuit Court rules creditor can't bring RICO claim on behalf of bankruptcy estate.(Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A creditor lacks standing to bring a claim on behalf of a bankruptcy estate, the 9th Circuit has ruled. The issue arose when a debtor's ex-wife brought a RICO suit claiming that assets of the debtor's...

11th Circuit Court rules state criminal restitution award is nondischargeable.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff State-imposed criminal restitution obligations are nondischargeable, the 11th Circuit has ruled. The defendant was convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison. He was ordered to pay $2.5 million in...

9th Circuit Court rules debtor may discharge student loan without showing exceptional circumstances.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A Chapter 7 debtor could not be required to show the existence of exceptional circumstances beyond her inability to pay in order to obtain a discharge of her student loans, the 9th Circuit has ruled. ...

6th Circuit Court rules TILA plaintiffs can sue bank over refinanced home mortgage loans.(Truth in Lending Act)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff Homeowners could sue a bank for violating the federal Truth in Lending Act, even though the disputed loans had been replaced by new loans in the course of refinancing, the 6th Circuit has ruled in reversing...

$28M punitive award upheld by California Court of Appeal in cigarette smoker case.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A $28 million punitive award to a products liability plaintiff who contracted lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking cigarettes does not violate due process, even though the jury awarded only $850,000 in...

California Court of Appeal rules business firm lacks standing to fight Internet discovery order.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A business lacked standing to contest a defamation plaintiff's discovery request regarding the identity of anonymous Internet message board posters traced to the company, the California Court of Appeal has...

1st Circuit Court rules cable TV arbitration clause applies retroactively to subscriber claims.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff Cable television subscribers were required to arbitrate antitrust claims against their service provider, even though the alleged violations occurred before the arbitration policy went into effect, the 1st...

Retaliatory prosecution plaintiff must show absence of probable cause in prior case.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff Federal law enforcement agents cannot be sued for retaliatory prosecution unless the plaintiff can show there was no probable cause for the underlying criminal charges, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. ...

Plaintiff can sue in state court for negligence despite loss in federal Sect. 1983 suit.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A federal defense verdict in a 42 U.S.C. Sect. 1983 excessive-force case did not bar a subsequent state-court negligence suit, the California Court of Appeal has ruled. A man died after being shot 22...

U.S. Supreme Court rules defendant's rights violated by third-party evidence rule.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A criminal evidentiary rule that requires defendants to produce evidence of third-party guilt strong enough to overcome the state's case is unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The...

TN Supreme Court rules suspicionless ID check at public-housing development is unconstitutional.(Tennessee Supreme Cou)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff An ID check made without reasonable suspicion at a public housing development is unconstitutional, the Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled. The defendant was driving on a street that entered a low-income...

Defendant's failure to object to presentencing report didn't waive 'Blakely' rights.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A defendant's failure to object to facts in his presentencing report did not waive the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Blakely v. Washington, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled. After a...

Employer can be sued for failure to accommodate worker's religious beliefs.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff An employer's offer of a work schedule excluding Sunday mornings did not constitute a reasonable accommodation of an employee whose religious beliefs forbid working on Sundays, the 2nd Circuit has ruled in...

U.S. Supreme Court Certiorari Granted: May 8, 2006.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff HABEAS CORPUS If a death row defendant challenged jury instructions prior to enactment of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, what is the proper standard of constitutional habeas corpus...

NY University professor says 'CSI effect' may work in reverse.(Crime Scene Investigation, television program)
May 8, 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,...

Company's deputy general counsel looks to plaintiffs' lawyers when defending claims.(John DeGroote)
May 8, 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...

Plaintiffs are cruising to the courtroom.(personal injury claims on cruises)
May 8, 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...

Integrated juries deliberate more thoroughly.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Dick Dahl When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a black death-row inmate in Texas last year due to strong evidence of racial bias during jury selection, Justice Stephen G. Breyer added his own denunciation of an...

Do-it-yourself divorcers get online aid.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Nora Lockwood Tooher Staff writer Courts in Arizona, California, Maryland, Washington, Utah and other states have developed a range of Web-based legal forms and instructions to help pro se litigants fill out forms for divorces,...

Commentary: Jury consultants foster success in mediation.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff I frequently get calls from lawyers after mediation fails, and they're almost always incredulous that their opponent couldn't see the overwhelming strength of their client's case. Although it's...

Commentary: But really: good v. bad writing.(Column)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Judge Mark P. Painter We all now know that using but and and to begin (some) sentences is the mark of good writing (Rule 18). Always use but to begin a sentence instead of the more difficult however. Examples abound - just pick any...

New bankruptcy law raises liability risks for lawyers.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson Marc Stern, a solo practitioner in Seattle, Wash., recently had to give a client the debt relief agency disclosures required by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. While the...

2nd Circuit rules filing of collection suit triggers Fair Debt Act.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Reni Gertner Staff writer The filing of a complaint in a state court collection suit triggers the protections of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the 2nd Circuit has ruled. Under the Act, within five days of a creditor...

Employer concerns grow with increased employee Internet use.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson If you're at work reading this story on the Internet, you may be in trouble. According to Burstek, a company that provides employee Internet management software, 78 percent of all employees access the...

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff BANKRUPTCY The probate exception to federal court jurisdiction doesn't apply to bankruptcy proceedings - and therefore former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith can go forward with her attempts to...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: Merck to pay $32M in latest Vioxx case.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff In the sixth Vioxx case to go to trial, a Texas jury ordered Merck & Co. to pay $32 million on April 21 to the family of a 71-year-old man who had a fatal heart attack within a month of taking its painkiller...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: Child jailed for misbehaving at school gets $221K.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff The family of a third-grader who was handcuffed and jailed after misbehaving at school will receive a $221,000 settlement from the city of Espanola, N.M., and its insurer. Jerry Trujillo, then 8, was...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: $275K for nursing home death.(Leland Health Care Center)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A St. Louis jury awarded $275,000 on April 24 to the daughter of a nursing home patient who died during a heat wave in 2001. Plaintiff Valerie Jackson alleged that Leland Health Care Center and its...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: $14.9M settlement in overtime suit.(Electronic Arts Inc)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. will pay former and current computer programmers $14.9 million to settle a California overtime suit. A similar class-action filed in 2004 on behalf of graphic...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: Hilton settles class-action over mold.(toxic mold in the hotel building)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff The Hilton Hotel will pay $1.8 million to settle a mold lawsuit involving its hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii. The class action asserted that the hotel did not disclose the presence of toxic mold in the...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: Hawaii jury awards $16.5 million for faulty seatbelt.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff A Hawaii jury awarded $16.5 million against a Japanese seat-belt manufacturer in connection with a car crash that left a 26-year-old man paralyzed from the waist down. Dason Udac was thrown from his...

Federal jury in Oklahoma award $14 million for false rape conviction.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Natalie White A federal jury in Oklahoma recently ordered the city of Tulsa to pay $14.5 million to a man falsely imprisoned for kidnapping and rape - $1 million for every year Avrin McGee lived behind bars. McGee, 44, was...

Lawyer overcomes anti-Arab prejudice to win $22 million.(Ashetrust Investment Corp)
May 8, 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...

Tobacco industry wins defense verdict in Missouri.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Natalie White Using a defense based on personal responsibility and known health risks, the tobacco industry landed a defense verdict in a Missouri trial on behalf of an 80-year-old World War II veteran who claimed the cigarette...