The death match is on! Hulk Hogan versus Morris “Sandy” Weinberg Jr. This grudge match is set for Florida with a $1.5 million purse.
Continue reading “Grudge Match: Hulk Hogan Sues Zuckerman Spaeder For Malpractice”
Category: Lawyering
Attorney William Halby has lost another effort to allow him to deduct his “medical” use of prostitutes from his taxes. He lost a claim of over $100,000 in deductions before the federal Tax Court.
It is not clear what is more interesting the legal problems in the trial over Merck’s osteoporosis drug Fosamax or the alleged assaults occurring in the jury room during deliberations. United States District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan was forced to issue the novel “time out” order this week and send home the eight men and women on the jury after lawyers heard yelling from the jury room and a juror alleged that she had been physically threatened and had a chair thrown at her.
Continue reading “Eight Angry Men: Jury Sent Home After Alleged Brawl During Deliberations”
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Virga improperly influenced a jury to find a defendant guilty in a sexual assault case. The actions of the former prosecutor have resulted in a new trial being ordered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Continue reading “Ninth Circuit: California Judge Improperly Influenced Jury to Convict Defendant”
Former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Dennis Fisher has been barred from practicing law for another year as punishment for stealing two knives. He was accused of not only stealing the knives but resisting employees who tried to stop him.
Continue reading “Former Prosecutor Suspended for Shoplifting”
The murder of John Colman is not exactly a cold case, it is positively glacial. New York detectives have taken up the case 400 years after the English seaman was found murdered and buried in a shallow grave. No weapon, no motive. The culprit, however, is believed to be out of the New York jurisdiction and even Interpol.
OK, this is incredibly disgusting but it is another example of what lawyers sometimes have to deal with in court. James Orr, 66, stopped his trial for robbery and kidnapping when he removed his colostomy bag and began to consume the contents. While this particular act is thankfully uncommon, the courts have to grapple with such acts to terminate trials. Judges are reluctant to reward such conduct with a mistrial, but there are not many good options for the judge. In this case, however, Common Pleas Court Judge Ethna Cooper appears intent upon continuing the trial and prosecutors have argued the act was nothing more than a tactic to stop the trial.
Continue reading “One Orr in the Water: Defendant Stops Trial After Eating Own Waste in Court”
When he served as the attorney general for Ontario, Michael Bryant argued for harsh punishment for criminals, including a crackdown traffic crimes such a speeders. He is now accused in a shocking act of road rage that killed a bicyclist who Bryant allegedly rammed into a mailbox.
Judge John Doyle is facing accusations that he is a latte-hating, cigar-smoker baiting jurist or worse. Doyle recused himself after losing his patience with a bank lawyer, Farzad Milani, and telling him that he could not allow the lawyer to sit in his office “smoking his Cohiba cigars and drinking his lattes” while the court does all the work. He should be less worried about playing around with judicial ethics as ticking off those jackbooted, over-caffeinated thugs at Starbucks.
Continue reading “Judge Recuses Himself After Denouncing Latte Drinking, Cigar-Smoking Lawyer”
The annual selection of the top 500 lawyers in America has begun at LawDragon. You can vote for your favorite colleagues, teachers, or counsel.
Continue reading “Top 500: Vote For Your Favorite Lawyers”
Attorney Dimitrios Biller was the former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales USA and handled rollover cases for the company. He has now done a rollover of his own — accusing the car manufacturer of destroying evidence of rollover in a “ruthless conspiracy” to hide dangers.
Michail Sorodsky, a Brooklyn man accused of practicing medicine without a license and abusing patients under anesthesia, has won bail — sort of. The court set bail at either $11 million cash or $33 million bail bond. The constitutional question is whether an $11 million bail is the same as a denial of bond.
Continue reading “Brooklyn “Doctor” Wins Bail — Just $11 Million in Cash”
West Virginia defense lawyer Ed ReBrook had a difficult case in representing Thomas H. Gravely, 31, who was accused of raping Charleston prostitutes. However, critics charge that he made a difficult case worse by calling no witnesses and using highly offensive terms to describe the victims.
Continue reading “West Virginia Lawyer Tells Jury that Raped Prostitutes Were Not Like Their Mothers and Daughters — Nothing More Than “Whores” and “Tramps””
Harris County Criminal Court-at-Law judge Donald W. Jackson, 59, has been indicted on a misdemeanor charge of official oppression – allegedly offering to get a DWI defendant help in dismissing her case in exchange for a sexual relationship. Notably, he allegedly insisted that he was not interested in “a one-night stand” in seeking to secure counsel for Ariana M. Venegas. If so, it is a new variation on past judicial pick-up lines that simply offer to trade sex for rulings.
California Deputy Attorney General Ellyn Levinson has lost her personal injury case against a rancher who allowed her to ride one of his horses as a party. A California court ruled that falling off the horse was Levinson’s own fault and not that of the owner.
Continue reading “California Deputy Attorney General Ellyn Levinson Loses Torts Case Involving Horseback Riding Injury”