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NYC lawyer: Boy a menace before shopping cart case
Court Watch |
2011/12/07 09:18
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Officials say a 13-year-old had a history of troubling behavior before he helped push a shopping cart that fell on a woman from a fourth-floor walkway at a New York City mall.
A city lawyer told a judge Tuesday the boy tried to run schoolmates over on his bike, threw things in the lunchroom and hit his mother's cat.
The attorney says the boy joked around at a police precinct after his Oct. 30 arrest and expressed more concern about his sneakers than about the woman who was seriously hurt.
The boy's lawyer says the teen needs and wants counseling for his behavioral problems.
The boy was charged as a juvenile and pleaded guilty in Family Court last month to assault. His sentencing was postponed Tuesday until later this month.
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Bank of America settles mortgage suit for $315 mln
Breaking Legal News |
2011/12/06 10:58
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Bank of America agreed to pay $315 million to settle claims by investors that they were misled about mortgage-backed investments sold by its Merrill Lynch unit.
The settlement was disclosed in court papers filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and requires the approval of a judge.
The class action lawsuit was led by the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi pension fund. The fund claimed that the investments were backed by poor quality mortgages written by subprime lenders Countrywide Financial Corp., First Franklin Financial, and IndyMac Bancorp, a bank that failed in 2008.
The settlement represents another attempt by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. to put its legal issues behind it. In the first half of the year alone the bank put up $12.7 billion to settle similar claims from different groups of investors.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has to approve the settlement, something that could prove difficult since the settlement includes no admission of guilt from Bank of America.
Just last week, Rakoff struck down a $285 million settlement that Citigroup Inc. reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The settlement would have imposed penalties on Citigroup even as it allowed the company to deny allegations that it misled investors. |
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High court to hear suit over Cheney event arrest
Breaking Legal News |
2011/12/05 10:17
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The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear an appeal from Secret Service agents who say they should be shielded from a lawsuit over their arrest of a Colorado man who confronted Vice President Dick Cheney.
The justices will review a federal appeals court decision to allow Steven Howards of Golden, Colo., to pursue his claim that the arrest violated his free speech rights. Howards was detained by Cheney's security detail in 2006 after he told Cheney of his opposition to the war in Iraq.
Howards also touched Cheney on the shoulder, then denied doing so under questioning. Appellate judges in Denver said the inconsistency gave the agents reason to arrest Howards.
Even so, the appeals court said Howards could sue the agents for violating his rights — an unusual twist that the agents and the Obama administration said conflicts with other appeals court decisions and previous high court rulings in similar cases.
Justice Elena Kagan is not taking part in the case, probably because she worked on it while serving in the Justice Department. |
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Court: State prisoners count at home in redistricting
Court Watch |
2011/12/05 10:17
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A state court ruled Friday that prisoners must be counted among voters back in their home neighborhoods rather than in upstate prisons for the purpose of redrawing state legislative districts, a likely blow to the slim Republican majority in New York’s Senate.
Although prisoners cannot vote, the decision means more voters will be counted as living in heavily Democratic New York City and other urban areas as part of the redistricting process, which is tied to the census. That would reduce the population upstate and likely result in fewer seats in the Assembly and Senate representing sparsely populated upstate areas where prisons are located.
The Senate’s Republican majority says it will appeal the ruling by a trial level judge in Albany.
The immediate practical result of the decision could be minor. The state redistricting commission is already redrawing legislative districts by following a 2010 law requiring prisoners to be counted in their latest home neighborhoods. |
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Pa. capital takeover challenged in federal court
Breaking Legal News |
2011/12/02 11:04
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The state takeover of Pennsylvania's financially troubled capital city received a fresh challenge Thursday, as three Harrisburg residents filed a federal lawsuit calling it an unconstitutional violation of their rights and asking for it to be stopped.
The suit names Gov. Tom Corbett, who signed a law on Oct. 20 enabling an unprecedented takeover of Harrisburg, and the Corbett appointee who, if confirmed, would have broad authority to force the city to pay down a massive debt tied to its trash incinerator.
The lawsuit was filed by a former mayoral candidate, a firefighters' union president and a religious leader. It alleges that the law and the state's takeover violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.
A Corbett administration spokeswoman said she had not seen the lawsuit and could not immediately comment.
The suit is the latest twist in a battle over who will end up footing the $300 million incinerator debt.
The first attempt to stop the takeover failed last week when a federal bankruptcy judge threw out a petition by a divided City Council to get federal bankruptcy protection for Harrisburg. The judge said the city had been legally barred by a separate state law — signed June 30 by Corbett — from seeking bankruptcy protection and, in any case, had no authority to go over the mayor's head to file it. |
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Man tied to Ohio Craigslist case appears in court
Criminal Law |
2011/12/01 10:22
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A suspect in a deadly Craigslist robbery plot was wheeled into court in an unrelated case Thursday, his head bobbing rhythmically, and he later ignored questions about the mounting body count and his relationship with a teen murder suspect.
Richard Beasley, unshaved and dressed in a white and gray striped jail outfit, didn't speak and kept his head down as Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tammy O'Brien revoked his bond on a drug-trafficking charge.
The legal problems faced by Beasley, a self-styled chaplain and youth mentor, are mounting: His attorney said a prostitution case involving the 52-year-old Beasley and a 17-year-old boy would be upgraded with a racketeering charge Friday.
The drug and prostitution cases in Akron are unrelated to a widening Craigslist homicide investigation.
Investigators say someone trying to lure robbery victims posted a bogus ad on Craigslist touting a cattle farm job in southeast Ohio.
Authorities have linked two bodies and the shooting of a man who survived to the scheme, which targeted single, out-of-work men in their late 40s or early 50s. The investigators heading up the Craigslist inquiry also found a third body but have yet to link it to the case.
A 16-year-old boy, Brogan Rafferty of nearby Stow, faces juvenile charges of aggravated murder, complicity to aggravated murder, attempted murder and complicity to attempted murder in the death of one man and the shooting of another. |
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Farmers Insurance Settles Class Action Lawsuit
Class Action |
2011/12/01 10:21
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Farmers Insurance entered into a settlement of a nationwide class action lawsuit, In Re Farmers Med-Pay Litigation, pending in the District Court of Canadian County, Oklahoma. The settlement includes Farmers Insurance Company, Inc., Farmers Insurance Exchange, Truck Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange, Mid-Century Insurance Company, Farmers Group, Inc., Illinois Farmers Insurance Company, and certain related entities. The Court entered a final order approving the settlement on November 29, 2011.
Plaintiffs alleged that Farmers failed to pay reasonable expenses for necessary medical services related to automobile accidents under Medical Payments and Personal Injury Protection ("PIP") coverage in automobile policies based on Farmers' use of certain claim adjustment systems and procedures. Farmers denies all of Plaintiffs' claims in the lawsuit. However, Farmers agreed to resolve the lawsuit to avoid the burden and expense of continued litigation.
The Settlement Class includes all persons who submitted claims for payment of medical bills related to an automobile accident under Med-pay or PIP coverage if (a) the claim was adjusted from January 1, 2001 to February 9, 2009 based upon a recommended reduction from Zurich Services Corporation ("ZSC"), (b) the claim was paid at less than the amount billed, and (c) total Med-pay or PIP payments were less than the respective limits of coverage. The Class also includes medical providers who were assigned the right to assert these claims.
Those affected by this settlement must complete and submit a valid claim form postmarked no later than December 29, 2011. Further information and claim forms can be obtained by visiting www.MedpayClaimsAdministration.com.
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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