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High Court Asked to Review Congress Raid
Court Watch |
2007/12/22 17:02
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| The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to toss out a lower court ruling that says the FBI was wrong to raid Democratic Rep. William Jefferson's office, a decision the Bush administration argues will hinder corruption investigations of Congress. In an appeal filed this week, government lawyers said that only the nation's highest court can decide whether the 18-hour raid was an unconstitutional breach of congressional authority or a proper tactic in a lengthy corruption inquiry. "Only this court can resolve this important question," the Justice Department wrote in its 28-page appeal, filed Wednesday. "Until it does so, investigations of corruption in the nation's capital and elsewhere will be seriously and perhaps even fatally stymied." Jefferson's attorney, Robert P. Trout, declined comment Friday. The Constitution prohibits the executive branch from using its law enforcement powers to interfere with the lawmaking process, and the FBI should have given Jefferson a chance to argue that some of the documents involved legislative business, according to the August ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The May 2006 raid was part of a 16-month international bribery investigation of Jefferson, a nine-term Democrat from New Orleans. He is accused of accepting $100,000 from a telecommunications businessman, $90,000 of which was later recovered in a freezer in the congressman's Washington home. Jefferson pleaded not guilty in June to charges of soliciting more than $500,000 in bribes while using his office to broker business deals in Africa. In its August ruling, the federal appeals court held that the raid itself was constitutional. But it ordered the Justice Department to return any legislative documents it seized from Jefferson's office on Capitol Hill. Still undecided is whether prosecutors can use other records it confiscated as part of their bribery case against Jefferson. Justice Department attorneys said the ruling "fundamentally misinterprets" constitutional guarantees that allow the executive branch to investigate and prosecute corruption in Congress. "Although this case involves a search of a Capitol Hill office (a concededly extraordinary event), the court's decision threatens to impede searches of Members' homes, vehicles, or briefcases," government attorneys wrote in their appeal to the Supreme Court. In addition to Jefferson, the Justice Department is investigating disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with Reps. John Doolittle and Jerry Lewis, both California Republicans; former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; and former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. A dozen people — including former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles and former White House official David Safavian — have been convicted in the Abramoff probe. In a Thursday hearing on the Jefferson case, an FBI agent testified that investigators had information about potentially shady business deals involving Jefferson going back the late 1990s. During a pretrial hearing in federal court in suburban Virginia, FBI agent Timothy Thibault said he found a bureau document from the late 1990s questioning Jefferson's business deals with a sugar company. |
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IRS says Fedex owes $319 mln in back taxes
Tax |
2007/12/22 07:06
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| Fedex Corp said on Friday that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service found that its FedEx Ground independent contractors should be reclassified as employees for tax purposes and that the company faced related taxes and penalties of more than $319 million for 2002. The IRS is auditing similar issues for 2004 through 2006, the package delivery company said in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Given the preliminary status of this matter, we cannot yet determine the amount or a reasonable range of potential loss. However, we do not believe that any loss is probable," Fedex said in the filing. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has asserted FedEx Ground workers are in fact employees and which is campaigning to unionize FedEx Ground drivers, welcomed the IRS decision. "It's game over for FedEx's independent contractor scam," union President Jim Hoffa said in a statement. The union said penalties against FedEx could eventually top $1 billion, since the current penalty only covers the year 2002. FedEx said that it has "strong defenses to the IRS's tentative assessment and will vigorously defend" its position that FedEx Ground's owner-operators are independent contractors. The filing came a day after Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx warned that it faces "increase regulatory and legal uncertainty" over the independent contractor model it uses at FedEx Ground, which could result in higher costs.. FedEx Ground uses 15,000 drivers who are paid as independent contractors. Under this system, FedEx Ground drivers can own multiple routes, employing other drivers to deliver packages. Investors like the model because it helps FedEx save money and compete against main rival United Parcel Service Inc and its unionized work force. |
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IRS says Fedex owes $319 mln in back taxes
Tax |
2007/12/22 07:06
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| Fedex Corp said on Friday that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service found that its FedEx Ground independent contractors should be reclassified as employees for tax purposes and that the company faced related taxes and penalties of more than $319 million for 2002. The IRS is auditing similar issues for 2004 through 2006, the package delivery company said in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Given the preliminary status of this matter, we cannot yet determine the amount or a reasonable range of potential loss. However, we do not believe that any loss is probable," Fedex said in the filing. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has asserted FedEx Ground workers are in fact employees and which is campaigning to unionize FedEx Ground drivers, welcomed the IRS decision. "It's game over for FedEx's independent contractor scam," union President Jim Hoffa said in a statement. The union said penalties against FedEx could eventually top $1 billion, since the current penalty only covers the year 2002. FedEx said that it has "strong defenses to the IRS's tentative assessment and will vigorously defend" its position that FedEx Ground's owner-operators are independent contractors. The filing came a day after Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx warned that it faces "increase regulatory and legal uncertainty" over the independent contractor model it uses at FedEx Ground, which could result in higher costs.. FedEx Ground uses 15,000 drivers who are paid as independent contractors. Under this system, FedEx Ground drivers can own multiple routes, employing other drivers to deliver packages. Investors like the model because it helps FedEx save money and compete against main rival United Parcel Service Inc and its unionized work force. |
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Bisnar Chase Makes Christmas Merry for Less Fortunate
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 11:05
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In spite of the busy holidays, the staff of personal injury law firm Bisnar Chase finds time to support two charity organizations in Orange County, Share Ourselves (SOS) and The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. SOS helps families who are homeless, the working poor or living at or near the poverty level. Toys for Tots provides new, unwrapped toys for children who come from disadvantaged families.
For SOS, staff members have adopted three nine-member families and have purchased holiday gifts for all. Then a few days before SOS needs the donations, the staff had a gift-wrapping party during their work day.
Bisnar Chase staff also manage the collection boxes for the Toys for Tots drive in their building, with the Orange County Bar Association serving as local coordinator for the Marines. The staff place three 55-gallon boxes throughout their office building and invite the other tenants of their building to donate new, unwrapped toys.
"My colleagues and I really enjoy making the holidays brighter for those less fortunate," says Danielle Olson, executive assistant at Bisnar Chase. "Supporting charity organizations like Share Ourselves and Toys for Tots by buying holiday gifts makes the holidays meaningful. And working at a place where we, ourselves, feel appreciated and respected, it's easy to give back."
Supporting a charity during the holidays is entirely a staff-driven effort, reflecting well on the firm's motto, "People over profits." They have been doing this for five years.
About SOS
For more than 35 years SOS has provided a safety net to those needing emergency assistance, for the homeless, working poor and those living at or near the poverty level.
About Toys for Tots
The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program collects new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distributes those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.
About Bisnar Chase
Bisnar Chase, LLP, is a California personal injury law firm that represents people who suffered catastrophic injuries that are mostly traffic-related. They specialize in auto defect cases against automobile makers such as Ford and General Motors. Bisnar Chase obtains millions of dollars annually in settlements and judgments for its clients. For more information, visit: www.auto-defect-attorneys.com, www.bisnar-chse.com and www.californiainjuryblog.com |
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Thompson Hine Grows Business Litigation Practice
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 09:59
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Russell Rogers has joined the Atlanta office of the law firm Thompson Hine LLP as a partner in the firm’s Business Litigation practice group. Prior to joining Thompson Hine, Mr. Rogers was a partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
Mr. Rogers’ practice will focus on product liability defense, commercial litigation—specifically insurance coverage litigation and litigation for financial institutions—and environmental law.
“We are pleased to have Russ as part of our growing Business Litigation practice,” says Jim Robenalt, Thompson Hine’s Business Litigation practice group leader. “His extensive experience will be a significant asset to the firm and its clients.”
“Russ’ addition to Thompson Hine’s Atlanta office allows us to continue to expand the breadth and depth of our services in the Atlanta market,” adds Walt Linscott, partner-in-charge of the Atlanta office.
Mr. Rogers received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Louisville. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.
About Thompson Hine LLP: Established in 1911, Thompson Hine is a business law firm dedicated to providing superior client service. For the last several years, the firm has been named one of the Best Corporate Law Firms in America (in an annual survey of corporate directors conducted by Corporate Board Member magazine). With more than 400 lawyers, Thompson Hine serves premier businesses worldwide. The firm has offices in Atlanta, Brussels, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, New York and Washington, D.C. For more information, go to www.ThompsonHine.com. |
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Pro-Life Law Firm Sues Oakland
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 09:55
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A pro-life law firm has filed suit against the city of Oakland for approving an expanded bubble zone that would keep abortion protesters and sidewalk counselors further away from abortion businesses. The Life Legal Defense Foundation filed suit on behalf of pro-life advocate Walter B. Hoye II to keep the city from enforcing the law.
The city council approved the 8-foot zone around the entrances to abortion facilities on Tuesday.
The new ordinance makes it unlawful, and punishable by up to one year in jail, to go within that distance of an abortion business unless heading there for an abortion. It applies to protesters as well as sidewalk counselors who help women with alternatives.
LLDF's suit maintains that the ordinance is a content and viewpoint-based restriction of speech and is unconstitutional.
Hoye regularly engages in pro-life counseling and leafleting at the Family Planning Specialists abortion center in Oakland. Two elderly women from his church often join him.
Hoye told the Oakland City Council that "We are not a threat to public safety and these women aren't even capable of harassing clinic clients."
Their activities include handing out leaflets, education about abortion and holding signs with a pro-life message. All of these activities occur on the public sidewalk.
Local attorney Mike Millen, who filed the lawsuit in conjunction with LLDF, talked about it in a statement sent to LifeNews.com.
"Rather than helping women, this ordinance prevents them from receiving valuable information about their developing baby and options which would let that baby live," he said.
Millen added, "It is sad that city leaders are spending time and money on laws that maximize revenue for the abortion industry at the expense of the health of women and babies."
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order blocking the ordinance.
City Attorney John Russo told the San Francisco Chronicle he thinks the lawsuit will fail and claimed it is about stopping harassment, not First Amendment rights.
"They can distribute literature in City Hall Plaza and on just about any street corner," Russo said. "What they cannot do is harass or intimidate women who are exercising their right to choose and right to privacy." |
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Mills & Mills takes up cause of victimized foster kids
Attorneys in the News |
2007/12/21 09:45
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Sometimes the growth of a practice comes in unexpected and even unpleasant forms.
Attorneys Gregory and Byron Mills had a fairly quiet family law practice in the heart of downtown Las Vegas for the last few years, handling a variety of low-profile matters.
But the disappearance last year of one foster child and the death of another launched the brothers into a major new practice area: Fighting for compensation for foster children abused while under the care of the Nevada Child and Family Services Division and left without treatment by the state's foster system.
"The system has to change, and so far the only way we can see to do it is lawsuits. Unfortunately it's the only way," Byron Mills said. "There's no funding to help kids abused in the system, and it's been going on for years. They're not getting the protection and the counseling they deserve after something like that happens. In many cases it's simply been covered up."
Their law firm, Mills & Mills, has five active cases against the state, is working on several more and anticipates a large influx of cases as word gets out about what it is doing. The four-attorney firm has spent many man-hours researching and preparing its first cases, one involving the disappearance of Everlyse Cabrera and the other, the death of a baby boy.
The firm can't afford to do these cases pro bono because of its size and the amount of time the cases will take to prepare. Gregory Mills has already spent months preparing the cases the firm has, and legal legwork could last for years.
If it succeeds in the end, the firm stands to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from these cases over the next several years. And right now it is the only law firm in town aggressively seeking out abuse victims in the foster care system, preparing advertisements and public information campaigns.
Gregory Mills (who prefers to go by the nickname Gregor)is leading the firm's efforts, representing the biological parents and missing or deceased children. He is seeking restitution as well as additional information about the care that the children received.
Other cases at this point involve children who have been sexually or physically abused at the hands of foster parents or foster siblings and have not received counseling and treatment.
The firm's initial aim is to get the state to pay compensation up front for children abused in the system.
"We can't just ask for the court to give these kids counseling at this point," Byron Mills said. "The family juvenile court already is tasked with getting them counseling, and it isn't. The money from these lawsuits will go into court-monitored and controlled accounts to pay for counseling until the kids are 18. At that point anything that's left over will go directly to the kid."
The idea is for the firm to be a resource for these children since they have nowhere else to turn.
"The sad part is these kids and their parents don't know who they could report it to," Mills said. "I mean, you can't call (the children's service division)on itself. And these kids are not getting the help they need."
The parents will not be able to exploit the situation because they won't have access to these funds except in cases where the child has died, he said.
"If the parents know their kids have been abused or are being abused they can contact us. But they don't stand to gain from it," Mills said. "Remember these people did things to have their children taken away in the first place. So we're very mindful of that."
The firm's secondary aim is to see the department reformed, fully funded and children protected from future abuse.
Ideally, foster care caseworkers have about 20 kids to evaluate, Mills said. In Nevada, funding for the program is so inadequate that one caseworker may be working with 50 or more children, according to media accounts. These caseworkers are supposed to meet these children in person at least once a month, but there simply isn't enough time. They are lucky to see kids once every other month, Byron Mills said.
"It makes it impossible for them to do their jobs," he said.
If a caseworker cannot see the child, she has no way of knowing if abuse is taking place or likely to occur. And the lack of qualified foster homes has led to children being placed in homes that have not been properly evaluated.
"While doing these types of cases we realized that while the foster system is quick to take kids away from their parents, they're not so good at protecting them once the kids are in foster care," Byron Mills said. "People within the foster system have asked us for help. They have a huge amount of cases and not even close to enough caseworkers and nowhere near enough money to run the program and protect the kids."
The Mills brothers have supported legislative lobbying efforts in the last session, although they haven't done any direct lobbying themselves. Gov. Jim Gibbons has pledged to leave the agency's budget intact while many other agencies face budget cuts in the latest round of belt-tightening. And the Mills brothers hope that something will occur in the 2009 Legislature to bring additional funding to the program.
In the meantime, they plan to use the only means they have of persuading lawmakers that fully funding foster care programs is in the state's best interest.
"Just like a large corporation, until it hurts them in the wallet, they're not gong to do anything," Mills said. "It's our goal to hit them so hard and so repeatedly that they're forced to deal with the problem and increase the funding. We hope that in the future we don't have to do this anymore because the problem won't exist."
At the same time, the brothers are urging their colleagues in the legal profession and the business community to get more involved in the issue. They are encouraging lawyers and businesspeople to lobby legislators and to participate in the Court Appointed Special Advocate program, which provides volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children going through the foster care system.
The Mills are also spreading the word about the dire need for foster parents. There are too few foster parents anyway, but even fewer from the professional and business community, and the more good homes foster children have to go to, the better off everyone will be, they said.
"Ultimately this comes out of all our pockets," Byron Mills said. "And if this problem grows, this burden will grow for everyone and in myriad ways." |
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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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