|
|
|
Woman seeks to decrease $1.92M fine for downloads
Breaking Legal News |
2009/07/07 04:49
|
A central Minnesota woman ordered to pay $1.92 million for illegally sharing copyright-protected music is asking a federal judge to reduce the damages she must pay or grant a new trial, while the recording industry is taking steps to make sure she doesn't share music again. Last month, a federal jury ruled Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and that she must pay $80,000 per song. In documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court, attorney Kiwi Camara argued this amount is "grossly excessive." Camara asked that the court either remove the statutory damages from the judgment, order that the damages be reduced to the statutory minimum — which would result in a total award of $18,000 — or grant a new trial altogether. "The plaintiffs did not even attempt to offer evidence of their actual injuries, seeking, instead, an award of statutory damages entirely for purposes of punishment and deterrence," Camara wrote, adding that the $1.92 million figure "shocks the conscience and must be set aside." He also wrote that civil penalties must relate to a defendant's own conduct and the injury she caused to the plaintiffs. Instead, he said, it seems the damages were awarded not because what Thomas-Rasset did, but because of "the widespread and generalized problem of illegal music downloading." Camara wrote that if a new trial isn't ordered, Thomas-Rasset would appeal based on evidence he argued should not have been allowed at trial. This case was the only one of more than 30,000 similar lawsuits to make it all the way to trial. The vast majority of people targeted by the music industry had settled for about $3,500 each. The recording industry has said it stopped filing such lawsuits last August and is instead working with Internet service providers to fight the worst offenders. |
|
|
|
|
|
Injunction against Delta in Mesa case upheld
Breaking Legal News |
2009/07/02 10:16
|
A federal appeals court has upheld a preliminary injunction barring Delta Air Lines Inc., the world's biggest airline operator, from terminating a regional flying contract with Mesa Air Group Inc. subsidiary Freedom Airlines.
Phoenix-based Mesa had said that the termination of the contract, if successful, would cripple its airline. Mesa said last year that the contract amounted to $20 million in monthly revenue for the parent company, or about 20 percent of its total sales for 2007. Mesa won a preliminary court injunction from the federal district court in Atlanta to block the contract termination, and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also in Atlanta, affirmed that decision Wednesday. Delta says it will continue to fight to preserve its right to terminate the contract. |
|
|
|
|
|
Bernard Madoff gets maximum 150 years in prison
Breaking Legal News |
2009/06/29 08:58
|
Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to the maximum 150 years in prison for his multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin handed down the sentence in New York on Monday.
Defense attorneys had sought 12 years, while prosecutors wanted the maximum. The federal probation department had recommended 50 years. Chin called the fraud "staggering" and noted that it spanned more than 20 years. He says "the breach of trust was massive." The 71-year-old former Nasdaq chairman pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges in March and has been jailed since. |
|
|
|
|
|
Convicted Ponzi-Schemer Madoff To Learn Fate Monday
Breaking Legal News |
2009/06/29 08:36
|
Convicted Ponzi-scheme operator Bernard Madoff will learn Monday morning whether he'll spend the rest of his life behind bars for running a decades-long swindle that bilked thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.
Madoff, who admitted in March to orchestrating one of the largest and longest-running white-collar frauds in recent memory, is set to be sentenced at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan at 10 a.m. EDT Monday. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan have asked for the statutory maximum of 150 years or a sentence that will effectively guarantee the 71-year-old Madoff spends the rest of his life in prison. "He engaged in wholesale fraud for more than a generation; his so-called 'investment advisory' business was a fraud; his frauds affected thousands of investors in the United States and worldwide; and he repeatedly lied under oath and filed false documents to conceal his fraud," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Litt and Lisa Baroni said in a court documents last week. "The scope, duration and nature of Madoff's crimes render him exceptionally deserving of the maximum punishment allowed by law." Ira Sorkin, Madoff's lawyer, has asked for a sentence of as little as 12 years in prison, citing Madoff's potential life expectancy of 13 years. In the alternative, he's asked for a sentence of 15 years to 20 years in prison. On March 12, Madoff was ordered directly to jail after pleading guilty to 11 criminal charges, including money laundering and multiple counts of fraud, in a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors claim stretched back to the 1980s. Madoff himself has said the fraud began in 1990s during a recession. |
|
|
|
|
|
Court order seeks to strip Madoff of $171 billion
Breaking Legal News |
2009/06/29 03:35
|
Bernard Madoff would be stripped of all his possessions under a $171 billion forfeiture order handed down only days before prosecutors seek to put the disgraced financier away in prison for the rest of his life.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin entered the preliminary order Friday, ruling that Madoff must give up his interests in all property, including real estate, investments, cars and boats. The forfeiture represents the total amount that could be connected to Madoff's fraud, not the amount stolen or lost, and the order made clear that nothing prevents other departments or entities from seeking to recover additional funds. A call to Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, after hours Friday was not immediately returned. In a court filing in March, Sorkin said the government's forfeiture demand of $177 billion was "grossly overstated — and misleading — even for a case of this magnitude." The 71-year-old Madoff pleaded guilty in March to charges that his exclusive investment advisory business was actually a massive Ponzi scheme. Federal prosecutors say Madoff orchestrated perhaps the largest financial swindle in history. Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin, who released a copy of the order Friday night, plans to seek a 150-year prison term at Madoff's sentencing Monday. Sorkin has argued in court papers for a 12-year term. According to Friday's order, the government also settled claims against Madoff's wife. Under the arrangement, the government obtained Ruth Madoff's interest in all property, including more than $80 million-worth that she had claimed was hers, prosecutors said. The order left her $2.5 million in assets. |
|
|
|
|
|
Court: AG must go to court to probe nat'l banks
Breaking Legal News |
2009/06/29 03:34
|
The Supreme Court says state attorneys general can't issue their own subpoenas in investigations against national banks. However, the high court in a decision on Monday said that an attorney general can get a court to issue subpoenas in an investigation into those financial institutions. The state of New York wanted the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision that blocks states from investigating the lending practices of national banks with branches within its borders. It was supported by the other 49 states. |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal, insurance fees mounting for Metro
Breaking Legal News |
2009/06/26 08:23
|
The deadly Metro crash that killed nine people and injured more than 70 is already having a financial effect on the transit system, with legal fees and insurance premiums mounting.
The first of what is expected to be many lawsuits was filed two days after Monday’s crash, with the parents of 15-year-old Davonne Flanagan, who broke a leg, seeking $950,000 from the transit system because of what the suit called its negligence in maintenance and personnel training. Washington-area lawyers say they have been contacted about representing other victims, and warn there’s no ceiling for the coming onslaught of claims. “At a minimum, for each of the decedents there will be a nexus of $1 million a piece on them - and that’s conservative,” said lawyer Manuel R. Geraldo, who has been practicing law locally for 30 years. The District, where the crash occurred, has no cap on damages for personal injury cases, making the cases potentially costly, said Frank Kearney, a D.C. lawyer. Had the crash occurred just a short distance away in Maryland, he said, Metro’s liability in the personal injury cases would be capped at $200,000. Once the Metro cases go to court, District judges must decide whether Metro is liable and how much money plaintiffs deserve. “It clearly looks like liability will not be in dispute,” Geraldo said. “The argument is going to be over the nature and extent of the injuries.” But Robert Enderle, a lawyer with Aschcraft & Gerel, said that if it turned out that faulty equipment was to blame for the crash, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority could try to blame its manufacturers. Such lawsuits are typically covered by insurance coverage. But Metro’s board learned Thursday the transit system’s insurance policy was set to expire at midnight Tuesday. Normally the agency would have been able to renew the policy with set costs, but Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal said the crash would end those rates and bring on higher but yet to be determined insurance premiums. |
|
|
|
|
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. |
Law Firm Directory
|
|