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NY court revives Tiffany's false ad claim vs. eBay
Court Watch |
2010/04/02 08:15
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EBay Inc. might be violating false-advertising laws if it does not warn consumers that some items billed as upscale jeweler Tiffany Co.'s products by sellers on its Web site are not authentic, a federal appeals court said Thursday. But online auction site operator eBay won significant victories in rulings by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said it did not engage in trademark infringement or trademark dilution in its use of jeweler Tiffany & Co.'s trademarks. Those rulings upheld the findings of a lower court judge. Tiffany sued eBay in 2004, saying eBay engaged in trademark infringement, trademark dilution and false advertising because most items that sellers list for sale as genuine Tiffany products on its sites were fakes. The appeals court left in place a finding by the lower court that eBay did not violate false advertising laws but returned the case to the judge to consider that issue again. The three-judge panel said in its written ruling that it had difficulty with the lower court's reliance in its ruling on eBay's assertions that it did not know which listings offered counterfeit Tiffany goods. The 2nd Circuit noted that eBay advertised the goods sold through its site as Tiffany merchandise. |
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Officer expected to plead guilty in Katrina probe
Court Watch |
2010/04/02 03:16
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A third New Orleans police officer charged in a cover-up of a deadly shooting by police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is expected to plead guilty, a person familiar with the case said Tuesday. A filing Tuesday in U.S. District Court charges the officer, Michael Hunter, 33, of Slidell, with one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of misprision of a felony. The charges are part of a deal under which Hunter has agreed to help in the investigation of a cover-up after police shot six people — killing two — at the Danziger Bridge in September 2005, according to the person familiar with the case, who was not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity. Hunter is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on April 7. He faces a possible maximum sentence of eight years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Townsend Myers, a lawyer for Hunter, wouldn't immediately comment. Hunter remains on the force, but he is assigned to desk duty. Police spokesman Bob Young said Tuesday that Hunter was expected to resign before pleading guilty. Michael Lohman, a retired lieutenant, and Jeffrey Lehrmann, a former detective, earlier pleaded guilty to participating in the cover-up. |
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Law-firm escrow agent charged with theft
Court Watch |
2010/03/30 10:30
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A South Korean woman who worked as an escrow agent at a Seattle law firm for 16 months has been charged with 114 counts of theft after authorities said she embezzled more than $825,000 from her employer. Heather "Veronica" Pak, 41, was arrested by Seattle police last week and has since been charged with the felonies. She is being held at the King County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bail. According to police, Pak embezzled funds designated for the Shim Law Firm via checks, credit cards and real-estate transactions. As the law firm's escrow agent, Pak had signing authority on the firm's trust accounts at Pacific International Bank and Bank of America, court papers said. She was authorized to write business checks and had access to a company credit card, which authorities say she used for personal spending, charging documents said. Pak also collected insurance money for the firm's personal-injury clients. In one case, she allegedly forged the signature of a client so she could intercept a $7,500 payment, court charging papers said. Pak wrote a series of checks that conveyed $20,000 to her sister, $161,799 to her brother, $98,500 to herself and $78,891 to a man who turned what he received back over to Pak, court charging papers said.
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Rip Torn due in Conn. court for bank break-in
Court Watch |
2010/03/30 07:24
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Rip Torn's lawyer says the "Men in Black" actor plans to enter pleas to burglary and firearms charges during a court hearing in Connecticut. Torn is scheduled to appear in Litchfield Superior Court on Tuesday morning. State police say the 79-year-old actor was so intoxicated on the night of Jan. 29 that he broke into a bank with a loaded gun thinking it was his home in Salisbury in northwestern Connecticut. Torn went into an alcohol rehabilitation program after his arrest. Torn had received probation last year as part of a Connecticut DUI case and also had alcohol-related arrests in New York in the past. |
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Marine's dad ordered to pay protesters' court fees
Court Watch |
2010/03/30 06:24
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The father of a Marine killed in Iraq and whose funeral was picketed by anti-gay protesters was ordered to pay the protesters' appeal costs, his lawyers said Monday. On Friday, Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered Snyder to pay $16,510 to Fred Phelps. Phelps is the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, which conducted protests at Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder's funeral in 2006. The two-page decision supplied by attorneys for Albert Snyder of York, Pa., offered no details on how the court came to its decision. Attorneys also said Snyder is struggling to come up with fees associated with filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision adds "insult to injury," said Sean Summers, one of Snyder's lawyers. The high court agreed to consider whether the protesters' message is protected by the First Amendment or limited by the competing privacy and religious rights of the mourners. |
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Many felony pot cases getting tossed out of court
Court Watch |
2010/03/29 09:10
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Police in a northern California town thought they had an open-and-shut case when they seized more than two pounds of marijuana from a couple's home, even though doctors authorized the pair to use pot for medical purposes. San Francisco police thought the same with a father and son team they suspected of abusing the state's medical marijuana law by allegedly operating an illegal trafficking operation. But both cases were tossed out along with many other marijuana possession cases in recent weeks because of a California Supreme Court ruling that has police, prosecutors and defense attorneys scrambling to make sense of a gray legal area: What is the maximum amount of cannabis a medical marijuana patient can possess? No one can say for sure how many dismissals and acquittals have been prompted by the ruling, but the numbers are stacking up since the Supreme Court on Jan. 21 tossed out Patrick Kelly's marijuana possession conviction. The high court struck down a 7-year-old state law that imposed an 8-ounce limit on the amount of pot medical users of marijuana could possess. The court said patients are entitled to a "reasonable" amount of the drug to treat their ailments. Law enforcement officials say the ruling has made the murky legal landscape of marijuana policy in California even more challenging to enforce. Since California voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996, there has been tension between local law enforcement officials and federal authorities, who view marijuana as absolutely illegal. That tension is expected to become even more pronounced if the state's voters approve a November ballot measure legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. |
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Court to decide if man can fight death sentence
Court Watch |
2010/03/25 09:13
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned whether an Alabama death row inmate can challenge his second death sentence with an argument state officials said he didn't use when he was first sentenced to die for shooting a county sheriff. Lawyers for Billy Joe Magwood want to argue that Alabama law was changed to make Magwood's crime a capital offense after it had already been committed. Defendants aren't allowed to appeal using arguments that could have been brought in the original case, but Magwood's lawyers say that since he was sentenced to die a second time, he should be able to use a new argument in his second round of appeals. "If it's the second time around, then it's just barred," Justice Anthony Kennedy said. "Well, it shouldn't be barred. Because it's a new judgment, the defendant should be able to get relief the second time around," said Jeffrey L. Fisher, Magwood's lawyer. Magwood, 58, has been on Death Row since 1981 for the shooting death of Coffee County Sheriff Neil Grantham in 1979. He got that death sentence thrown out, but then was resentenced to death. |
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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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