Five states are asking a federal judge in Chicago to take emergency action to close two shipping locks and install barriers to prevent Asian carp from overrunning the Great Lakes via a "carp highway."

At the first hearing in the case Monday, Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. showed no signs of rushing into a decision. He scheduled Sept. 7 and 8 to hear expert testimony in the case, including from scientists about the environmental DNA testing that has found genetic material from Asian carp in Illinois waterways near Lake Michigan.

The judge's questions reflected awareness of the DNA test's limits.

"Could it have been from something that ate a fish?" the judge asked about carp DNA found in water samples. Michigan assistant attorney general Robert Reichel acknowledged a bird that ate an Asian carp could excrete carp DNA into the water. The states' experts believe it's more likely that the findings show the recent presence of carp, Reichel told the judge.

The judge also asked about a single 20-pound carp discovered in June, the first to be found in a Chicago waterway above the electric barrier system. The judge asked whether scientists could pinpoint how it got there.

Law firm Shapiro & Fishman has accused Attorney General Bill McCollum of pre-election grandstanding and “abuse of power” in connection with McCollum’s recent announcement that his office is conducting a foreclosure fraud investigation into that firm and two others.

The allegations are in response to a coordinated investigation announced by McCollum during an Aug. 10 press conference. McCollum said his office is looking at whether the three South Florida firms engaged in unfair and deceptive actions in their handling of foreclosure cases.

The other firms were the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson in Fort Lauderdale and the Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. in Plantation.

The firm’s response came Friday in a motion to quash a subpoena in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

Kimmel and Silverman, a lemon law firm in the Northeast, says that the fuel pump issue with BMW vehicles is on the rise. The law firm reports it has successfully resolved numerous lemon law and breach of warranty claims dealing with this BMW fuel pump issue for both refunds and significant cash recoveries. The firm has seen this problem with 1-series, 3-series and 5-series vehicles.

The Lemon Law firm indicates that BMW is working to correct the problem and has extended the warranty on the fuel pump to 10 years/120,000 miles. In the meantime, some BMW drivers are dealing with multiple repairs for the same problem. Fuel pump failure can lead to stalling so it is essential that shops continue to monitor the problem on vehicles they service.

To assist your customers and prevent problems on your end, make sure that all clients receive invoices for service done to their vehicles. These invoices should specifically identify the problem the consumer is complaining of, the amount of the days that the car was in service, a detailed explanation on how the problem was fixed and a list of all the components replaced in the vehicle.

A law firm subpoenaed by the attorney general's office in its investigation of excessive pay in a Los Angeles County city gave $5,000 to the gubernatorial campaign of Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Brown, a Democrat, subpoenaed tax and salary records this week from the city of Bell, along with records from its former law firm, Best, Best & Krieger.

A partner in the firm, Edward Lee, was Bell's city attorney and approved the pay, which included $1.5 million in annual pay and benefits to the city manager.

Finance reports show the firm gave Brown's campaign $5,000 in March. Two attorneys with the firm also gave Brown money: Michael Cowett contributed $500 in March and Brant Dveirin gave Brown $1,000 in April.

Brown campaign spokesman Sterling Clifford says the firm isn't accused of wrongdoing.

David Boies challenged America’s lawyers to “bring the rule of law to its full fruition here in this country … to fulfill the goals and lofty rhetoric of our founding fathers,” as the keynote speaker at the Opening Assembly of the 2010 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The rule of law was the assembly theme, as ABA members gathered in the Herbst Theater of the War Memorial Veterans Building, site of the signing of the charter of the United Nations in 1945.  

President Carolyn B. Lamm pointed to ABA efforts from activities of the Section of International Law to such projects as the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, the Rule of Law Initiative and the World Justice Project as advancing United Nations goals to spread democracy based on law around the world.

Boies, co-counsel with Ted Olson in winning a federal district court ruling Wednesday that overturned California’s Proposition 8, cited “numerous challenges to the rule of law in our own country,” in applying that theme at home.

When our nation was born, it consisted of “wes” and “theys,” Boies said, with the “wes” being white male property owners and the “theys” comprising everyone else.  As the national history unfolded, the circle of “wes” expanded to encompass more and more segments of society.  

“We have an opportunity to expand the circle of ‘wes’ until there are no more ‘theys,’” said Boies, urging lawyers to work toward ensuring that “liberty and equality and protection of individual rights is something that every citizen equally enjoys.”

To achieve that goal, Boies identified four challenges confronting his audience.

First, he suggested the rule of law works best when adversaries have equivalent resources, whether those resources are plentiful or sparse.   But the “time when our system tends to break down is when one party has tremendous resources and the other party does not.”  Those are the times that “threatened to undermine the protections of the rule of law… [and lawyers] need to find ways to reduce the imbalance,” he said.  He urged reducing procedural advantages that favor the “better resourced party,” and urged lawyers to not “use discovery as a war of attrition,” for example. 
   
Second, he called for “better tools to help juries” decide important but complex cases, such as allowing jurors to ask questions and take notes on testimony.

His third challenge was to “improve judges and the judicial machinery,” citing a “crisis in terms of financing the justice system in the United States.”  First year associates in his law firm are paid higher salaries than federal district court judges, and state court judges earn even less, he said.  “If we can’t afford to spend a fraction of what we are spending to expand that system to Iraq, something is wrong with our sense of priorities,” he maintained.  

All lawyers must stand up for the independence of judges, resisting threats to their safety when they make unpopular decisions, said Boies, noting that there already have been threats to harm the judge who  ruled in the Proposition 8 litigation.

Boies’ cited predictably equal application of the law without regard to the identity of the parties as the final challenge to the rule of law, saying that when rights depend on who is asserting them, “the rule of law is undermined.”

After a period of dramatic change at the Supreme Court and in her personal life, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is looking forward to being one of three women on the high court for the foreseeable future.

Although some have speculated she might step down next year, the 77-year-old Ginsburg told The Associated Press on Tuesday she has no plans to retire anytime soon and still wants to match Justice Louis Brandeis, who stepped down at age 82.

Ginsburg talked with the AP as the Senate began debate on the all-but-assured confirmation of high court nominee Elena Kagan, chosen by President Barack Obama to replace John Paul Stevens. Last year, Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined the court after David Souter retired.

Ginsburg said the court's demanding work helped her cope with the death of her husband, Martin, in June. They had been married 56 years.

She had two opinions to write in June and constant trips between the court, her home and the hospital. "I had no time to dwell on the loss that I knew was going to be sooner rather than later," she said.

A public interest law firm is preparing to sue the Canadian owners of a pipeline that ruptured in southern Michigan and dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into a Kalamazoo River tributary.

The Great Lakes Law Center on Monday sent Enbridge Inc. a notice of intent to file suit if a settlement isn't reached within 60 days. The letter accuses the company of violating the Clean Water Act.

The Detroit-based law center says Enbridge could face more than $26 million in civil penalties based on the Environmental Protection Agency's estimate that the spill exceeds 1 million gallons. The company estimates the total at 820,000 gallons.

A phone message seeking comment was left with Enbridge, which reported the spill a week ago.