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It's been 20 years since the first drug court was established in Miami as an innovative way of getting nonviolent offenders out of the criminal justice system and into court-supervised drug rehabilitation programs. Since then, more than 2,300 drug courts have blossomed around the country, credited with reducing crime and saving the cost of locking people up. Despite that success, the specialized courts remain available to less than 10 percent of the 1.2 million drug-addicted offenders.
This weekend, the U.S. Secret Service interviewed the Virginia couple who somehow made their way into last week's White House state dinner. Two U.S. senators also joined the chorus calling for the couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, to face criminal charges. What law would prosecutors turn to if they decided to pursue a case? The clearest choice might well be what's usually called the false-statements statute, the same law prosecutors turned to in charging former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
Returning from its Thanksgiving break, the Supreme Court on Monday issued a powerful unsigned per curiam opinion agreeing that the ineffective assistance of counsel for Florida death row inmate George Porter Jr. prejudiced the sentence he received after his murder trial in 1988. In language that is sure to be cited in future cases involving veterans, the Court said that the fact that Porter went AWOL in Korea did not detract from the significance of his combat experience as mitigating evidence.
Love it or hate it, Microsoft PowerPoint has infiltrated law firms and become a tool for creating everything from courtroom presentations to client pitches. More often than not, a PowerPoint project is a group effort, edited, revised and reviewed by several people. IT writer John K. Waters shows you how to compare different versions of PowerPoint slides with Workshare Compare.
As allegations of massive fraud at Canopy Financial surfaced last week, the startup's outside counsel at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati moved quickly -- to scrub its Web site of any mention of the company. It doesn't mean that the lawyers did anything wrong -- but Canopy CEO Vik Kashyap, who resigned last week, may disagree. Kashyap's lawyer issued a statement saying that Kashyap "relied on financial and legal professionals in accepting the authenticity of the company's financials."
When federal prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday in its money-laundering case against prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne and two co-defendants, the Justice Department left in its tracks a string of courtroom failures. Kuehne said his case leaves a legacy that will protect his colleagues. "There is no doubt my case is the most telling reaffirmation of the vital importance of the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel and should stand as a clear monument of the role of criminal defense lawyers," he said.
For a number of lawyers across the country, a 2005 federal law requiring them to advertise as a debt relief agency -- regardless of whether they offer sporadic or regular bankruptcy advice to clients -- irritates like a pair of ill-fitting shoes. Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, a 10-lawyer Minnesota firm, has waged a four-year battle against the law's provisions, which they argue pose ethical conflicts and strike at the heart of First Amendment values. That odyssey culminates at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
This weekend, the U.S. Secret Service interviewed the Virginia couple who somehow made their way into last week's White House state dinner. Two U.S. senators also joined the chorus calling for the couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, to face criminal charges. What law would prosecutors turn to if they decided to pursue a case? The clearest choice might well be what's usually called the false-statements statute, the same law prosecutors turned to in charging former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
The law career of disgraced Florida attorney and fraud suspect Scott Rothstein is over. The Florida Supreme Court disbarred Rothstein Wednesday at his request, a day after the governor suspended him from the 4th District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission. A four-paragraph order came in response to Rothstein's request for permanent disbarment on consent, in the wake of claims by investors that he had stopped paying returns on structured settlement financing that he had promoted.
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