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A trade group representing the major music labels said Wednesday it will reject a reduced penalty for a Minnesota woman found guilty of sharing 24 songs over the Internet, and will instead begin preparing for another trial to determine new damages. The Recording Industry Association of America made the decision after Jammie Thomas-Rasset's attorneys rejected its offer to settle. Last week, a federal judge reduced to $54,000 a damage award of $1.92 million, calling the jury's penalty "monstrous and shocking."
ABC's new lawyer drama, "The Deep End," which focuses on four first-year associates, premiered last week. Texas Lawyer asked five real first-years their opinions on the new show, which is filmed in Dallas. One thing they all agreed on: the show's lack of realism. First-year Benjamin Garry said among the most unrealistic parts of the show were "the unmitigated sexual harassment and the direct and repeated conflicts of interest that no one seemed to care about. Also, no one ever sends me a cupcake basket."
The dismissal of grievance complaints against five Connecticut attorneys who have done business with Total Attorneys Inc. meant the end of the ethics battle begun by attorney Zenas Zelotes. But he's now challenging Total Attorneys on the federal level, claiming that attorneys are in effect paying for referrals, which is a felony in Connecticut. One lawyer involved in the grievance process says, "He's just trying to drive people away [from Total Attorneys] by fear. He seems to be in the business of driving us crazy."
Lawyers for former Jack Abramoff associate Kevin Ring have asked a federal judge to delay their client's retrial to give the U.S. Supreme Court time to rule on three cases that address the federal honest services statute. How the Court comes down will affect what charges Ring would face in a second trial, as well as whether key defense witnesses choose to testify, Ring's lawyers argued. They said it would also determine whether guilty pleas by several government witnesses would remain in effect.
A federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who is being sued for his alleged role in the removal of a grand juror wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a federal appeals court ruling that went against the government. Lawyers for the prosecutor, Daniel Zachem, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, filed a certiorari petition saying the D.C. Circuit ruling is at odds with rulings in the 2nd and 8th circuits that afforded absolute immunity to prosecutors working with grand juries.
An 11th Circuit panel has affirmed a decision by a lower court judge vacating his own default finding against Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport Co., one of the U.S. military's largest contractors in the Middle East. In 2007, federal Judge William S. Duffey Jr. awarded the $4.9 million judgment to the family of Lt. Col. Dominic Baragona, who was killed in Iraq by a KGL vehicle that struck his Humvee. Duffey issued the default judgment after KGL refused to accept delivery of the complaint and did not appear in federal court.
The 7th Circuit has cleared up a jurisdictional question related to the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, ending what Judge Richard Posner called the potential for "ping-pong" between the federal and state courts. The court ruled on Friday that even if a case transferred to federal court under the act fails to win class certification, it should still continue in the federal system. The opinion noted the 7th Circuit was joining the 11th Circuit in reaching that holding.
During the federal challenge to Proposition 8 -- the California ballot measure banning gay marriages in that state -- Chief Judge Vaughn Walker took a laid-back approach with evidence and generally let the lawyers try their cases, with a few exceptions. Trial will conclude today, save for closing arguments, which will happen in a few weeks. That gives Walker time to come up with specific questions based on the evidence, which will be a key measure of where he stands in crafting factual findings that might stand up on appeal.
In a critical and cutting 16-page decision, a federal judge has launched a new volley in the ongoing dispute between the judges of the Eastern District of New York and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the standards for calculating awards of attorney fees. Faced with a remand of an award ordering him to "apply a presumption in favor of" the prevailing fee rate for attorneys in the Eastern District, Judge Frederic Block has affirmed his earlier award of $400 per hour for litigator Frederick K. Brewington.
As attorney Jason W. Graham tells it, an e-mail he sent to his opposing counsel out of pure frustration one Sunday night will lead to his clients getting at least a down payment on millions of dollars of their own money they are seeking to reclaim from a court-ordered asset freeze. Graham, of Graham & Penman, represents 10 former financial advisers who worked for Stanford Group Co., part of the financial institution founded by accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford.
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