Posts on ‘December 9th, 2008’

Prosecutors on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking to seize homes, businesses and other assets of known members of Los Angeles’ largest gang. Believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., the suit against the jailed leaders of the 18th Street gang aims to reduce wealth accumulated through illegal activities. Under a new California law, gang members’ relatives can also have items taken away if it’s proven they are proceeds earned through criminal activity.

A Florida man who is suing two doctors for malpractice in a rare case allowing a punitive damages claim contends one of his surgeons left him “on the table unconscious to be mutilated” by the other doctor. Thomas Glasson’s attorney said he is “unaware of any other case in the country” where a patient has been allowed to allege punitive damages for an intentional tort against a doctor in a plastic surgery case. But one defendant’s attorney says Glasson, a former attorney in Illinois, has credibility issues.

Jeffrey Weinstein’s client was so outraged by the deposition testimony in her fraud suit against a Houston car dealership that Weinstein posted an excerpt from the deposition on YouTube and put a link to the video on his firm’s Web site. But a court order forced Weinstein to take down the video on the ground it wasn’t a public record. It’s a cautionary tale for lawyers who may be thinking of using YouTube or other online mediums such as MySpace or Facebook to disseminate deposition testimony.

After working its way through the federal courts, a dispute over millions of dollars in legal fees between the Mississippi auditor’s office and two former attorneys is back before a state court judge. Former attorneys Joey Langston and Timothy Balducci — who were disbarred after pleading guilty in an unrelated judicial bribery investigation — are trying to hang on to $14 million in legal fees they negotiated with MCI after suing the telecommunications company on the state’s behalf.

A New York man structured his sizable divorce proceeds to avoid retaining any liquid assets, thereby leaving insufficient funds to satisfy a $70,000 charging lien by his former attorneys. But a state Supreme Court judge has ordered him to use his retirement accounts to pay his outstanding legal bill, any taxes or penalties for early withdrawals notwithstanding.

The Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed New York prosecutor Neil M. Barofsky as special inspector general within the Treasury Department, where he will be the new watchdog over the $700 billion Wall Street rescue program. Recognizing the enormous amount of taxpayer money at stake, Congress specifically called for three types of program oversight — by the Government Accountability Office, a special congressional panel and the new inspector general.

When the Supreme Court agrees to consider a case from the 9th Circuit or any other court, at least one party is expected to rise in defense of the decision. If it’s the 9th Circuit, the court usually strikes down the decision anyway, but it has at least heard one voice in support of what the 9th Circuit had to say. But not in an antitrust case argued at the Court, when not one of the four lawyers who argued supported the 9th Circuit decision that Pacific Bell was asking the Court to overturn.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay up to $54.25 million to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged the discount giant cut workers’ break time and allowed employees to work off the clock in Minnesota. Wal-Mart and attorneys for the plaintiffs announced the settlement Tuesday. The class includes about 100,000 current and former hourly workers who were employed at Wal-Mart Stores and Sam’s Clubs in Minnesota from Sept. 11, 1998, through Nov. 14, 2008.