Posts on ‘August 21st, 2009’

Two disgraced former Luzerne County, Pa., judges have asked that a federal judge reconsider his decision to reject their plea agreements. Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella Jr. are petitioning Judge Edwin M. Kosik to reinstate their agreed-upon sentence of 87 months in prison because neither could be found at fault for his post-plea hearing actions. The ex-judges argue that neither attempted to “obstruct and impede justice” or contradict the government’s evidence in public comments, as Kosik had written.

A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by the children of Magistrate Judge Theodore Klein, which claimed that their father’s fatal lung ailment was due to moldy conditions at the David W. Dyer Courthouse in Miami. Atlanta Judge Richard W. Storey ruled last month that he had no jurisdiction because the lawsuit seeking damages from the government is barred by the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act.

Two decades ago, no states had civil unions, let alone marriage for same-sex couples — so blue-chip lawyers in New York and Connecticut suggested an alternative recipe for romantic and economic happiness for an IBM heiress and her longtime female lover: They should get an adult adoption. But what started as an outside-the box way to formalize a relationship has turned into a long-running court battle over the potential inheritance of $10 million or more.

A pro se litigant was properly sanctioned to the tune of $4,237 for pursuing court claims over a garden variety car accident rather than just having his carrier pay for repairs, a New Jersey state appeals court says. Ruling in two consolidated cases on Wednesday, the Appellate Division said plaintiff Michael Bandler “inexplicably paid for the loss himself, and then embarked on a pro se campaign of litigation that has lasted nearly seven years [and] needlessly consumed a large amount of judicial resources.”

Expect a packed courtroom Monday morning when the 3rd Circuit takes up an emergency injunction request brought by all of the major professional sports leagues — baseball, football, basketball and hockey — to challenge Delaware’s soon-to-be-launched sports lottery. At issue in the appeal is whether Delaware’s proposed lottery — currently set to start in three casinos Sept. 10, when football season opens — violates the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, passed in 1992.

New Jersey federal Judge Garrett Brown Jr. on Wednesday upheld Merck’s patent for its best-selling product, the asthma and allergy drug Singulair. Brown found that generic drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals had infringed Merck’s patent and barred Teva from introducing a generic version of Singulair before the patent expires in 2012. Singulair brought in $2.3 billion in revenues for Merck in the first six months of this year alone.

It’s known as the “Oprah Effect.” Whether it’s her favorite books, gadgets or brownies, when Oprah likes it, people buy it. On Wednesday, Oprah Winfrey and regular guest Dr. Mehmet Oz sued more than 50 businesses they claim are illegally using Oprah’s endorsement to hawk products over the Internet. On more than 500 Web sites, the companies are falsely linking the pair to a variety of dietary supplements, anti-aging concoctions and colon cleansers, according to the suit filed in federal court in Manhattan.

Financier Ron Perelman’s lawsuit against the father and brother of one of his four ex-wives, the late Claudia Cohen, has been a flop. Acting as Cohen’s executor, Perelman sued Robert Cohen and James Cohen for allegedly cheating Claudia’s estate out of hundreds of millions of dollars. This week a New Jersey judge dismissed Perelman’s remaining claims against the two defendants, including the claim that James Cohen used “undue influence” on Robert Cohen to cheat Claudia’s estate.

After weathering criticism for being too lax, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s San Francisco office is remodeling itself to be more like its tough older cousin, the Department of Justice. Changes in policy since the Democrats took over the White House have given SEC lawyers more power to quickly pursue investigations. That will mean more pressure on the public companies in Silicon Valley and their lawyers to move quickly, perhaps with the threat of greater penalties.

A challenge by attorneys, human rights groups and journalists to the U.S. government’s overseas wiretapping program was dismissed Thursday. Southern District of New York Judge John Koeltl found the plaintiffs lacked standing to attack amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 allowing for surveillance of phone calls and other communications abroad, even when the person on the other end of the line is an American.