Posts on ‘February 1st, 2010’

What types of information can a lawyer ethically keep to himself, especially if he is uniquely positioned to know with “reasonable certainty” that if he does not immediately inform a person of an injury or condition, the injury will worsen to the point of substantial bodily harm or death? Joel Cohen and Katherine A. Helm examine the issues in this celebrated age of transparency.

In a legal battle between the town of Berlin, Conn., and a store operated by the VIP — short for Very Intimate Pleasures — chain, the 2nd Circuit has ruled that descriptive language in town ordinances, and not just mathematical percentages, can be used to determine when a business can be classified as “adult-oriented.” A Berlin ordinance defines any establishment having “a substantial or significant portion” of its stock in trade in adult books, videos or novelties as an “adult-oriented store.”

A former WilmerHale partner has failed to convince a court to toss out a deadbeat-dad contempt order against him. William A. Wilson III, now a partner at Wilson International Law, appealed a decision by D.C. Superior Court Judge Kaye Christian, which found he willfully failed to pay retroactive child support totaling $156,000. On Thursday, the D.C. Court of Appeals found “no reason” to disturb the ruling, which determined that Wilson had been fully able to pay the $12,617 per month to support his three minor children.

The 7th Circuit is on a roll in keeping class actions under federal court purview. The court on Thursday let a class action filed against Sprint Nextel stay in federal court at least a little longer, overruling a decision by a U.S. District Court that would have kicked it back to state court. The plaintiffs wanted the case returned to Kansas state court, where it was filed, based on the home-state exception to the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, which the defendant invoked to move the case to federal court.