Posts on ‘March 3rd, 2010’

What has emerged as the worst judicial scandal in Pennsylvania’s history — the investigation of alleged corruption in the Luzerne County courthouse — is ongoing and aggressive, according to sources, and is currently targeting attorneys and possible case-fixing. Sources say federal investigators are actively examining uninsured/underinsured motorist arbitration cases and have a matrix of cases mapping out the names of specific cases, attorneys and arbitrators.

The former general counsel at Monster Worldwide was sentenced to one year of probation Tuesday, getting a break on his sentence because of his extensive cooperation with a government probe into backdating stock options at the job search company. Myron Olesnyckyj was also ordered to forfeit $381,000 and pay a fine of $6,000. The sentence was imposed more than three years after Olesnyckyj pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

The 6th Circuit ruled Monday that a Michigan executive who was allegedly fired and later blackballed by the packaged-ice industry after refusing to participate in a market allocation conspiracy does not qualify as a victim under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. “To fire an employee and prevent a former employee from being hired by another company may be illegal under the civil law, but they are not inherently criminal actions,” the court found.

A multimillion-dollar fee fight in a Superfund case is testing whether a firm can file a secret affidavit supporting its fee application, so as to keep its special billing practices from the eyes of competitors in the environmental bar. Eight months after a New Jersey federal judge ordered fees shifted in U.S. v. NCH Corp. and gave the parties a deadline to decide on a reasonable amount, they are back in court — disputing not only the $3 million demanded but whether the fee affidavit can be sealed.

Lawyers for millionaire murderer John E. du Pont are urging a federal appeals court to order hearings on the issue of whether defense lawyers in his 1997 trial effectively botched the defense by failing to focus on du Pont’s use of a Bulgarian prescription drug that may have exacerbated his mental illness. Du Pont received a setback last week when a 3rd Circuit panel said it will not hear oral arguments in the case. A jury found du Pont “guilty but mentally ill” of third-degree murder for gunning down an Olympic wrestler.

Three 7th Circuit judges — Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer — took the witness stand Tuesday in the trial of Harold Turner, the New Jersey blogger charged with encouraging his readers to murder the three judges as retribution for their decision upholding a Chicago handgun ban. The prosecution sought to establish that the judges in fact felt threatened by the Web posts. The cross-examination of Easterbrook proved to be riveting drama that featured several defense stumbles.

The U.S. Supreme Court will almost certainly extend the scope of the Second Amendment right to bear arms to limit state and federal regulation of firearms, based on oral arguments in McDonald v. City of Chicago on Tuesday. But comments from the justices made it clear they want to do it the old-fashioned way — through the 14th Amendment’s due process clause, rather than via the “privileges or immunities” clause, which had been advanced as a better way to bolster a range of rights including economic rights.

Nearly a year after Wolf Block partners voted to dissolve the firm, a former partner has filed suit against the defunct firm and former Chairman Mark Alderman over the firm’s failure to pay certain severance benefits. At issue in Michael Budin’s suit is whether his severance could be considered a pension, and therefore not payable until obligations to third-party creditors are satisfied, or if Budin himself is a third-party creditor who falls outside the scope of the partnership agreement’s section on pensions.

More chief legal officers plan to beef up their legal departments this year, according to the results of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 10th Annual Chief Legal Officer Survey. But it’s not a sign that the economy is recovering and budgets constraints are easing, according to ACC deputy general counsel James Merklinger. The survey shows companies are shifting work from outside counsel to in-house, while boosting spending on alternative fee arrangements.

If new information comes to light during the enforcement of a litigation hold, the hold must be modified, say Howett Isaza partner John Isaza and Goldberg Segalla partner John J. Jablonski. Case law dictates that a one-time notice is not enough to meet the changing requirements of a hold.