“I didn’t like the case…” A Louisiana judge finds herself in trouble (via Judges on Merit and Dan Pero, who draw somewhat different lessons). More: affidavit by former judge central to FBI probe says he didn’t consider attempt at improper influence to be a success.
Posts Tagged ‘judges’
“Top Illinois Court Axes Mandatory Retirement Law for State Judges”
They’ve got the Illinois Constitution — or at least their power to read things into the ambiguities and interstices of that document — and they’re not afraid to use it. [ABA Journal] Scott Greenfield has some comments on the equal protection ruling and its policy implications.
Symposium: “Replacing Justice Souter”
I’m one of the participants in an online symposium at Reason on who can, should or will serve as President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. I have kind words for Walter Dellinger III, mixed views on “empathy”, and predict that the current surge of activist federal economic policy will contribute to the Court’s docket in coming years. The full list of participants: Radley Balko, Alan Gura, Wendy Kaminer, Manuel Klausner, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Walter Olson, Roger Pilon, Glenn Reynolds, Damon W. Root, Ilya Shapiro, Harvey Silverglate, Ilya Somin, and Jacob Sullum.
The case for tissue-box lawyers
For reasons that should be fairly obvious, there’s quite a bit I disagree with in Eric Turkewitz’s impassioned defense (in the context of selecting potential judicial nominees) of injury and criminal-defense lawyers. But I’m still glad I read it.
Judge hands down 2,643-page judgment
It’s thought to be the longest judgment ever handed down in Australia [Andrew Main, “Banks must pay $1.58bn in compensation for Bell asset grab”, The Australian, Apr. 30]
Don’t
“It is axiomatic that ‘Judge’ and ‘Stripper’ showing up in a headline is never a good thing, especially if you happen to be the ‘Judge.'” — Daniel Ruth, Tampa Tribune, via Ambrogi, Legal Blog Watch (on disgraced Florida appellate judge Thomas Stringer)(earlier).
Appellate lawyer chooses his words incautiously
And a Fifth Circuit panel eats him alive.
Judge/insurance fraudster sentenced in Pa.
Former state Superior Court judge Michael Joyce, of Erie, “was sentenced this afternoon to nearly four years in prison.” Joyce’s bogus claims of neck and back pain after a rear-ending had netted him $440,000 in settlements; “the judge filed his claims on judicial letterhead, [Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian] Trabold said, and referred to himself as a judge 115 times in the letters.”
Milberg hires judge who ruled in its favor
Last year New York trial judge Herman Cahn ruled in favor of class-action giant Milberg in a high-profile dispute over whether it could share its winnings from past cases with disgraced felon and former name partner Melvyn Weiss, the firm’s former driving force. Judge Cahn stepped down from the New York bench in December, and now it develops has been hired by Milberg as its “distinguished” new attorney. And you — with the Wall Street Journal’s editorialists today — certainly have a suspicious mind. There probably won’t be any shortage of funds with which to pay the former jurist: an American Lawyer headline last month read “Milberg Among Plaintiffs Firms Awarded $120 Million in Xerox Class Action”.
First sentences that tell a whole story in themselves
ABA Journal: “Hiring — and trusting — a disbarred lawyer known for his 1980s involvement in a bizarre condoms-for-chickens scam was a mistake, a retired Michigan judge says.”