Published: July 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — Deep sequestration budget cuts have had “a devastating impact on federal court operations nationwide,” a top judicial official told a Senate committee last week.
By:
David Frank
Published: July 30, 2013
Land use attorneys across the state are hailing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that greatly reduces the amount of leverage municipalities can wield in granting developers permits.
A 5-4 majority in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District held that the U.S. Constitution’s takings clause not only applies to cases in which a project is approved with “extortionate” conditions, but also to those denied when a developer refuses to agree to the coercive demands of the government.
By:
Steve Lash
Published: July 29, 2013
Maryland’s top court has disbarred an attorney, by a vote of 5-2, for having an intimate relationship with her client in a divorce and child custody proceeding, having a financial interest in his child-support obligation, communicating directly with the opposing party and lying to bar counsel.
By:
Kimberly Atkins
Published: July 26, 2013
WASHINGTON – The rise in health care-related consumer debt, student loans,shoddy record keeping by creditors and abusive practices by debt collectors are leading federal regulators and lawmakers to crack down on third-party debt collectors and call for tighter rules applying to them.
By:
Correy Stephenson
Published: July 26, 2013
Nobody likes to be proven wrong, least of all employers. In an effort to hire the perfect person for a position, a company may gather as much information as possible about an applicant, such as a quick review of a social networking page, a criminal background inquiry or a credit check.
Although such information has become more accessible in the current technological age, it should be used carefully and sparingly, attorneys cautioned.
By:
Steve Lash
Published: July 25, 2013
A Maryland jury has awarded $513,129 to a woman whose undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy led to the loss of a Fallopian tube.
By:
Amber Nimocks
Published: July 23, 2013
Toss the term “mind-mapping” into conversation and you’ll likely draw sideways glances. It sounds like something that would happen aboard alien spacecraft, and, in raw form, it looks like the doodles of a bored college student.
But Columbia, S.C.-based consumer protection attorney Dave Maxfield believes lawyers can use the technique to great advantage, and he has created an app for that. He’s a big fan of visual information management and mind-mapping technology.
By:
David Frank
Published: July 19, 2013
Bankruptcy practitioners are bracing themselves for a new set of guidelines that will drastically change the way their fee petitions are reviewed in large Chapter 11 cases.
By:
Kimberly Atkins
Published: July 18, 2013
Tags: constitutional law, Employment Law, labor law, NLRB, recess appointments, U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON – This week’s Senate confirmation of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the forward motion on the nominations to the National Labor Relations Board could ultimately lessen the blow of a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating the president’s recess appointments to those agencies.
When Warren M. Yanoff agreed to review the fees a bank charged to administer an Ashburnham, Mass., woman’s $5.5 million estate, he assumed it was a run-of-the-mill guardian ad litem appointment, much like others he has accepted over the years.
