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Court denies Loughner's request for rehearing
Headline Legal News |
2012/06/08 00:03
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An appeals court rejected a request by lawyers for the man accused of shooting former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to rehear their arguments over their mentally ill client's forced medication with psychotropic drugs.
Attorneys for Jared Lee Loughner had asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing after the court in March denied their request to halt their client's forced medication.
The court on Tuesday denied the request to hear the appeal again.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six people and wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others.
The trial court judge on the case has set a June 27 hearing in Tucson to consider whether Loughner is mentally fit to stand trial.
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Court denies dismissal of 8 WikiLeaks charges
Court Watch |
2012/06/07 00:04
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A military judge is refusing to dismiss eight of the 22 counts against an Army private charged in a massive leak of government secrets.
Col. Denise Lind made the ruling Friday during a pretrial hearing for Pfc. Bradley Manning at Fort Meade, Md.
She rejected defense arguments that the government used unconstitutionally vague language in charging Manning with unauthorized possession and disclosure of classified information.
Lind is considering another defense motion seeking dismissal of two counts alleging Manning exceeded his authority to access a Defense Department computer system.
She said Manning's trial, currently set for September, will likely start in November or January due to procedural issues.
Manning is charged with aiding the enemy and other offenses on accusations he caused thousands of classified documents to be published on the WikiLeaks website.
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Court orders woman to stay away from Jeff Goldblum
Headline Legal News |
2012/05/26 15:15
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A judge on Friday granted Jeff Goldblum a temporary restraining order against a woman who has been repeatedly ordered to stay away from the actor in recent years.
Goldblum's attorneys obtained the order against Linda Ransom, 49, after she repeatedly went to the actor's home three times this month. A previous stay-away order against Ransom from 2007 has expired and police claim she has told them that she will not stop trying to meet Goldblum unless a restraining order is in place.
The filings state Ransom has been arrested three times for violating previous restraining orders. Goldblum first alerted authorities to her in 2001 after she attended one of his acting classes and then started waiting outside his home.
"Over the past decade, I have experienced substantial emotional distress due to Ms. Ransom's continuous stalking, harassing, and threatening behavior," Goldblum wrote in a sworn court declaration.
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Wash. lawyers challenge secret court proceedings
Legal Business |
2012/05/26 15:15
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A defense lawyer in Eastern Washington was reading a detective's statement in his client's drug case when he came across a curious line. In asking to search the man's house and cars, the detective revealed that he had already seen the defendant's bank records.
That's odd, thought the lawyer, Robert Thompson of Pasco. There's no search warrant for the bank records. How'd he get them?
The answer — with a subpoena secretly issued by a judge — provides a window into the little-known use of "special inquiry judge proceedings" in Benton County and across the state. Prosecutors who use them say the proceedings are authorized by state law, make for more efficient investigations and have plenty of judicial oversight, but Thompson and other defense attorneys say they raise questions about privacy, accountability and the open administration of justice. |
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Court: Families cannot sue over loan discount fee
Topics in Legal News |
2012/05/25 15:15
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The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that three families cannot sue a mortgage company for allegedly charging them a loan discount fee without giving them a lower interest rate.
The high court's decision tosses out lawsuits filed in 2008 against Quicken Loans, Inc., in Louisiana by three families who claimed they paid the fees without receiving anything in return. The Freeman family paid $980 and the Bennett family $1,100 in loan discount fees but allegedly did not get lower interest rates in return. The Smith family allegations focus partly on a loan origination fee of $5,100, which they claim was a mislabeled loan discount fee.
A federal judge threw the lawsuit out, saying the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act made the lawsuit improper. That decision, which was upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, was appealed to the Supreme Court.
The law says no "person shall give and no person shall accept any portion, split, or percentage of any charge made or received for the rendering of a real estate settlement service in connection with a transaction involving a federally related mortgage loan other than for services actually performed."
The argument is over whether that law "prohibits the collection of an unearned charge by a single settlement provider, or whether it covers only transactions in which a provider shares part of a settlement-service charge with one or more other persons who did nothing to earn it," said Justice Antonia Scalia, who wrote the opinion.
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