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Murdoch's company settles phone hacking lawsuits
Legal Business |
2012/02/08 09:42
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Rupert Murdoch's News International has succeeded in settling nearly all the cases in the first wave of lawsuits against it for phone hacking, with a new round of apologies and payouts announced in a London court Wednesday.
But a potentially damaging claim lodged by British singer Charlotte Church is still headed to trial, and a second wave of new lawsuits — as many as 56 in all — is still looming, lawyers told London's High Court.
News International, a division of News Corp., has tried hard to keep phone hacking cases from going to trial, launching its own compensation program overseen by a respected former judge and paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds in out-of-court settlements.
On Wednesday, lawyers announced that nine more lawsuits had been settled, including cases brought by comedian Steve Coogan, former soccer star Paul Gascoigne and maverick lawmaker George Galloway. Some of the suits had multiple claimants.
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Hawaii Marine sergeant court-martialed for hazing
Legal Business |
2012/02/07 10:09
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A Hawaii-based Marine sergeant is being court-martialed on accusations that he hazed a member of his squad by ordering him to dig a foxhole as punishment for falling asleep on watch duty in Afghanistan.
Sgt. Benjamin Johns is one of three Marines accused of hazing Lance Cpl. Harry Lew of Santa Clara, Calif. Lew committed suicide April 3 after prosecutors say he endured several hours of abuse.
Prosecutors say Johns had no authority to punish a Marine by ordering him to dig a foxhole. They say ordering the dig made Johns derelict of his duty to ensure the welfare of Marines under his care.
Johns' defense team says the sergeant wasn't trying to punish Lew, and the new foxhole was supposed to help Lew stay awake.
The court-martial begins Tuesday at a Marine base in Kaneohe Bay.
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Hustler targeted for printing photos of dead woman
Legal Business |
2012/01/26 12:42
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Hustler Magazine argued Wednesday in a federal appeals court that its decision to publish nude photos of a model months after she was killed by her wrestler husband was protected by the First Amendment because she was a newsworthy figure.
The family of Nancy Toffolini Benoit has waged a legal battle against the pornographic magazine since it published the photos after she and her son were killed in 2007 by wrestler Chris Benoit. Her family said she never gave the magazine permission to print the photos.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June 2009 that a notorious death doesn't give publishers a blank check to publish any images they wish. The case went to trial, and a jury in June 2011 voted to slap Hustler Magazine with $19.6 million in punitive damages for running the photos. A federal judge soon reduced that award to $250,000 to abide by a Georgia law capping damages.
The debate before the court on Wednesday was not only whether to reinstate the jury's eye-popping verdict, but also whether the case should have even gone to trial.
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Heitman Law Firm, PL. - Florida Construction Law Attorney
Legal Business |
2012/01/23 10:44
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Palm Beach Construction Law Attorney
High Quality Legal Representation
By quality, we mean degree of excellence. Heitman Law Firm practices construction law. Mr. Heitman is an expert in construction law, board certified by the Florida Bar. He is a member of an elite group of board certified construction attorneys. In addition, Mr. Heitman is a Florida Licensed Professional Engineer, with years of experience building real world construction projects. As such, the Firm is extremely well qualified to render its clients high quality legal representation.
Client Service
Heitman Law Firm serves its clients by first comprehending the specific issues our clients face and then tailoring our representation to those specific needs. Construction law cases often involve legal, technical, engineering, design, constructability and scheduling issues. We speak the language of construction. We understand your business. We know how to read a set of plans. Our client service is based on the idea that the client should not be required to pay to bring us up to speed on the construction issues. Instead, we make it our business to be ahead of the learning curve.
Heitman Law Firm, PL
12765 West Forest Hill Boulevard
Suite 1315
Wellington, FL 33414
Contact:
Office: (561) 249-2879
Fax: (561) 249-2906
Cell: (561) 714-5273 |
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Court throws out judge-drawn Texas electoral maps
Legal Business |
2012/01/20 10:13
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The Supreme Court on Friday threw out electoral maps drawn by federal judges in Texas that favored minorities. The decision ultimately could affect control of the U.S. House of Representatives and leaves the fate of Texas' April primaries unclear.
The justices ordered the three-judge court in San Antonio to come up with new plans that pay more attention to maps created by Texas' Republican-dominated state Legislature. All four of the state's new congressional seats could swing based on the outcome.
But the Supreme Court did not compel the use of the state's maps in this year's elections, as Texas wanted. Only Justice Clarence Thomas said he would have gone that far.
The court's unsigned opinion thus did not blaze any new trails in election law or signal retreat from a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, as some supporters of the law feared would result from this case.
Still, the outcome appeared to favor Republicans by instructing the judges to stick more closely to what the Legislature did, said election law expert Richard Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, law school. |
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