Legal Radar

Judge Allows Suits Against Former Dewey Partners to Continue

A NY bankruptcy judge is refusing to dismiss suits made against several Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP partners who are seeking close to $16 million on the now-defunct law firm’s creditors. Under the NY state law, any finances the partners were paid for can be “clawed back.”

The decision comes a few years after the Dewey’s collapse after a huge chunk of former partners removed themselves from liabilities made against the firm. Months after Dewey claimed bankruptcy protection, over 470 ex-partners made an agreement to a $70.4 million settlement that created the Dewey’s re-payment plan. Other partners separately settled.

Judge Martin Glenn, an NY bankruptcy judge, found that under state’s debtor and creditor laws, partners aren’t allowed to argue the value of work they performed for the firm offsets the money they were paid for, a defense move sometimes utilized in clawback lawsuits.

The next move will be to determine when the defunct firm was unable to make its debt payments at the time it was due.

Gerber Accused of Deceiving Parents on Baby Formula

The federal government is accusing America’s largest baby food maker of misleading parents on the health advantages of one of its baby formula products.

In a recent complaint this week, the Federal Trade Commission blamed Gerber Products Co. for not providing concrete evidence that the Good Start Gentle Formula can minimize or curb allergy risks in babies with a family history of allergies.

Gerber shot down claims of making false advertisements on its product, saying their claims are backed with extensive clinical research.

Good Start Gentle was produced with partially hydrolyzed whey proteins that are simple to digest compared to other baby formula utilizing cow’s milk protein while reducing the chances of eczema in infants.

The FTC is blaming Gerber for misleading parents of the product being approved by the Food and Drug Administration through its claims. The FTC also demand the baby food maker giant to stop making false advertisements.

Legal Experts Debating on NJ’s Ebola Quarantine Policy

Chris Christie, an NJ governor, recently indicated that a nurse currently held in a Newark hospital would be given a chance to leave the state and sent to her home in Maine.

Christie, who was heavily criticized after Kaci Hickox, a nurse, was documented in isolation at a hospital in Newark, said the person is still subjected to a mandatory quarantine under the state’s laws in Maine, but with Maine officials to regulate it.

Hickox, who was detained for treating patients diagnosed with Ebola in Sierra Leone, retained a civil rights lawyer and would file a suit to keep the nurse off her current quarantine state.

Legal experts aren’t agreeing with the nurse’s ability to fight off against her quarantine.

The NJ Department of Health said that efforts were made to keep Hickox as comfortable as possible with access to a mobile device, computer, and choice of food.

It was reported that the state’s mandatory quarantine policy infringes on the constitutional right of the nurse and appears to be too broad.

Attorneys in Saudi Sent to Jail for Tweets

A court in Riyadh recently sentenced three attorneys to eight years in prison after they harshly criticized the Ministry of Justice on Twitter. They were also slapped with travel bans as well as an indefinite ban on media or social networking site appearance.

Charges that were slapped include interfering with judiciary independence, contempt of the judiciary, and critiquing the judiciary system via Twitter.

They were fined with over 1 million Saudi riyals by the legal committee of the Ministry of Culture and Information on the same charges. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice’s disciplinary committee took off their law licenses.

The same attorneys frequently used social media to air out their disappointment with the Ministry of Justice’s performance, most critically their failure to carry out reforms as part of a multi-billion dollar project in overhauling the judiciary as indicated by King Abdullah back in 2007.

Both the attorneys and prosecutor plan to appeal the latest sentence.

Security Guards Guilty in Iraq Shootout

Just recently, a federal jury found four ex-Blackwater USA security guards to be liable for 14 Iraqis deaths in Baghdad several years back.

The guilty verdict is testing the capability of the U.S. courts to make military companies accountable for their criminal acts.

Nick Slatten was guilty of murder, while Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, and Dustin Heard were guilty of almost every count of voluntary manslaughter and attempting voluntary manslaughter.

The guards opened gunfire against Iraqi civilians, which led to an international outrage and later leading to the Iraqi government to push the military firm out of the country.

The guards have been part of a large number of Blackwater workers offering security for the State Department staff within Iraq. When a bomb exploded a car near an American office under Blackwater security protection, all four responded by opening fire against Iraqis citizens. Attorneys for the guards argued that they were naturally acting in self-defense and said the gunfire were justifiable.

Actor Files Suit over Mob Character in The Simpsons

Fox has recently been slapped with a $250 million suit regarding a mob character from the famous cartoon show, “The Simpsons.”

It’s been reported that Frank Sivero, who took on an acting role in the movie hit “Goodfellas,” is saying that The Simpsons writers lived right next door to him in the 1980s --- at the time when the cartoon series was still being developed --- and thus taking the same character he made. The character being dealt with at present is the resurrected mobster, Louie, the right hand man of mob boss Fat Tony. Louie has appeared in over 10 episodes, with another appearance in the third season.

Sivero is claiming that he and The Simpsons boss, James Brooks, to place it nicely in the 1990s, by teaming up together for a film --- which never happened. A couple decades later, Sivero is demanding restitution. The suit says that by getting away with his likeness, the character he made has been undervalued.

Uber Tech Challenges Court Ruling

Uber Technologies Inc. is fighting a court ruling in France in what seems to be one of the quickest growing services in France, intensifying a legal battle despite the firm’s broad clashes within Europe.

A criminal court in Paris ruled last week that the firm’s new UberPop service, which lets passengers connect with non-professional licensed drivers, is in violation of a previous decision that ban earnings from carpooling services. It demanded the firm to pay a $128,000 penalty.

The decision of the French court is Uber’s recent clash with U.S. and European authorities.

UberPop has been widely controversial since it makes use of drivers without possessing chauffeur or taxi licenses while billing itself to be “ride sharing.”

The firm is fighting over its service legality in a number of countries. Currently in France, Uber has been under threat a number of times.

Last week, the court observed Uber to be deceiving passengers and drivers, and asking the firm to offer a notice to riders and drivers that they’re actually breaking the law via UberPop.

Facebook Suing Attorneys for Fraud Contribution

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg filed a lawsuit against Paul Ceglia’s attorneys, saying they assisted their client on a defraud attempt against the world’s largest social network as well as its founder.

A number of lawyers have represented Ceglia especially those from law firms DLA Piper and Milberg.

Facebook believed Celia crafted a scheme to defraud Facebook and its CEO. In the end, a grand jury gave an indictment against Ceglia on federal fraud charges.

Facebook attorneys say Ceglia’s lawyers should’ve been aware of their client crafting false claims from forged papers.

Ceglia was named as a defendant in the suit filed in a Manhattan state court as well as Paul Argentieri, one of this lawyers, whom Facebook believed to have assisted in the fraud.

The suit received big exposure when DLA Piper handled Ceglia as a client, offering legitimate grounds to his claims.

 

 

Zuckerberg and Facebook demand to be reimbursed for punitive damages and legal costs. They didn’t indicate the precise cost.

Obama Further Tightens Net Rules

Tom Wheeler, a Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is in a very narrow spot as he writes rules on how broadband firms can handle their own traffic.

In the previous week, President Barack Obama, wanted to make the spot even tighter.

Wheeler, who was appointed by Obama, brought out a proposal early this year which will bran broadband companies from slowing down or halting websites, but leaving opportunity for content firms to make payment for special entry to consumers.

FCC’s challenge is to compile rules that prevent tiered internet, with slow and swift lanes, while showing the courts that the agency isn’t abusing its authority.

Most net-neutrality advocates think that in order to get neutrality rules to stand in court, the FCC will require making a broadband reclassification as a telecommunications service from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 --- subjecting it to utility-mimicking regulations. Broadband companies aren’t happy with the move and promised that a long legal battle will take place. 

Georgia: Voter Registration Drive Pushes to Suit

With just under three weeks prior to elections for the governor and U.S. Senate, an escalating battle between a Republican secretary of state of Georgia and a Democratic-favoring voter registration group is making a move to court.

Third Sector Development Inc., a non-profit parent of the New Georgia Project, filed a suit against Brain Kempt, the Secretary of the State, and several other county election board members, alleging the officials to have failed in processing thousands of vote applications for next month’s vote.

Another group, The National Association of Advancement of Colored People, joined the suit.

The New Georgia Project indicated it gave over 80,000 new voter applications to the county election boards. But it seems that the new board couldn’t spot records of over 40,000 of its vote applications.

The lawsuit, filed last week, came weeks after Kempt began an investigation on a possible fraud for certain applications given by the group.

Kemp’s counsel, Ryan Germany, sent a letter to Washington indicating more details on voter application is needed.