Recent Updates
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Major Class Action Settlement Hung Up Over Legal Fees
Headline Legal News 06/21/2010Congressional approval of one of the largest class action settlements in U.S. history is getting hung up on the issue of legal fees for plaintiffs lawyers. The $3.4 billion Indian trusts settlement agreed to in December could be scuttled if Congress ...
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US court tosses protester's arrest at Liberty Bell
Headline Legal News 06/21/2010An anti-abortion protester arrested in 2007 had a First Amendment right to demonstrate on a sidewalk near the entrance the building that houses the Liberty Bell, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.The decision overturns lower-court rulings that ...
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Calif. high court to hear church's property appeal
Headline Legal News 06/14/2010The California Supreme Court has decided to hear an Orange County church's appeal to keep its beachfront church property, despite breaking away from the main Episcopal Church. St. James Anglican Church, a theologically conservative breakaway church, ...
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Ex-lawyer faces sentencing for Ponzi scheme
Headline Legal News 06/09/2010The sentence was more than the 40 years federal prosecutors had recommended for Rothstein, a disbarred lawyer who pleaded guilty to racketeering and fraud conspiracy charges in January.He had faced up to 100 years in prison but his lawyer had asked U...
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US defends attending Sudan leader's inauguration
Headline Legal News 05/28/2010The Obama administration is defending its decision to send a representative to the inauguration of Sudan's president, who won re-election despite facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes.Omar al-Bashir was sworn in Thursday to another fi...
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China to frame its first immigration law to attract foreigners
Headline Legal News 05/24/2010China has kick-started a key process to frame its first immigration law to better manage immigrants as the world's fastest economy seeks to attract more foreigners to boost its development. Experts on migration have advised the government to learn fr...
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Trial for Chandra Levy slaying suspect stays in DC
Headline Legal News 05/17/2010A judge has decided to keep the trial of a man charged in the killing of federal intern Chandra Levy in the District of Columbia.Attorneys for 28-year-old Ingmar Guandique (gwan-DEE'-kay) had argued he would not get a fair trial in Washington because...
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Ex-SEC lawyer gets 8 years for pump-and-dump fraud
Headline Legal News 04/28/2010A former enforcement attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison for his role in a a series of multimillion dollar pump-and-dump stock fraud schemes.Dallas-based attorney Phillip Offill Jr., 51, w...
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NY immigration agent pleads guilty to sex coercion
Headline Legal News 04/16/2010A federal immigration officer who was recorded demanding sex from a woman in exchange for a green card has pleaded guilty.Isaac Baichu pleaded guilty to all the charges against him Wednesday in Queens. The 48-year-old is expected to receive a prison ...
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Supreme Court scrutinizes state, local gun control
Headline Legal News 02/27/2010Gun control advocates are hoping they can win by losing when the Supreme Court rules on state and local regulation of firearms.The justices will be deciding whether the right to possess guns guaranteed by the Second Amendment — like much of the rest ...
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Obama nominates Berkeley prof to appeals court
Headline Legal News 02/25/2010Goodwin Liu, 39, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, learned English in kindergarten and later became an honors graduate at Stanford and a Rhodes Scholar. He has taught at Berkeley since 2003 and was named associate dean of the law school in 2008.He als...
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State won't pay legal fees for computer lawsuit
Headline Legal News 02/22/2010The state Finance Department has refused to pay the legal fees of a Montgomery law firm that was hired by a legislative oversight committee to stop the state from proceeding with an unbid $13 million computer contract.State Comptroller Thomas White h...