Recent Updates
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CA Court to Rule Over Gay Marriage Ban
Headline Legal News 03/04/2009The California Supreme Court may reveal Thursday whether it intends to uphold Proposition 8, and if so, whether an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages will remain valid, during a high-stakes televised session that has sparked plans for demonstrations...
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US Demands 52,000 IDs from Swiss Banks
Headline Legal News 02/20/2009The United States filed for an injunction Thursday against Swiss bank USB AG, asking it to disclose the identities of the bank's nearly 52,000 American customers with Swiss accounts. The complaint claims that an estimated $14.8 billion in assets was ...
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Media Giants Forcing Smaller Guys Out
Headline Legal News 02/10/2009A magazine wholesaler claims industry giants - including The News Group and Time Inc. - are colluding to drive it out of business, and already have destroyed "the only other non-colluding wholesaler in the market," which went out of business last wee...
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Wrongfully convicted, man can't sue prosecutor
Headline Legal News 01/27/2009The Supreme Court says a man who was wrongly convicted and spent 24 years in prison may not sue the former Los Angeles district attorney and his chief deputy for violating his civil rights.The justices, ruling unanimously Monday, say decisions of sup...
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ACLU Challenges Gov't Secrecy in the False Claims Act
Headline Legal News 01/20/2009The federal government has been defrauded of billions of dollars in hundreds of cases it has sealed under the False Claims Act, the ACLU claims in Federal Court. "The result of the secrecy provisions is that the federal court system is home to an ent...
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Hollywood Firm Dreier Trying to Sever Ties
Headline Legal News 01/07/2009A top Hollywood law firm is quietly but doggedly trying to sever ties with its New York owner in the wake of his arrest on financial fraud charges. Santa Monica-based Dreier Stein, the 40-attorney outpost of Dreier Llp. and home to well-known enterta...
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Holocaust Survivors' Class Action Dismissed
Headline Legal News 01/05/2009A federal judge dismissed Holocaust survivors' class-action claim that the Republic of France and its railroad company stole thousands of Jews' property as they were being deported to Nazi-run concentration camps. "(T)he court concludes that the boun...
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Relatives mourn family slain in Santa shootings
Headline Legal News 12/29/2008Joseph and Alicia Ortega came from Mexico and raised a large, loving family supported by the metal painting business they started in Southern California.The remaining members of that family now are in mourning, after a Christmas Eve attack on the Ort...
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Internet gambling tycoon gives up $300M in plea
Headline Legal News 12/17/2008A co-founder of an Internet gambling company and one of the world's richest people pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating the federal wire act and agreed to forfeit $300 million as part of a cooperation deal.A smiling Anurag Dikshit, of the British colo...
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Ill. gov. says ready to tell his side of scandal
Headline Legal News 12/16/2008Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Wednesday he is ready to tell his side of the scandal to the people of Illinois and that he would do so no later than Thursday."I can't wait to begin to tell my side of the story and to address you guys and, most importantly...
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Oklahoma files appeal in poultry litter case
Headline Legal News 12/14/2008Oklahoma is again hoping to stop 13 Arkansas-based poultry companies from disposing of bird waste in the Illinois River watershed.The state's 61-page appeal of an earlier judge's ruling was filed late Monday with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal...
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Ill. corruption figure Rezko sentencing set Jan. 6
Headline Legal News 12/02/2008A federal judge in Chicago has set a Jan. 6 sentencing for political fundraiser Tony Rezko, who helped bankroll the campaigns of Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-uh-vich).Defense attorney Joseph Duffy says Rezko just "wants to get on ...