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Justices Weigh Definitions of Competency
Legal Center |
2008/04/03 07:44
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| pThe US Supreme Court took up a question that has plagued trial courts across the country. If a person is sane enough to stand trial, does that mean he is mentally competent to represent himself? /ppAfter five years and three findings of mental incompetency, Ahmad Edwards was finally judged to be competent to stand trial on attempted murder charges, but he wanted to represent himself. The Indiana trial judge ruled that Edwards was too disturbed and incoherent to act as his own lawyer. The state supreme court said Edwards had been denied his constitutional right to represent himself and the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in the case Wednesday. /ppLawyer Mark Stancil, representing Edwards, says the Constitution protects the defendant's rights at trial, not the states' rights./ppIndiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher, says the state has an interest in the public perception of a fair process./p |
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Field Fisher Waterhouse £550,000 injury comp
Press Releases |
2008/04/03 07:39
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| pEuropean law firm, Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, has announced the successful recovery of £550,000 in compensation for a labourer injured at work./ppIn December 2005, the labourer was instructed by his foreman to collect waste materials from a large open shed. On entering the shed, a large mechanical digger with a sharp bladed shovel drove into him. The shovel hit both legs causing a severe injury at work. As a result, he had a below knee amputation of his left leg. This has meant that while he can now walk using a prosthetic limb, he is unable to return to his former employment or any other manual labour./ppPaul McNeil, partner in the Personal Injury Group at Field Fisher Waterhouse, was given legal instruction by the client at the end of 2005. /ppAlthough the labourer’s former employer quickly accepted that they were primarily responsible for the accident, they argued that he was also partially responsible for the negligence. They alleged that he had actually gone into the shed against instructions by the foreman./ppField Fisher Waterhouse succeeded in obtaining substantial interim payments to fund medical treatment and rehabilitation. The initial case to decide the issue of fault was fixed for trial in March 2007, however a few days before this date the employers accepted that they were fully liable for the accident. /ppIn the meantime, there was a dispute between the employer and their insurer, which resulted in the insurer cancelling the policy. The meant that Field Fisher Waterhouse then had to bring proceedings against the employer directly./ppDue to a significant difference in opinion between the employer and Field Fisher Waterhouse’s valuation of the injury compensation claim, another trial needed to be fixed for December 2007 to settle the matter. Eventually after extensive negotiation, the claim was settled out of court in the sum of £550,000 plus costs./ppThe labourer received his damages in full as the case was conducted on a no win, no fee basis./ppPaul McNeil said: “I am happy that we were able to recover this compensation for our client, who was injured through no fault of his own whilst at work.”/p |
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Expert Testimony Issues on the Rise
Legal Center |
2008/04/01 08:05
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| The Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in United States v. Nacchio has recently reversed an insider trading conviction in the high profile criminal case, finding, in short, that the trial court improperly denied the defendant an opportunity to call an expert witness. The Court ordered a new trial. The Court based its holding on the improper exclusion of expert testimony, specifically, an economic analysis of Nacchio's stock trading patterns, says Joseph Martini, a partner with Wiggin amp; Dana LLP and a member of the firm's White-Collar Litigation and Appellate Practice Groups. From a review of the cases, it appears that issues concerning the introduction of expert testimony are coming up in more and more white collar criminal cases, he observes. Wiggin and Dana partner James Glasser also notes that during his tenure as former Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut, defense counsel in white collar cases often argued against federal charges by pointing to experts opinions on such issues as the application of complex accounting principles. These issues are now coming up at trial, says Glasser. Martini and Glasser are available to write or comment on expert testimony issues in white-collar criminal cases including the Nacchio trial. |
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Paxil Teen Suicide Case Trumped by Michigan Law
Attorney Career |
2008/04/01 07:53
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pThe parents of a Michigan teenager who killed herself while on the antidepressant Paxil cannot sue the drug's manufacturer because a state law grants immunity to the maker of any drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. /ppU.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney of the Western District of Michigan said FDA approval of Paxil use by adults was enough to shield manufacturer SmithKline Beecham Corp., even though the agency never approved the drug's use by teens./pp
He therefore dismissed Nadine White and David B. McCullough's lawsuit against SKB over their 16-year-old daughter Moriah's 2001 suicide after taking Paxil for three months./ppMichigan is the only state with a law providing drugmakers immunity from state tort suits if the FDA has certified their products as safe and effective. The only exceptions to the statute are for fraud on the FDA or bribery of an agency official. /ppIn this case, White and McCullough filed a negligence and strict-liability suit against SKB in a Pennsylvania federal court because the company is located in that state. /ppThe drugmaker won a change of venue to the Western District of Michigan because the plaintiffs are residents of that state. It then filed a motion to dismiss./ppIn their opposition to the motion the plaintiffs argued that their suit is a failure-to-warn case because SKB never warned doctors not to prescribe Paxil to teens or children and, in fact, conducted a secret campaign to promote such off-label use. /ppMoreover, since the company never applied to the FDA for marketing approval to prescribe the drug to teens and children, it cannot argue that it has immunity under the Michigan statute, they said. /ppJudge Maloney rejected that argument, saying the Michigan Legislature provided immunity to drug manufacturers for FDA-approved products and that it is uncontested that Paxil was approved by the agency for use in adults./ppThe statute does not limit the protection to situations when the drug is used for approved purposes, he said. Should the Legislature wish to limit the protection available to off-label uses of the drug, it may do so. /p |
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DOJ to Continue Crackdown on Political Corruption
Legal Center |
2008/03/28 08:53
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| pUS Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Thursday he would personally ensure that the US Department of Justice does not bow to political pressure as it prosecutes government officials for corruption. In a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Mukasey said:/ppPublic corruption can inflict damage that is not only costly but also profound. When a public servant at any level of government exploits his or her office for improper purposes, the damage is measured not just in dollars and cents but also in erosion of the public trust upon which depends the survival of our system of government./ppWe fight, investigate and prosecute public corruption to ensure that those who hold public office live up to the public's trust, and to build the public's confidence in the very idea of government, without which the government cannot function./ppThe investigation and prosecution of public corruption is therefore among the highest obligations of law enforcement, and it should come as no surprise that I consider it to be one of the top priorities of the Department of Justice. In recent years, the Department's career prosecutors and criminal investigators have been engaged in a renewed effort to pursue corruption at all levels and in all branches of government./ppMukasey emphasized that the joint efforts of the DOJ and US Attorney's offices had resulted in the convictions of 1,093 individuals for corruption in 2006, including former congressmen Randy Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney./ppMukasey's speech came only hours after a federal grand jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico charged Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila and 12 associates with 27 counts of conspiracy, false statements, wire fraud, federal program fraud and tax crimes related to campaign financing./p |
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Hollinger settles civil fraud lawsuit with SEC for $21.3M
Attorney Career |
2008/03/27 09:09
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| pHollinger Inc., the Canadian holding company with an interest in former newspaper publisher Hollinger International has agreed to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $21.3 million to settle claims that from 1999 to 2003 it violated securities law by failing to disclose to investors payments and other transactions that benefited the executives to the detriment of the company. The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by the SEC in November 2004 against former Hollinger International chairman Conrad Black, former Hollinger president David Radler, and Hollinger Inc. Under the terms of the settlement, Hollinger Inc. has agreed to be permanently enjoined from committing future securities laws violations. The settlement must still be approved by US District Judge William T. Hart before it becomes final./ppRadler was sentenced in December to 29 months in prison for one count of mail fraud, after pleading guilty and agreeing to serve as a witness against Black. Black was convicted in July of mail fraud and obstruction of justice and sentenced to 78 months in prison; he began serving his sentence earlier this month after a federal appeals court rejected his request to remain free on bail while his appeal is pending. Radler, Black and other Hollinger executives were prosecuted in the United States in connection to allegations that they diverted more than $80 million from Hollinger International, now Sun-Times Media Group, and its shareholders during the company's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers. /p |
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