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Gov. Rick Perry signs tort reform bill into law
Industry News |
2011/05/28 13:47
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Gov. Rick Perry signed into law Monday a measure that will limit frivolous lawsuits by levying some fees on plaintiffs and allowing meritless suits to be dismissed early in the process.
Perry designated the loser pays bill a top priority of the legislative session, saying Texas needs to crack down on junk lawsuits.
Some plaintiffs who sue and lose will be required to pay the court costs and attorney fees of those they are suing. The law also creates expedited civil actions for cases less than $100,000. It goes into effect Sept. 1.
Perry said the legislation provides defendants and judges with a variety of tools to expedite justice for those deserving.
Employers will spend less time in court and more time creating jobs, he said.
The law will encourage timely settlements by penalizing parties who turn down reasonable settlement offers to try to get more than they should.
Perry said the changes reduce the cost of litigation while still allowing legitimate cases to proceed. Supporters say the state's business climate will improve because the reforms will make Texas more attractive to employers looking to expand or relocate. |
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Court refuses to reconsider Spector's appeal
Headline Court News |
2011/05/27 14:14
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An appeals court on Friday refused to reconsider music producer Phil Spector's appeal of his murder conviction, saying there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal panel acknowledged it did not consider an issue that defense lawyers now say was critical to his conviction.
The panel blamed the lawyers for failing to sufficiently brief the point and said they had no obligation to consider it.
They quoted case law saying, Issues do not have a life of their own: if they are not raised ... we consider the issues waived.
Spector, a legendary rock music producer, was convicted two years ago of fatally shooting actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion in 2003. He is serving 19 years to life in prison on a second-degree murder conviction.
His first trial ended in a hung jury; the second ended in a conviction.
Defense lawyer Dennis Riordan said he will be filing an appeal with the California Supreme Court on June 13. Riordan said in an interview the court ignored a central issue of the case. |
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Wis. DOJ asks court to lift ban on union law
Court Watch News |
2011/05/26 14:15
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State attorneys asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday to immediately vacate a Madison judge's decision striking down Republican Gov. Scott Walker's contentious collective bargaining law.
Judge Maryann Sumi invalidated the law on Thursday after finding Republican legislators violated Wisconsin's open records law during the run-up to passage in March. The decision came in a lawsuit Democratic Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed challenging the law.
The state Justice Department is representing the Republicans. The agency's attorneys asked the state Supreme Court to take the case and the court set oral arguments on whether it should make a move for June 6. Deputy Attorney General Kevin St. John said in a letter to the justices late Friday they need to act now.
St. John said the issues have been fully briefed so the court can immediately vacate Sumi's decision without hearing any further argument.
He argued Sumi issued the decision on her own, even though no one involved in the case had asked for such a ruling. She didn't give any of the parties a chance to be heard on the final disposition.
He also reiterated the Justice Department's argument that the Republicans can't be sued because they enjoy legislative immunity and Sumi can't invalidate the law due to an open meetings violation. |
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Appeals court upholds sentence in NC bus stop case
Court Watch News |
2011/05/21 14:15
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A man who a federal judge ruled had sex with his adopted sister has lost an appeal of his 2½ year prison sentence.
The judge ordered Royce Mitchell to jail because he decided his sexual relationship with 15-year-old Tiffany Wright violated terms of his 2007 probation on a federal drug charge.
Wright, who was eight months pregnant, was shot to death as she waited for the school bus in September 2009. Police named Mitchell a person of interest, but later concluded he wasn't involved with the killing.
But Wright told a detective that she had sex with Mitchell before she died.
Mitchell continues to deny the allegations, and Wright's lawyer said a DNA test that found Mitchell was not the baby's father proves they didn't have sex. But The Charlotte Observer reports that the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that just because prosecutors couldn't independently verify Wright's allegations doesn't mean they aren't true. |
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