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Week Of Monday January 9, 2012
Law Shapes Redistricting Debate FREE
When the Connecticut Supreme Court recently appointed a special master to help resolve a congressional redistricting impasse between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, it wasn’t the first time a court in this state called on outside help to redraw voting maps. In 1971, a panel of federal judges called on none other than Robert Bork. Then a Yale Law School professor, Bork would 16 years later become a household name when he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan for the U.S. Supreme Court and subsequently pilloried at failed confirmation hearings by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Teacher Talks Unsealed FREE
For the last 15 years, lawyers for Connecticut school boards have been unclear whether teacher’s union salary talks are open meetings. Is the public allowed to know the case teachers make to improve their pay and benefits? Can the press follow the counter-evidence that the school board presents?
Judge Certifies Class Action Against Insurer FREE
After a decade of deliberations, a class action claim filed on behalf of 30,000 state workers against health insurer Anthem was certified last month by Hartford Superior Court Judge Michael Sheldon, as one of his final acts as a trial judge. With nearly $100 million in damages at stake, it is the largest such case in the state courts.
More Lawsuits Filed Over Sex Abuse Of Haitian Boys FREE
Seventeen Haitian men are suing Fairfield University in Connecticut, the Society of Jesus and others alleging they failed to protect them from a man who sexually abused them when they were poor children or young adults attending a school he founded in Haiti.
Case of the Week
Defendant Says Cops Illegally Acquired Bloody Clothing FREE
Summary: A man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend is attempting to suppress DNA evidence recovered by police from a New York City hotel out of which the man leaped in an apparent suicide attempt. DNA on clothing found in the hotel room and on the roof linked him to the murder. His lawyer is arguing that the evidence was seized without a warrant.
Verdicts & Settlements
Restaurant Spared Damages In Seafood Poisoning Death FREE
George Bergeron et al. v. Pacific Food Inc.: In an unusual product liability claim, a Meriden jury decided not to hold a Wallingford restaurant liable for a woman who became sick and died after she ate raw oysters there. According to lawyers involved with the case, Patricia Bergeron, 55, of Wallingford, was dining at Pacific Buffet & Grill on Aug. 7, 2006, when she decided to order raw oysters, a type of shellfish.
Family Members Join Forces To Fight Hate FREE
In his 68 years, Irwin J. Hausman has lived through World War II and the civil rights struggle in this country. He has witnessed the harm that hate can wreak on society. And he, along with his wife and family, have refused to be bystanders. Hausman, his wife Eva and their daughter, Kim Hausman Athan, were honored late last year for their efforts to end discrimination when they received the Anti-Defamation League’s Daniel R. Ginsberg Humanitarian Award. The ADL’s Connecticut Regional Office honored them in Stamford for their devotion to humanitarian causes.
Q & A
A Northern Lawyer’s Civil Rights Struggle FREE
While he was working towards his doctorate in history at Temple University in Pennsylvania, Connecticut College history professor David Canton was learning about the unheralded battles for racial equality in northern cities during the 1920s and 1930s. In the early 20th century, there was a “Great Migration” as southern blacks flocked to urban centers in the north, fleeing rural poverty, Jim Crow laws and lynchings. Industrial jobs awaited, but so did pervasive racism. The time was ripe for the “New Negro” movement beginning in 1916, as intellectual urban blacks stood up for their legal rights and social dignity.
Judge Slaps Attorney With Lengthy Suspension FREE
A longtime Hartford attorney with a busy practice has been suspended from the practice of law for seven years. Francis A. Miniter, of Miniter & Associates, has been in trouble with state grievance officials eight times since 2005. Complaints ranged from not telling clients that their lawsuit was dismissed to not repaying money owed to them. Superior Court Judge Julia Aurigemma issued the suspension order next month. When the seven years are up, Miniter can apply for re-admission to the bar.
Settlements Help Trim St. Francis Case Docket FREE
In an effort to trim the state’s largest cluster of personal injury cases, Chief Court Administrator Barbara Quinn turned to Middlesex Superior Court Judge Robert J. Holzberg. Right after a string of successes in settling five of the six wrongful death cases stemming from the Middletown Kleen Energy explosion, Holzberg has managed to negotiate settlements with eight plaintiffs’ firms representing a total of 25 men who sued St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.
After Hours
A Man In Perpetual Motion FREE
You could say that attorney Fred Murolo has been running around a lot these days. But then that’s nothing new.
He’s actually been on the go every day for the last 30 years. And it’s not just the busy Cheshire practice he runs with his wife, Karen, that keeps him in motion.
2012 Forecast
Data Privacy, Foreclosures on AG’s Radar FREE
As Attorney General, my goals and priorities for 2012 are built upon the important work that was accomplished in 2011. When I took office a year ago, Deputy Attorney General Nora Dannehy and I went on a fact-finding tour of the agency. We met with each of the departments individually. We talked to the attorneys and the support staff, but mostly we listened.
2012 Forecast
Time For Bar To Do the Right Thing FREE
As the Connecticut Bar Association leadership looks at the prospects for the CBA in 2012, we are united in our purposes and confident of the validity and importance of our goals — for both the administration of justice and our profession as a whole. My comments below focus on only one of our goals for 2012 — the adoption of minimum continuing legal education (MCLE) requirements in Connecticut — because it is the most controversial and because its status may well be determined in the next several weeks.
2012 Forecast
The Long, Hard Road Ahead FREE
Looking back at 2009 and 2010, we can now assess the damage caused by the economic storm that hit the U.S.and the legal profession. Here are some observations on the Great Recession:
2012 Forecast
What Does Magic 8-Ball Think About 2012? FREE
A few years back, the Connecticut Bar Association gave out what is still among the best swag I’ve gotten at a conference — a real-life “Magic 8” ball. So, in looking to see what 2012 might bring in the labor & employment, I kept it by my side to add some important guidance to my predictions. (Of course, as in real life, I had to keep shaking it to get the answer I really wanted to see, which you’ll notice I’ve added.)
2012 Forecast
Criminal Justice Model A Costly Mistake FREE
This month marks my 21st year practicing criminal law. I believe criminal defense lawyers have a perspective on, and insight into, a number of important issues. This insight is not shared by the public generally or, even more significantly, our legislators, who pander and pose shamelessly to be seen as tough on crime before enacting laws that largely serve, at great expense, to make us less safe and our society less just.
Verdicts & Settlements
Colonoscopy-Gone-Wrong Nets Woman $250,000 FREE
Barbara Eannarino, et al. v. Lizabeth Fiedler, M.D.: A Danbury woman who had her spleen ripped apart during a routine colonoscopy was recently awarded nearly $250,000 by a jury. On the morning of June 22, 2006, Barbara Eannarino, 62, went to the Danbury Surgical Center, where she had a colonoscopy performed by Dr. Lizabeth Fiedler, a gastroenterologist.
2012 Forecast
The Evolution Of The American Law School FREE
Legal education is under intense pressure. High-wage jobs for first-year lawyers are scarcer than before the 2008 crash. This means fewer graduates have a clear path to repaying student loans upon which most students now depend. Competition to attract top students via scholarships and top faculty via better salaries forces tuition steadily upward.
2012 Forecast
Eyewitness ID Reforms Tops Busy Agenda FREE
Connecticut’s General Assembly alternates between a short session that runs from early February to early May in even-numbered years, and a long session that runs from early January to early June in odd-numbered years. The 2012 legislative session is a short session, which means that individual legislators may only introduce proposed bills that relate to budgetary and revenue matters.
2012 Forecast
The Ever-Changing Landscape Of LGBT Law FREE
LGBT issues remain one of the most rapidly changing areas of the law. Public sentiment has shifted sharply over the years; the vast majority of Americans believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens should receive equal rights and protections under the law. The definitions of “equal rights and protections” vary widely, however.
2012 Forecast
Five Promising Candidates For Supreme Court Cases FREE
I predict separation of powers will make Law Tribune headlines in 2012. I don’t know whether (1) improper funding of the judiciary; or (2) an evidentiary statute that contradicts the Code of Evidence or a common law rule of evidence; (3) a procedural statute that contracts a Practice Book rule; (4) legislative history that clearly contradicts an unambiguous and un-absurd statute; or (5) a statute clarifying a prior statute passed by long-dead legislators, will make the headlines, but all of the above are promising candidates.
2012 Forecast
Black Bar Group ‘Galvanized To Serve’ FREE
As we usher in 2012, the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association is reflecting on recent achievements and optimistically looking forward to the possibilities of the coming year. Crawford kicked off its bar year last April with the installation of the current board. Since then, we have been working diligently to provide quality programming and build on the strong tradition of excellence that our members have come to expect.
2012 Forecast
Smokin’ Smartphones And Portable Doo-Dads FREE
The coming year offers us some mixed news for lawyers and technology. Some developments will facilitate “one-stop-shopping’” — you get the satisfaction of your techno-lust, it actually does what it says it’s supposed to do, it makes your life easier, it makes you more money, it makes you look good in the process (bonus!), and it incorporates sufficient security to satisfy even the most thorough due diligence.
And some developments aren’t quite there yet.
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