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Week Of Monday January 16, 2012
Lawyer Seeks Witness AccessFREE
Richard Rochlin, the lawyer who represents 17 state employees facing harsh discipline in a state storm relief investigation, is seeking a court order rescinding a state agency’s attempts to prevent him from interviewing witnesses.
Rochlin believes that some employees of the state Department of Social Services may be responsible for errors attributed to his clients that allowed them to collect storm relief aid when they were not eligible. But in a Jan. 5 memo for distribution to DSS employees, agency lawyer Brenda Perella asked DSS employees to refer Rochlin to her, claiming his efforts to question them violate ethics rules against lawyers contacting a represented party.
Lights, Camera, Actions FREE
And lawyers on each side of the courtroom better learn to love it. That’s because at the start of January, a new rule went into effect allowing a photographer and video camera into the courtroom for criminal proceedings in state courts. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but according to a high ranking official with the state Judicial Branch, judges must adhere to the rule more often than not.
A Familiar Face At The Top FREE
In the next 90 days, the 130 partners at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP can expect to get a knock on their doors. When they open them in Stamford or in other offices in the U.S. and Europe, they will see a familiar face in a new role. Paul McCurdy, a New Canaan resident and 25-year veteran of the firm, recently was elected chair of the executive board. The move marks the first time in two decades that former chair John M. Callagy has not been in charge of the 175-year-old, New-York based firm.
Verdicts & Settlements
Popular Psychic Awarded $500K After Crash FREE
Angelina D. Ekenbarger v. Evanna Holloway: A psychic medium who injured her neck in a car accident has recovered just over $500,000 following a December trial in Hartford Superior Court. Angelina Diana, 47, of Enfield, whose last name was Ekenbarger when the lawsuit was filed prior to a divorce, was injured in a two-car crash in East Hartford on the morning of July 30, 2009. According to her lawyer, Brian Flood, of Cheshire’s Moore, O’Brien, Jacques & Yelenak, Diana was driving a 2009 Nissan Murano and traveling east on Governor Street in East Hartford.
Training Now A Must For All Children’s Lawyers FREE
Historically, the roles of court-appointed guardians ad litem and lawyers for minor children have been blurred. But in the past year, both their duties and qualifications have snapped into sharper focus. As of Jan. 1, training is now mandatory before court appointment to either position. Under new Practice Book rules, both guardians ad litem (GALs) and attorneys for the minor child (AMCs) need to have passed a 30-hour, six-session training course.
Split Court Rules On Evidence Withholding Issue FREE
A state Supreme Court ruling released last week may make it harder for people to get new trials when they discover that opposing lawyers withheld key evidence from them, labor and human rights lawyers said.
Q & A
Lawyer Gets Down To Business FREE
Thirty years ago, when Craig L. Sylvester was finishing law school, new lawyers were advised to combine practice-building with community involvement. That he has done.
Live, From New Britain, It’s CLE! FREE
Some 30 attorneys filed into the New Britain classroom for a lecture last week by Judith Stein on Medicaid and Medicare. Also benefiting from the CLE course were an additional eight people from New York City, Greenwich, Cheshire, Westport, Darien and Fairfield.
Employment Suits Target UConn Health Center FREE
Situated off Interstate 84 in Farmington, the University of Connecticut Health Center has made headlines a number of times in recent years. On the down side, it’s struggled financially and required several legislative bailouts. On the plus side, last year it became home to Bioscience Connecticut, an $864 million business and research initiative that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy projects will create thousands of jobs.
Law School Energized By Internship Project FREE
Law student Alexander Judd doesn’t need to put his finger to the air to test whether his pursuit of a career in energy and environmental law is the right course. From a national move away from oil dependence to a state focus on so-called “green jobs,” the field seems ripe for more career opportunities.
Case of the Week
Gun-Wielding Defendant Appeals Manslaughter Conviction FREE
Summary: A man charged with manslaughter as an accessory and sentenced to 45 years in prison is appealing his conviction, claiming that, even though he had pointed a gun at the victim, the state could not prove he intended to cause serious harm.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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