<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Connecticut Law Tribune</title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com</link> <description>Legal news for the state of Connecticut</description> <pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:38:39 EST</pubDate> <item> <title>High-Profile Priority </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41214</link> <description>With the legislative session slated to begin this week, lawmakers on the General Assembly s Judiciary Committee had been expecting to focus on certain predictable topics: the death penalty, procedures for the identification of criminal suspects by victims, and maybe even medicinal marijuana use. But then the city of East Haven drew national publicity last month for all the wrong reasons  four members of its police force were indicted for allegedly targeting and using excessive force against illegal immigrants. Anywhere from one-half to one-third of the drivers pulled over by certain officers were Latino, a number federal authorities described as  extraordinarily high. </description> </item> <item> <title>Surgical Strike Keeps Patent Case Alive </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41178</link> <description>They are described by one lawyer as  the Coke and Pepsi of the medical device market. And the two business competitors are pouring their efforts into a high-stakes patent infringement case in U.S. District Court in New Haven. The litigation centers on an ultrasonic surgical knife patented by Norwalk-based Tyco Healthcare. Tyco claims that Pennsylvania-based Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. has infringed on the patent; Tyco anticipates $600 million in damages if its claims eventually prevail.</description> </item> <item> <title>A Changing Image </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41177</link> <description>There have been times, Ndidi Moses remembers, when she looked around a gathering of Connecticut Bar Association officers and realized she was the only black woman in the room. When she was at a meeting of the House of Delegates  the organization s main leadership body  maybe there were two. All that may be about to change under a new effort designed to diversify the ranks of CBA leadership. CBA President Keith Bradoc  Brad Gallant said it is long overdue.</description> </item> <item> <title>Hacktivists: Robin Hoods Of The New Millenia </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41176</link> <description>As with most criminal activity, the government is basically impotent against cyber crime. As more people log on, there is more crime. The more applications and sophisticated the technologies, the more adept the offenders become at using them to facilitate their criminal acts or avoid detection. </description> </item> <item> <title>NLRB Offers Detailed Report About Facebook </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41173</link> <description>When can an employee be fired for comments posted on Facebook that reference his or her employer? When, in turn, are an employer s rules about such postings unlawful? These and other questions about social media in the employment context form the basis of a new report issued by the office of general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board. </description> </item> <item> <title>Pratt Names New GC </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41174</link> <description>Joe Santos has been named vice president and general counsel at Pratt &amp; Whitney. He will be based in East Hartford. As head of the Legal Services Department, he will have overall responsibility for the company s legal matters, as well as contracts, corporate ethics, government compliance, and government security. </description> </item> <item> <title>Pulling Strings For Nonprofit Organizations </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41175</link> <description>Lesley Rosenthal is a violinist married to a pianist. She s also a lawyer, and when the opportunity arose to become general counsel to New York s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Inc., the in-house position was too good to pass up.</description> </item> <item> <title>Hospital Settles Medicare Overpayment Allegations For $472,000 </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41182</link> <description>The U.S. Attorney s Office in Connecticut has reached a nearly $472,000 civil settlement agreement with New Milford Hospital after allegations that the hospital overbilled the government, later discovered its own mistake, and still kept the additional funds.</description> </item> <item> <title>Jewish Center Has No Faith In City Officials </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41183</link> <description>For a long time, the big house on Hartford s Bloomfield Avenue has been occupied by religious groups  the Catholics in the early 1950s, and then the Baptists for half a century. In 2009, an Orthodox Jewish group purchased the property with plans to create a religious center primarily for students at the nearby University of Hartford. Given the site s history, leaders anticipated few problems.</description> </item> <item> <title>Plaintiff Tries Novel Attack On Dog Bite Claim </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41179</link> <description>Summary: A woman bitten by a dog has sued the landlord under a common law negligence claim rather than file a standard lawsuit against the dog s owner or keeper under the state s dog bite statute. A trial judge dismissed the complaint but the state Appellate Court overturned that decision. Now the state Supreme Court will weigh in.</description> </item> <item> <title>New Patent Law Could Have Significant Impact </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41180</link> <description>When the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office opens its first satellite office in Detroit this year, Hartford-based Cantor Colburn will be ready to capitalize on the opportunities it presents. That s because the firm opened a Motor City office in 2002. The satellite office is expected to be the first of several nationwide as federal officials seek to expand the number of patent examiners to implement sweeping patent law changes and reduce a backlog. Cantor Colburn, which has about 105 attorneys in five offices nationwide, is prepared to hit the ground running when the patent law changes take full effect early next year.</description> </item> <item> <title>Bus Company Pays $575,000 After Pedestrian Accident </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41181</link> <description>Jayne Fishkind v. Metropolitan Healthcare Services Inc.: A nurse who was hit by a small medical bus while walking to work at Yale-New Haven Hospital recovered $575,000 as part of a recent settlement. Jayne Fishkind, a psychiatric nurse from Guilford, parked her car on Jan. 20, 2008, walked three blocks and was crossing Columbus Avenue in New Haven when she was struck by a jitney bus owned by Metropolitan Healthcare Services, Inc. </description> </item> <item> <title>Using Pictures To Help Juries, Judges Understand </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41184</link> <description>In the late 1990s, the Boston-based intellectual property law firm of Fish &amp; Richardson took the pioneering step of submitting legal pleadings and exhibits on a compact disc. This replaced reams of paper. Not surprisingly, the case was a patent infringement matter in the D.C. Circuit, which is the appeals court for complex patent matters. </description> </item> <item> <title>Trial, Defense Bars Gear Up For Legislative Session </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41208</link> <description>The most prominent issue for trial and defense lawyers in the upcoming legislative session is a bill to clarify what sort of physician s letter must accompany a medical malpractice lawsuit. It s a bill that the plaintiffs bar thought it had pushed through last year, while the defense bar will try again to block it.</description> </item> <item> <title>Too Young To Be A Judge? Old  Rule Gets Broken </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41209</link> <description>After Connecticut began selecting judges with the aid of the Judicial Selection Commission in 1986, the commission s members came up with some rule-of-thumb notions. One idea was that a nominee should have a certain minimum amount of experience as a lawyer.</description> </item> <item> <title>Musings On The Royal Gym </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41210</link> <description>Much has been said (and I hope much more will be said) about the now-infamous gym constructed in the New Haven federal courthouse at taxpayer expense. Since the Hartford Courant broke the story, more chatter has emerged regarding just how few in number are those who are allowed to use it. Let s be honest. This is a colossal misappropriation and waste of public funds. Judicial officials know it. Why else would they have gone to such lengths to keep this thing secret, or treated a reporter who dared ask questions about it like a gnat who must be swatted away?</description> </item> <item> <title>Judicial Robe-itis: Confusing Power And Discretion </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41168</link> <description>The legal profession encompasses a broad array of sub-professions, one of which consists of civil litigators who represent litigants without financial resources, investing their time in cases based on their sound professional assessment of the facts and the law. It is this sub-profession that fulfills the promise of equal access to justice for those who otherwise would be unable to pursue legal redress.</description> </item> <item> <title>New And Improved Burdens Of Proof </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41169</link> <description>Back when my television screen bulged out from a genuine mahogany-veneered wooden box, and the images playing across the picture tube were still for the most part black and white, there was a popular lawyer show that I watched regularly. Racing home from school after a brutally risible performance on the softball diamond or hockey field, I would settle in the living room and tune in Perry Mason. I believe that this is where my dependence upon chocolate as a panacea began, but I digress. </description> </item> <item> <title>Probation Officers Flex Muscles With Travel Bans </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41170</link> <description>I am not sure what is going on in the Connecticut Office of Adult Probation lately, but my telephone has been ringing off the hook. Until recently, probationers appear to have been given a fair amount of freedom to travel interstate. All of a sudden, there s been a crackdown. Folks who were once given permission to travel are suddenly on existential lockdown. So the calls come in, people wanting to go to court to get the conditions of probation modified.</description> </item> <item> <title>Let s Deregulate All The Lawyers </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41171</link> <description>I was reading Washington Lawyer the other day. I found it in my gym. Some partner in a big firm left it near the spinning bike. It contained a review of a new book by three eggheads from the Brookings Institute called  First Thing We Do, Let s Deregulate All the Lawyers. These folks, applying obtuse, dense and impenetrable economics formulae to the market of legal services have concluded that law schools cost too much, that some lawyers make too much, and that the public needs more inexpensive sources of legal help. </description> </item> <item> <title>Editorial: The Federalist Society At 30 </title> <link>http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=41172</link> <description>Diversity of opinion is alive and well on law school campuses after all. As it celebrates its 30th year, the Federalist Society is thriving and enjoying immense success. It has achieved a great deal in a relatively short time in framing many significant academic and professional debates. Its success merits recognition from members of Connecticut s legal profession: law students, faculty, practicing lawyers and the Law Tribune Editorial Board.</description> </item> </channel> </rss>