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NY court rejects $18M class action writers deal
Areas of Focus |
2011/08/23 17:20
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A federal appeals court in New York has rejected an $18 million class action settlement reached after freelance writers sued publishers.
The writers had said their copyrights were infringed upon when their works were reprinted online without permission.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Wednesday the 2005 deal had to be scrapped because the plaintiffs didn't adequately represent all members of the class. It says more than 99 percent of claims wouldn't be covered by the settlement because they involved writers who hadn't registered copyrights.
The settlement was reached after the Supreme Court in 2001 ruled freelance writers have online rights to their work. The case largely applied to articles, photographs and illustrations produced 15 or more years ago. |
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Ex-Harvard student due in court in 2009 shooting
Areas of Focus |
2011/08/15 16:21
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A former Harvard student accused of hiding the gun used in a fatal shooting inside a university dormitory is due in court.
Brittany Smith is one of four people who were charged in connection with the shooting of 21-year-old Justin Cosby of Cambridge.
Smith's former boyfriend, Jabrai (juh-BRY') Jordan Copney, of New York City, was convicted of murder in Cosby's death and is serving a life sentence.
During Copney's trial, prosecutors said Cosby, a local drug dealer, was shot during an attempted robbery by Copney and two other New York City men in May 2009.
Smith is accused of giving the men her Harvard electronic keycard to enter the building, hiding the gun used in the shooting and helping the men flee. |
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Dougherty siblings to appear in Colorado court
Areas of Focus |
2011/08/12 17:24
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A woman caught with her two brothers after a nationwide manhunt told Colorado authorities she "deserved to get shot" after pointing a gun at a police chief at the end of the siblings' run from the law, according to a court document.
Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, and Ryan Edward Dougherty, 21, are being held in Pueblo County, Colo., on bonds of $1.25 million each. The three made their first court appearance Thursday by video from jail, and none made any statement during the brief hearing.
They face charges of attempted murder of a peace officer and assault on a peace officer. The charges stem from allegations that they shot rounds from an AK-47 at four patrol cars during a chase Wednesday on Interstate 25 in Colorado. The chase ended when troopers deployed spike strips to puncture the tires of the trio's Subaru, and the vehicle rolled and crashed into a guardrail. |
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Wash. man pleads guilty to defrauding ID investors
Areas of Focus |
2011/08/10 15:55
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A Washington man has pleaded guilty in federal court in Idaho to cheating investors out of more than $2 million and using the cash for his own benefit.
Federal prosecutors say 59-year-old Dale Edward Lowell, of Colbert, Wash., pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud Tuesday.
Investigators say Lowell, while living in northern Idaho in 2005, started raised money from investors by telling him he was a savvy options trader. He also told investors he had taken steps to cover losses.
Altogether, prosecutors say Lowell duped 22 investor groups and raised about $2.2 million that he ultimately lost in the market, used for personal expenses or to pay off investors to keep the scheme going. |
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No class-action for suits over Calif. fish kill
Areas of Focus |
2011/08/09 16:16
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An appeals court has rejected class-action status for a lawsuit prompted by efforts to kill off an invasive fish in Northern California.
The Sacramento Bee says the 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled last week that people suing the state had too little in common to comprise a single class and must sue individually.
In 2007, the state Fish and Game Department dumped thousands of gallons of poison into Lake Davis in Plumas County to kill the voracious northern pike. The lake was closed for several months.
The city of Portola and a number of businesses and property owners sued in 2009, arguing that the action caused a decline in tourism that hurt their income, property values and tax receipts. |
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Bank of America starts overdraft rebate outreach
Areas of Focus |
2011/08/08 16:17
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If you had a Bank of America account with a debit card between January 2001 and May of this year, you may be due some cash.
The nation's largest bank has started contacting customers who may be entitled to a refund. It recently reached a class-action settlement over the way it charged overdraft fees. Most of the other suits are continuing to work their way through federal court in Florida.
Bank of America agreed to set up a $410 million fund to settle the lawsuit. The money will be used to pay back customers who were charged overdraft fees as a result of the company's policy of processing debit card transactions based on the size of the transaction, rather than when the purchases occurred.
The bank is one of about three dozen named in a series of class-action lawsuits over the practice of "reordering." A policy that became widespread in the 2000s, reordering involves deducting purchases from an account starting with the largest dollar amount first. That means a customer may end up paying additional overdraft fees.
For instance, someone with an account balance of $95 and who made three purchases in one day, the first for $5, the next for $25 and the last for $75, would be charged two overdraft fees, rather than one.
The suits claim that reordering was done to intentionally increase the number of overdraft fees collected. Banks took in about $39 billion in overdraft fees annually before the Federal Reserve put new rules in place last year. Now banks are required to obtain a customer's written permission before providing overdraft protection.
To inform customers that they may be eligible for a refund of some overdraft fees, Bank of America is sending postcards to customers with a brief explanation of the settlement and the address of a website where more information is available. |
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NYC lawyer pleads guilty to tax charge
Areas of Focus |
2011/08/05 11:07
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A lawyer has pleaded guilty to not paying taxes on nearly $11 million in income while working at a major Wall Street law firm.
John O'Brien entered the plea Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.
The government had accused the 48-year-old O'Brien of failing to pay $2.5 million taxes on $10.8 million in income from 2001 to 2008. They say during that time, he splurged on a weekend home, international travel and a rare book business.
Prosecutors say O'Brien has agreed to pay $2.8 million in back taxes and interest. At his Nov. 16 sentencing, he faces a maximum of four years in prison, though the term will probably be shorter under sentencing guidelines. |
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