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California Court Closures Set, Despite Grumbling
Legal Topics |
2009/07/31 16:09
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According to The Recorder, the Judicial Council on Wednesday ordered all California courthouses closed once a month starting Sept. 16, despite ongoing complaints from labor groups, sheriffs and some judges that the closures are unnecessary and potentially dangerous.
"I hate it," said council member Richard Huffman, a justice on the 4th District Court of Appeal. But, he added, "We believe it is the only rational mechanism available to us to minimize the impact to the public."
The third-Wednesday-each-month closures will save an estimated $85.3 million and are a key part of the judicial branch's overall plan to cut spending, raise fees and siphon savings to close a $393 million deficit. The Legislature authorized the closures as part of the $26 billion budget revision signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday. |
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11-Word Press Snippets Might Violate Copyright
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/30 16:17
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According to Courthouse News, a Danish press-clipping company could be violating copyright by printing out 11-word snippets of news articles, the European Court of Justice ruled.
The Luxembourg-based court remanded the issue to Denmark for a determination on whether the snippets comprise intellectual property.
Media monitoring services company Infopaq International challenged the Danske Dagblades Forening, an association of Danish daily newspapers, over a requirement for permission to distribute 11-word extracts of news stories.
Legal framework for the permission requirement includes the 1979 Berne Convention, the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights as administered by the World Trade Organization, and European directives from 1996 and 2001 meant to govern electronic information and protect "European cultural creativity."
Infopaq argued that its process of scanning news articles, converting the data to text and emailing its customers summaries containing the five words before and after a keyword comprise fleeting use that's exempt from the permission requirements. Infopaq also prints out cover sheets with the text snippets.
The Court of Justice said it is up to the national court to determine whether the snippets comprise intellectual property. |
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Judicial Appointment Challenge In TN Fails
Legal Topics |
2009/07/29 18:10
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According to Courthouse News, the 6th Circuit dismissed an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the way Tennessee appoints its Supreme Court justices.
The method drew criticism from Drew Johnson, president of the conservative Tennessee Center for Policy Research, and former Democratic gubernatorial nominee John Jay Hooker.
Johnson and Hooker claimed the appointment process deprived them of their right to vote on the Supreme Court candidates in a popular election.
Under the state's plan, the governor selects a justice from a panel of three candidates presented by a judicial selection committee. The governor's pick is then put before voters in the next election. Every eight years, voters decide whether to keep sitting justices for another term.
The magistrate judge dismissed the challenge for lack of jurisdiction, and the Cincinnati-based federal appeals court affirmed. |
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Sotomayor Running Out Of Potential GOP Support
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/28 16:52
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According to The National Law Journal, the chances are dwindling that a substantial number of Republicans will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, after a key GOP senator announced his opposition Monday morning.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ended months of public indecision when he announced he would vote against confirmation, eliminating one of the last, best chances Sotomayor had of winning over prominent conservatives. Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had previously said he had concerns about her nomination but had stopped short of saying he would oppose her.
The announcement means the vote on whether to confirm Sotomayor will likely stick close to the partisan divide, continuing the trend of polarization on judicial nominations.
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider Sotomayor's nomination today, and only one Republican member -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C. -- out of the seven on the committee has said he plans to support her. The full Senate is expected to vote on the nomination next week after as many as four days of debate, and five Republicans have pledged their support. |
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Tasered Woman Wins Trial In Suit Against Cops
Legal Topics |
2009/07/27 16:12
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According to Courthouse News, Minnesota police illegally Tasered a woman for refusing to hang up her 911 call after officers handcuffed her husband during a traffic stop, the 8th Circuit ruled.
Sandra Brown and her husband, Richard, were driving home from dinner in downtown Minneapolis when they were pulled over by a Golden Valley squad car. One of the officers asked Richard if he knew why he'd been stopped, and Richard replied that he did not.
What happened after involved what Sandra, the passenger, thought to be excessive aggression, so she called 911.
Backup officer Rob Zarrett ordered Sandra to "Get off the phone." When she refused, he Tasered her. He claimed the action was necessary, because Sandra had disobeyed his orders to unfasten her seatbelt. He also spotted two empty cocktail glasses on the floors, in violation of the state's open-container law.
Sandra sued Zarrett and the city of Golden Valley for use of excessive force, claiming she was physically and psychologically injured by the Tasering.
"Given the circumstances surrounding the Tasering and arrest, we are not convinced that Zarrett's use of force was objectively reasonable as a matter of law," the St. Louis-based appeals court ruled.
Judge Wollman pointed out that Sandra had not been trying to flee or resist arrest when she was Tasered. |
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Lawyer Says LexisNexis Charges Sneaky Fees
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/24 16:11
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Courthouse News reports that Reed Elsevier, which owns and operates the LesixNexis legal research site, charges subscribers extra fees for searches without warning them, an attorney claims in a federal class action. Andrew Dieden claims subscribers are not informed they must click the "My Lexis" tab before conducting a search, to avoid the extra charges.
Dieden says he logged on to LexisNexis believing his employment law searches were covered under his monthly subscription. But his credit card statements showed extra fees "that turned out to exceed many times the amount" of his subscription, simply because he did not click on the "My Lexis" tab before he began his searches, he says.
Dieden says a LexisNexis representative told him it might be able to reduce or eliminate the additional charges if he agreed to change from a monthly to an annual subscription. When he declined, he says, the company refused to drop the charges.
He seeks actual, statutory and general damages for breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. |
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Student Athletes Sue NCAA For Profits From Their Images
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/23 17:31
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Courthouse News is reporting that the National Collegiate Athletic Association forced thousands of student athletes to sign away rights to their own images and cheated them of a share in the profits from DVD and video game sales, according to an antitrust class action in Federal Court. Led by former UCLA basketball star Edward O'Bannon, the class claims the NCAA forced students to sign the misleading "Form 08-3a" if they wish to play NCAA sports, which "commercially exploits former student athletes" by giving the NCAA the right to profit from their images without compensation, long after the athletes have left school.
The attorney for Edward O'Bannon, Jon King, believes athletes sign under duress and forms are not explained adequately.
"The athletes are herded into a room and given forms to sign. No one explains anything, there are no lawyers and no one has any idea what's going on. But they sign because they just want to play ball," he said.
The NCAA has acknowledged that student athletes possess a right of publicity. In a September 2008 statement on why the NCAA would not sue CBS over its use of college player information, NCAA President Myles Brand wrote, "In the case of intercollegiate athletics, the right of publicity is held by student-athletes, not the NCAA. We would find it difficult to bring suit over the abuse of a right we don't own."
King believes the NCAA did not expect old players to take action against this statement.
The complaint seeks health insurance for players as well as "additional education or vocational training and pension plans to benefit former student athletes." |
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