Free Republic

U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land, in Columbus, has come down hard on birther attorney Orly Taitz, fining her $20,000 for willfully abusing her right to practice law. I suspect Taitz won’t have that right much longer. “The Court finds that counsel’s conduct was willful and not merely negligent. It demonstrates bad faith on her part. As an attorney, she is deemed to have known better. She owed a duty to follow the rules and to respect the Court. Counsel’s pattern of conduct conclusively establishes that she did not mistakenly violate a provision of law. She knowingly violated Rule 11....

ACORN filed suit today in Maryland against conservative filmmakers James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and conservative Web site Breitbart.com for secretly taping the organization’s employees at its Baltimore office. In the complaint, ACORN alleges that the filmmakers entered into the organization’s offices in July with a “hidden camera and microphone” and taped employees Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams. Both employees are listed as plaintiffs on the complaint, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. ACORN is seeking $500,000 for each employee and $1 million for the organization in damages.

Ratcheting up her offensive against the news media, Gov. Sarah Palin’s attorney threatened Saturday to sue mainstream news organizations if they publish “defamatory” stories relating to whether Palin is under federal investigation. In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena find its way into print. “This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and...

In 1992, after he stopped wearing clothes to his UC Berkeley classes, Andrew Martinez was something of a walking only-in-Berserkeley joke as the campus' own Naked Guy. But his life was no laughing matter. Around 1997, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 2003, he was arrested for assaulting a staff member at a halfway house where he was a resident. He spent the next 21/2 years in Santa Clara County jail, its acute psychiatric unit, Napa and Atascadero state hospitals - until at age 33, he killed himself by suffocating himself with a plastic bag in a jail cell on...

A judge said Friday that she's referring a Los Angeles lawyer to federal prosecutors and the State Bar over his involvement in lawsuits that she found were part of a massive fraud by purported Nicaraguan banana workers against U.S. food giant Dole. Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney said that attorney Juan Dominguez, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuits against Dole, would be subject to charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, defrauding a court, conspiring to extort a United States company and possibly federal racketeering violations. She also ordered Dominguez to appear in her courtroom on June 15 for...

A Texas man has reportedly settled a class action lawsuit against Hooters for refusing to hire men as food servers. Nikolai Grushevski filed a complaint against Hooters of America in January alleging its Corpus Christi franchisee would not hire him as a waiter because the position was being limited to females by an employer "who merely wishes to exploit female sexuality as a marketing tool to attract customers and insure profitability." Hooters argued a “bona-fide occupational qualification” defense, which applies when the “essence of the business operation would be undermined if the business eliminated its discriminatory policy,” according to Onpointnews.com....

Here's where it's going . . . March 19, 2009 Last summer the Philadelphia police forced a Kmart to allow a man to use the women's changing rooms, because he presented a drivers license listing his sex as "female." However, he was clearly a man and the Kmart manager would not allow into the changing rooms. But the policeman ordered to store to do it. After the incident, a complaint was filed against Kmart with the city's Human Relations Commission. The store manager was apparently forced to apologize and told a homosexual newspaper "I guarantee you this won't happen again."

Color the brake lights red as the column of cars backs up from the Caldecott Tunnel, the often bottled-up gateway between Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Color drivers' moods red as the congestion worsens over a span of 45 years. Many drivers are looking forward to relief from a long-planned $420 million fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, but a lawsuit by Alameda County neighborhood groups and a bicycling advocacy organization could delay the project scheduled to begin in the summer and finish in 2014. A ruling on the lawsuit is expected soon from Alameda County Superior Court judge Frank...

KANSAS CITY - Missouri voter Mary Kay Green has had enough. The supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama filed a lawsuit this week over what she claims is dangerous “hate speech” coming from the rival campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Green, a 66-year-old grandmother and “semi-retired” civil rights attorney, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City this week accusing McCain, his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and their campaign manager Rick Davis of “intentionally, recklessly and irresponsibly” portraying Obama “as un-American, a terrorist by association, and ‘not like us,’ a non-white individual.” Palin,...

The multi-million-dollar legal battle over a pair of missing pants that put a D.C. dry cleaner out of business is headed back to court, shocking many in the dry-cleaning and legal communities. A three-judge appellate court panel has agreed to hear an appeal of the case next month, more than a year after a judge ruled against the plaintiff, former D.C. Administrative Law Judge Roy Pearson. Pearson sued the owners of Custom Cleaners for $67 million in 2005 after it misplaced a pair of his pants. Pearson demanded the family pay $1,000, the cost of the entire suit, according to...

Imagine if you had to get permission before you linked to the Web site of companies, people or organizations. If “permission-based” linking was a requirement - blogging and much other Internet activity as we know it (even mainstream media news sites) would cease to exist. Well, if the lawsuit of one major law firm against an Internet news publication succeeds, that “permission-based” linking may become the law…and effectively kill the Internet.

San Francisco (AP) -- A federal judge said Friday that she was leaning toward tossing out conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage's copyright theft lawsuit against an Islamic lobbying group who used portions of the popular program to solicit donations and call for an advertising boycott of "The Savage Nation." U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she would likely let Savage's attorney submit a revised lawsuit in attempt to keep the case alive, but she found the other side's arguments "persuasive." Savage sued the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, after it posted on its Web site a 4-minute...

“There’s got to be a line drawn in the sand and we’ve got to start doing something about this, because it’s just gone way too far.” Those are the words of Randy Baumgarten, a second-generation small business owner, speaking of the impact frivolous lawsuits have on small businesses like his own. Randy is one of several people featured on the IAmLawsuitAbuse.org Web site which ILR launched this week. All of their stories bring home the sad reality that lawsuit abuse hurts families and small businesses.

The trial bar, on the defensive when Republicans ran Congress, is moving to make up lost ground on a variety of fronts now that Democrats are in charge, including through a bill-by-bill campaign to keep federal agencies from overriding tougher state consumer protection laws. The bar’s main lobbying group, the American Association of Justice, formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, has already had some successes this year in its effort to block what’s referred to as federal regulatory preemption. The ascension of Democrats in Congress, who receive more than 90 percent of AAJ’s political donations, could...

The barons of the tort bar must have thought 2007 would be a very good year: Some of their biggest cases (Katrina, Enron) were set to pay out, and a Democratic Congress meant no more worries about legal reform. Talk about reversal of fortune: As the year ends, we are witnessing nothing short of the dismantling of what are alleged to be major tort criminal enterprises. Bill Lerach, the king of class actions, stands disgraced as an admitted felon. His former partners at Milberg Weiss face trial for being part of the same kickback scheme as Lerach. Federal prosecutors continue...

A packet for educators issued by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in conjunction with the NOVA program "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" encourages teaching practices that are probably unconstitutional, a conservative organization stated on Tuesday. "The NOVA/PBS teaching guide encourages the injection of religion into classroom teaching about evolution in a way that likely would violate current Supreme Court precedents about the First Amendment's Establishment Clause," said John West, vice president for public policy and legal affairs at the Discovery Institute, in a news release. The 22-page document is a companion piece to the two-hour NOVA docudrama, "Judgment Day,"...

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the Roseville Joint Union High School District that was filed by a Granite Bay man unhappy with how evolution was being taught in his children's school. The father, Larry Caldwell, spent much of 2003 and 2004 trying to persuade the Roseville high school district to alter its biology curriculum to include arguments against evolution. After many meetings and discussions about his proposals, the school board rejected them. Caldwell then sued the district, four administrators and two school board members, alleging they had violated his constitutional rights in the process of considering...

OCEAN GROVE, New Jersey (LifeSiteNews.com) - A New Jersey lesbian couple has filed a civil rights complaint against a Christian seaside retreat association that refused to facilitate their "civil union."Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster filed the complaint June 19 with the state attorney general's office on the grounds of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation after the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association declined the use of their Boardwalk Pavilion for their civil union ceremony, planned for September. Bernstein and Paster demanded "whatever relief is provided by law" including unspecified "compensatory damages for economic loss, humiliation, [and] mental pain." New...

WASHINGTON - A judge who was seeking $67 million from a dry cleaners that lost his pants has loosened the belt on his lawsuit. Now, he's asking for only $54 million, according to a May 30 court filing in D.C. Superior Court. Roy L. Pearson, a District of Columbia administrative law judge, first sued Custom Cleaners over a pair of pants that went missing two years ago. He was seeking about $65 million under the D.C. consumer protection act and almost $2 million in common law claims. He is now focusing his claims on signs in the shop that have...

She's definitely not a woman for all seasons. A Connecticut secretary who suffers from the "winter blues" is suing her ex-employers for $33 million, claiming they wouldn't give her a well-lit desk with a window view. Caryl Dontfraid says she has seasonal affective disorder, which causes depression during the fall and winter and can be alleviated by exposure to bright light. "She wanted to work closer to a window with good light," her attorney, Robert Campos-Marquetti told the Daily News. "This is a request that could have been easily accommodated." Dontfraid was cited as an "exemplary employee" for Binder &...

ATWATER — A former Save Mart produce manager is suing the city and a developer hoping to derail plans for a proposed SuperTarget that will include a grocery store. Steve Hernandez, a 53-year-old Atwater resident, said he was contacted by Bay Area attorneys who said they needed a local resident to use for the lawsuit, which was filed Monday. "I'm just like the middle man," said the grocery worker of 32 years. "I don't even know who they are, but they talked me into doing it."

Some confidence men apparently keep trying even when they're locked in a prison cell. Alan Scott, 53, already serving eight years for bank fraud and check forgery at the federal prison in Minersville, Pa., has pleaded guilty to orchestrating, from his cell, a scheme that cheated two Long Island businesses out of $200,000.

Just the Truth? Why the Republicans Have Changed Their Tune Over the years, Republicans have held hearings on Bill Clinton’s Christmas card list and called for answers on Socks the Cat’s fan mail. Yet they continue to stonewall attempts to question key players in the scandal surrounding the apparently politically-motivated firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. Despite emails showing that top White House advisers such as Harriet Miers and Karl Rove were involved in the decision, the White House has cited executive privilege and placed restrictions on their cooperation with Congress such as demanding closed-door hearings with no transcripts and even...

Lakewood, Wash. - The mother of a 9-year-old boy who boarded flights from Seattle to Texas and is suspected of leading police on a high-speed chase said in a television interview that she was stunned but proud of her son's actions. "He just showed me that, 'Mom, I'm going to achieve anything I want to do. I'm going to just do it.' So he did it, from driving a car to getting on an airplane," said Sakinah Booker on the syndicated TV show "Inside Edition," which was to air Wednesday. In the interview, her son, Semaj, describes using a man's...

NBC is getting sued by a garbage disposal maker that claims the network's new hit show "Heroes" casts its product in a negative light. You can't make this stuff up. Apparently, the first episode of "Heroes" shows one of the characters, a cheerleader who is blessed with the power of indestructibility (must come in handy when being at the top of those human pyramids), sticking her hand into a garbage disposal and getting it all mangled. A few seconds later her hand heals. What's the big deal? The brand name of the machine in question is visible in the scene....

A Texas man claims the Republican National Committee stole his W logo and he wants millions of dollars in damages. Jerry Gossett of Wichita Falls filed a copyright infringement suit against the committee and Spalding Group, a Louisville, Ky., consulting firm that designed the official W logo for the 2004 campaign, the Houston Chronicle reports. A federal judge in Texarkana scheduled trial for Nov. 7. Gossett copyrighted his logo in 2001. The design includes a capital W. with a period, a U.S. flag with two creases in it flying somewhat downward to the right and the number 43. The design...

Boy Charged For Meowing At Neighbor Lady Family Gave Cat Away After Neighbor's ComplaintsPOSTED: 2:26 pm EDT August 23, 2006 JEANNETTE, Pa. -- Meow. A Pennsylvania judge is being asked to decide whether that word is a harmless taunt or grounds for misdemeanor harassment. Police have charged a 14-year-old boy with that crime. Michael Loughner is accused of meowing whenever he sees his 78-year-old neighbor, Alexandria Carasia. The boy's family got rid of their cat after Carasia complained that it was using her flower garden as a litter box. Now, she said, the boy makes meowing sounds every time he...

DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts. The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day. Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small...

Shawn Hogan is taking the download battle to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Wired says Hogan, CEO of Digital Point Solutions, is challenging a lawsuit filed by the MPAA. The suit says Hogan illegally downloaded the film "Meet the Fockers" through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer system. Hogan denies the claim and is vowing to take the case to court. So why is this a big deal? In most cases the downloading lawsuits filed by the MPAA and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) never reach the courtroom. According to Wired, many of these lawsuits go unchallenged because defendants...

SCO Group Inc has willfully failed to comply with the orders of the court hearing its breach of contact and copyright case against IBM Corp, according to the Magistrate Judge, who has declared the company's failure to detail its evidence against IBM 'inexcusable'.... "Given the amount of code that SCO has received in discovery the court finds it inexcusable that SCO is in essence still not placing all the details on the table," wrote Judge Wells. "Certainly if an individual was stopped and accused of shoplifting after walking out of Neiman Marcus they would expect to be eventually told what...

A 14-year-old Travis County girl who said she was sexually assaulted by a Buda man she met on MySpace.com sued the popular social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming that it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators. The lawsuit claims that the Web site does not require users to verify their age and calls the security measures aimed at preventing strangers from contacting users younger than 16 "utterly ineffective." "MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online," said Adam Loewy, who is representing the girl and her mother in the lawsuit against MySpace, parent...

Teen, Mom Sue MySpace.com for $30 Million; Suit Filed in Travis County Claims Popular Internet Site Fails to Protects Children From Adult Sexual Predators. By Claire Osborn AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, June 20, 2006 A 14-year-old Travis County girl who said she was sexually assaulted by a Buda man she met on MySpace.com sued the popular social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming that it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators. The lawsuit claims that the Web site does not require users to verify their age and calls the security measures aimed at preventing strangers from contacting users...

Roanoke, Va. -- A jury has awarded $2 million to a couple whose 4-year-old son died after being run over by a riding lawn mower at his day care center. The Roanoke Circuit Court jury on Wednesday found the mower's manufacturer liable for the April 2004 death of Justin Simmons. Cleveland-based MTD Products Corp. said it would appeal. "I find it incredulous that a jury no longer cares about common sense and personal responsibility," company attorney John Fitzpatrick said. The jury held MTD responsible for not designing a mower that automatically stops its blades whenever it rolls backward. No such...

CURVE TO HOLD FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT NIGHT JULY 2nd AT BCB May 15, 2006 - ALTOONA- Inspired by a Los Angeles Angels fan who filed a lawsuit against the club because he did not receive a red nylon tote bag as part of the major league club's Mother’s Day promotion last May, the Altoona Curve have announced that they will be holding Salute to Frivolous Lawsuit Night as part of their Sunday, July 2nd game at Blair County Ballpark. The Curve’s salute to all ridiculous lawsuits ever filed will include the following: A Pink Tote Bag Giveaway to the first 137...

As we get closer to the release of The Da Vinci Code in theatres worldwide we are beginning to see more and more reasons why we need to make sure a firm line between government and religion is drawn .. and stays drawn. Catholic Cardinal Francis Arinze was considered to be a leading candidate for pope in last year's papal election. Now Cardinal Arinze is making waves in another way ... he's suggesting that Catholics around the world file lawsuits against the movie. And just what does Cardinal Arinze see as the basis for a cause of action? Why, he...

A Nassau County legislator filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming Google Inc. generates "billions of dollars from the pornography trade and illicit profiteers." The lawsuit by four-term legislator Jeffrey Toback (D-Oceanside) calls the Internet search engine the world's largest distributor of child pornography, claiming that child porn is part of the company's business model. Google "continues to put its economic gains ahead of the interests and well-being of America's children," the lawsuit, filed in Nassau State Supreme Court alleges. Google spokesman Steve Langdon said in a statement: "Child pornography is illegal, and Google prohibits it in our products. When we find...

The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet _ there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans. It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain. Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that...

WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned the continued refusal of the Justice Department to answer basic questions about the National Security Agency’s warrantless program to wiretap Americans. The Department today sent over its answers to questions about the illegal program from the majority and minority members of the House Judiciary Committee. The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office: “The Department of Justice continues to refuse to give honest answers to basic questions, such as how many Americans have had their phone calls and e-mails listened to or read by...

SEATTLE -- The parents of a 23-year-old who was killed trying to prevent the demolition of an occupied Palestinian home have appealed a judge's decision to dismiss their lawsuit against Caterpiller Inc., the company that made the bulldozer that ran over her. "He applied the wrong legal standard and ignored the facts," said Maria LaHood, a lawyer with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. Rachel Corrie was killed three years ago by an Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer. She was trying to stop him from demolishing a Gaza Strip home while the family was inside; though witnesses said she...

NEW YORK Columnist Ann Coulter made a provocative remark Friday about "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau and editorial cartoonist Ted Rall. Trudeau is shrugging it off, but Rall is considering a lawsuit. Coulter reportedly said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.: "Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times have made submissions."

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A Louisiana man claims in a lawsuit that Apple's iPod music player can cause hearing loss in people who use it.... The iPod players are "inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss," according to the complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, on behalf of John Kiel Patterson, of Louisiana. The suit, which Patterson wants certified as a class-action, seeks compensation for unspecified damages and upgrades that will make iPods safer. Patterson's suit said he bought an iPod last year,...

When Sen. Jim King took questions during a recent appearance at the Jacksonville Meninak Club, he could have been asked about anything. But tort reform was an issue that he knew would come up. “I had a feeling I’d be asked about that one,” said King, after an audience member asked him what the state legislature would be doing this year on the issue. The legislature and Florida’s Supreme Court are still wrestling with the implementation of three ballot initiatives passed in 2004 that affected medical malpractice torts. One limited lawyer fees in the cases, another made past malpractice information...

Mike Marlowe fully admits that he sometimes gave George Gillespie a hard time in that AOL chatroom. But never in his wildest imagination did he expect to be sued in court for what he characterized as "razzing." "We gave him crap," said Marlowe, a 33-year-old welder in Fayette, Ala. "I'm not going to deny it. I teased him and he teased me back. He gave it back better than he ever got it." A generation ago, such petty personal beefs might have been settled with fists outside the corner bar, but now it's the Internet age — and Ohio resident...

Lawyer tells 67 businesses they violate ADA; he wants fee. The letters arrived in the mailboxes of 67 business owners here more than a month ago. San Diego attorney Theodore Pinnock, who describes himself as a "warrior for the disabled," said he was "shocked" to find during a Veterans Day weekend trip to the historic town that many of the stores were in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Wheelchair ramps and handicapped parking spaces were in short supply. Doors weren't wide enough at some businesses. Some bathrooms weren't equipped properly for the disabled. The letters threatened lawsuits against...

MIAMI (AP) — A jury has ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay more than $61 million to the family of a 17-year-old boy killed in a roll-over accident when his friend fell asleep while driving an Explorer.Ford was liable in the accident because it sold a vehicle with poor handling and stability, the jury said Tuesday.The company planned to appeal, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.The family of Lance Crossman Hall claimed Ford knew the Explorer was prone to roll-overs and failed to warn consumers about the vehicle's defects.Ford blamed defective Firestone tires for the Explorer's handling and stability problems, and the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco man who says he was devastated after he was identified as gay on a national Spanish-language radio show will be paid $270,000 by Univision Radio, an arbitrator has ruled. Roberto Hernandez, 45, was driving to work in 2002 when he received a phone call from a man who said that he met Hernandez at a San Francisco gay bar. The caller then announced that the conversation was being broadcast live on the "Raul Brindis and Pepito Show," based in Houston. Hernandez worked for the local station that broadcast the show, and sold advertising for...

Lawsuits seeking millions in damages have been filed in federal court in Victoria by survivors of seven illegal immigrants who died in Victoria County's infamous 2003 human-smuggling case. The suits allege that the Savanna, Ga.-based Great Dane trailers, manufacturer of the trailer in which the immigrants rode during their ill-fated journey from the Mexican border, failed to install escape latches inside the fully insulated refrigerator trailer, which had no ventilation system. The oversight left the trapped occupants with no access to fresh air, no means of escape, and placed them in danger of suffocation and death, the suits claim. The...

July 26, 2005 — Can a wife put a price tag on housework? One woman says yes, and is seeking $500,000 for the work she did during 5½ years of marriage. Kathy Thompson previously appeared on "GMA" when she went on strike to get her husband, Gary, to help around the house. Now she wants a divorce, and compensation for her work. "He goes fishing a lot, he doesn't appreciate me I don't think, and so I went on strike," Kathy Thompson said in 2002. The strike ended only when Gary Thompson showed up with flowers, vacation plans and dinner...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A man who lost part of his finger in a workplace accident was the source of the fingertip used in an alleged scam against Wendy's restaurants, and gave it away to settle a debt, his mother said. "My son is the victim in this," Brenda Shouey said in an interview published in Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle. "I believe he got caught in something, and he didn't understand what was going on." Anna Ayala, 39, was arrested April 21 at her Las Vegas home on suspicion of attempted grand theft for allegedly costing Wendy's millions of dollars...