Gulf Coast Residents File Personal Injury Suit Over Oil Dispersant

The first personal injury lawsuit involving the chemical dispersant Corexit 9500 has surfaced in Alabama federal court, where two Gulf Coast residents and property owners claim BP has dumped millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico to disperse and sink crude oil. The plaintiffs allege one method of applying Corexit 9500 -- spraying it from airplanes in the middle of the night -- has caused Gulf Coast residents to suffer breathing and gastrointestinal problems, as well as property damage.

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Former Morgan Crucible CEO Found Guilty of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice

Federal prosecutors are hailing the conviction of a former British executive as a signal to corporate leaders to shape up. A federal jury in Philadelphia on Tuesday convicted Ian Norris, the former CEO of The Morgan Crucible Co., of conspiring with others to obstruct justice in a federal investigation of price fixing in the carbon products industry. Norris faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Norris battled against extradition to the U.S. for nearly six years.

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Judge OKs Law Requiring Pornographers to Keep Age Records

A Philadelphia judge has refused to strike down amendments to the federal Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act that require photographers and filmmakers -- professional or amateur -- to keep records verifying the age and identity of anyone depicted in a sexually explicit film or photo. The judge concluded the law was narrowly tailored to combat child pornography and any constitutional challenge should be analyzed under an "intermediate scrutiny" test rather than strict scrutiny because the law is "content-neutral."

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Use dtSearch Publish for EDD Production

If you lack the ability or budget to create load files suitable for e-discovery review, or the intended recipient does not have the facilities for document review, dtSearch Publish can create in five easy steps a production set that can be viewed by anyone, says consultant Bruce A. Olson.

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Atlanta Lawyer Takes on Botched Circumcision Claims Nationwide

Although a recent $10.7 million default judgment that David J. Llewellyn just scored may be tough to collect, the case is a dramatic statement about the Atlanta attorney's development of an unusual national practice: suing over botched circumcisions. Llewellyn brought the suit on behalf of a boy and his parents against Mogen Circumcision Instruments, claiming one of its devices severed the head of the boy's penis during a bris. "He's the expert in this field," said a co-counsel on the Mogen case. "I don't know many other people who handle these cases."

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Arizona Governor Vows to Appeal Immigration Ruling

Arizona is preparing to ask an appeals court to lift a judge's ruling that put most of the state's immigration law on hold in a key first-round victory for the federal government in a fight that may go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Jan Brewer called Wednesday's decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton "a bump in the road" and vowed to appeal. The governor?s spokesman said Arizona would ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco later Thursday to lift Bolton's preliminary injunction and to expedite its consideration of the state's appeal.

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Ponzi Schemer's Bankruptcy Trustee Sues Florida GOP for Donations Payback

Bankruptcy attorneys for the Scott Rothstein estate have filed suit against the Republican Party of Florida, seeking the repayment of $237,000 in campaign contributions from the jailed former attorney. In a suit filed this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Lauderdale, Berger Singerman, the law firm for trustee Herbert Stettin, alleges that the Florida GOP has refused to return more than 10 different donations made by Rothstein over a four-year period.

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Congress Passes Bill to Cut Federal Sentences in Crack Cocaine Cases

Lawmakers on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would reduce the long-standing disparity between federal sentences for crack and powder cocaine distribution. For years, critics have blasted the distinction between crack and cocaine sentencing as having a disproportionate impact on African-American men; 5 grams of crack triggers a mandatory five-year sentence while it takes 500 grams of cocaine to trigger the same sentence. The 100-to-1 ratio would be reduced to 18-to-1 under the legislation.

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