Law Advice

Federal judge allows polygamous family's lawsuit challenging Utah's bigamy law …Washington PostSALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge has ruled there's sufficient evidence to allow a polygamous family made famous by a reality TV show to pursue a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Utah's bigamy law. US District Judge Clark Waddoups on Friday …and more » [...]

NEW YORK – The federal bankruptcy judge presiding over the Chapter 11 case of MF Global Holdings Ltd. on Feb. 1 denied a request by MF Global’s commodities customers who sought an order directing the trustee to distribute the assets in the bankruptcy estate (In Re: MF Global Holdings Ltd., No. 11-15059, Chapter 11, S.D. [...]

CINCINNATI – An Ohio federal judge on Jan. 31 filed a decision to stay a petition to confirm an arbitration award issued by a tribunal in a dispute over the licensing of patents related to electric discharge machining wire used in precision cutting, until a challenge to the award can be heard by a German [...]

TYLER, Texas – Because an insurer’s denial of workers’ compensation benefits was in line with a decision by the Texas Department of Insurance – Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC), a Texas federal magistrate judge on Jan. 31 found no support for an employee’s bad faith claims (Mark Parmer v. Travelers Indemnity Co., No. 6:11-cv-00311, E.D. [...]

HOUSTON – Allegations of copyright infringement were rejected Jan. 31 by a Texas federal judge, who found that the manuals and drawings at issue could not be copyrighted when they were previously within the public domain (Axxiom Manufacturing Inc. v. McCoy Investments Inc., No. 09-3735, S.D. Texas; 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11504). View full post [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs improperly failed to notify a claimant of his duty to provide complete medical records, but the error was not prejudicial given that it accepted his version of the facts, a U.S. appeals judge held Jan. 30 (Scott L. Greene v. Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans [...]

DETROIT – A former 911 dispatcher’s claim that the city where he worked violated the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) fails because the city’s paid volunteer firefighters are not “employees” under the act and, therefore, the city does not meet the 50-employee requirement for FMLA eligibility, a Michigan federal judge held Jan. 31 (Paul Mendel [...]

NEW ORLEANS – The federal judge in Louisiana overseeing the multidistrict litigation for claims arising from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and ensuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Feb. 1 denied Halliburton Energy Services Inc.’s motion to exclude evidence related to the testing of cement samples that were not [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A federal judge in California on Jan. 31 refused to stay a coverage action against insolvent insurance companies pursuant to liquidation orders filed in a New York state court because the Uniform Insurers Liquidation Act (UILA) does not require that in personam proceedings filed in a California state court against the insolvent [...]

PHILADELPHIA – Under maritime law, manufacturers cannot be held liable for asbestos-containing components they neither manufactured nor installed, the judge overseeing the federal asbestos multidistrict litigation held Feb. 1 (Lois Jean Conner v. Alfa Laval Inc., et al., James H. Prange, et al. v. Alfa Laval Inc., et al., James W. Stone v. Alfa Laval [...]