Legal Research

Selections from National Law Journal Daily Headlines March 12, 2009

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.com, March 12, 2009.

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FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  What's that you're hearing in federal court? It's 'Twittering.'
"Many federal court judges have barred the use of electronic devices in their courtrooms, prohibiting everything from laptops to handheld devices that can send electronic messages, often in the interest of insulating jurors from media coverage to ensure a fair trial for defendants. Still, the U.S. Judicial Conference has no formal policy on the matter, leaving such questions up to individual judges. And some federal judges are opening the door to the press reporting directly from their courtrooms in the interest of bringing more transparency to the judicial process."

FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  An ex-assistant U.S. attorney talks about why Madoff's claim of acting alone is a problem, and the slim chances of a reduced sentence
"Bernard Madoff is anticipated to plead guilty today to 11 charges, including securities fraud and perjury, relating to a Ponzi scheme that he has confessed cost investors $50 billion. George Jackson III, of counsel to the Chicago office of Bryan Cave, who was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1990 to 2006, talked to The National Law Journal about how prosecutors don't need a formal plea deal to go after Madoff, whose potential cooperation with the government remains uncertain."

WEB-ONLY  |  GCs, executives protest controversial proposals for financial disclosures on potential litigation losses
"More than 135 general counsel and leading executives from Fortune 500 and 100 companies are protesting a controversial proposed amendment to financial accounting statements on corporate disclosures of litigation-related loss contingencies. The proposed amendments would require companies to make significantly more extensive disclosures in the notes to financial statements regarding loss contingencies, even in cases in which the company expects to prevail or does not believe there will be a material cost to settle the matter."

WEB-ONLY  |  Trial lawyers group and legal think tank call for sweeping overhaul of civil discovery rules
"The American College of Trial Lawyers and a legal think tank have called for a sweeping overhaul of civil discovery rules to curtail expensive, time-consuming battles for documents, in a study released on March 11. The most radical of the changes would impose strict limits on discovery after initial up-front disclosure by both sides."

WEB-ONLY  |  Washington and Lee University School of Law's 'real world' approach gets a $2M boost
"The Washington and Lee University School of Law is preparing to launch a 'real world' program for third-year students this fall, hoping to transform the classroom experience into a law firm experience. Traditional classroom instruction will be replaced by practice simulations. Students will go through lawyering exercises as if they were representing actual clients. Fictional cases will be created. The goal is to turn law school into a place where students don't just think like lawyers, but act like lawyers. "

WEB-ONLY  |  Federal credit crisis-related suits nearly double in last year
"New federal credit-crisis related lawsuits nearly doubled last year to 576 new cases, compared with 290 new cases filed in 2007, according to a Navigant Consulting Inc. study. Navigant's new report '2008: Seeking Relief,' also noted that last year's credit-crisis case filings outstrip the 559 savings-and-loan cases the government's Resolution Trust Corporation handled in a six-year period."

OPINION

FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE  |  NATIONAL SECURITY
"Recent proposals to create 'national security' courts are clear evidence that a basic distrust of the process designed to reveal truth has not loosened its grip on this nation. Like the now-discredited Guantánamo tribunals, these courts would offer few similarities to a system of justice with which anyone would be familiar. The very nature of these courts transforms the presumption of innocence into a presumption of guilt. Such a system, alien to our traditional notions of justice, has everything backwards."

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on March 12, 2009 (boomark / email).