Monthly Archives: October 2015

Blog, Divorce, Family

Top 5 Things to Ask Your (Potential) Divorce Lawyer

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While there are many things you should ask your divorce lawyer, you should really also ask yourself many things such as simply “do I feel good about him or her.” There is often not much time to decide upon which lawyer to choose, so your gut instinct may be your best guidepost. But to help you, here are some questions you can ask that might help you determine whether or not a certain lawyer will be a good fit for you.

5. Tell me how your fees work?
Any good lawyer should be more than willing to discuss his or her fees with you. Not just what their hourly rate is, but what could make the case more expensive and how to conserve costs. While it is impossible to predict what a divorce will cost (unless it is a flat fee because it is uncontested, or the lawyer is willing to set a flat fee, or flat fees based on certain criterion), a lawyer should be able to give you a general idea of what it could cost and why. If the lawyer won’t answer this, or does not answer this to your satisfaction, maybe that’s a bad sign?

4. Do you know my spouse’s lawyer, and what do you think of him or her?
While you may think it is good to hire a lawyer who already dislikes the other side’s lawyer, this is often the opposite of what’s in your best interests. Good lawyers know and respect each other and will try to move the case along with as little friction as possible. Of course this can be difficult, given the emotional nature of divorce, but adding a layer of hostility (lawyer to lawyer hostility) on top of the potential hostility between spouses is not a good thing.

3. Do you practice in other areas of law?
While some lawyers, especially in small towns, handle different types of law (often because in a smaller community they may need to because thankfully there is not enough divorce work to keep them busy full time), a lawyer who handles divorce every day, all day will have more experience than a lawyer of similar years in practice who also handles other types of cases. Plus, divorce is unique. It is one of the very few areas of law where the parties will often need to maintain a relationship after the case, so how the case is handled may well set the stage for the post-divorce relationship of the parties. Divorce lawyers know this and hopefully keep it in mind. Make no mistake, a lawyer who handles other types of law may be a great lawyer, and may be a great divorce lawyer, but the more you do something, the better you should be at it (although of course there are exceptions).

Full Article – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randall-m-kessler/top-5-things-to-ask-your-_b_8240184.html

Blog, Drug Companies, Legal News, Personal Injury

Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon Morcellator Lawsuits Centralized

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Lawsuits involving one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies and one of the most controversial medical devices in the U.S. now are centralized to a single court.

Johnson & Johnson is accused of hiding knowledge that its power morcellator could cause an accidental spread of uterine cancer during hysterectomies and surgeries to remove fibroids.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred at least 28 morcellator lawsuits to the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, a multidistrict litigation (MDL) court.

“This decision by the panel is an extremely important one because it ensures that these cases will move at the fastest possible pace,” said Paul Pennock, a lead attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg who led the arguments for consolidation.

Courts consolidate lawsuits to MDLs when a large number of plaintiffs file lawsuits involving the same facts against the same defendant. The process allows the courts to operate more efficiently and decreases the costs for all parties involved.

“We believe this will allow our clients to obtain justice much more swiftly and reliably than might otherwise be the case if each client were compelled to battle the defendants in isolated courtrooms scattered across the country,” Pennock said.

The lawsuits accuse Ethicon, a subsidiary of J&J, of designing a defective product and failing to warn patients of risks.

Morcellator Controversy Growing

The surgical tool that uses small blades to break tissue into small fragments remains one of the most controversial devices in the U.S.

One congressman, U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, fought for amendments to regulate medical devices to be added to the 21st Century Cures Act that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in July. The amendments stemmed from news that some women were rapidly developing cancer after surgeries involving the device.

Months later, members of Congress led by Fitzpatrick petitioned the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate the devices and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration process that cleared them. The GAO agreed to investigate morcellators and the FDA in September.

The recent news adds to an existing history of controversy involving power morcellators that began more than a year ago, and Johnson & Johnson’s name keeps coming up.

J&J, Ethicon May Have Known of Risks

Morcellators were once thought to have an extremely rare risk of unintentionally spreading uterine cancer, but the FDA warned the actual risk was one in 350 in April 2014. The warning came almost two decades after the device entered the market.

Read Full Article Here – http://www.drugwatch.com/2015/10/20/ethicon-morcellator-mdl-kansas/

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News

Assange Lawyer: UK and Sweden ‘Violating International Law’

U.K. authorities say they will arrest the Australian national if he leaves the embassy to seek medical treatment.

The United Kingdom and Sweden are “clearly violating international law” for refusing to grant Julian Assange medical attention outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London without arrest, a lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder told RT Thursday.

Assange, who has been living in asylum in the embassy for over three years, has been suffering from a “deep pain” in his right shoulder since June, for which his doctor has advised a magnetic resonance imaging scan.

U.K. authorities have said that they will arrest the Australian national if he leaves the embassy to seek medical treatment, which Assange’s legal team says is an affront on his human rights.

RELATED: The Revolutionary Act of Telling the Truth

“The U.K. and Sweden are clearly violating international law,” lawyer Carey Shenkman told RT in a televised interview. “The U.K. is effectively brushing off its international obligations.”

According to Shenkman, both the U.K. and Sweden are contravening legally binding accords, including the Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which grant the right to medical treatment, while both nations recognize asylum in embassies.

“What they are doing in reality is making Assange choose between his asylum and getting medical treatment. No person should ever have to make that choice,” Shenkman added.

Assange is wanted for questioning by Sweden over sexual assault. If arrested he faces the risk of extradition to the U.S. where there has been an ongoing attempt to prosecute Wikileaks and its founder over the slew of damning revelations made about the U.S. military.

For Full Article and Video – This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Assange-Lawyer-UK-and-Sweden-Violating-International-Law–20151016-0002.html

Blog, Business Law, Legal News

Small-business legal group urges Supreme Court to hear property case

By Lydia Wheeler – 10/19/15 11:23 AM EDT

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Legal Center is urging the Supreme Court to take a case out of California that questions whether a city can constitutionally force developers to sell certain housing units below market rates.

The case, California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose, Calif., centers on a city rule that requires developers to set aside 15 percent of all newly constructed residential units for the city to use as affordable housing stock or opt out by paying a fee.

NFIB Small Business Legal Center is asking the Supreme Court to hear the case and reverse the California Supreme Court decision upholding the housing rule.

“Here we have the city of San Jose trying to use its power to bully landowners,” Karen Harned, the group’s executive director said in a news release. “Clearly, the constitution protects private property and the right of landowners to exercise their right to use and sell their property at market rate. The court should stop San Jose and other cities with similar schemes.”

The legal arm of the nation’s leading small-business association said the court should settle the lower court split and follow the legal precedence it set in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission. In that case, the court held that the government couldn’t require a landowner to dedicate property as a condition of a permit approval.

Read Full Article – http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/257306-small-business-legal-group-urges-supreme-court-to-hear-property-case

Blog, Criminal, Legal News

DEA Must Stop Interfering With Legal Medical Marijuana Dispensaries, Federal Court Rules

The judge said the DEA was defying the “language and logic” of the law

In a victory for state medical marijuana programs and patients, a federal court in California ruled Monday that federal authorities may not shut down medical pot dispensaries operating within state laws.

Under Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which accompanied last year’s spending bill, the Justice Department can not use federal dollars to interfere with state medical marijuana laws and practices, preventing the DEA from pursuing dispensaries and patients, the court ruled, according to the Washington Post.

The decision follows a leaked Justice Department memo that interpreted the amendment as offering protections limited to the actual states, not the individuals and businesses which deal with the day-to-day implementation of marijuana laws. As a result of the DEA’s continued enforcement, several dispensaries have been closed in California, including one owned by the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, the first licensed medical pot dispensary in the state.

Read Full Article – http://time.com/4080110/dea-medical-marijuana-california-ruling/