My original reporting on legal events and trends:
Reporting
Reporting
May 29th, 2014
The Connecticut Law Tribune published my piece this week about the risk law firms, including small ones, face from data breaches:
In recent months, corporate America has been shaken by several headline-grabbing data breaches.
Retailer Target's first quarter profits were down 16 percent after credit card and personal information of millions of its customers was stolen. Daily-deal website LivingSocial was hacked with more than 50... Continue Reading
May 21st, 2014
Connecticut was hit less hard by Superstorm Sandy than New York and New Jersey, but there are still Connecticut-based legal issues arising out of the most destructive hurricane of the 2012 season, I reported for the Connecticut Law Tribune:
In the 18 months since Superstorm Sandy swept in from the Atlantic, Connecticut lawyers have been untangling knotty legal issues that have arisen concerning insurance coverage for home and business... Continue Reading
May 20th, 2014
I'm writing several times a day about products liability and class actions for Law.com/The National Law Journal. Occasionally I cross-post a blog I find particularly interesting.
With federal courts in New Jersey and the Eastern District of New York facing almost 2,000 cases in which insurers are being sued over Hurricane Sandy claims, one judge said that his court is focused on resolving cases.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramon E.... Continue Reading
May 20th, 2014
Here's a version of the article I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune about what may be the first plaintiffs' victory in an excessive force case involving a police officer from the Mohegan Tribe or the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation:
When a drunken bar patron gets forcefully subdued by a police officer and wins a five-figure verdict as a result, it's usually not big news. But move a similar confrontation to an... Continue Reading
May 5th, 2014
I have written a piece for the Connecticut Law Tribune about four Muslim men alleging they were placed on the no-fly list because they refused to become FBI informants:
A West Haven man claims he refused to become an FBI informant.
The result, Naveed Shinwari says in court papers, was he was put on the United States no-fly list and was unable to board a flight to take a temporary job in Florida. The Afghani American and practicing... Continue Reading
May 4th, 2014
Hearst published a story (DNT20140426.pdf) I wrote about the lack of support young adults with disabilities and their families face after they age out of the public school system:
Jill Edelman’s daughter is 24, attended a boarding school on Cape Cod focused on special education, and now is living in an apartment with another young woman in Ridgefield and attending a day program that... Continue Reading
May 3rd, 2014
The Connecticut Post and the Danbury News-Times published my piece (DNT20140428.pdf) about adoptees who are trying to change the law so they can have access to their birth certificates.
Joan DiGiulio doesn’t know who she is.
Until the age of 45, DiGiulio didn’t know she was adopted. She only discovered her past when she went to get her birth certificate in New York City before taking a trip to Europe... Continue Reading
April 20th, 2014
I'm writing several times a week about products liability for Law.com/The National Law Journal. Occasionally I cross-post a blog I find particularly interesting.
A judge who found widespread misrepresentation by plaintiffs in a gasketmaker’s bankruptcy has granted Ford Motor Co. access to the statements that parties must file to disclose their economic interests in bankruptcies.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George Hodges of... Continue Reading
April 15th, 2014
The Connecticut Supreme Court is considering an issue of first impression: does public policy prohibit exculpatory clauses in deposit agreements between banks and customers? I wrote about the case for the Connecticut Law Tribune:
Nine years ago, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that a ski resort couldn't limit its liability through contractual clauses. Now the court has to decide if the banking industry can be permitted to do what... Continue Reading
April 14th, 2014
I'm writing several times a day about products liability for Law.com/The National Law Journal. Occasionally I cross-post a blog I find particularly interesting.
One plaintiff's lawsuit in Louisiana federal court over allegations that diabetes drug Actos increases the risk of bladder cancer resulted in a $9 billion verdict. What might a jury do in a case consolidating claims by two plaintiffs?
Takeda Pharmaceuticals America... Continue Reading
April 4th, 2014
Here's the story I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune regarding a civil-rights attorney who alleges her own civil rights were violated by the city of Bridgeport in its hiring of outside counsel to represent city employees:
osephine Miller is no stranger to litigation involving the city of Bridgeport and its school district.
In the highest profile case, which went to the state Supreme Court, the Danbury-based civil... Continue Reading
April 3rd, 2014
I'm writing several times a day about products liability for Law.com/The National Law Journal. Occasionally I cross-post a blog I find particularly interesting.
The U.S. Supreme Court disfavored setting individual damages through statistical sampling in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Dukes. But Alexandra Lahav, a University of Connecticut School of Law professor, argues there remains a role for sample trials in mass torts... Continue Reading
April 2nd, 2014
Legislation is pending again in Connecticut that would reduce the size of the zones near schools, daycares and public housing projects that trigger enhanced sentences for defendants convicted of drug possession and selling within those zones. Here is the piece I wrote about the subject for the Connecticut Law Tribune:
During the crack epidemic of the 1980s, it seemed like a commonsense move to help protect the young and the innocent... Continue Reading
March 30th, 2014
I'm writing several times a day about products liability for Law.com/The National Law Journal. Occasionally I cross-post a blog I find particularly interesting.
A bankruptcy judge, who found “demonstrable misrepresentation” by plaintiffs' lawyers in several asbestos cases, denied the motions of asbestos defendants and a media outlet to access that sealed evidence.
Ford Motor Co., joined by Volkswagen Group of... Continue Reading
March 19th, 2014
Earlier this year, I wrote about how many homeowners still waiting for insurance payouts after Superstorm Sandy will soon run out of time to take their cases to court if that is necessary. In Connecticut, it is industry practice to include in homeowners' insurance policies a time limitation on lawsuits. The law lets insurers limit lawsuits by property owners to 18 months after a disaster hits.
Now the Connecticut General Assembly has... Continue Reading
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
