| A maritime lawyer's misconduct, including his flight from New York to avoid arrest on contempt charges, has disqualified him from sharing in a contingency fee for work performed prior to his disbarment, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled last week. Disbarred lawyer Kenneth Heller's refusal to turn over files in a matter that ultimately was resolved with a $3.7 million settlement was "symptomatic" of a 24-year record of "utter contempt for the judicial system," Judge Stuart M. Bernstein wrote. |
| Lawyer's Misconduct Costs Him Any Share of $1.2 Million Fee |
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| The battle over hefty fines imposed for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl is ready to return to court. It has been nearly eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the 3rd Circuit to take a second look at the case and consider reinstating $550,000 in fines that the FCC imposed on CBS over Jackson's breast-baring performance. Since then, the 3rd Circuit has ordered both sides to file supplemental briefs. The case has also attracted a flurry of amicus briefs. |
| Infamous 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Case Heading Back to 3rd Circuit |
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| It's been a rough year for Ponzi schemes. Nearly four times as many of the investment scams unraveled in 2009 as fell apart in 2008. Tens of thousands of investors watched more than $16.5 billion disappear like smoke in 2009, according to The Associated Press' national analysis. The recession has led to the exposure of many scams "that otherwise might have gone undetected for a longer period of time," said Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division. |
| Ponzi Schemes' Collapses Nearly Quadrupled in '09 |
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| New York Judge Larry M. Himelein has accepted censure for trying to organize other judges to recuse themselves from cases involving the law firms of legislators who have denied New York's judiciary a pay raise since 1999, a judicial conduct commission said Monday. The commission's ruling said Himelein aggravated his conduct by writing e-mails to other state judges in which he mocked judges who declined to recuse themselves, calling them "wusses" and "wimps" and telling them to "grow some stones." |
| Judge Accepts Censure for Promoting Recusal as 'Weapon' Over Pay |
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