The Supreme Court Of Mississippi has affirmed a trial court’s denial of motions to dismiss claims brought against a Mississippi bishop and Diocese arising out of priest pedophilia. The Church asserted First Amendment and other claims in an effort to avoid the suit.
A discovery dispute was also resolved by the Court.
Read the opinion here. To those who don’t have time to read the 80+ page opinion (including concuring and dissenting opinions) here is a newspaper article reporting on the case.
Last year former Supreme Court Justice Penny White, former Court of Appeals Judge Joe Riley and I started “Justice Programs.” The company produces seminars for Tennessee lawyers.
Last year was a great success. We had hundreds of people from across the state attend. This year we have expanded our efforts to offer 15 CLE hours in one program, including 3 hours of ethics credit, so that Tennessee lawyers can meet their annual CLE requirement in one program.
For more information see our website
I know this is off topic – but I don’t care. Nancy Grace disgusts me. I know she lost her future husband to a murderer; that is horrible. I know she is profoundly pro-prosecution; no problem.
But she is also a lawyer. Her outrageous comments about the legal system offend me. She makes no attempt to be objective. She makes no attempt to analyze. She is not a talking head – she is a screaming skull. She is an embarrassment to the profession.
To read about the way she conducted herself as a prosecutor – a public office that represents the people – read this article. Given the way she conducts herself on TV you will not be surprised to learn how she used to conduct herself in a courtroom.
The passage of IRS Code Section 409A cast doubt on the ability of lawyers to structure attorney’s fees in personal injury cases. The IRS has issued new guidelines that make it clear that, if certain conditions are met, attorney’s fees can be deferred in contingent fee cases.
Read about the new guidelines here. To learn more talk to a qualified structured settlement broker.
Read this release hot of the press from the New York Times:
May 5, 2005
Merck Announces Resignation of Chief and Names Replacement
The Maine Supreme Court has ruled that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland cannot assert the First Amendment as a defense to a claim of negligently supervising a pedophile priest.
The Court reviewed the First Amendment law on point and noted that “[t]he Diocese has not asserted that it actually holds to ecclesiastical doctrines concerning sin, penance, forgiveness and redemption that would have prevented or restricted the Bishop from intervening after learning that Melville might be sexually abusing boys, or from otherwise reporting this information to the police or the members of the parish.”
The Cour had this to say about the assertion of the Diocese that “‘the intrinsic logic of any judicial declaration and administration of a standard of care for church oversight of clergy necessarily will involve the [c]ourt deeply in matters of theology and governance:’ We do not accept this logic. It is not self-evident in this case that the application of a duty of due care will cause the Superior Court ‘to probe deeply . . . into the allocation of power within a [hierarchical] church so as to decide . . . religious law [governing church polity]’ in violation of either the First Amendment or Article I, section 3 of the Maine Constitution.” (citations omitted). Read the opinion here.
The Bush Administration’s solution to most problems is to cut taxes for people who make more than $100,000 per year. The Department of Homeland Security has figured out a different way to make our society safer from the threat of terrorists – extend immunity from suit to companies who make defective products related to the fight against terrorism.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the his department has “not fully succeeded in exploiting” legislation that limits the extent companies can be sued for problematic products.
“I have a great deal of respect and understanding of the importance of our legal system,” said Chertoff, a former federal prosecutor and appeals court judge. “But I also know how important it is that the legal system not create unduly high and burdensome transaction costs that do not allow us to make the kinds of rational decisions we have to make in order to protect ourselves.” Read more here.
A new article from Bloomberg reports that changes may have to be made to an Annals of Internal Medicine article linking Vioxx to heart problems.
Here is the complete article.
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
According to a press report, both sides to the nation’s first Vioxx trial have asked the judge to continue the trial date.
The trial is set for May 23, 2005. Both sides asked for a continuance because federal judge Eldon E. Fallon, the judge presiding over the Vioxx MDL, asked that the case be continued so that it would not interfere with the federal litigation. That request is not binding on the state trial judge because state cases are not part of the MDL.
The hearing is set for Tuesday, May 3, 2005.
Seventeen veterans won judgments against Iraq for being tortured during the first Gulf War. The Bush Administration has filed a brief opposing the right of the veterans to collect these judgments. This post by Dave Lindorff has an interesting take on why the Administration would not be supporting our veterans. I don’t agree with all the statements in this post but I do think that one reason the Bush Administration has taken this anti-veteran position is because it wants to avoid similar suits by Iraqis and the prisioners in Guantanamo Bay.
Bush Torture Tort Reform: Don’t Sue, Don’t Be Sued
Back when the Bush administration filed a brief in federal court opposing the decision to award almost a billion dollars in damages to 17 Americans who had been captured and tortured by Saddam Hussein’s government during the Gulf War, it appeared to be a strange move.
