By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff
Welcome to your daily round-up of stories in today's edition of The Legal Intelligencer. Click the links below to access stories directly, or head to The Legal homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)
Just as Tuesdays always include our Pennsylvania Law Weekly section, Wednesday is the unofficial "Day of Delaware," when we roll out the fresh ink from our First State to the south. That includes the Delaware Law Weekly, available online at www.delawarelawweekly.com, as well as our newest product, the Delaware Business Court Insider, an online newsletter that definitely warrants a look.
But more about Delaware in a bit … let's get to today's Legal.
Topping the front page, U.S. Courthouse Correspondent Shannon P. Duffy has news that former state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo must be resentenced, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, because the trial judge made a series of errors in the sentencing process and failed to explain precisely how he decided to reduce the recommended prison term under the guidelines to 55 months. Voting 2-1, the court found that Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter miscalculated the losses caused by Fumo’s massive fraud schemes in several ways and also failed to impose two key "enhancements" that would have increased the recommended sentence.
Below the fold, Shannon also reports that an expert witness who testifies equally for plaintiffs and defendants cannot be compelled to disclose how much he earned from all his work as an expert in the past year, a federal judge in Harrisburg has ruled, because the information could not be used to prove bias.
Today's Page 3 story is by editorial intern Jen Zimmerman: When Max Baer, now a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, began serving on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas family division court bench in 1993, he had no background or education in child development or family dynamics, and he was "faced with decisions that were purely in [his] own discretion" regarding children's welfare, he said.
As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2. The top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section.
Today's contributed columns are our "GC Mid-Atlantic" page, with a story from our affiliate, Corporate Counsel magazine, and the first of two "Legal Marketing" articles by Gina F. Rubel on sorting out social media for lawyers.
As we move south in our weekly coverage to Delaware, we'll stop first at the Delaware Law Weekly, where reporter Jeff Mordock has the top stories. Please note: all of our Delaware coverage is for paid subscribers, but you can register for a free 30-day trial by clicking here.
In the top slot, Jeff writes that a Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge has agreed to approve a $35.3 million settlement between two North American affiliates of a European technology firm and their former employees, who alleged that they were laid off without notice in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, also known as the WARN Act.
Jeff also reports that the Delaware Chancery Court refused to grant an injunction that would prevent the city of Wilmington from arresting registered sex offenders living in the Harriet Tubman Safe Houses.
Finally, we'd like you to meet (if you haven't already) the Delaware Business Court Insider. As the name suggests, this is a national product covering the latest news, analysis and cases from the Delaware Chancery Court, Bankruptcy Court and Supreme Court. The accompanying website is www.delbizcourt.com, where you can go to subscribe to this newsletter weekly. You can also follow us on Twitter at @delbizcourt.
Top stories there include:
- Reversing a Chancery Court decision, the Delaware Supreme Court encouraged applying the "conceivability" test to determine if a complaint states enough facts for a claim to survive dismissal instead of using the "plausibility" test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly.
- The Delaware Supreme Court outlined multiple factors the Chancery Court must consider in applying laches instead of the three-year statute of limitations which typically governs contract disputes after ruling the lower court correctly applied the equitable defense in IAC/Interactivecorp v. O'Brien.
- The Chancery Court issued a declarative judgment for K&K so its business would not be held up by its dispute with Emerick Capital.
Have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole? E-mail me or any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal and our Delaware coverage!
Jaime Bochet is the Magazines & Supplements Editor for The Legal. Follow her on Twitter at @JaimeBochetTLI or e-mail JBochet@alm.com.
The professional experience who testifies likewise for victims and accused cannot need to show how much they generated from all their work as an professional in the last season, a government assess in Harrisburg has determined, because the details could not be used to confirm disposition.
Posted by: עו"ד אהובה טיכו | Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 09:33 AM