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Judge accused of hitting wife enters court program
Law Center |
2014/09/06 15:53
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A federal judge from Alabama accused of hitting his wife in an Atlanta hotel room can have a misdemeanor battery charge dismissed if he completes a court program that includes domestic violence intervention.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller will spend up to 24 weeks in the pre-trial diversion program, which also includes an alcohol and substance abuse assessment. Fulton County State Court Chief Magistrate Judge Stephanie Davis on Friday allowed Fuller to enter the program and ordered him to report back to the court on Oct. 14.
Officers were called to the Fullers' room in August at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, where a police report said Kelli Fuller answered the door in tears and had cuts on her mouth and forehead. She was treated by paramedics but refused to be taken to the hospital. The room smelled of alcohol, according to the report.
Kelli Fuller told police her husband became violent when she accused him of cheating, pulling her hair, throwing her to the ground, and kicking her. Mark Fuller told officers he threw her to the ground to defend himself after she threw a drink glass at him while he watched television.
During the brief court hearing Friday, Mark Fuller spoke only to answer a question on whether he had agreed to enter the program. He left without speaking with reporters but, in a statement later issued through his attorney, Fuller said he looks forward to addressing the concerns of the court and "hopefully" returning to the bench.
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Legislature heads to court on education finance
Law Center |
2014/09/01 16:32
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The Washington Supreme Court is marking the beginning of school with a mandatory assembly for the Legislature on education finance.
The court has ordered lawmakers to come to court on Wednesday to explain why they haven't followed its orders to fix the way Washington pays for public education.
Lawmakers, the governor and others say the court needs to be patient and give the Legislature more time to fulfil the orders in the 2012 McCleary decision.
Thomas Ahearne, the attorney for the coalition that sued the state over education funding, says the Legislature has made so little progress toward meeting the goal that only more pressure from the court will make it happen.
The McCleary decision said lawmakers are not meeting their constitutional responsibility to fully pay for basic education and they are relying too much on local tax-levy dollars to balance the education budget.
The court commended the Legislature for passing some reforms in the K-12 system and for starting to pay for them. The McCleary decision orders the Legislature to finish paying for the reforms, which may add more than $4 billion to the state's biennial budget, according to some government estimates.
The Legislature was given until the 2017-18 school year to fix the problem.
Among the reforms awaiting payment: all-day kindergarten in every school; more instructional hours for high school students to help them earn 24 credits to graduate; pupil transportation fully supported by state dollars; a new formula for school staffing levels, smaller classes in the lower grades; and more state support for school equipment and supplies.
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Billionaire pleads guilty to sexual assault charge
Law Center |
2014/06/10 11:07
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A Wisconsin billionaire has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of having sexual contact with a teenage girl.
Fifty-nine-year-old Samuel "Curt" Johnson III of Racine was originally charged with a felony count of child sexual assault. But prosecutors sought to downgrade the charge after they say the victim and her mother refused to cooperate.
Before sentencing Friday, Johnson apologized to the victim and her mother for "the tremendous hurt I have caused."
Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz allowed the downgrade of charges. Then he sentenced Johnson to four months in jail, short of the one-year maximum. Johnson was also fined $6,000.
Johnson's family has run home-products giant SC Johnson for five generations. Johnson worked for the company decades ago but has had no formal relationship with the company in years. |
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Mavroudis & Guarino, LLC. - Essex County Real Estate Lawyers
Law Center |
2013/11/02 14:51
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Essex County Real Estate Lawyers makes up the team for The Mavroudis & Guarino, LLC. Our talented teams offers the highest quality counseling in the the area of Westchester County. While many law offices offer complex real estate services, the M&G difference is that we are not just attorneys, but established real estate professionals.
Our Real Estate Practice Group Chair, John M. Mavroudis, has developed over $1 billion dollars worth of commercial and residential real estate as founder, owner and Chief Executive Officer of Rio Vista, a prominent real estate development, construction and realty services company. Our lawyers have many years of skill and knowledge in a wide range of matters including regional and local office, retail, industrial and residential developments, home building, real estate brokerage, and other types of residential, industrial and commercial ventures.
Many representative cases have been the subject of reported decisions. M&G law firm offers personalized real estate representation from the most basic transaction such as buying or selling a home to the most complex; restructuring a multimillion dollar development. We can be the real estate attorneys for you, don't hesitate to contact our talented team today! |
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Committee OKs school spending report for WA court
Law Center |
2013/08/29 09:20
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A committee overseeing progress on paying the full cost of basic education for kids in public school voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a draft of its latest progress report to the state Supreme Court.
In its decision on a lawsuit brought by a coalition of school districts, parents and education groups _ known as the McCleary case for the family named in the suit _ the high court ruled in January 2012 that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation concerning education funding. In the ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the Legislature to make yearly progress reports on its efforts. Those reports are then critiqued by the group that brought the lawsuit, and by the Supreme Court.
This year, the Legislature allocated about $1 billion more for basic education for the current two-year budget cycle. Lawmakers estimate they need to find a total of between $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion more over the coming years to fully pay for basic education. |
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Oregon court upholds governor's execution delay
Law Center |
2013/06/20 16:18
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Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber can delay the lethal injection of a death-row inmate who wants to waive his appeals and speed his execution, the state's highest court ruled Thursday.
The Oregon Supreme Court said Kitzhaber did not overstep his power when he granted a reprieve delaying the death sentence of Gary Haugen, who was convicted of two murders.
Kitzhaber opposes the death penalty and intervened weeks before Haugen was scheduled to be executed in 2011. The governor said he refused to allow an execution under a state death-penalty system he views as broken, vowing to block any execution during his term in office.
Haugen challenged Kitzhaber's clemency, saying the reprieve was invalid because Haugen refused to accept it. He also argued that it wasn't actually a reprieve but rather an illegal attempt by the governor to nullify a law he didn't like.
The governor argued that his clemency power is absolute, and nobody - certainly not an inmate on death row - can prevent him from doing what he believes to be in the state's best interest. |
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Court stays out of Planned Parenthood funding case
Law Center |
2013/05/28 09:36
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Indiana will likely stop defending a law that stripped Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood after the Supreme Court declined to hear the case Tuesday, an attorney who represents the nation's largest abortion provider said.
Indiana is among more than a dozen states that have enacted or considered laws to prevent taxpayers' money from funding organizations that provide abortion. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 23 that the law targeting Planned Parenthood went too far because it denied women the right to choose their own medical providers.
"I assume at this point the state will give up in its claim that that portion of the statue is valid under the Social Security Act," said Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who granted the initial preliminary injunction to temporarily block the law, precipitating the state's appeals.
Neither the state senator who sponsored the bill or the Family and Social Services Administration - the agency tasked with enforcing the law - had immediate comment.
"My office always contended this is ultimately a dispute between the state and federal government, not between a private medical provider and the state," Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said in a statement. Zoeller's office handled the state's appeal.
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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