|
|
|
Appeals court to hear dispute over BP settlement
Topics |
2013/07/08 15:27
|
A federal appeals court is wading into a high-stakes dispute over the terms of a multibillion-dollar settlement of claims arising from BP's massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments Monday by attorneys for the London-based oil giant and for Gulf Coast businesses that say the nation's worst offshore oil spill cost them money.
BP asserts that the judge who approved the deal and a court-appointed claims administrator have misinterpreted the settlement, allowing thousands of businesses to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for inflated and fictitious losses.
"The result is that thousands of claimants that suffered no losses are coming forward in ever-increasing numbers, seeking and obtaining outrageous windfalls and making a mockery of what was intended to be a fair and honest court-supervised settlement process," company attorneys wrote in their brief for the hearing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Italian court overturns Google convictions
Topics |
2012/12/26 07:13
|
An Italian appeals court on Friday overturned the convictions of three Google executives who had been held criminally responsible for a video on a Google site that showed a disabled teen being bullied.
Google said it was "delighted" with the appellate ruling that cleared global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, its senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond and retired chief financial officer George Reyes of any wrongdoing.
The original verdict raised concerns that Internet platforms could be forced to police their content in Italy, and beyond, while putting European privacy concerns at odds with the freewheeling nature of the Internet.
A lower court in 2010 convicted the three of privacy violations for a 2006 video posted on Google Video, a video-sharing service Google ran before the company acquired YouTube later that year.
None of the executives charged in the case were in any way involved in the posting of the video and Google said they took it down within two hours of being notified by authorities.
Google, in its final arguments before the court, noted 72 hours-worth of video is posted on YouTube every minute — which would be impossible to preview. That is up from 20 hours of video a minute at the time of the initial verdict. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Report: Syracuse sex-abuse probe prompt but flawed
Topics |
2012/07/05 22:07
|
Syracuse University's prompt response to allegations of sexual abuse against an assistant basketball coach was done in good faith but was flawed because, among other things, there was no direct contact with law enforcement, a special committee of the university's board of trustees said in a report released Thursday.
Although the 52-page document states there was no attempt to "cover up" any conduct, it reiterates a criticism voiced by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick that police and the district attorney should have been notified immediately so they could conduct the investigation with all the experience and tools available to law enforcement.
The committee assessed the university's response to allegations that Bernie Fine had sexually abused former ball boy Bobby Davis. It said Davis' allegations "should have been viewed from the outset as involving serious alleged crimes."
Davis, now 41, claims Fine molested him for years beginning when he was around 12 years old. He took the claims to university officials in September 2005.
Fine, in his 36th year on the basketball staff, was fired in November 2011 after the allegations were made public. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Use new drug sentencing law in crack cases
Topics |
2012/06/21 18:32
|
The Supreme Court says criminals who were arrested but not yet sentenced for crack cocaine offenses should be able to take advantage of newly reduced sentences.
Corey A. Hill and Edward Dorsey were arrested in 2007 and 2008 for selling crack cocaine and faced mandatory 10-year sentences in Illinois. But they weren't sentenced until after the Fair Sentencing Act went into effect in August 2010. That law reduces the difference between sentences for crimes committed by crack cocaine and powder cocaine users.
Justice Stephen Breyer said in a 5-4 decision Thursday that the courts should have used the new law to sentence the two men.
Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Lawyer & Law Firm Websites |
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
