Media ask court to unseal gay marriage trial tapes

Topics in Legal News 2011/04/19 04:35   Bookmark and Share
Media organizations are joining lawyers for two-same-sex couples in urging a federal appeals court to release videotapes of a lower court trial on California's gay marriage ban.

The 13 organizations, which include The Associated Press, argued in a motion filed Monday with the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals that the videos are court records that the First Amendment requires to be open to the public.

Sponsors of voter-approved Proposition 8 asked the 9th Circuit last week to keep the tapes sealed and to order the trial's presiding judge to return his personal copies.

The move came after now-retired Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional, used a brief segment of the video in several public talks.
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Louisiana to get $12M in Health Net case

Topics in Legal News 2011/04/06 09:43   Bookmark and Share

The Louisiana Supreme Court has ordered Health Net Inc., a major health maintenance organization, to cover more than $180 million in claims by consumers, health care providers and creditors in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon told The Advocate that Louisiana will get the smallest portion of the payout.

"We have about $12 million coming to us to policyholders, providers and general creditors, meaning companies who sold them supplies or that rented them space," Donelon said.

Donelon said the unanimous ruling, issued Friday, will reimburse all of AmCare Louisiana HMO's members, providers, and creditors for any losses caused by Health Net's conduct.

Health Net sold health plans in the three states to AmCareco Inc. in 1999. In 2002, the troubled health plans were placed under state supervision. Each of the state's insurance departments sued AmCareco and Health Net, alleging fraud, negligence, conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duty.

In 2005, a state district court jury awarded the Texas plaintiffs around $100 million in damages. In 2005, a state judge in Baton Rouge issued similar verdicts against Health Net and awarded $30 million to the Louisiana and Oklahoma plaintiffs.

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Wal-Mart women's class action before Supreme Court‎

Topics in Legal News 2011/04/03 09:44   Bookmark and Share

A sex discrimination suit against Wal-Mart on behalf of at least 500,000 past and present female employees appeared to be on the verge of unraveling at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, as conservative justices questioned the rationale for holding the retail giant accountable for store-level decisions.

In particular, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often casts the deciding vote in close cases, said the women's claims seemed contradictory. The plaintiffs said on the one hand that Wal-Mart was infused with sex bias, Kennedy said, and on the other hand that the company provided no standards to store managers who made the personnel decisions.

"It seems to me there's an inconsistency there, and I'm just not sure what the unlawful policy is," Kennedy said during the one-hour argument.

The women's lawyer, Joseph Sellers, replied that the only contradiction was between Wal-Mart's professed policy of nondiscrimination and its practice of paying women less than men and promoting them less often.

The Wal-Mart suit was filed in San Francisco by six women nearly a decade ago. Lower courts have certified it as a class action on behalf of female employees who have worked at the chain's retail stores and Sam's Club warehouses since December 1998.

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Credit Suisse to pay $70m to settle suit

Topics in Legal News 2011/03/11 12:55   Bookmark and Share

Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $70 million to settle a class-action suit by investors claiming it misstated its subprime asset losses.
In an agreement filed in Manhattan, the Swiss bank said it would settle with investors who purchased United States depositary shares of the company’s stock on the New York Exchange between February 15, 2007 and April 14, 2008.

US residents who purchased Credit Suisse stock on the Swiss stock exchange during the period are also included. The settlement must be approved by the court.

Defendants had alleged that during the period in question, Credit Suisse and some of its executives, including chief executive Brady Dougan, issued “materially false and misleading statements regarding the company's business and financial results”.

Specifically, they alleged that Credit Suisse “concealed the company’s failure to write down impaired securities containing mortgage-related debt”.

In the settlement, Credit Suisse said it continued to “deny all charges of wrongdoing or liability”. However, the bank said it concluded that “further continuation of the action would be protracted and expensive”.

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Class action settlement numbers, average value fall: Analysis

Topics in Legal News 2011/03/10 12:55   Bookmark and Share

The number of court-approved securities class action settlements declined in 2010, sinking to the lowest number in more than 10 years, Cornerstone Research Inc. said in an annual report released Thursday.

There were 86 court-approved settlements during 2010, a 15% decline from 2009. Since 2001, the number of cases settled peaked at 119 during 2005, according to “Securities Class Action Settlements 2010 Review and Analysis.”

Cornerstone also found that the dollar value of all 2010 settlements dropped to $3.1 billion, down 17% from 2009.

The decline likely won’t continue, however, and a difficult economy may have helped reduce the number of approved settlements in 2010, Cornerstone said.

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Brown seeks 5-year extension of California taxes

Topics in Legal News 2011/01/11 12:59   Bookmark and Share

Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday he will ask a deeply divided California electorate to decide what they want from state government and how much they are willing to pay for it, bringing the state's fiscal crisis home to every Californian.

In unveiling the first spending plan of his administration, the Democratic governor called for personal sacrifices from every citizen while deep cuts are made to programs that many hold dear, such as universities, community colleges and medical care for the poor.

He also intends to ask residents to extend for five years a series of temporary sales, income and vehicle license taxes or risk a "drastic breakdown" in state government.

"Here's the problem: We're very divided ... My job is to find some common core here that we can agree on," Brown said. "I'm just going to lay out the facts. Whatever they decide, obviously will be the will."

His budget projects the deficit at $25.4 billion over the next 18 months.

To close it, Brown called for $12.5 billion in spending cuts, including reductions in welfare, social services and higher education, as well as $12 billion in funding shifts and new revenue if voters agree to extend taxes.

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