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Conservative group sues ABA over Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund program

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 20 Apr 2025 08:27:00 +0000

Diversity

Conservative group sues ABA over Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund program

April 17, 2025, 12:36 pm CDT

A group led by a conservative activist has filed a lawsuit alleging that an ABA scholarship program engages in “blatant discrimination” in violation of federal law. (Image from Shutterstock)

A group led by a conservative activist has filed a lawsuit alleging that an ABA scholarship program engages in “blatant discrimination” in violation of federal law.

The April 12 suit filed by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, a nonprofit organization, says the scholarships are contractual in nature, and their restrictions on eligibility violate Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination in contracting.

The ABA is represented by Jenner & Block, one of the law firms targeted in a punitive executive order by President Donald Trump, Bloomberg Law reports. Jenner & Block has filed a suit challenging the order against it.

The suit by conservative activist Edward Blum’s group targets the ABA’s Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which awards $15,000 scholarships to select incoming law students. Applicants must be members of underrepresented racial or ethnic minorities, such as Black/African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian/Pacific Islanders, according to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

“Even if the scholarship did not flatly exclude whites on its face,” the suit says, “the scholarship discriminates against whites in application and by design.”

The suit seeks a declaration that the scholarships violate Section 1981, an injunction barring the ABA from considering race or ethnicity in the program, an order to reopen the application process using neutral criteria, and nominal damages.

Another organization that Blum created, Students for Fair Admissions, won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2023 that struck down race-conscious admissions programs in higher education.

The American Alliance for Equal Rights is represented by Lawfair and Consovoy McCarthy.

The goal of the new suit, Blum said in a statement, “is not to eliminate ABA’s scholarships but to ensure they are based on legitimate criteria, such as financial need or merit, rather than race.”

The ABA does not comment on active litigation, according to Jim Walsh, the chief communications officer and associate executive director of the ABA.

Publications covering the suit include Law.com, Law360, Reuters and Bloomberg Law.

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Columbia student sues Trump admin over possible deportation

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:23:29 +0000

President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025 (Pool via AP).

A Columbia University student who is currently being chased down by the Trump administration has filed a lawsuit that aims to undercut the government’s ongoing search and apparent concomitant efforts to deport her.

Yunseo Chung is a lawful permanent resident who has lived in the United States since she was 7 years old, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. Though technically a Korean national, the U.S. is “the only country she has ever known,” the 48-page lawsuit explains.

The 21-year-old junior has a 3.99 GPA and is highly engaged in various extracurricular activities, the lawsuit notes. Before that, Chung was her high school’s valedictorian. But the plaintiff’s academic achievements have seemingly been overshadowed by her participation in protests related to the Israel-Hamas war, the lawsuit says.

“Since 2023, along with hundreds of her peers, Ms. Chung has also participated in some student protests and demonstrations on Columbia University’s campus related to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the devastating toll it has taken on Palestinian civilians,” the lawsuit reads. “Ms. Chung has not made public statements to the press or otherwise assumed a high-profile role in these protests. She was, rather, one of a large group of college students raising, expressing, and discussing shared concerns.”

To hear Chung and her attorneys tell it, those low-profile rallying efforts have made her a marked woman in the Trump administration’s eyes — and, in turn, prompted government agents up and down the line to initiate a carbon copy of the process that resulted in fellow Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil’s administrative detention in a Louisiana lockup without charges.

On or around March 8, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its offshoot Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “began a series of unlawful efforts to arrest, detain, and remove Ms. Chung from the country because of her protected speech,” the lawsuit says.

While Chung seems to have evaded detention so far, on March 10, one of her attorneys fielded law enforcement requests and took note of increasingly aggressive efforts to search for and detain her.

The lawsuit explains, at length:

AUSA [Perry] Carbone stated that the Secretary of State had revoked Ms. Chung’s visa. Attorney [Naz] Ahmad explained that Ms. Chung is a U.S. permanent resident, and that she is not present in the United States on a visa.

AUSA Carbone then stated that “the Secretary of State has revoked that,” too. Counsel for Ms. Chung offered that the Secretary of State does not have the unilateral authority to revoke permanent resident status. When Attorney Ahmad inquired further, AUSA Carbone could not explain the justification for the government’s purported action.

Later that same day, AUSA Carbone texted Attorney Ahmad a copy of an administrative arrest warrant naming Ms. Chung. The administrative arrest warrant did not specify under which provision of the immigration law Ms. Chung would be subject to deportation.

Her lawyers, on the other hand, say the warrants were based on “false pretenses” and meant to arrest her because of the viewpoint of her protest activities.

“The government’s retaliation against Ms. Chung comes in a broader context of retaliation against other noncitizens who have exercised their First Amendment rights,” the lawsuit reads. “Officials at the highest levels of the federal government have made clear that they intend to use immigration enforcement to punish noncitizens who speak out in support of Palestinians and Palestinian rights, or who are perceived to have engaged in such speech.”

In both formal and germane terms, however, the government is being intentionally evasive about the present case, the complaint alleges.

Neither Chung nor her attorneys have been provided with a specific reason for why the government wants to “presumably” send her to South Korea, according to the lawsuit. Nor, has she actually been presented with an “order of removal,” the lawsuit acknowledges.

Rather, Chung likens her experience so far to Khalil’s and anticipates she will likely, if caught, be subject to similar administrative detention based on a “pattern and practice” by the Trump administration “of targeting individuals associated with protests for Palestinian rights.”

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Y’all could’ve picked me up’: Judge rips Trump admin over deportations without due process, says government could have ‘thrown me on a plane’

The lawsuit cites Khalil’s controversial case analogously and briefly explains that he eventually received an ICE-issued notice to appear which cites a section of federal law that says: “[a]n alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”

Chung now believes she is being subjected to the same “foreign policy ground” and is moving to preempt the government’s would-be actions.

To that end, Chung’s complaint also contains a petition for a writ of habeas corpus — which serves to question the basic premise of the government’s actions in relation to protesters over the war.

The writ of habeas corpus is a 900-year-old legal protection afforded to persons against authoritarian impulses of law enforcement and government executives which allows an advocate to argue someone is being illegally confined, detained or imprisoned. It is generally considered the bedrock of the American and British legal systems.

More to the point, the writ also attempts to force the government to answer questions in court and fully account for its actions by forcing an administrative process — like ICE detention and deportation — into the more public light of a judicial process. In other words, the writ here is being sought to make sure the New York federal court retains authority over Chung’s case instead of ICE and an immigration judge.

Still, neither the plaintiff nor the government are actually confused.

While DHS and ICE have not formally issued a removal order for Chung’s deportation, they have issued a warrant. And, as the complaint notes, both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have promised that the administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

The lawsuit takes issue with the government’s interpretation of the law and notes that many opponents of the widespread protest movement “mischaracterize peaceful protest and any speech in favor of Palestinian rights as inherently supportive of Hamas.”

So, while the Trump administration believes the stated “foreign policy” ground is the only thing necessary to deport any noncitizen based on its own subjective determination, the plaintiff-undergraduate says this decidedly vague premise is a violation of the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, and various federal laws — including immigration law.

“The issuance of the administrative arrest warrant, pursuant to the Rubio Determination, is motivated by Ms. Chung’s constitutionally protected past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations,” the lawsuit reads. “The Foreign Policy Ground and its implementation through the Policy, the Rubio Determination, and Defendants-Respondents’ attempts to detain Ms. Chung violate her due process rights under the Fifth Amendment as unconstitutionally vague and violative of Ms. Chung’s substantive and procedural due process rights.”

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Chung’s legal effort is also not entirely unlike a shot across the bow as the government appears intent to replicate the Khalil situation with numerous foreign national students who have taken part in on-campus protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants stormed out of Gaza into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage. According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, the majority of them women and children. Authorities in Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters when reporting casualties.

“ICE’s shocking actions against Ms. Chung form part of a larger pattern of attempted U.S. government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech,” the lawsuit goes on. “The government’s repression has focused specifically on university students who speak out in solidarity with Palestinians and who are critical of the Israeli government’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza or the pro-Israeli policies of the U.S. government and other U.S. institutions. Now, officials at the highest echelons of government are attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike.”

The lawsuit pleads for the SDNY to take jurisdiction over the matter, bar the Trump administration’s “unlawful Policy of targeting noncitizens for removal based on First Amendment protected speech and advocacy for Palestinian rights” in general, bar the efforts targeting Chung in particular, issue an injunction that would specifically prohibit Chung’s detention and removal from the Empire State and the U.S., and a declaratory judgment that the anti-protester immigration offensive is broadly illegal and unconstitutional.

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Dechert sues former lawyer for alleged salary overpayment

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 15:45:23 +0000

Law Firms

Dechert sues former lawyer for alleged salary overpayment

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 29, 2025, 10:56 am CST

Dechert has sued a former senior project attorney for more than $90,000, the money that the law firm said it is still owed after a $132,250 salary overpayment. (Image from Shutterstock)

Dechert has sued a former senior project attorney for more than $90,000, the money that the law firm said it is still owed after a $132,250 salary overpayment.

The Jan. 21 lawsuit filed in the trial-level New York Supreme Court blames the salary overpayment on a clerical error.

Law.com has the story.

The suit says senior project attorney Kathleen Fay continued to receive her regular salary for a 7½ month period ending in May 2024, even though she wasn’t performing billable work at that time. A temporary employment agreement in effect during that period provided that Fay would be paid only for billable work assigned to her and performed.

The agreement was reached in late September 2023 after Fay asked to remain listed on the firm’s website. Fay’s contract as a project attorney ended without an extension June 30, 2023, but she continued to be paid for three months and was offered consulting services to help with her job search, the suit says.

When Dechert discovered its mistake in mid-May 2024, it demanded its money back. Fay did not comply, the suit says.

“In an attempt to make itself whole,” the suit says, Dechert “exercised its rights to recoup certain payments made to or otherwise due to” Fay.

Fay told Law.com that the suit allegations “are baseless and its actions are unethical.” She worked on the firm’s product liability team for more than a decade “and am now a law librarian earning less than a paralegal,” she said.

“It is unfortunate that Dechert has chosen to remove my vested funds from my 401(k) account and to bully me in public,” Fay told Law.com. “However, the equities and the law favor me and I look forward to vindicating my rights and reputation in court.”

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Texas AG sues New York doctor for mailing abortion pills

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 03:38:31 +0000

Background: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (KVUE/YouTube). Insets: Dr. Margaret Carpenter and misoprostol, one of the medications she’s accused of sending to Texas (Reproductive Health Access Project/CBS News/YouTube).

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against an abortion activist doctor in New York for “unlawfully” mailing prescription pills to the Lone Star State that “ended the life of an unborn child” and resulted in “serious complications” for the 20-year-old mother, according to the suit — marking the first cross-state abortion legal battle of its kind, a report says.

Dr. Margaret Carpenter, founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, is accused of mailing the “abortion-inducing drugs,” which are illegal to provide in Texas but not New York thanks to abortion “shield” laws, to a Collin County resident between the months of May and July. Paxton’s suit, which was filed on Thursday, claims to outline why and describes what allegedly happened as a result.

“About mid-May 2024, a 20-year-old female resident of Collin County, Texas became pregnant,” Paxton’s complaint says. “The mother of the unborn child did not communicate her pregnancy to the biological father of the unborn child. The mother did not have any life threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from the pregnancy that placed her at risk of death or any serious risk of substantial impairment. The mother proceeded to utilize telemedicine or telehealth services and received, through Carpenter, two abortion-inducing drugs or prescriptions. The first was a box for the drug mifepristone, 200 mg, followed by the ‘#1’ and the directions to take 1 tablet by mouth and to ‘take this medication first.’ The second was a pill bottle of misoprostol 200 mcg with directions to take 4 tablets (i.e., 800 mcg.) after the mifepristone.”

On July 16, the complaint claims the mother asked the biological father if he’d take her to the hospital due to a “hemorrhage or severe bleeding.” Health professionals at a hospital in Collin County, Texas, told the father what was going on and noted that she “had been” nine weeks pregnant. The woman went on to allegedly lose the child.

“The biological father of the unborn child, upon learning this information, concluded that the biological mother of the unborn child had intentionally withheld information from him regarding her pregnancy, and he further suspected that the biological mother had in fact done something to contribute to the miscarriage or abortion of the unborn child,” the complaint says. “The biological father, upon returning to the residence in Collin County, discovered the two above-referenced medications from Carpenter.”

According to Paxton, Carpenter violated Texas law by providing “abortion-inducing drugs” to the pregnant Collin County woman, “which caused an adverse event or abortion complication and resulted in a medical abortion,” his complaint says.

“Carpenter’s conduct violates the Texas Health and Safety Code’s prohibition on prescribing abortion-inducing drugs via telemedicine,” the document notes. “Carpenter’s knowing and continuing violations of Texas law places women and unborn children in Texas at risk. Carpenter sees Texas patients via telehealth and prescribes them abortion inducing medication.”

So what happens when abortion laws and offenders in states like New York and Texas collide in court? Legal experts tell The Texas Tribune it’s complicated.

“Regardless of what the courts in Texas do, the real question is whether the courts in New York recognize it,” Greer Donley, University of Pittsburgh professor, told the newspaper.

“Slavery is probably the best historical parallel to what we’re seeing now,” said Kermit Roosevelt, a law professor at Penn Carey Law at the University of Pennsylvania, back in February as Paxton was going after abortion activists and demanding medical records from out-of-state clinics that provide gender-affirming care to minors.

“Obviously, that didn’t end well,” Roosevelt told the Tribune. “Well, it did, because we abolished slavery federally, but it was a tough road.”

Texas has been threatening to take legal action such as the Carpenter suit for quite some time, according to the Tribune, but the Paxton filing against Carpenter marks the first known instance of a lawsuit actually being file, the paper reports.

John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, told The New York Times in February that pro-lifers were waiting for the “right case” to strike.

“We can definitely promise that in a pro-life state like Texas with committed elected officials and an attorney general and district attorneys who want to uphold our prolife laws, this is not something that’s going to be ignored for long,” Seago said.

In his suit, Paxton is asking a Collin County court to block Carpenter from violating Texas law and demands that she cough up $100,000 for each and every violation that she commits from here on out, regardless of what the New York law says.

“Unless Carpenter is restrained by this Court, with relief that is enforceable by a contempt order, Carpenter will continue to defiantly violate Texas Law,” Paxton’s complaint says. “Carpenter’s continued violation of our Texas statutes as stated herein is probable and imminent. The State is not required to establish that it will prevail at trial to obtain a temporary injunction as it only needs to plead a cause of action and show a probable right to the relief sought.”

States like New York that have “shield laws” — there’s currently 22 of them — are supposed to protect healthcare workers from cross-state court challenges and investigations. They can do this in several different ways, one being through a denial of extradition.

“If Texas wants to arrest someone who’s in Washington State [shield law state], one of their residents, Washington doesn’t have to arrest that person and extradite them back to Texas,” Darryl Brown, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, told the Tribune in February.

“Maybe a state like Wyoming prosecutes someone who bought marijuana in Colorado and came back to Wyoming, but it doesn’t set off a battle where Wyoming is trying to get someone back from Colorado or get evidence from Colorado,” Brown said. “States just haven’t disagreed with each other so sharply that they have come to loggerheads about this.”

In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in Bigelow v. Virginia that a “state does not acquire power or supervision over the internal affairs of another State merely because the welfare and health of its own citizens may be affected when they travel to that State.” However, that ruling stemmed from the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which is no longer in effect.

“The current U.S. Supreme Court, now that it has eviscerated Roe, could revisit Bigelow’s anti-extraterritoriality principle,” wrote legal scholars David Cohen, Greer Donley and Rachel Rebouché in a 2023 Columbia Law Review.

“Complicating this picture even further is how these rules apply to medication abortion,” the group said. “Abortion pills did not exist at the time of Bigelow and were not widely used at the time of Nixon. These medications can be legally obtained in one jurisdiction, one or both of the drugs can be taken elsewhere, and the pregnancy can end somewhere else entirely. In the immediate aftermath of Roe’s demise, abortion providers and lawyers reviewing medication abortion protocols are struggling to answer what had been a simple question with procedural abortion: Where does the abortion occur?”

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Family of boy, 9, sues Walmart for son’s death

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 07:58:32 +0000

Inset: Saiy-Yah Allen (Royal Funeral Service, Inc.). Background: Saiy-Yah died years after hitting his head on a cart in a Walmart in Florida (WTVJ).

The Florida mother of a 9-year-old boy who died years after hitting his head on a metal cart in Walmart is suing the megastore for allegedly creating a dangerous and unsafe condition that led to the boy’s death.

Tamika Springer is seeking damages beyond $30,000 in the death of her son, Saiy-Yah Allen, according to the complaint.

During testimony in the trial on Tuesday, Saiy-Yah’s sister spoke about her brother’s seizures in the years after the incident at a Fort Lauderdale location on Nov. 25, 2020, when the then-7-year-old boy walked into a metal stock cart and struck his head in a walkway.

“He would shake a lot and he would look in a different direction, and then he would shake and make noise, too,” Miharah Allen said. “Every time he ate, he would throw up, he would throw the food up or use the bathroom on himself.”

The testimony came as Walmart attorneys questioned whether his injury then led to his seizures and death on May 7, 2023, local NBC affiliate WTVJ reported.

A media representative for Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime. The company said in court documents the boy was not looking where he was going when he walked into the cart.

“Walmart is not liable for the incident as the stock cart was so open and obvious that S.A. should have been reasonably expected to discover it and protect himself (by simply walking around it), and a stock cart is so obvious and not inherently dangerous that it can be said, as a matter of law, not to constitute a dangerous condition that will not give rise to liability due to the failure to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition,” the defendant’s motion for summary judgment said. “Here, unfortunately, S.A. was inattentive and failed to walk around a stock cart’s handles that were observed by his sister, who was not walking with her head turned. S.A. failed to use his senses and was walking while looking backward, therefore he did not observe the open, obvious, and innocuous stock cart.”

Saiy-Yah’s obituary said he loved to draw, paint and make origami.

“He often made origami birds and drawings for our friends and even random people he came in contact with. His eyes and smile lit the entire universe! He did everything with the utmost pride and precision. We all told him how brilliant and genius he is and how his talents will only get greater.”

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Couple sues Dallas bar after fiery drink literally blew up

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 10:15:52 +0000

Background: Abbi Hance-Briscoe (WFAA). Inset: The “Flaming Pineapple” drink at Twisted Trick (WFAA).

A Texas couple never thought their summertime date would end with a trip to the local burn unit — and now they’re suing the bar that they say left them horrifically scarred.

Abigael “Abbi” Hance-Briscoe and Dustin “Dutty” Johnson visited the Twisted Trick bar in August and told local ABC affiliate WFAA in an interview that they wanted to support the new venue. They each ordered drinks, and when Johnson’s “Flaming Pineapple” arrived, he saw that there was a lime garnish at the top of the glass — and it was on fire.

He told WFAA that “[w]e’ve been to Tiki bars before, and so when it came out, I understood what was going to happen. They would do a little show, like a flash of fire, and then I’d drink it. I was like, oh, cute. Cool. It’s on fire.”

Dustin “Dutty” Johnson and Abigael “Abbi” Hance-Briscoe (GoFundMe)

Johnson said that the bartender offered to add more Everclear liquor to the combustible drink. After the extra pour, the bartender reportedly fired up the bar torch and the “drink ignited, shattering the drink glass, and spreading the fire onto Abigael and Dustin,” according to the lawsuit.

As he told WFAA, Johnson said that he ran out of the bar while “his shirt, face, arms, beard, and chest hair on fire,” as WFAA wrote. He then claimed that he witnessed his girlfriend “rolling on the ground” to put out the flames that had engulfed her before someone finally threw water on her. She recalled to WFAA that she saw her “skin was falling off of my arm, and they had to cut my bra off because it was melted into my skin.”

When she woke up at Parkland Hospital’s burn unit, she said she “was burned up to my cheeks. My ear was burned on my left side. They had to shave one side of my head in the hospital because there was concern about injury to my scalp.”

Johnson’s burns were less severe, but still bad enough to keep him hospitalized for several days. Hance-Briscoe spent seven weeks in the hospital, during which time she underwent multiple skin grafts and developed sepsis. She now faces physical therapy and reconstructive surgery, and she uses a walker as a result of the sepsis.

The lawsuit alleges that the bar failed to properly train its employees “on the dangers of flaming drinks” and failed to “safely serve” the couple.

The pair have been updating the public on their condition on a GoFundMe page they set up to get help with their medical bills, which are estimated to exceed $20,000.

Twisted Trick closed permanently after the incident. Attorneys for the bar’s former owners denied the claims made by Hance-Briscoe and Johnson in their lawsuit.

The bar has denied the allegations, and calling the incident “pure accident” and saying that the couple didn’t take proper precautions before taking the drink.

“Plaintiffs’ alleged damages, if any, were caused or aggravated by Plaintiffs’ failure to use reasonable diligence to mitigate them,” the bar’s response to the lawsuit says.

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Man accused of trying to assassinate Trump sues sheriff

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 23:29:10 +0000

Inset: Vem Miller (News Nation). Background: Donald Trump speaking at his campaign rally in Coachella, California (Forbes).

The 49-year-old Nevada man who was arrested at Donald Trump’s California rally on Saturday while carrying two loaded firearms has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the county and sheriff violated his constitutional rights and publicly lied about the incident when authorities said they had stopped him from attempting to assassinate the former president.

Vem Miller on Tuesday filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Nevada in which he names Riverside County, the sheriff’s office, and Sheriff Chad Bianco as defendants. Among the causes of action for seeking damages, Miller alleges he was subjected to deprivation of his civil rights, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and false light invasion of privacy.

Miller, who was charged with one misdemeanor count each of possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine, says he is a “staunch supporter” of Trump and a Republican candidate for the Nevada Assembly who had no intention of harming the former president.

In a news release, the sheriff’s office said that at about 5 p.m. on Oct. 12, deputies assigned to Trump’s rally in Coachella Valley stopped Miller at a checkpoint and found him to be “illegally in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine.”

In a subsequent news conference, Bianco said that he “probably did have deputies that prevented a third assassination attempt” against Trump.

Miller says that the sheriff’s has merely been perpetuating a “delusional and false narrative.”

In the filed complaint, Miller claims that he was attempting to enter a parking lot about half a mile from the rally venue when he informed a deputy guarding the area that he had two firearms in his vehicle, both of which he intended to leave inside of his parked vehicle. Miller says he was almost immediately handcuffed and placed into the back of a patrol vehicle.

Despite not receiving permission to look inside the vehicle, Miller says deputies then “proceeded to conduct an unlawful and unconstitutional search of all compartments of the vehicle, retrieving Miller’s personal documentation and other personal items.”

Miller alleges that Sheriff Bianco — who is also an avid Trump supporter — then began making false and defamatory claims about the incident.

“Immediately after Miller’s arrest, Defendant Bianco did not miss an opportunity to fabricate allegations against Miller, going on numerous news outlets, claiming to have thwarted a third assassination attempt against Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump,” the complaint states. “Defendant Bianco, knew that Miller was not charged with any wrongdoing concerning assassination attempts, and that United States Secret Service and FBI agents even declined to interview him. It became clear that Bianco, intentionally, maliciously and with a blatant disregard for the truth, wanted to create a narrative so as to be viewed as a ‘heroic’ Sheriff who saved Presidential candidate Trump from a third assassination attempt.”

The complaint further claims that the sheriff made “preposterous allegations” against Miller, including that he was in possession of multiple fake passports and driver’s licenses, was driving an unregistered vehicle with fake plates, and presented authorities with “a fake VIP and press passes.”

The suit states that the latter claim is the “most egregious” because Miller “was actually provided expedited special entry passes by the Trump 47 campaign directly.”

Miller’s Instagram page shows him posing in photos with multiple Trump-aligned figures such as Stephen Miller, Newt Gingrich, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Roger Stone, among others.

By repeating the alleged false accusations against Miller, the suit claims that he has suffered “irreparable harm” to his character and reputation.

The case has not yet been assigned a hearing date.

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Nixon Peabody sues law firm for allegedly luring away its clients without cut of contingency fee

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 16:56:38 +0000

Law Firms

Nixon Peabody sues law firm for allegedly luring away its clients without cut of contingency fee

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 10, 2024, 3:26 pm CDT

Nixon Peabody has filed a lawsuit alleging that its clients were improperly lured away by personal injury law firm Shaheen & Gordon through use of “scare tactics” and false promises. (Image from Shutterstock)

Updated: Nixon Peabody has filed a lawsuit alleging that its clients were improperly lured away by personal injury law firm Shaheen & Gordon through use of “scare tactics” and false promises.

Nixon Peabody filed the suit with its co-counsel Rilee & Associates, Law.com reports.

The two firms allege that Shaheen & Gordon “improperly enticed” their clients to switch firms before submitting their claims to a settlement fund, according to Law.com. The clients were survivors of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center.

Thirty-five clients jumped to Shaheen & Gordon between February 2023 and June, the suit says.

Nixon Peabody and Rilee & Associates say they spent thousands of hours representing victims and setting up a settlement fund with state legislators. Their original fee agreement called for attorney fees amounting to 40% of gross recoveries along with costs. The two firms say they have been cut out of Shaheen & Gordon’s client recoveries.

Shaheen & Gordon allegedly told survivors that the firm could obtain the highest damages award to which they are entitled by submitting their claims to the settlement fund, according to Law.com’s description of the suit allegations. That is not necessarily the case, the suit says.

Shaheen & Gordon gave this statement to the ABA Journal: “Shaheen & Gordon has reviewed the complaint and denies the allegations. Clients are not the property of their lawyers, and they are free to hire counsel of their own choosing. Shaheen & Gordon has attempted to cooperate with Nixon Peabody but has not received any specific demands or proposals. We are truly surprised by this lawsuit and do not intend to litigate it in the press.”

Updated Oct. 10 at 4:02 p.m. to add the statement by Shaheen & Gordon.

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Personal injury firm sues TD Bank after loss in fraud scheme

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 01:20:49 +0000

Law Firms

Personal injury firm sues TD Bank after loss in fraud scheme

By Debra Cassens Weiss

August 29, 2024, 12:19 pm CDT

A personal injury law firm has filed a lawsuit blaming TD Bank for its loss of about $146,000 in a check fraud scam. (Image from Shutterstock)

A personal injury law firm has filed a lawsuit blaming TD Bank for its loss of about $146,000 in a check fraud scam.

The July 23 suit, removed to New Jersey federal court Monday, alleges that TD Bank should have warned New Jersey firm Nagel Rice about the cashier’s check that it deposited from a bank called BBVA because of a history of fraudulent checks claiming to be drawn from that institution.

Law.com has the story.

According to the suit, Nagel Rice received a cashier’s check for $148,950 from a purported client supposedly drawn from BBVA and deposited it in the firm’s account with TD Bank on Nov. 23, 2020. About two days later, Nagel Rice wired $146,250 to the bank account of the purported client.

On Dec. 1, 2020, Nagel Rice received a letter in regular mail from TD Bank dated Nov. 25, 2020. The letter advised Nagel Rice that the cashier’s check had bounced. Nagel Rice lost the entire amount wired to the client.

The suit alleges that the bank was negligent because of its failure to warn, and it violated a contractual banking relationship in which it agreed to safeguard Nagel Rice accounts.

Law.com described Nagel Rice as a high-profile personal injury firm that has many top verdicts and settlements in a list published by the New Jersey Law Journal.

Many other firms have lost money in similar scams, including several in New Jersey. The FBI warned about such scams in 2010, telling lawyers to beware of cients who make contact only by email, especially if they reside in foreign countries.

In one version of the scam, a purported client wants help collecting a debt, but the matter is quickly settled and the firm receives a phony check for the settlement money. The firm keeps a fee and wires the rest to the supposed client, only to find out later that the check has bounced.

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Baker McKenzie partner sues IRS for documents on partnership audit strategies

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 21:54:41 +0000

Law Firms

Baker McKenzie partner sues IRS for documents on partnership audit strategies

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 20, 2024, 2:10 pm CDT

A lawsuit filed by a Baker McKenzie tax partner is seeking to compel the Internal Revenue Service to disclose documents about its tougher policies for auditing partnerships, other pass-through entities and their owners. (Photo from Shutterstock)

The March 18 suit filed by tax partner George M. Clarke says the IRS has not produced records in response to his Dec. 19 request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Law.com, Reuters and Law360 have coverage.

Among the documents sought is a paper discussed by its author, an IRS employee, at a November 2023 conference sponsored by the ABA Section of Taxation. An article about the employee’s remarks appeared in Tax Notes with the headline “IRS Taking Partnership Audits to New Level.”

The IRS is auditing 75 of the country’s largest partnerships and has sent compliance letters to 500 partnerships, according to the Tax Notes article attached to the complaint. The scrutiny is part of the agency’s increased focus on wealthy taxpayers.

Clarke says in the suit he wants to learn more about IRS practices, “so that I can better represent my clients.”

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