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Former Litigator Joins Kurtzman Carson Consultants Class Action Team
Law Firm News |
2011/05/11 01:24
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Kurtzman Carson Consultants (KCC), a Computershare company, today announced that Steven Weisbrot has joined the company as Director, Class Action Services. Weisbrot brings nearly a decade of litigation experience to KCC and will be working in the company's New York office. In his new role, Weisbrot will support the company's growth initiatives as a class action litigation expert and member of the business development team. He will also contribute his expertise to key client engagements.
"Steven's knowledge of class action matters makes him a great addition to our team of experts in settlement administration," said Jon Orr, president of KCC. "He joins KCC at a time of significant growth and investment in our people, technology and resources to deliver a higher standard of settlement administration services."
Prior to joining KCC, Weisbrot was an attorney with Lane M. Ferdinand PA, where he was involved in large wage and hour cases. He has also worked with several leading mid-Atlantic firms where he concentrated his practice on complex damages including consumer class actions and general commercial litigation. Weisbrot earned his Juris Doctor from Rutgers University. In 2010 and 2011, he was named one of Thomson Reuters' Super Lawyers' New Jersey's Super Lawyers Rising Stars.
Over the last decade KCC has been committed to delivering best-in-class solutions to its clients. The company's experienced client services team helps guide counsel through the complexities of settlement administration eliminating unnecessary expenses, inefficiencies and inaccuracies. As part of the recent integration with Rosenthal, the expansion of resources and infrastructure, KCC is well positioned to become a leader in the industry.
About KCC
Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC (KCC) www.kccllc.com, a Computershare company, provides administrative-support services that help legal professionals realize time and cost efficiencies. With an integrated suite of corporate restructuring, class action and legal document management solutions, KCC alleviates the administrative challenges of today's legal processes and procedures. KCC has gained client and industry recognition for its industry expertise, professional-level client service and proprietary technologies.
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Courts nationwide hold hearings with video
Topics in Legal News |
2011/05/10 09:23
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George Villanueva, charged with first-degree murder in the death of an NYPD officer, will not leave jail for months of pretrial hearings.
Instead, he'll be beamed into the courtroom via video as lawyers discuss his case in front of the judge.
Villanueva's case is part of a surge in court appearances done by video in New York and around the country, as cash-strapped communities look for ways to boost efficiency and cut costs. The tools are used in courts large and small, and the savings for some are staggering: $30 million in Pennsylvania so far, $600,000 in Georgia, and $50,000 per year in transportation costs in Ohio.
"We've had to trim our spending wherever we can and still provide what we think is effective constitutional justice, and we're doing that with the help of modern technology," said Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Castille.
Advocates say the virtual hearing is easier on defendants, who don't have to get up at 4 a.m. to be shuttled with other criminal suspects to court, only to wait hours standing and handcuffed for an appearance. Judges say their cases are moving faster. And civil liberties groups say the practice raises no red flags.
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Lawyers for USS Cole bomb suspect file court case
Court News |
2011/05/09 09:23
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Lawyers for the suspected al-Qaida mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole said Tuesday they have filed a case against Poland at Europe's court of human rights over alleged abuse against him at a CIA-run site in that country about eight years ago.
The Open Society Justice Initiative, a New York-based human rights group, and lawyers for Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri are challenging Poland for "active complicity" in the extraordinary rendition program carried out under then-President George W. Bush.
The case filed with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, seeks in part to press Poland to help block an "imminent risk" that al-Nashiri could face the death penalty.
The 46-year-old Saudi national was held at a secret CIA site in Poland between December 2002 and June 2003, and is now being held at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
U.S. military prosecutors re-filed terrorism and murder charges last month and requested the death penalty against al-Nashiri over the alleged planning and preparation for the attack that killed 17 sailors and injured 41.
The filing alleges that Poland's government violated the European Convention of Human Rights by enabling al-Nashiri's to face torture and helping his transfer, despite risks he faced in U.S. custody: further abuse, "a flagrantly unfair trial" and the death penalty, the group said. |
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Truman schools settle whistleblower lawsuit
Court Watch |
2011/05/08 09:22
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U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon in Lynchburg reached the opposite conclusion in a lawsuit filed by Liberty University, the conservative Christian school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Two weeks before Hudson's ruling, the 1997 appointee of President Bill Clinton ruled that the mandate is a proper exercise of congressional authority under the Commerce Clause.
The Truman School District in southern Minnesota will settle a lawsuit filed by a paraprofessional who said she was fired for being a whistleblower.
The school board voted Monday night to settle the lawsuit filed by Val Wilcox-Pesta for $80,000. The school district admits no guilt in the matter.
Wilcox-Pesta's lawsuit, filed in 2009, says she went to Principal Brian Shanks after finding marijuana in her son's pocket. Wilcox-Pesta alleged Shanks' son sold her son the drugs. Shanks' son denied the allegations.
The Fairmont Sentinel says Wilcox-Pesta went to state officials and the Minnesota Board of School Administrators because she believed there was a lack of concern by administrators and a failure to discipline students involved in the drug sale. Wilcox-Pesta was notified several months later that her position was eliminated. |
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Court in Va. to hear US health care law challenges
Court News |
2011/05/07 09:22
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President Barack Obama's health care overhaul will get its first oral arguments in federal appeals court Tuesday when a three-judge panel hears two Virginia cases — one that upheld the law and another that struck down its key provision.
Nine lawsuits challenging the law are pending on appeal, but the Virginia cases before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are the first to reach the oral argument stage. Thirteen cases have been dismissed with no appeal filed, and nine are pending in district courts, according to federal officials.
In the most prominent of the two Virginia cases, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson struck down the health care law's key provision: a requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014. Thirty-one lawsuits challenging the law have been filed nationally, and Hudson — a 2002 appointee of President George W. Bush — was the first judge to strike down any of its provisions. Hudson left the rest of the law intact.
"An individual's personal decision to purchase — or decline to purchase — health insurance from a private provider is beyond the historical reach of the Commerce Clause," Hudson wrote in the Dec. 13 opinion, which the U.S. Justice Department promptly appealed.
U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon in Lynchburg reached the opposite conclusion in a lawsuit filed by Liberty University, the conservative Christian school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Two weeks before Hudson's ruling, the 1997 appointee of President Bill Clinton ruled that the mandate is a proper exercise of congressional authority under the Commerce Clause.
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