Friday, November 6, 2009 at 09:57AM Matt Bracy, general counsel of Settlement Capital Corporation tells LBN's Scott Drake that the Scott Rothstein scheme isn't about structured settlements.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 04:28PM How desperate was Susan Finkelstein to have World Series tickets? 
VERY desperate, investigators say. So desperate, in fact, they say the 43-year-old suburban Philadelphia woman posted an ad on the Web site Craigslist in which she described herself as a "gorgeous, tall, buxom blonde diehard Phillies fan" desperately seeking Series tickets.
LBN Senior Correspondent Sean Carter says there is no basis for the charges.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 10:24AM The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday revoked the licenses of the two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles.
The pilots — Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., the captain, and Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer — told safety investigators they were working on their personal laptop computers and lost track of time and place.
The pilots, who were out of communications with air traffic controllers for 91 minutes, violated numerous federal safety regulations in the incident last Wednesday night, the FAA said in a statement. The violations included failing to comply with air traffic control instructions and clearances and operating carelessly and recklessly, the agency said.
"You engaged in conduct that put your passengers and your crew in serious jeopardy," FAA regional counsel Eddie Thomas said in a letter to Cheney. Northwest Flight 188 was not in communications with controllers or the airline dispatchers "while you were on a frolic of your own. ... This is a total dereliction and disregard for your duties."
A similar letter was sent to Cole.
The pilots said they were brought back to awareness when a flight attendant contacted them on the aircraft's intercom. By then, they were over Wisconsin at 37,000 feet. They turned the Airbus A320 with its 144 passengers around and landed safely in Minneapolis.
Aviation Lawyer Charles Brewer
The revocations of the pilots' commercial licenses are effective immediately, FAA said.
The pilots have 10 days to appeal the emergency revocations to the National Transportation Safety Board. If that fails, they can apply for a new certificate after one year.
The pilots' union at Delta Air Lines, which acquired Northwest last year, had cautioned against a rush to judgment. The pilots told investigators who interviewed them on Sunday that they had no previous accidents or safety incidents.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 01:07PM A jury has awarded $16.57 million to the plaintiffs in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of a Rancho Cordova mother of three who died after a water-drinking contest sponsored by local radio station The End (KDND 107.9 FM).
Sacramento attorney Roger Dreyer of Dreyer, Babich, Buccola & Callaham LLC filed the suit on behalf of Strange’s husband, William Strange, their two children, and Ronald Sims, the father and guardian and Strange’s oldest child.
The family of Strange, who was 28 when she died, sued Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications Corp. and its subsidiary Entercom Sacramento LLC. Entercom owns and operates KDND 107.9 The End. The lawsuit named eight employees of Entercom as defendants, including “managing agents” John Geary, Steve Weed, Robin Pechota and Liz Dial, and “the talent,” Adam Cox, Steve Maney, Patricia Sweet and Matt Carter.
The jury found that neither Strange, nor Entercom Communications, had any fault in her death. They assigned 100 percent of the fault to Entercom Sacramento.
Monday, November 2, 2009 at 11:05AM
Solomon Neuhardt is a dedicated attorney in Billings, MT who specializes in accident and personal injury cases.
With years of experience as an attorney in Billings Montana and surrounding areas, Solomon has developed Neuhardt Law Firm into one of the best in America.
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 09:11AM 
Scott Drake interviews General Counsel founder and managing principal Stuart Blake. The General Counsel, LLC was founded in 2005 with a straightforward mission - offer cost effective, full and part-time in-house general counsel services to fast-growth and mid-size companies. GC helps these businesses chart their growth and mitigate the risks associated with success.
Stuart is an attorney with over 25 years of in house corporate legal experience. Stuart has vast experience in consumer products industries, for which he has counseled on a wide variety of general business, commercial contracts, employment matters, litigation, mergers and acquisitions and corporate compliance and governance. He has a proven track record of forging successful working relationships with executive management teams.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 12:16PM "I'm stunned. The community lost one of its biggest assets," said Rick Laminack, who worked with O'Quinn from 1987 until 2006. "He was a great lawyer who shared a lot of his wealth with people who needed help."
O'Quinn, who made his fortune largely in personal injury cases, most notably in successful breast implant
cases in the early 1990s, was a local philanthropist. He gave money to the Harris County Children's Assessment Center, the Houston Council on Alcohol and Drugs and various Texas Medical Center institutions including St. Luke's Hospital, which has a tower bearing his name..
The football field at the University of Houston's Robertson Stadium also is named for O'Quinn, a big UH supporter.
"Big man, big loss," Laminack said.
He also was a prolific giver to Democratic Party candidates. In the 2006 governor's race, he was the single biggest donor to Democratic nominee Chris Bell's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry. O'Quinn gave Bell $2.5 million. (Dale Lezon, Houston Chronicle)
Making his name in handling plaintiff's litigation among O'Quinn's biggest wins were:
In total, O'Quinn is estimated to have won $1.5 billion for the firm of O'Quinn & Laminack of Houston. According to a 2006 article in Forbes, O'Quinn's own firm had pending cases against stock brokers and hedge funds for shorting the shares of weak companies, and against Ford for rollover accidents caused by the Ford Explorer In the past decade, O'Quinn won, through settlement or verdicts, more than $20 billion for his clients.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 07:33AM The current oversupply of new associates has sent law firms scrambling to implement short-term Firms make most of their new-associate offers to their summer interns. Thus, associate recruitment mostly happens at the intern-selection level. Summer internships operate as a bilateral matching market, in which law firms rank the candidates they interview and the candidates rank firms with which they wish to intern. The labor market "clears" in a decentralized manner. Law firms choose schools from which to interview, interested students at those schools apply to particular firms, the interviewing firms offer summer internship positions to specific students, and the students decide whether to accept the offers.
The American Lawyer
October 13, 2009
adjustments, such as secondments and deferrals. But the legal profession needs more than temporary half-measures. The new-associate recruitment market is fundamentally broken, and it has been for some time. Incremental changes are not going to address its underlying problems. The market needs a structural fix -- a centralized matching authority, like the one that the medical profession has been using for more than half a century.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 03:28PM
(Ringler) After passage by the California State Assembly and Senate, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 11 signed into law Senate Bill 510, which gives greater judicial oversight to prevent predatory practices involving structured settlement annuity buyouts. The new law is much needed and will help stop companies from preying on a very vulnerable segment of the population, says Patrick Farber, a structured settlement broker with Ringler Associates.
Pat FarberInstead of receiving lump sum payments for defendants after a usually life-altering injury, injured parties, under legal and financial counsel, often opt for structured settlements--where payments are spread over time through the purchase of insurance annuities. These annuities are designed to provide long-term financial security and stability to the injured or disabled party and their families. When payments are set up within a structured settlement, payments are tax-free for the life of the annuity. In addition, the settlement is designed so that the injured party or "well meaning" friends and relatives are not tempted to spend the settlement in a reckless manner. Studies show that up to 90 percent of lump sum payments are spent within five years or receipt.
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 12:35PM 
Legal Broadcast Network senior, media hoax, legal correspondent, Sean Carter comments on "balloon boy" and thinks race was a factor in this incident.
Friday, October 23, 2009 at 03:28PM Tax Law Channel Host Rob Wood is clearly on a roll. He discusses a recent article he published in Tax Notes entitled "Why Litigators Need Tax Experts"
Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 07:13AM Tax Law Channel host Rob Wood discusses structuring legal fees...a versatile tool only available to contingent fee lawyers.
If an attorney has a contingent fee arrangement with a client, the lawyer may enter into a structured 
legal fee arrangement under which the defendant, instead of paying the attorney’s fees for the case in a lump sum at the time of settlement, can fund an arrangement that pays the fees over time. As discussed below, payments under a structured legal fee arrangement have been held to not be taxable until actually paid to the attorney. Structured legal fee arrangements are designed to level out the peaks and valleys that generally characterize the fluctuating income of plaintiffs’ attorneys. These arrangements let lawyers defer paying taxes on their fee income. Structuring legal fees is a good way to spread out income, reduce income tax burdens, provide for retirement, or contribute to estate planning.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 07:05AM 
After recieving this misleading press release from Ringler, Factoring Channel host and Settlement Capital Corp. General Counsel Matt Bracy explains how the factoring industry was behind this compromise bill.
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Senate Bill 510 - Will Provide
Greater Protection to Structured Settlement Recipients
LOS ANGLES, CALIF.--After passage by the California State Assembly and Senate, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 11 signed into law Senate Bill 510, which gives greater judicial oversight to prevent predatory practices involving structured settlement annuity buyouts. The new law is much needed and will help stop companies from preying on a very vulnerable segment of the population, says Patrick Farber, a structured settlement broker with Ringler Associates.
Monday, October 19, 2009 at 04:41PM 
(Interview) Political strategist Brad Bannon is president of Bannon Communications Research in Washington DC.
The Senate Finance Committee has approved the $829 billion health care reform bill on a 14-9 vote, with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe the only Republican who voted “yes.”
The vote moves President Barack Obama’s goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system one step closer to reality.
Obama said at the White House that the health care debate was at a “critical moment” and quickly sought to label the Finance bill a bipartisan effort, even though it received only a single GOP vote.
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 02:54PM 
Rob Wood writes in a recent edition of 'Tax Notes" ..."Claims for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and various forms of discrimination (especially race, gender, age, and disability) have burgeoned over the last few decades. To a lesser (but still significant) extent, litigation over the tax treatment of the resulting settlements and judgments has also been active."
The IRS has released a memorandum titled ‘‘Income and Employment Tax Consequences and Proper Reporting of Employment-Related Judgments and Settlements."
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 03:33PM The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.
The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.
Barry Reingold
Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.
The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 02:54PM A lawsuit has been filed in San Francisco County on behalf of Katherine Aschero (Katie) and Rob Aschero. The case involves the destruction of viable embryos without the Ascheros’ consent by a San Francisco fertility clinic. The embryo destruction is shocking in several respects and demonstrates the need for regulation of these clinics.
The complaint alleges that Laurel Fertility Care and its medical and clinical personnel harmed the 
Theresa Ericksonplaintiffs by fertilizing many of Katie’s harvested eggs with a stranger’s sperm, rather than that of her husband Rob. The Aschero’s were informed of this after the fact, but Laurel Fertility Care and its personnel destroyed the resulting viable embryos without the Aschero’s consent and in violation of the contract entered into by the parties.
Oddly enough the the Ashero's attorney, Nancy Hersh, represented a woman whose eggs were fertilized with the wrong man's sperm in the same laboratory at the same location when another physician owned the practice. He lost his medical license after withholding the fact that he had fertilized her eggs with the wrong sperm, only to reveal the truth when the baby was two years old and after a Medical Board investigation. This resulted in a custody battle between the woman and the man whose sperm had been used.
LB Network surrogacy law expert Theresa Erickson comments on the case.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 08:01AM Miami lawyer Stephen N. Zack, a partner in the national law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, was elected as president-elect of the American Bar Association – the first Hispanic American to achieve that distinction. Zack will serve one year as president-elect before taking office as president in August 2010 at the ABA’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
The son of a Cuban mother and American father, Zack is focused on promoting civics education, the importance of inspiring a new generation of lawyers and ABA programs that advance access to justice for everyone in the United States. In addition, he will work to create a commission on Hispanic rights.
“I am proud to be the first Hispanic American slated to become the president of the ABA. This country is still a land of opportunity. I want to work as an advocate for access to justice – and also for the possibilities that can exist for all young students from all backgrounds.”
Stephen ZackIn his speech to the House of Delegates, Zack said he will focus on “two critical areas” of the legal profession – civics education and the high cost of legal education. He said these issues and the programs and strategies to address them will have “an impact on the profession and on future generations.”
In the coming year, Zack, who grew up in Cuba and has practiced law for more than 35 years, will work with other bar associations to develop a pilot program for an American to teach students about everything from making an opening statement to understanding the Bill of Rights. The goal is to eventually enroll a small group of students – half of which would be minority students — from every high school in the United States to participate in an educational program over the President’s Day holiday weekend. Zack called on members of the ABA to get involved.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 07:56AM Legal Broadcast Network senior correspondent Sean Carter provides in depth analysis of the David Letterman extortion plot with Scott Drake.
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 08:44AM When the United States Supreme Court returns from summer break and begins a new term in October, it will have a new Justice and a new, important question to decide. In two cases, Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida, the Court will address whether it is constitutional to sentence a child to permanent imprisonment for an offense committed during a temporary, and especially challenging, period in human development: adolescence.
Stephen HarperThe two cases have not been consolidated but likely will be argued on the same day this November. Both cases ask the Court to address whether the differences between children and adults that led the Court to strike down the death penalty for children also make permanent imprisonment a constitutionally impermissible punishment for a child.
Sullivan
Joe Sullivan is one of only two thirteen-year-olds in the country sentenced to life without parole for an offense that did not involve a killing. In 1989, Joe was a mentally disabled thirteen-year-old child living in a home where he was regularly subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
On the day of the crime, two older boys convinced Joe to participate in a burglary. The three boys entered an empty home and one older boy took some money and jewelry before the three left. That afternoon, the elderly homeowner was sexually assaulted in her home. She never saw her attacker.
One of the older boys, who may have been the true assailant, accused Joe of the sexual battery. Both older boys received short sentences in juvenile detention. Thirteen-year-old Joe Sullivan was charged and tried in adult court.
