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Panel attorneys defending clients in federal criminal cases will have their pay rates restored beginning on March 1, 2014. The “raise” applies to all districts that use panel attorneys, including the Tenth Circuit. Now hourly compensation for panel attorneys that represent non-capital cases will receive $126 an hour, while capital representations will receive $180 an hour, according to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The pay increase was authorized by the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States on February 10....

When we last left the City of San Jose in its ongoing battle with the behemoth known as Major League Baseball, it was trying to fast-track an antitrust lawsuit against MLB to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Well, the Ninth Circuit has decided, and with Judge Alex Kozinski at the bat, San Jose – like Mighty Casey – has struck out. When a Major League Baseball team wants to move into another team’s geographic territory, three-fourths of the MLB teams must agree....

Warrior Sports, Inc. v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 09-1395, involved a suit brought by a manufacturer and distributor of lacrosse sticks against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), claiming that, by changing the rule that governs the size of lacrosse stick heads approved for use in NCAA-sanctioned play, the NCAA violated the Sherman Act and tortiously interfered with plaintiff’s business. Meister v. US Dep’t of Agric. & US Forest Serv,, 09-1712, concerned a challenge to the district court’s entry of judgment in favor of the United States Forest Service’s (Service), in plaintiff’s suit claiming that the Service disregarded relevant criteria and failed to comply with several of its own regulations and federal statute in developing its management plan for national forests in Northern Michigan....

The American Bar Association’s latest survey on law firm hiring, compensation, leadership, and attrition found that white men still made up the vast majority of high earners at law firms in 2020. White male attorneys made up 71% of the top 10% compensation group, distantly followed by white female attorneys (who account for only 13%). Black attorneys represented less than 1% of the top earners, although the numbers were slightly better for those at small firms....

The movement to more widely recognize and celebrate Juneteenth continues. Juneteenth is the remembrance of the last Black Americans who were emancipated, which occurred in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. It began being celebrated almost immediately in Texas and spread throughout the South in the following years. It is considered the oldest emancipation celebration in the U.S. However, there is some confusion over how many states recognize Juneteenth, how many include it as an official state holiday, and whether businesses will be giving their employees paid time off....

The saying goes: “If you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Well, Major League Baseball unfortunately took this old adage a bit too seriously. It was revealed that MLB has been significantly underpaying their minor league players for decades, claiming that they were “apprentices.” But it turns out that sports teams can’t just treat their players like their jobs are nothing more than recreation....

A federal judge in Minneapolis recently tossed the indictments of five American Indians arrested in a major fish poaching bust on Indian reservations in northern Minnesota. The judge ruled the men were protected under an 1837 treaty. But another federal judge in the same district came to the exact opposite conclusion – even though the case was borne from the same undercover investigation. The Eighth Circuit may have to get on board, get its feet wet on the issue, and reel in a solution to this extraordinary split....

Medicaid enforcement. ERISA plans with fiduciary duties. And inflated natural gas prices. What do these three things have in common? None of them would pique the interest of the average American. But immigration issues due to alleged ties to terrorism? Being locked out of a country where your U.S. citizen wife lives? That’s compelling. That’s something that will make the headlines when decided. But first, let’s look at the cases only the lawyers could love:...

In a non-party’s appeal from the district court’s denial of an “Application for Permission to Interview Jurors for Instructional Purposes” pursuant to N.D. Okla. L.R. 47.2.1, the appeal is construed as a writ of mandamus and the district court is ordered to reconsider the matter pursuant to a meaningful exercise of its discretion in support of its ultimate determination. Read Clyma v. Sunoco, Inc., No. 08-5153 Appellate Information Filed February 3, 2010...

Judgment creditor’s request for turnover of defendant’s assets held in trusts in the names of defendant’s children Dexia Credit Local v. Rogan, 09-2986, concerned a plaintiff’s suit for supplemental proceedings, requesting turnover of assets held in trusts that defendant had established, including trusts in the names of each of defendant’s three adult children, to satisfy a $124 million judgment against defendant. Further, defendant’s children were not entitled to have a jury decide whether defendant owned and controlled the assets that were held in the children’s trusts, and the statute of limitations and the statute of repose cited by defendant’s children did not bar the supplemental proceedings....

In the early 90s, Charles Rhines brutally murdered a donut shop employee while committing a robbery. There’s no dispute about that, at least not anymore. Rhines confessed and got sentenced to the death penalty, and has been on death row ever since, despite his numerous unsuccessful appeals and efforts to seek habeas relief. Recently, it is being reported that Rhines’s death sentence is related to the fact that he is a gay man....

According to a recently filed class action lawsuit, Wells Fargo may have been helping out a failing real estate investment firm, known as EquityBuild, cheat their investors. The lawsuit, brought against Wells Fargo, alleges that the bank knew that EquityBuild was paying old investors with the money it received from new investors. The case further alleges that Wells Fargo even provided financing to help EquityBuild perpetuate their scheme. Investors Fight Back The investment firm, which was busted by the SEC last year, offered investors the chance to earn 12 to 20% returns from actual income generating real estate holdings....

When Bryce Cleary was a first-year medical student who donated sperm to his school’s fertility clinic in 1989, internet genealogy sites and mail-in DNA tests didn’t exist. Now they do, of course, and so there are tools to not only identify paternity but to show whether donor sperm from long ago was misused. In the case of Cleary, who is now a primary-care physician in a small Oregon town, that is precisely what happened....

OK, folks, we know times are tough. Anxiety levels are through the roof for countless of us out there. A trip to the grocery store or pharmacy can cause someone to be way more nervous than they normally ever would be. So, be nice to the people out there who have to keep going to work every day: doctors, nurses, cashiers, pharmacists, police, firefighters, EMTs, and many others.​ And, it should seem obvious, but part of being nice to people means not coughing on them....

Joseph Konrad pleaded guilty to charges of making false statement to the Federal Aviation Administration in 2010. Based on the information he disclosed in a financial disclosure affidavit, he was assigned a federal defender pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act. During sentencing, the district court noted differences between Konrad’s affidavit and presentencing report. Based on the discrepancies he was ordered to reimburse $6,000 in legal fees because he in fact, had funds to pay for an attorney....

In the wake of the allegations made by Christine Ford against Brett Kavanaugh, two more women have come forward with their own accounts. As of yet, only one of the two other women have publicly come forward though. Debbie Ramirez, a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s, has described a college dormitory party she attended, where Kavanaugh is alleged to have exposed himself to her, in front of several others. And though Kavanaugh steadfastly denies these allegations, reports seem to suggest that Ramirez’s account has been substantiated by others....

Your local No Tell Motel can truly live up to its name, thanks to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court. Last week, the High Court gave a wink and nod to secret lovers and hotel clerks throughout the land, ruling that laws allowing police to inspect hotel registries without a warrant are unconstitutional. Of course, those registries weren’t just tracking your evening visits to the love shack, they were often used to investigate all sorts of criminal behavior, from murder to meth making....

There is a game you can play online when you have a few minutes that went viral on social media some time ago. Type in your preferred search engine the words “a Florida man . . .” and your birthday. The results will involve crazy headlines and hard-to-believe hijinks. Pick the one that best fits you, and post on social media. It’s called The Florida Man Challenge. Now there’s a variant....

Doctors’ “orders” do not trump federal law and Supreme Court precedent. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a medical marijuana prescription is not an “order” to smoke pot, and does not excuse a releasee from Federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) violations. Roshaja Harvey served approximately 10 years in prison for armed bank robbery. Afterwards, he began a five year term of supervised release. Among the mandatory conditions of his supervised release, Harvey was ordered to “refrain from any unlawful use of a controlled substance....

The National Labor Relations Act, in order to create a nationally uniform corpus of labor law, generally preempts labor regulation on the state and local level. There are exceptions, however, including the ability for states to adopt “right to work” laws. But does that state exemption extend down to the local government as well? Yes, according to the Sixth Circuit, which last week upheld local “right to work” ordinances, finding that they were not preempted by the NLRA....