state supreme

Albany Diocese says pension fight not why it filed for bankruptcy

SCHENECTADY — When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany filed for Chapter 11 last week, it noted that its outstanding litigation with state Attorney General Letitia James and others over the collapse of the St. Clare’s Hospital pension plan is not the reason why it sought bankruptcy protection.

Rather, it was the more than 440 lawsuits that have been filed against the diocese under the state’s Child Victims Act since 2019 — 50 of which have been settled — that prompted the diocese to file for bankruptcy.

The diocese does acknowledge the ongoing St. Clare’s litigation, albeit briefly, in its bankruptcy papers filed March 15 in U.S. District Court in Albany.

But the papers note that the St. Clare’s cases, which have been consolidated in state Supreme Court in Schenectady for both discovery and trial, were “not a precipitating cause” of the bankruptcy as might be assumed.

In fact, the diocese went out of its way to try and assure St. Clare’s pensioners in a press release issued last week that the pension lawsuits are “not the diocese’s purpose for filing” Chapter 11, although it will have the effect of putting the pension litigation “on hold” during the bankruptcy

… Read the rest
March 21, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Feds asks judge to block ex-Milford strip club owner bankruptcy

BRIDGEPORT — A federal government lawyer says a Fairfield man who used to own a Milford strip club should be barred from declaring bankruptcy, citing dozens of separate instances in which he allegedly concealed assets or “knowingly and fraudulently” failed to disclose details of his financial affairs — including tens of thousands of dollars in checks signed by a former reputed mobster.

The feds’ complaint in the case of Joseph Regensburger, former president of Keepers, comes weeks after the Woodmont Road “gentlemen’s club” asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a $113,560 judgment to dancers who worked there affirmed by the Connecticut Appellate Court in October. 

Regensbuger did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday – and declined to speak during a hearing in the bankruptcy case last month before Judge Julie Manning.

The latest developments come more than seven years after the exotic dancers first filed a lawsuit in the case claiming they were not being paid a minimum wage or overtime after working 40 hours in any week and were fined for breaking the club rules — and more than three years after an arbitrator initially ruled in their favor.

A judge confirmed the arbitrator’s ruling in October

… Read the rest
December 21, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Lawyer is disbarred after trying to run his law practice from jail
  1. Home
  2. Web First
  3. Lawyer is disbarred after trying to run his…

Ethics

Lawyer is disbarred after trying to run his law practice from jail

By Debra Cassens Weiss

old jail cells

Image from Shutterstock.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has disbarred a lawyer who continued practicing law from jail after his conviction for shooting and injuring a man outside an Oklahoma City nightclub.

The state supreme court disbarred lawyer Jay Silvernail after rejecting a recommendation for a suspension of two years and one day.

The silvernail-shot-ryan-dejesus-outsi.html”Legal Profession Blog has highlights from the June 28 opinion.

Silvernail had tried to continue his law practice while he was in the county jail awaiting sentencing for the May 2016 shooting of Ryan Dejesus, who lost most of his right leg as a result of the gunshot wound.

Silvernail “was more interested in cash flow than client care,” the state supreme court said. And his decision to bring a loaded gun into a verbal dispute with Dejesus “gives us grave concerns about his fitness to practice law,” the Oklahoma Supreme Court added.

Silvernail was convicted of assault and battery with a deadly weapon in October 2019 for shooting Dejesus,

… Read the rest
July 13, 2022 by LAW

Judge ponders blocking law that bans abortions in Mississippi

Mississippi is just hours from banning abortion in most instances, but an eleventh-hour lawsuit before a special state judge could at least temporarily delay the “trigger law” from going into effect.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that abortion is a protected right under the state Constitution and that right cannot be taken away unless the state’s high court reverses itself, attorneys representing the state’s only abortion clinic told a chancery judge on Tuesday.

Based on that 1998 ruling, Jackson attorney Rob McDuff asked Chancery Judge Debbra Halford of Franklin County to issue an injunction preventing laws that would ban most abortions in Mississippi from taking effect. McDuff and Hillary Schneller, senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, represented Jackson Women’s Health Organization in the lawsuit.

“The primary issue before you is whether the decision of the Mississippi Supreme Court is binding and we clearly believe it is,” McDuff said Tuesday morning during a hearing in the Hinds County Chancery Court Building that lasted about 45 minutes.

READ MORE: Hearing set in Mississippi lawsuit trying to prevent abortion ban

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, arguing on behalf of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, told Halford that the 1998

… Read the rest
July 8, 2022 by LAW

Judge won’t block law banning most Mississippi abortions

JACKSON, Miss. — As attorneys argued about abortion laws across the South on Tuesday, a Mississippi judge rejected a request by the state’s only abortion clinic to temporarily block a law that would ban most abortions.

Without other developments in the Mississippi lawsuit, the clinic will close at the end of business Wednesday and the state law will take effect Thursday.

One of the clinic’s attorneys, Hillary Schneller of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the judge should have blocked the law.

“People in Mississippi who need abortions right now are in a state of panic, trying to get into the clinic before it’s too late,” Schneller said. “No one should be forced to live in fear like that.”

Mississippi legislators passed the “trigger” law before the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, sought a temporary restraining order that would have allowed it to remain open while the lawsuit played out in court.

“This law has the potential to save the lives of thousands of unborn Mississippi children,” Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said after the judge’s ruling. “It is a great victory for life. I

… Read the rest
July 7, 2022 by LAW
April 2024
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930