By David Donovan
Published: May 11,2012
The laws of supply and demand may apply to legal education after all. Eight years ago, over 100,000 students applied to law school nationally, but this year, in the face of relentlessly downbeat news about the employment prospects for lawyers, applications have cratered. Only about 67,000 applicants are expected—but the number of accredited law schools is higher than ever.
By David Donovan
Published: May 11,2012
In its tort reform act of 2005, the South Carolina legislature created new procedural hurdles for patients to clear before they could file suit for medical malpractice. On May 7, the South Carolina Supreme Court declined an opportunity to erect an additional one. After Willie James Fee died in the care of Piedmont Medical Center in 2009, his estate brought a medical malpractice claim against the hospital, alleging that its failure to monitor and treat Fee for bedsores and sepsis contributed to his death.
By Amber Nimocks
Published: May 11,2012
The road to downtown beautification is sometimes paved with expensive surprises, a lesson learned by the town of Summerton in a Clarendon County court earlier this month. A jury decided the town and its design firm, LandPlan Group South, should share in the cost of glitches that arose during a revitalization project.
By Kimberly Atkins
Published: May 11,2012
BOSTON — The recent ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission holding that transgendered workers can bring employment bias claims under Title VII is a “game changer” in employment discrimination law, and could lead to claims under the Act based on sexual orientation.
By The Associated Press
Published: May 4,2012
The South Carolina Supreme Court on May 2 rejected an appeal by James Brown’s former manager and ordered him to pay legal bills for an attorney representing some of the late soul singer’s children. The justices unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling ordering David Cannon to pay fees charged by Atlanta attorney Louis Levenson but reduced the amount owed by $24,000.
By Phillip Bantz
Published: May 4,2012
Too bad pom-poms can’t be used in court. The perfect cheer might have given former Boston College cheerleader Alexandra K. Weishaupt the edge she needed to convince a federal judge that her personal injury case belonged in North Carolina.
By Sharon McCloskey
Published: May 4,2012
The national media is agog these days over the very public implosion of another high-flying law firm, New York’s Dewey & LeBoeuf. At last count, at least 75 of the firm’s 300 partners have departed since January. And the firm has now told the rest to start looking for new jobs, while the Manhattan district attorney’s office has opened an investigation into the handling of the firm’s finances by ousted chairman Steven Davis. Though uncommon, Dewey’s demise is not unprecedented.
By Amber Nimocks
Published: May 4,2012
A clean break can mean more than money, but the woman who sued Laurens County Sheriff Ricky Chastain for sexual harassment got both when she agreed to a $35,000 settlement last month, according to her attorney John G. Reckenbeil. Allison Haley Manley alleged in a 2011 suit that Chastain, her former boss, conspired with other sheriff’s department employees to force her out of her job after their two-and-a-half year affair resulted in multiple pregnancies, which he asked her to abort.
By Phillip Bantz
Published: May 4,2012
Only one law enforcement agency in the Carolinas is known to have a drone aircraft, and that $30,000 remote-controlled machine is collecting dust in a storage unit. But it and others could soon be put to surveillance use. The Federal Aviation Administration is on the verge of releasing new guidelines that will make it easier for police and other public safety agencies to apply for licenses to fly small drones at low altitudes.
By Sylvia Hsieh
Published: April 27,2012
As tax season ends, tax fraud is in the air. Lawyers have seen an uptick in people reporting employers, financial companies or high-worth individuals for ripping off the Treasury. Under a relatively new and lesser known whistleblower law, anyone can report suspected tax fraud to the IRS, and if the government prosecutes the case and recovers unpaid taxes, the individual shares in the recovery.
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