By Carlyn Kolker
Powerful record
4/16/12
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Pulitzers are out. The New York
Times won in international reporting; the Huffington Post in
national reporting. And The Stranger (yes, that's the name), a
weekly newspaper in Seattle with a circulation of 87,000 won for
feature writing - a bit of reporting that we think showcases the
power of legal wordsmithing.
The story, called "The Bravest Woman in Seattle," was
published in June 2011 and chronicled the brutal rape of a
lesbian couple, in which one woman was murdered. To retell the
episode, The Stranger used the surviving victim's court
testimony, but did not publish her name, as she requested. The
witness spoke of the perfect ordinariness of their last days
together, in which the two women talked about planning their
commitment ceremony. "We had one of the deepest conversations
that we'd had in a long time," the surviving victim said of one
their final nights together, and they spoke about having a child
together. Then, in the middle of the night, the victim woke up
to "a man that I could see was naked, standing over the bed with
a knife in his right hand... And the knife immediately went to my
throat."
The trial, writes the Stranger's Eli Sanders, became very
gruesome. "In a building filled with trial horrors, this
courtroom was about to go well beyond the normal-beyond what
most people are brave enough to imagine, let alone recount."
After the story was published, the surviving victim herself
came forward, identified herself as Jennifer Hopper and wrote
her own account of that night, my colleague Barbara Goldberg
reports. Immediately after learning the piece had won the
Pulitzer, Sanders spoke with Hopper: "She's thrilled," he said.
"I didn't expect this. I grabbed onto this story and it grabbed
on to me."
(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg)
Shrinking aid
4/16/12
British divorcees', beware: State aid may not be around to
help you settle legal disputes with your ex. A proposed bill in
the United Kingdom would lop off about 350 million pounds (about
$555 million) to legal aid available to needy spouses in divorce
proceedings, the Guardian reports. The newspaper quotes Sir
Nicholas Wall, the senior family court judge in England and
Wales, who says the cuts will result in a "substantial increase"
in family court litigants ending up in court without lawyers.
The newspaper quotes a family law solicitor who criticizes the
bill as "not child-focused, nor is it family-focused." Still,
the measure could allow for one "good thing," concedes family
lawyer David Allison: it will allow family solicitors to work
with banks to help clients get loans to help pay legal fees.
Helpful connections
4/16/12
Governor Chris Christie has been kind to a range of law
firms in New Jersey - some of whom, no surprise, have been kind
to the governor's administration, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. Like many other states, New Jersey hires private law
firms to go to battle for the state on everything from medical
malpractice matters to complicated financial deals. The state
typically does this through its Division of Law, and according
to the Star-Ledger, some firms that were on the short list
during predecessor Governor Jon Corzine's administration are
being eased out and replaced by Christie administration
favorites. One firm that has scored big is Wolff & Samson, which
earned nearly $2 million during the first two years of the
Christie administration, more than double what it earned during
the last two years of Corzine's administration. Members of the
firm served in various capacity in Christie's campaign. Another
winner is the firm Archer Grenier, which has taken home about $1
million more in fees during the Christie administration, and
which is home to a former Christie campaign adviser. A spokesman
for the New Jersey Attorney General's office, which oversees the
state's legal department, told the newspaper that law firms are
chosen through a competitive review process.
Cottage industry
4/16/12
If you are Rupert Murdoch, the name Mark Lewis might mean a
lot to you. Lewis, a 47-year old lawyer (or, in his native
parlance, "solicitor") from Manchester, England has represented
nearly 100 clients who claim they were hacked by News
Corporation, the New York Times reports. It all started with
soccer player, Gordon Taylor, who turned to Lewis after The News
of the World published an article claiming that Taylor was
having an affair. Lewis filed a defamation lawsuit in 2006. One
thing led to another, and soon there were accusations that News
of the World (now shut down) hacked into Taylor's phone. After
Taylor got a settlement equivalent to more than $1.1 million,
other potential clients came calling - including the mother of
Milly Dowler, the murdered 13-year old, who claimed that News of
the World hacked into her daughter's voice mail. Last fall, when
the News of the World scandal bloomed, Lewis's practice did,
too. And this week he's touring New York visiting potential U.S.
clients, according to the Times. News Corp. declined to comment
to the Times.
Summary Judgments for April 13
Summary Judgments for April 12
Summary Judgments for April 11
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