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Anthony lawyer rises from obscurity to legal fame
Legal Business |
2011/07/12 09:25
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Three years ago, Jose Baez's name was barely a blip in the legal community.
This was a lawyer who made his way to the profession after dropping out of high school, getting a GED and going into the Navy. He tried several failed businesses — including two bikini companies — before he eventually enrolled at Florida State University and St. Thomas University School of Law. It took another eight years for him to be admitted to the bar.
Now he's arguably one of the most recognizable attorneys in the country after his client Casey Anthony was acquitted in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in a case marked by a captivated national audience and searing scrutiny of every legal twist.
For the last three years since, Baez faced questions from other attorneys and TV commentators about his lack of criminal law experience and tactics. Now he's a legal celebrity almost certain to be offered interviews, book offers and possibly movie deals that could bring hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I think this is obviously life-altering for Jose Baez, said Terry Lenamon, a former member of Anthony's defense team, who left the case in 2008 after a disagreement over strategy.
Baez, 42, took Anthony's case pro bono in 2008, after getting a referral from a former client who shared a cell with Anthony following her initial arrest. He has handled the case since then, operating on state funds available to Anthony because of her indigent status, and from an early $200,000 she received from licensing photos and videos to ABC News. |
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Bank of America settlement faces challenge
Legal Business |
2011/07/05 22:24
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Bank of America's $8.5 billion settlement with investors over poor-quality mortgage bonds is facing a new challenge.
On Tuesday, a group of bond investors calling themselves Walnut Place said they objected to the terms of the settlement. In a filing with the New York Supreme Court, the investors said they wanted to be excluded from the settlement that was struck after negotiations between the bank and 22 institutional investors such as BlackRock Inc., the Federal Reserve Bank, and Pimco. The settlement was meant to cover a broader group of investors being represented by a trustee.
The Walnut Place group said the 22 investors were self-appointed and didn't represent or solicit the views of the broader group of bondholders. The group also said the talks were held in secret.
A Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson said in a statement that the conversations between the bank and investors were publicly disclosed and were far from secretive. The settlement agreement was designed to give certificate holders, like those behind the Walnut Place entities, an opportunity to have any objections heard, the statement read. |
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BofA Near $8.5B Deal to Settle Big Investors' Claims
Legal Business |
2011/06/29 10:30
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div class=entrydiv class=articlepBank of America Corp. is close to finalizing a deal to pay $8.5 billion to settle claims by a group of investors that the bank sold them poor-quality mortgage-backed securities that went sour when the housing market tanked, according to a person familiar with the settlement talks./ppThe Charlotte, North Carolina, bank was continuing talks late Tuesday with the group, which includes the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Pimco Investment Management, the world's largest bondholder, and Blackrock Financial Management. It is expected to announce an agreement as early as Wednesday, the person said on condition of anonymity because the matter was still developing./ppThe deal comes eight months after the group fired off a letter to Bank of America demanding that it repurchase $47 billion in mortgages that its Countrywide unit sold to them in the form of bonds. The investors have argued that Countrywide's practice of modifying loans found to have faulty paperwork or those written outside of normal underwriting standards breached signed agreements with the investors. By continuing to service bad loans rather than speeding up foreclosures, the group has claimed that Countrywide ran up servicing fees, enriching itself at the expense of investors. The New York Fed is involved because it took over assets held by American International Group Inc., which faltered under the weight of bad home loans that it insured./ppBank of America, which paid $4 billion for Countrywide in 2008, has dismissed suggestions that its handling of loan modifications and other efforts to prevent foreclosure have violated the terms of the mortgage-backed securities that the investors hold. In November, CEO Brian Moynihan said he was in day-to-day hand-to-hand combat with investors' demands./p/div
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Supreme Court limits Wal-Mart sex bias case
Legal Business |
2011/06/20 04:22
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The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of women who work there.
The court ruled unanimously that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cannot proceed as a class action, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The lawsuit could have involved up to 1.6 million women, with Wal-Mart facing potentially billions of dollars in damages.
Now, the handful of women who brought the lawsuit may pursue their claims on their own, with much less money at stake and less pressure on Wal-Mart to settle.
The justices divided 5-4 on another aspect of the ruling that could make it much harder to mount similar class-action discrimination lawsuits against large employers.
Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion for the court's conservative majority said there needs to be common elements tying together literally millions of employment decisions at once.
But Scalia said that in the lawsuit against the nation's largest private employer, That is entirely absent here.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court's four liberal justices, said there was more than enough uniting the claims. Wal-Mart's delegation of discretion over pay and promotions is a policy uniform throughout all stores, Ginsburg said.
Business interests lined up with Wal-Mart while civil rights, women's and consumer groups have sided with the women plaintiffs. |
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Texas teachers may get student criminal histories
Legal Business |
2011/06/13 20:30
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Texas is close to enacting a law that would provide teachers with detailed information about the criminal histories of their students, opening juvenile files that have always been confidential and are unavailable in most states.
The legislation, spurred by the fatal stabbing of a high school teacher in Tyler in 2009, is adding to a national debate over whether teacher safety should outweigh the rights of young offenders, who traditionally have moved through the juvenile justice system with their privacy protected.
The new disclosure rules were passed by legislators with little public attention last month. A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry said the governor is thoughtfully reviewing the measure before deciding whether to sign it.
Many juvenile justice experts oppose the new disclosures, saying that they would undercut the purpose of youth corrections — allowing young people to move beyond early mistakes to lead normal lives. But many educators insist that teachers are in too much danger.
The bottom line is protecting teachers, said Rep. Jerry Madden, a Republican from the Dallas suburb of Plano, who sponsored the legislation.
Texas law already gives schools more background information on students than most states permit. The new law would significantly expand the details released, including accounts of crimes committed. |
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