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Judge Goes Where Governor and Legislature Fear To Tread
Justice Lucindo Suarez took a bold step February 5 when he judicially imposed a rate of $90 an hour for assigned counsel. The decision in New York County Lawyers' Assoc. v. The State of New York, 102987/00, followed a 16-day bench trial held last summer at which 41 witnesses testified. The judge's lengthy opinion admonished Governor George Pataki and New York's state legislature for failing to raise assigned counsel rates since their last change in 1986.
In recent years, the rates for counsel assigned to represent family court litigants ($40 per hour for in-court work and $25 per hour for out-of-court work, with a per-case cap of $1200) have offered little incentive for attorneys to take on such employment. For example, the court noted that at the time of trial, the administrator of the First Department law guardian program had stated that there were approximately 65 active attorneys available but that she would need 325 panel attorneys to adequately staff the assigned counsel needs of the intake parts in Family Courts in the Bronx and New York Counties.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
Coverage Issues Stemming from Dry Cleaner Contamination Suits
In recent years, there has been a growing number of dry cleaners claiming to be "organic," "green," or "eco-friendly." While that may be true with respect to some, many dry cleaners continue to use a cleaning method involving the use of a solvent called perchloroethylene, commonly known as perc. And, there seems to be an increasing number of lawsuits stemming from environmental problems associated with historic dry cleaning operations utilizing this chemical.