Home » Search

Search Results

7181 results for 'articles'

To refine your search through our archives use our Advanced Search

Chief public defender resigning

The chief public defender in Marion County plans to leave his post in February.Chief Public Defender David E. Cook submitted his resignation this week, announcing his intent to stay on until Feb 15. so that a successor can be found.Cook has been the most visible face of the organization since 1995, two years after it was established. He’s a former deputy prosecutor and defense attorney, who’s now been the agency’s chief executive responsible for working with judges and elected officials and…

Court examines ‘judge’ definition

The Indiana Appeals Court today upheld the convictions and sentence of man who sent threatening letters to the Marion County Prosecutors Office, a judge, and commissioner after being ordered to have no contact.To be clear in its decision, the appellate court delved into the definition of “judge” and determined the term does include a county commissioner who handles legal matters for the court.In Allen Montgomery v. State of Indiana, No. 49A04-0703-CR-188, Montgomery appealed his two Class D felony convictions for intimidation and 11…

Marion County judges start teleconferencing for weekly meeting

Hearing what happens at the Marion Superior Court Executive Committee meeting no longer means you have to attend the weekly gathering Friday mornings.Starting tomorrow, all you need is a telephone.The court will begin using a teleconferencing system for the 8 a.m. meeting, giving up to 30 people the option of listening and participating by phone rather than attending – which is still a choice.Topics on the Friday agenda for the four-person committee include building authority construction projects involving court build outs,…

Pro bono director selected for SCOTUS fellowship

A commission of nine members chosen by the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court has selected Monica A. Fennell, executive director of the Indiana Pro Bono Commission, as the 2007-2008 U.S. Supreme Court fellow assigned to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Her fellowship begins in the fall.Fennell ;s responsibilities would include the analysis and implementation of studies requested by Congress or the Judicial Conference, researching the federal rulemaking process, or drafting publications on administrative issues of…

Justices: law requires courts’ reasons in sentencing

Trial courts must issue sentencing statements that include a detailed account of the judge’s reasons for imposing penalties, such as aggravators and mitigators, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled today.Additionally, the state’s highest court has reiterated that it will only review a sentence on the grounds of abuse of discretion.In a ruling that answers questions left open following the 2005 revision of state law regarding Indiana’s sentencing structure, justices unanimously affirmed a Kosciusko Superior judge’s decision in Alexander J. Anglemyer v. State…

Attorneys suspended over registration fees

More than twice as many Indiana practicing attorneys were suspended this year for not paying their registration fees, compared to 2006.Those 133 attorneys were suspended this week from the practice of law – on top of 111 colleagues also suspended this week for not meeting continuing legal education requirements.A set of two orders came from the Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday, though the registration fee suspension order wasn’t immediately available from the courts. It was posted online late Thursday. The orders…

Court increases registration fee for lawyers

Indiana attorneys will have to pay $10 more a year to be licensed to practice law in the state, though they’ll still fare better than most of their colleagues around the country.The Indiana Supreme Court issued an order this week increasing the fee from $105 to $115, making it effective for this year’s Oct. 1 due date.This is the first increase in five years, when the fee rose from $95 to $105.Delinquency fees stay the same: $65 will be added for fees…

Indiana governor subpoenaed in Vioxx litigation

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels will testify this fall in the ongoing federal court litigation involving recalled painkiller Vioxx, which is being blamed for thousands of heart attacks nationwide.Documents in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana’s online filing system show that subpoenas went out Tuesday, and Daniels will give a taped deposition in Indianapolis Sept. 11. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is scheduled to do the same Sept. 4 in his home state.Both governors have ties to the drug industry -…

Court rules on grandparent visitation

What is likely to be a ruling of first impression in Indiana and one of a few nationally, the Indiana Court of Appeals today reversed a ruling that had ended a grandmother’s visitation with her grandson following the adoption of her adult mother.The 11-page ruling comes in a guardianship action involving the minor, J.E.M, in Maxine E. Handshoe v. Jessica L. Ridgway, No. 76A03=0612-CV-603.Grandmother Maxine Handshoe is appealing the Steuben Circuit ruling that terminated her visitation privileges with her biological grandson,…

Southern Indiana loses longtime municipal lawyer

An Evansville city attorney who was a longtime municipal advisor and considered an expert in that area of the law has died.Kevin Wayne Winternheimer, 52, died Tuesday night after a battle with liver and pancreatic cancer, according to a statement released by the mayor’s office Wednesday afternoon. He had served as a legal advisor to four mayors – both Democrat and Republican, six corporate counsels, and had served as counsel to almost every board and officeholder in Evansville and Vanderburgh County.Graduating…

Court rules on military retirement benefits during divorce

State courts can’t treat military retirement pay waived for veterans’ disability pay as marital property to be divided during divorce, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled today.Citing caselaw from the nation’s highest court, a unanimous three-judge panel reversed and remanded a Randolph County decision in William A. Griffin, Jr. v. Shari L. Griffin, No. 68A01-0611-CV-491.William and Shari married in 1985 and divorced in 2006, agreeing as part of the dissolution to divide in half his $1,522 retirement pay from the U.S. Air…

Court accepts habitual traffic violator case

The Indiana Supreme Court decided Thursday to consider a case that presents an issue of first impression regarding an Operating While being a Habitual Traffic Violator statute.In the case State of Indiana v. Karl D. Jackson, 29A02-0610-CR-867, the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles determined in 2003 that Karl D. Jackson was a habitual traffic violator and suspended his license. The state agency mailed a notice to Jackson, but he hadn’t notified the BMV that he had moved so he never received it.A…

Carmel met requirements for Southwest Clay annexation

The Indiana Supreme Court today found for the City of Carmel in a case regarding landowners who opposed annexation of their property in Southwest Clay Township following a settlement between the city and an organization who called themselves No Ordinance for Annexation (NOAX), who filed a remonstrance and agreed to the settlement in 2005.The opinion, City of Carmel, Indiana v. Certain Southwest Clay Township Annexation Territory Landowners, 29S00-0608-CV-300, addresses two issues, according to Bryan Babb, an attorney who represents the City…

7th Circuit rules on multiplicitous convictions

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals encountered for the first time the issue of whether a single incident of firearm possession can support multiple convictions under United States Code when the defendant is included in more than one class of people who are disqualified under the statute from possessing firearms.

State waited too long to file charges, court rules

The Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed a voluntary manslaughter case on grounds that prosecutors waited too long to file charges.Appellate judges issued a decision today in Ralph Barnett v. State of Indiana, 48A02-0605-CR-389 which stems from a 1993 physical confrontation at the Pendleton Correctional Facility. Barnett got into fight with fellow inmate Ricky Combs after being released from cells for a creation session, and Barnett maneuvered a handmade pick away from Combs before starting to walk away. When Combs attacked…

Longtime trial lawyer Townsend dies

Indiana has lost a pioneer who has been a fixture in the personal injury legal community for more than six decades.Earl C. Townsend Jr., who co-founded Indianapolis law firm Townsend & Townsend and went on to become one of the most recognized names in the legal community, has died. He was 92.Along with his brother John, he helped establish the law firm Townsend & Townsend in downtown Indianapolis after graduating in 1940 from the University of Michigan Law School. He remained…

SCOTUS to hear East Chicago case in October

The court docket for the nation’s highest court is published, and the Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments in an East Chicago case during the first week it returns in October.Justices will consider U.S. v. Efrain Santos as its sixth case of the term on Oct. 3, according to the session calendar. It will be the first Indiana case heard by the high court since the Hammond v. Indiana arguments in March 2006. The court agreed in April…

Dubious people no threat at federal courthouse in Indianapolis

Suspicious camouflage-clad characters were thought to be creeping on the roof of the federal courthouse in Indianapolis this morning.But a report about 9 a.m. to the U.S. Marshals Office in Indianapolis turned out to be “completely unfounded,” according to senior inspector Mark Robinett.Rather than a viable security threat, though, the call from the Chase building across the street turned out to involve window washers, according to accounts from both Robinett and Jo McNight, chief deputy clerk at the U.S. District Court…

COA reverses annexation decision

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision in a northern Indiana annexation case, citing a recent ruling on the subject from the Indiana Supreme Court. In the case In the Matter of the Annexation Proposed by Ordinance No. 2004-11-38, et al. v. Chris Fetcko, et al., 45A03-0611-CV-549, the city of Crown Point appealed the trial court’s order granting the motion for involuntary dismissal filed by Fetcko and other remonstrators to a city ordinance annexing certain land. Crown Point…

SCOTUS rules on patent obviousness

The Supreme Court of the United States today ruled that an invention can be too obvious for a patent.Taking up the patent issue and question of “How obvious is too obvious?” for the first time in 20 years, the court ruled unanimously in KSR International v. Teleflex that a gas pedal design was too obvious.Engineering company Teleflex sued KSR International, a Canadian maker of gas pedals, for alleged infringement of a patent it owned on an adjustable gas pedal assembly (which…