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More than $840,000 was awarded Monday to 96 victims of illegal searches, seizures and use of excessive force by the now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force, including a dozen juveniles who were targeted by a Brooklyn Park police officer. The scandal-ridden gang unit, shut down by the Department of Public Safety three years ago this month, broke through people's doors without justification, seized property without authorization and injured people who were not suspects, according to reports by Mark Gehan, a St. Paul attorney appointed as special master in the case.

Hannah Smith, Senior Counsel. Courtesy of the Becket Fund. Washington D.C., Jun 28, 2012 / 02:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the 2010 health care law, a leading religious freedom law firm has new confidence in the future of its lawsuits against the federal contraception mandate. Hannah Smith, senior counsel at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, explained that the arguments against the law that were recently rejected by the court are “separate and distinct legal challenges” from those being brought against the contraception mandate. In a June 28 press call...

In what can only be described as one of the most bizarre lawsuits ever filed, a New Jersey woman is suing an area 13-year-old because she suffered injuries after he made an errant throw at a Little League game. Making the case more extreme is the fact that the prospective defendant wasn't even 13 when he made the throw that accidentally struck the victim: He was 11. The accident which eventually led to Lloyd's suit came when a catcher, then 11-year-old Matthew Migliaccio, attempted to throw a ball back to a pitcher in the bullpen while he was warming up...

The family of a Georgia man who died when his heart couldn’t take a three-way sex romp was awarded a hefty $3 million payout by a jury, according to reports. William Martinez’s estate was originally seeking $5 million in a medical malpractice case that claimed a cardiologist failed to warn the 31-year-old to stay away from physical activity. While Gwinnett County jurors sided with the family Tuesday, they agreed to a lesser amount after finding Martinez was 40% liable for his own death, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday. Martinez, a husband and father of two, was engaged in a threesome...

E. J. Dionne, a liberal columnist for The Washington Post, suggested in a Monday blog post that Catholic leaders who are opposing the Obama administration's birth control mandate could be doing so to help Republicans in the November elections. Dionne was responding to the Monday lawsuits from 43 Catholic agencies. They sued the Obama administration over the requirement to provide coverage for contraception, sterilization and some abortifacient drugs in their health plans. These agencies did not qualify for the religious exemption because the exemption defines religious groups as only those that primarily hire and serve coreligionists, and for which religious...

AUTOS Updated May 16, 2012, 7:50 p.m. ET GM Claims Immunity For Its Old Cars By Mike Spector GM pushed a lawyer to drop a potential punitive-damages claim involving a prebankruptcy vehicle involved in a fatal accident, asserting a level of immunity in that some lawyers claim is a stretch. A General Motors Co. (GM) lawyer demanded the widow of a car-crash victim drop a plan to seek punitive damages from the auto maker, even though the company's government-brokered overhaul doesn't bar plaintiffs from going after such legal penalties. The GM lawyer in a March 3 email told a lawyer...

(Reuters) - An internal NBC News probe has determined a "seasoned" producer was to blame for a misleading clip of a 911 call that the network broadcast during its coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting, according to two sources at the network. NBC News brass interviewed more than half a dozen staffers during its investigation of the misleadingly edited 911 call placed by George Zimmerman just before he shot the unarmed Florida teenager, said the sources, one of whom is an executive at the network. The clip aired on the network's flagship "Today" morning show last week. The edit made...

A long-standing legal charade was played out again recently, when Federal Express paid $3 million to settle an employment discrimination case brought by the U.S. Department of Labor. Federal Express was accused of both racial discrimination and sex discrimination. FedEx denied it. Why then did they pay the $3 million? Because it can cost a lot more than $3 million to fight a discrimination case. Years ago, the Sears department store chain spent $20 million fighting a sex discrimination charge that took 15 years to make its way through the legal labyrinth. In the end, Sears won — if...

President Obama's Department of Justice -- led by Attorney General Eric Holder -- has found a new way to make the Americans with Disabilities Act pay off for Democratic trial lawyer campaign donors. Since the ADA first became law in 1990, the DOJ has been issuing "guidelines" that businesses must follow to comply with a multitude of the nation's civil rights laws. For example, if a restaurant bathroom has a light switch that is 52 inches above the floor, then that business is in compliance. But if the light switch is 53 inches above the floor, than the restaurant owner...

President Obama's Department of Justice -- led by Attorney General Eric Holder -- has found a new way to make the Americans with Disabilities Act pay off for Democratic trial lawyer campaign donors...The DOJ has been issuing a growing wave of such guidelines over the years, reaching an ever larger portion of business activities. In September 2010, the DOJ issued guidelines for "recreational facilities," including a new rule that all public access swimming pools must provide a lift capable of moving disabled patrons from their wheelchairs into the water... On Jan. 31 of this year, DOJ granted the industry's call...

ELIZABETH, N.J., March 7 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man claims his winning $77 million lottery ticket was purchased independently, and is not the ticket he bought for a pool of five co-workers. In a civil lawsuit that began Tuesday in Elizabeth, N.J., plaintiffs are accusing Americo Lopes of fraud, and demand that he share his winnings with them. Lopes was the organizer of a lottery pool at the construction company where he worked, and made regular purchases of betting tickets. On Nov. 10, 2009 he held a winning Mega Millions ticket, but did not inform his co-workers, instead telling...

The Virginia Supreme Court has issued a ruling in the case of Casey v. Merck & Co. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had asked the Virginia court to rule on two issues regarding Virginia law and a statute of limitations for class actions. A class action was filed ...

Attempts to look at the taxpayer-funded ruminations of a taxpayer-funded climate researcher suffered a setback today in Virginia where a split decision by the state’s high court said essentially, it’s none of your business what Michael Mann was writing about his taxpayer-funded work. State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli lost a verdict that permits continued suppression of evidence in the Michael Mann “hockey stick” graph controversy. But it’s probably not the last note in this song, not by a long shot....

African-American brokers employed by Merrill Lynch can pursue racial discrimination claims in a class action. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago, on Feb. 24 reversed a District Court ruling, permitting the class action. The plaintiffs say there were two companywide policies that are alleged to cause racial bias. One was ...

African-American brokers employed by Merrill Lynch can pursue racial discrimination claims in a class action. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago, on Feb. 24 reversed a District Court ruling, permitting the class action. The plaintiffs say there were two companywide policies that are alleged to cause racial bias. One was ...

For years defendants in tort cases have said that Philadelphia's courts are biased, but little in the way of empirical data was available to substantiate the claims. But, a new study - by Professor Joshua D. Wright for the International Center of Law and Economics (ICLE), Portland, Ore. - indicates that the accusations of structural biases in favor of plaintiffs are justified. Wright is a law professor at George Mason University School of Law School in Arlington, Va. The study, originally published in October 2011, has updated information as of February 2012 that ...

The people of the United States ordained a Constitution of limited government. As time passes, the people have more of the “government” and less of the “limited.” Americans must work at maintaining their freedoms. Defense of the constitutional freedom of association involved in choosing roommates to share housing illustrates the effort required. Government has attempted to regulate our ability to choose a roommate, but efforts to resist that intrusion pay off in preserved liberty. Tricia Rowe, a 31-year-old single woman who owned a three bedroom, single-family house, wanted a roommate. She posted on a church bulletin board a notice that...

Obama the Chicken is Being Plucked by Mark McGrew January 29 through the 31st, 5% of the sheriffs in America are in Las Vegas Nevada, learning how to tell the Federal government agents to pack sand and get out of town. 20% of the 50 United States of America have been presented with lawsuits and or legal filings challenging the eligibility of Barack Obama to be on the ballot for the 2012 election... Read all 3 parts here: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/30-01-2012/120356-obama_the_chicken-0/

CHRISTIAN & MISSIONARY ALLIANCE DECLARES WAR ON CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION Subject: Christian & Missionary Alliance seize Christian firefighter/pastor's church and bank account by force then steals their Christmas Dear Pastors, Workers and Members of New Jersey and Greater New York City Christian and Missionary Alliance and Christians throughout the United States, Some of you may be aware that Bruce Terpstra and the Metro District may be giving Paramus Community church property to one of their Korean groups. At first this might appear to be a wonderful gift to the Korean Christians in New Jersey. But it is urgent that you know...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that attorneys fees in a class action lawsuit against Kia Motors America were inappropriate. Kia Motors America, an automobile manufacturer, lost a class action lawsuit for breach of express warranty. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the ...