Bills sent from lawyer to client are privileged only to the extent that they reflect the specific nature of legal services rendered. Otherwise, a bill for legal services is not privileged. See the recent decision in Sobba v. Elmen, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29172 (E.D. Ark. April 19, 2007), quoting Chaudhry v. Gallerizzo, 174 F.3d 394, 403 (4th Cir. 1999) ("Typically, ...

The plaintiff in LifeNet, Inc. v. Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29058 (E.D. Va. April 10, 2007), accused the defendant of willful patent infringement. In its defense, defendant MTF intended to rely on the opinion that was rendered in 2002 by a Pennie & Edmonds’ partner named Stimpson who concluded that defendant MTF’s process did ...

The plaintiff insured in Weiss v. First Unum Life Ins. Co., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 7613 (3d Cir. April 3, 2007), filed a state law claim for wrongful denial of coverage in New Jersey state court. The insurer removed on ERISA preemption grounds, and the plaintiff added a RICO claim. The state common law claims were dismissed as pre-empted by ERISA, and the RICO cl ...

The fact that a judge enters sanctions against a litigant or its counsel does not mandate recusal of the judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 455, even if the judge also refers counsel's conduct to the appropriate disciplinary authorities, under the decision in Conklin v. Warrington Township, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10478 (M.D. Pa. Feb. 15, 2007). The issue for recusal is ...

In United States v. Metuchen-Gamba, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 8291 (9th Cir. April 11, 2007), a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that a district court judge may lawfully appoint a magistrate judge to preside over closing argument at a felony criminal trial if the defendant's counsel has, for trial tactic or legal strategy purposes, agreed to such appointment. ...

The Second Circuit ruled in Overton v. Todman & Co., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 4239 (2d Cir. Feb. 26, 2007), that an auditor may be primarily liable for securities fraud for failing to correct a certified financial statement that it later determines to have been false. This from a Court that has frequently exonerated auditors from primary liability unless they have a ...

The No Child Left Behind Act does not create a private right of action, at least not for an entity that provides tutoring and other supplemental educational services. ‛There is no language in the statutory provisions … that demonstrates Congress’s intent to ‘unambiguously confer[]’ on the plaintiff an ‘individual entitlement.’“ Alliance for Childre ...

Below is a brief summary of precedential Court of Appeals decisions issued in the past 30 days in the field of private securities litigation: • Loss Causation. Ray v. Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., No. 05-4362, --- F.3d ---, 2007 WL 1080426 (7th Cir. Apr. 17, 2007). The suit was brought by retail investors against an investment advisor and his employer f ...

The False Claims Act (‛FCA“) authorizes civil actions to be brought by the United States Attorney General or private individuals for false or fraudulent claims for payment made to the United States Government. With respect to suits by private individuals (known as ‛qui tam relators“), the FCA contains the following express limitation: "No court shall ...

On Monday, a New Jersey appellate court ruled that a former client was not estopped from pursuing legal malpractice claims against an attorney for his alleged mishandling of the former client's action against two nursing homes, even though the client had voluntarily settled with the nursing homes before the underlying issues were litigated to a conclusion. See Pros ...