Criminal Lawyer in Altamonte Springs – Denis O’Brien set to attack TDs in evidence to High Court
Source : Irish TImes News
By : Peter Murtagh
Category : Criminal Lawyer in Altamonte Springs , DUI Attorney in Sanford
Businessman Denis O’Brien expects to spend 12 hours giving evidence in person to the High Court next week in his challenge to the legal privilege enjoyed by members of the Oireachtas. In what observers expect will be a robust and uncompromising attack on TDs Catherine Murphy and Pearse Doherty, together with an equally staunch defence of his own position, Mr O’Brien is likely to be in the witness box across three days if he takes all the time he has indicated to his legal team that he believes he will need. When the hearing of the case begins next Tuesday, Mr O’Brien is expected to argue that absolute privilege does not exist for members of the Oireachtas, and that TDs and Senators do not have a right to, as he will argue, usurp the role of the courts.
Legal argument
It is believed lawyers for the Oireachtas may decide not to cross-examine Mr O’Brien, preferring to rely instead on legal argument. This will centre on article 15, section 13, of the Constitution, which states that TDs and senators “shall not, in respect of any utterance in either House, be amenable to any court or any authority other than the House itself”. In effect, this means that a TD or senator cannot be sued for anything they say in the Oireachtas. Mr O’Brien objected when, on several dates in May and June 2015, Social Democrats TD Ms Murphy and Sinn Féin’s Mr Doherty questioned his purchase of Siteserv (a company involved in the installation of water meters and now known as Actavo) and his banking arrangements with Anglo Irish Bank, later renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).
Injunction
He argued that remarks in the Dáil were in breach of a High Court injunction against RTÉ, and which he said applied to all other media as well, preventing publication of his banking arrangements with IBRC. These included Mr O’Brien’s contention that a verbal agreement he said he had with the bank on an interest rate to be applied to his Anglo loans, and subsequently IBRC, should be honoured by the liquidator of IBRC. Following Ms Murphy’s Dáil comments, lawyers for Mr O’Brien threatened other media that they would be in breach of the injunction if they reported what she had said. This was later clarified by the High Court not to be the case.
Conduct
Lawyers for Mr O’Brien complained about Ms Murphy and Mr Doherty to the Ceann Comhairle and Leas Cheann Comhairle, who are responsible for the running of the Dáil. On June 15th, 2015, he was told that the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, which rules on the conduct of TDs, found that Ms Murphy had not breached standing orders as her comments were made “on the floor of the House in a responsible manner, in good faith and as part of the legislative process”. On July 3rd, 2015, Mr O’Brien’s lawyers were told the committee had concluded Mr Doherty’s “exercise of his constitutional freedom of speech” in the Dáil fell outside the scope of, and did not contravene, the standing order regulating debate in the House. Mr O’Brien alleges that, as far as he is aware, the committee received no submissions from either TD about his complaints before making its findings and, if it had, he was given no opportunity to respond to such submissions. This, he alleges, breaches his right to fair procedures.
Right to privacy
He also contends that the original Dáil comments also breached his right to privacy. The Oireachtas legal team’s eschewing of cross-examination of Mr O’Brien may change if he makes what either TD regards as outlandish claims about them or questions their integrity.
Read more : irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/denis-o-brien-set-to-attack-tds-in-evidence-to-high-court-1.2879833
Altamonte Springs Criminal Defense – Upcoming High Court Patent Decisions May Not Affect Stocks
Source : Law 360 News
By : Press Release
Category : Matthews Bark Attorney , Altamonte Springs Criminal Defense
The enterprise values of businesses with technology-rich products and processes are often tied to their patent portfolios. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. concerning the recovery of an infringer’s profits for design patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 289. During the next several months, the court will also consider the case of Life Technologies Corp. v. Promega Corp., and decide if the extraterritorial reach of 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(1) covers the export from the U.S. of just one component of multicomponent products. Legal reporters and financial analysts alike have asserted that these two decisions could have a “significant” and even a “massive” impact on U.S. businesses. There is no doubt that Supreme Court decisions can influence the enterprise values of U.S. businesses. However, our research shows that, although the Supreme Court has issued 15 opinions since 2006[1] that negatively influence patent rights and related values, the impact of these decisions on the stock prices of patent-rich companies is not readily apparent.
Next, we considered the relative influence of each decision in terms of the scope of legal issue(s) addressed, and the importance of the technology area(s) affected. Based on this criteria, we ranked from 1 to 4 each decision that positively influences patent values, and from -1 to -4 each decision that negatively influences patent values. The higher the absolute number of the ranking, the more influential the decision. As reflected in both Figure A and Figure B, 11 of the 23 decisions were assigned a ranking of -4, reflecting their negative impact on patent values, the broad legal issue(s) addressed, and the importance of the technology area(s) affected. We then analyzed the performances of the Ocean Tomo 300 (OT300) and the Standard & Poor 500 (S&P500) indices on the days these decisions were issued. The Ocean Tomo 300 (OT300) is a diversified portfolio of 300 companies that own the most valuable patents relative to their respective book values.[2] Figure A reflects the performance of the OT300 on the day the court issued 22 of the 23 patent-related decisions.[3] Positive numbers indicate that the index rose that day. Negative numbers indicate that the index declined that day. On only three days did the OT300 index decline when the court issued a negative-patent-value decision with an Ocean Tomo rank of -4. On six other days, the OT300 index actually rose.[4]
The S&P 500 is considered an accurate gauge of the performance of large-cap U.S. stocks, and is also considered representative of the market as a whole because it includes a significant portion of the total value of the market. The performance of the S&P 500 on the days the Supreme Court issued each of the 23 patent-related decisions was similar to the OT300, and is likewise reflected/ On only three days did the S&P 500 decline when the court issued a negative-patent-value decision with an Ocean Tomo rank of -4. The S&P 500 actually rose on seven of the days these relatively broad, negative-patent-value decisions were issued. On only five of the 15 days on which the Supreme Court issued a negative-patent-value decision (with any Ocean Tomo ranking) did the S&P 500 index decline. The influence of several of these decisions, such as Bilski v. Kappos, Alice v. CLS, and Cuozzo v. Lee, cannot objectively be viewed as somehow less influential than those of the impending Apple v. Samsung or Life Tech v. Promega. The previous decisions unquestionably addressed broad legal issues and affected important technology areas.
Read more : law360.com/articles/858311/upcoming-high-court-patent-decisions-may-not-affect-stocks
Matthews Bark – Legal Damages Upheld in Fatal Jeep Fire
Source : Wall Street Journal
By : MIKE SPECTOR
Category : Matthews Bark, Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando
A Georgia appeals court upheld $40 million in legal damages against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV stemming from a Jeep fire that killed a 4-year-old boy. The Court of Appeals in Georgia on Tuesday rejected Fiat Chrysler’s arguments that a trial judge erred last year in allowing certain evidence and in determining damages, among other contentions. The judge had reduced the damages from $150 million that jurors originally delivered against the auto maker for wrongful death and pain and suffering. Fiat Chrysler is “considering our legal options, including asking the Georgia Supreme Court to review this decision,” the Italian-U.S. auto maker said in a statement. The case stemmed from a March 2012 crash that killed Remington Walden, a 4-year-old boy riding in the back seat of a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee rear-ended by a pickup truck in Bainbridge, Ga. The Jeep featured a rear-gas tank that leaked after the collision, setting the vehicle ablaze and killing the child.
The Jeep was among more than a million vehicles with rear fuel tanks subject to a “customer satisfaction campaign” in lieu of an official recall as part of a deal reached with federal regulators in June 2013. Fiat Chrysler agreed to recall more than 1.5 million Jeep Grand Cherokee and Liberty sport-utility vehicles with model years ranging from 1993 to 2007 featuring rear gas tanks that regulators deemed an unreasonable safety risk. The company agreed to install trailer hitches on the backs of vehicles for added protection. Fiat Chrysler blamed the fatal Georgia crash on the truck driver hitting the Jeep at a high rate of speed and maintained the 1999 Jeep wasn’t defective and met or exceeded all applicable federal safety standards, including the one for fuel-tank integrity. But jurors sitting for the trial last year told The Wall Street Journal they were persuaded by a medical examiner’s testimony that the Walden boy survived the rear-end collision and later died from a fire linked to the Jeep’s gas tank. Many of them felt the vehicle should have been recalled. They deliberated for less than two hours in April 2015 before finding Fiat Chrysler 99% at fault for the fatal crash and attributing 1% blame to the truck driver.
“Remi’s parents are very appreciative of the Court of Appeals’ decision,” said Jeb Butler, one of the lawyers who tried the case on the family’s behalf. U.S. highway safety regulators in July 2015 hit Fiat Chrysler with a then-record $105 million penalty for lapses spanning nearly two dozen recalls covering millions of vehicles, including older Jeeps with rear-gas tanks. Regulators accused Fiat Chrysler of lagging in installing trailer hitches on the Jeeps. Fiat Chrysler said owners were often unwilling to seek repairs despite the company’s outreach. In the 2015 settlement with regulators, Fiat Chrysler agreed to offer cash to owners of recalled Jeeps to encourage them to get repairs or additional money on top of the value of their vehicles if they traded them in. The Georgia appeals court rejected a number of arguments from Fiat Chrysler, which claimed the jury’s original verdict was motivated by passion and prejudice and a desire to punish the company. The court also dismissed the auto maker’s contention that the trial judge failed to sufficiently reduce the damages. Fiat Chrysler also unsuccessfully protested discussions during the trial of Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne’s income and a suggestion from plaintiffs’ lawyers that the company deserved imprisonment instead of the driver who rear-ended the Jeep. Nor was the court persuaded that the trial judge abused his discretion by allowing plaintiffs to introduce evidence of 17 other rear-end crashes involving Jeeps with rear-gas tanks.
Read more : wsj.com/articles/legal-damages-upheld-in-fatal-jeep-fire-1479250142
Seminole County DUI Lawyer -Massacre in the Supreme Court
Source : Opinion Inquirer
By : Joel Ruiz Butuyan
Category : Seminole county Criminal defense , Seminole County DUI Lawyer
There has been no other week in recent memory that caused the kind of shock and anger generated by two events that happened last week: First, the most despised Filipino ruler, former president Ferdinand Marcos, was virtually declared a hero on Nov. 8. Second, the most reviled presidential candidate in American history, Donald Trump, was elected ruler of the most powerful country on earth the next day. These are two extremely weighty issues, so I will limit my commentary to the first and leave others to flagellate us with their analyses of the second. Even to this day, 30 years after Marcos’ ouster from power and 27 years after his death, the physical wellbeing of Filipinos continues to be negatively affected by his greed and misrule. The current generation continues to pay the Marcos behest loans, and the oligarchs he created continue to wreak havoc on our political and economic welfare. Now, even the people’s emotional wellbeing is damned because Marcos is forced upon them as their hero, courtesy of a Supreme Court decision allowing the burial of his remains in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Notwithstanding Marcos’ many documented sins—memorialized in Supreme Court decisions and codified in laws—the high court, with its vote of 9-5, declares that opposition to the Marcos burial in the Libingan “unnecessarily divide[s] the people and slow[s] the path to the future.” The high court is virtually telling the victims of murder, rape, torture, forced disappearance, and imprisonment that their complaints are unnecessary, divisive, and serve to slow their march to a brighter future. What a painful rebuke to the Marcos-era victims. They must be feeling tortured, raped, and shot at all over again. The martial law victims and their heirs cannot be faulted if they tell the nine justices who voted to allow the Marcos burial in the Libingan that it is the justices’ kind of thinking—their forgetfulness of the past and their refusal to see how the sins of the past have damaged the present and the future—that enables wicked leaders to thrive in this country, leaders who continue the tradition of oppressing hapless citizens and plundering the nation’s wealth.
The Supreme Court also points out that during the election campaign, then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte publicly announced that he would allow the Marcos burial in the Libingan, and that he won the presidency by garnering 16.6 million votes, insinuating that by electing him, the people also approved of his decision on the Marcos burial. It is a giant leap, a conclusion with no basis whatsoever. The high court has transformed the presidential election into a national referendum on the burial issue, and interprets Mr. Duterte’s electoral victory as a Marcos triumph over the hearts and minds of the people. If the high court considers the 16.6 million votes in favor of Mr. Duterte as votes that favored his position on the Marcos burial, why did it not equally consider the 25.3 million votes against him as votes that resoundingly rejected his position on the issue? The Supreme Court also questions the following: the petitioners’ personality to file the case even if some of them are martial law victims and even if taxpayers have a long-established standing in court; the filing of the case in the high court instead of merely in the regional trial court, even if direct filing in the high court has long been allowed in similar cases; the supposed failure of the petitioners to give the Duterte administration the chance to change its mind, even if doing so would have rendered the issue moot; the failure of the two Aquino presidents to expressly prohibit the burial of Marcos’ remains in the Libingan; and others. The Supreme Court has figuratively massacred every lofty issue raised by the petitioners, and it has done so through strained and hollow justifications to allow the burial of the dictator’s remains in the Libingan. What a complete travesty of justice.
Read more : opinion.inquirer.net/99210/massacre-supreme-court
DUI in Sanford – Supreme Court gives more teeth to law banning sex determination
Source : Above The Law News
By : STACI ZARETSKY
Category : Orlando Criminal Defense Attorney , DUI in Sanford
Concerned over the declining sex ratio in the country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday passed a raft of measures including fast-tracking legal proceedings for effective implementation of the law that bans pre-natal diagnostics. The directions came on a public interest petition complaining that the sex ratio continued to fall despite the 22-year-old law enforced to prevent female foeticide. “It needs no special emphasis that a female child is entitled to enjoy equal right that a male child is allowed to have. The constitutional identity of a female child cannot be mortgaged to any kind of social or other concept that has developed or is thought of,” the court said.
As per the verdict, all states and union territories shall maintain a centralised database of all registration units. The information shall be made available on the website. The data must contain birth information for each district, municipality and corporation or gram panchayat. The authorities shall take steps for constitution of statutory bodies as the law mandates. Courts, the top court said, should strictly adhere to the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act that prescribes punishment up to three years of jail. Direction has been issued to the state high courts to ensure that complaints against pre-natal diagnostics are fast-tracked. Judicial officers, hearing such matters, shall be periodically imparted training and submit a quarterly report to the high courts on the status of the cases handled.
Chief justices of the HCs will constitute a committee of three judges to oversee the progress of PNDT cases. “When a female foetus is destroyed through artificial means, which is legally impermissible, the dignity of life of a woman to be born is extinguished. It corrodes the human values,” the bench said. “The legislature has brought a complete code and it subserves the constitutional purpose,” it said, noticing that the law had failed to achieve its objective. The court also asked the government to undertake campaigns on radio and television.
Read more : abovethelaw.com/2016/11/legal-analysis-of-the-little-mermaid-that-will-ruin-your-childhood/
Sanford DUI Attorney – High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal
Source : The Guardian
By : Damian Carrington
Category : Orlando Criminal Defense Attorney , Sanford DUI Attorney
The government’s plan for tackling the UK’s air pollution crisis has been judged illegally poor at the high court, marking the second time in 18 months that ministers have lost in court on the issue. The defeat is a humiliation for ministers who by law must cut the illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide suffered by dozens of towns and cities in the “shortest possible time”. Legal NGO ClientEarth, which brought the case, argued that current plans ignore many measures that could help achieve this, placing too much weight on costs. On Wednesday Mr Justice Garnham agreed. He also said ministers knew that over-optimistic pollution modelling was being used, based on flawed lab tests of diesel vehicles rather than actual emissions on the road. The government said it would not appeal against the decision and agreed in court to discuss with ClientEarth a new timetable for more realistic pollution modelling and the steps needed to bring pollution levels down to legal levels. The parties will return to court in a week but if agreement cannot be reached, the judge could impose a timetable upon the government.
At prime minister’s questions, Theresa May indicated that the government would respond positively, with new proposals: “We now recognise that Defra [the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] has to look at the judgement made by the courts and we now have to look again at the proposals we will bring forward. Nobody in this house doubts the importance of the issue of air quality. We have taken action, there is more to do and we will do it.” Air pollution causes 50,000 early deaths and £27.5bn in costs every year, according to the government’s own estimates, and was called a “public health emergency” by MPs in April. James Thornton, CEO of ClientEarth, said: “The time for legal action is over. I challenge Theresa May to take immediate action now to deal with illegal levels of pollution and prevent tens of thousands of additional early deaths in the UK. The high court has ruled that more urgent action must be taken. Britain is watching and waiting, prime minister.” He said the increased action required would very likely include bigger and tougher clean air zones in more cities and other measure such as scrappage schemes for the dirtiest vehicles: “The government will have to be tougher on diesel.”
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who took part in the case against the government, said: “Today’s ruling lays the blame at the door of the government for its complacency in failing to tackle the problem quickly and credibly. In so doing they have let down millions of people the length and breadth of the country.” A spokeswoman for Defra said: “Improving air quality is a priority for this government and we are determined to cut harmful emissions. Our plans have always followed the best available evidence – we have always been clear that we are ready to update them if necessary. Whilst our huge investment in green transport initiatives and plans to introduce clean air zones [in six cities] around the country will help tackle this problem, we accept the court’s judgment. We will now carefully consider this ruling, and our next steps, in detail.” ClientEarth defeated the government on the same issue at the supreme court in April 2015. Ministers were then ordered to draw up a new action plan, but now that new plan has also been found to be illegal. Documents revealed during the latest case showed the Treasury had blocked plans to charge diesel cars to enter towns and cities blighted by air pollution, concerned about the political impact of angering motorists. Both the environment and transport departments recommended changes to vehicle excise duty rates to encourage the purchase of low-pollution vehicles, but the Treasury also rejected that idea.
Documents further showed that the government’s plan to bring air pollution down to legal levels by 2020 for some cities and 2025 for London had been chosen because that was the date ministers thought they would face European commission fines, not which they considered “as soon as possible”. There had been a draft government plan for 16 low emission zones, which polluting vehicles are charged to enter, in cities outside London but the number was cut to just five on cost grounds. All these proposals will now be revisited. Thornton said a national network of clean air zones needed to be in place by 2018. “If you put in clean air zones, it works overnight.” Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: “We urgently need a new clean air act that restricts the most polluting vehicles from our urban areas and protects everyone’s lung health – air pollution affects all of us.” Sam Hall, at conservative thinktank Bright Blue, said there should be more power and funding devolved to local authorities to enable all English cities to set up clean air zones and more support for electric cars. Keith Taylor, Green party MEP, said: “The failure highlighted by the judge today is as much moral as it is legal: ministers have displayed an extremely concerning attitude of indifference towards their duty to safeguard the health of British citizens.”
Read more : theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/02/high-court-rules-uk-government-plans-to-tackle-air-pollution-are-illegal
Altamonte Springs DUI Lawyer – Take a Voting Selfie – States Wage Legal Battles Days Before Election
Source : The News
By : EMMA GREY ELLIS
Category : Altamonte Springs DUI Lawyer , Criminal Defense Attorney Seminole
The top investigators of the country have revealed that no institution other than National Accountability Bureau (NAB) can probe the issue of offshore companies as only the bureau can seek information from other countries under mutual legal assistance but there are serious legal hitches in the NAB law to proceed against the ruling family and others. “Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) talks about the money laundering allegedly committed by selling steel mills ‘Gulf Steel’ in Dubai in 1980 in $9 million. But the problem is, even if the money was allegedly launder in 1980, the NAB cannot take action against any corrupt practice occurred before 1985 as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance 1999 came into force from the 1st day of January 1985. Hence in order to take action against this particular issue there will be a need of constitutional amendment”, informed a top investigator on condition of anonymity.
Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, former president Supreme Court Bar Association while talking to The News says, without constitutional amendments the Judicial Commission on offshore companies would be a fruitless exercise and will meet the fate of Memogate Commission. The top investigators and the legal experts believe that in order to make the investigation against the ruling family effective, there would be need of constitutional amendment to NAB ordinance as it is the ultimate agency that can carry out investigations into the Panama papers and offshore companies issue. Otherwise the whole exercise of constituting judicial commission to probe Panama papers and offshore companies would bring no fruit.
The top investigators are of the view that according to PTI’s stance if the alleged money laundering of $9 million committed by Sharif family in 1980, even then it would not possible for NAB to take any action against the family as at that time none of the member of Sharif family was holding any public office. Unfortunately there is no law which could be exercised to hold any private citizen accountable in the alleged money laundering charges unless these are proved. When asked, according to NAB response to Supreme Court the bureau cannot initiate any inquiry, how NAB could be the major agency to carry out the probe. They believe that NAB itself cannot start investigation into the matter as there are several other government departments which need to initiate the inquiry first. The ultimate agency for investigating the offshore companies is NAB as no other government department including FIA can probe the matter.
The first step to initiate the inquiry into the offshore companies’ issue is that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) starts the process, as this is a matter of tax exemption and tax evasion. The NAB’s role would be on the final stage. He said even FIA could not investigate the foreign transactions as only NAB was authorised to probe such matter. However, any investigation into such issue like Panama papers or any other offshore company would take more than six months as normally the foreign countries take a lot of time to fulfill their legal process before handing over the required documents. Another major hitch or obstacle in this issue is that all these information and points regarding alleged money laundering have already been discussed in the Lahore High Court which has acquitted the Sharif family in 2012. Hence, the question is when a person is already acquitted in a same case from high court, how difficult it would be for the complainant to get different verdict from another judicial forum. For this purpose the petitioners have to find out solid and conclusive evidence against the respondents. Otherwise it will face the same fate, commented the legal experts. Another question arises that the Supreme Court has already made it clear that it would give its verdict only on the basis of any conclusive evidence. It is not known to anyone whether PTI or any other petitioner has any evidence which could be termed “conclusive” before the apex court on the basis of which it could take any decision. The documents annexed with PTI petition include London High Court judgment, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement on May 16, 2016 and some other papers. However, even the honorable judges of the Supreme Court have questioned the counsel for PTI on the evidence and remarked that London High Court verdict has not mentioned Maryam Nawaz Sharif.
Talking to The News, Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, said the issue of alleged money laundering of Sharif family in 1980 was outside the legal ambit of NAB. There is a need of legislation without which this whole exercise would be fruitless. “The Supreme Court would have to face a difficult legal proposition that under what law it will constitute a commission and how it would delegate the powers to probe a matter which actually occurred some 36 years ago. In my opinion it’s a legal and political issue now and this could only be addressed through promulgation of an ordinance”, commented Syed Ali Zafar. Secondly there is a serious issue that NAB has no such law which could take action or initiate inquiry against a private citizen. Therefore before initiating any inquiry or probe against the ruling family they need legislation to delegate special powers to the Judicial Commission or even NAB. Therefore, he said to expect that the commission would finish its task in a month or two was not be possible as it might take at least three to six months.
Read more : thenews.com.pk/print/162296-Legal-hitches-in-NAB-law-to-act-against-owners
Criminal Defense Attorney Seminole – 24 high courts have a total of 43% judicial vacancies
Source : Times of India
By : Pradeep Thakur
Category : Attorney Matthews R Bark , Criminal Defense Attorney Seminole
The justice delivery system is taking a beating as the Centre and the Supreme Court slug it out over norms for appointment of judges. Andhra leads with 62% vacancy among the 10 high courts with most number of vacant judicial posts. The approved strength of the country’s 24 high courts stands at 1,079, of which 464 posts or 43% are vacant. According to the law ministry, 10 HCs account for 355 of the 464 vacant posts as of October 1. Allahabad HC leads with 83 vacant posts of judges, accounting for 52% of approved strength. It is followed by Punjab & Haryana HC with 39 vacancies, or 46% of its sanctioned strength. The high court of judicature at Hyderabad, formerly the Andhra Pradesh HC, has 38 vacancies which is 62% of its sanctioned strength of 61, Karnataka HC has 36 posts vacant or 58% of its strength of 62 judges.
While a three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur, on Friday blamed the situation on the “executive’s inaction or indifference” of sitting on recommendations by the collegium, the government insists there has been no abnormal increase in vacancies. Though the government argues that an increase in the approved strength of judges in the last two years has added to the backlog, tensions over finalising a memorandum of procedure (MoP) has affected judicial appointments. Between June 2014, when the NDA government assumed office, and now, the combined approved strength of the 24 HCs increased from 906 to 1,079. The increase in sanctioned judicial posts by 173 judges has primarily been responsible for an overall vacancy of 43%. The government claimed the working strength of judges in HCs remained more or less at the 615-620 level during this period.
In 2014, the 24 HCs had 267 vacant positions against an approved strength of 906. The vacancies accounted for less than 30%. In contrast, as a percentage of the sanctioned strength, the vacancies have gone up to 43% as of October 1. The CJI had on Friday asked the attorney general to explain the delay in appointing judges, with some recommendations cleared by the SC collegium pending for nine months. The delay, according to the attorney general, was due to the SC collegium not finalising the MoP for appointment of judges. The CJI rejected the argument, saying the government had communicated to the collegium that the pending MoP would not obstruct the appointmentof judges.
Read more : timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/24-high-courts-have-a-total-of-43-judicial-vacancies/articleshow/55192912.cms
Attorney Matthews Bark – New law to make taking pictures of marked ballots legal
Source : WDTH News
By : Tyler Utzka
Category : Attorney Matthews Bark , Matthews Bark Criminal Defense
Under Ohio law, it’s illegal to take pictures of a completed ballot. It’s a rule that differs from state to state and is getting some voters in trouble. State Representative Niraj Antani, is looking to change that for the Buckeye state by introducing House Bill 609 on Tuesday. “We think that it’s a first amendment right to show who you’re voting for on your own ballot and that should be legal,” Rep. Antani said, “Right now, county prosecutors are not prosecuting for this crime. So we really shouldn’t have laws on the books that aren’t being prosecuted. ”
The current law was made a long time ago to prohibit bribery, Antani said, so those paying for votes couldn’t get the photographic proof. According to him there’s already statutes in place for that. Voters like Kurt Hamler support the new legislation. “Everybody says who they’re voting for already so if they’re tweeting out a picture, a selfie and their ballot it’s not a big deal to me,” he said.
For Katie Ahrens of Dayton, she doesn’t think it’s necessary. “You don’t need to be just tweeting or snapchatting a picture with your ballot,” she said. “I don’t see what that does for our society.” Although it is technically illegal, Ohio Secretary of State, Jon Husted said he’s unaware of anyone being prosecuted for it.
“I think we have bigger things to worry about than selfies with ballots,” Secretary Husted said. Currently the legislature is not in session. Representative Antani said if the bill doesn’t get passed this year, it will have to be reintroduced next year.
Read more: wdtn.com/2016/10/26/new-law-to-make-taking-pictures-of-marked-ballots-legal/
Matthews Bark Attorney – Volunteer firefighters pull out of Supreme Court battle over union pay deal
Source : The Age
By : Josh Gordon – Benjamin Preiss
Category : Matthews Bark Attorney , Altamonte Springs Criminal Defense
It could be the political headache which never goes away. On Tuesday, volunteer firefighters dumped a Supreme Court battle against Daniel Andrews’ controversial industrial deal with the firefighters’ union, claiming the agreement breached the CFA Act by undermining the role of volunteers. After months of intense political pressure, the decision came as a welcome relief for the government. But the respite could prove temporary, with a fresh legal battle now brewing.
This time the challenge will come not from volunteers, but from the United Firefighters Union. The union is threatening to challenge federal legislation introduced by the Turnbull government forcing all emergency service agencies to consider volunteers when negotiating industrial agreements.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria confirmed it was dumping the Supreme Court challenge – which has cost it about $600,000 – to free up resources needed to battle the UFU in the High Court. “There is still a possibility that further legal action might be required given that the UFU have claimed they will challenge the Fair Work Act amendment in the High Court,” the statement said. What’s more, it said: “There is also real possibility that VFBV will need to defend the rights of volunteers in the federal sphere so we will continue fundraising to support our legal action and further campaign efforts.” CFA chief executive Frances Diver said the decision to dump the Supreme Court challenge was a milestone for the CFA and would allow it to move to the next stage in resolving the workplace dispute.
She said there had been no merit in the volunteers’ case. “We really hope it is an end to the hostility,” Ms Diver said. “We’ve been very disappointed with the action of the volunteers association in taking this to the Supreme Court.” The CFA will now move to put the new workplace agreement to a vote among its paid employees in the next few days, before a referral to the Fair Work Commission.
Ms Diver insisted the CFA wanted to strengthen its relationship with its volunteers. Mr Andrews personally helped broker the deal earlier this year, despite previously claiming the union’s demands were unworkable. Critics have warned the agreement would give the union excessive power over CFA management decisions and undermine the role of volunteers. VFBV chief executive Andrew Ford told reporters that cost was not an issue in halting the legal action. “You can’t win twice. We’ve won the issue by change to the federal law,” he said.
The controversial agreement has already led to a string of sackings and resignations, including Jane Garrett from the emergency services portfolio, CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan, CFA chief fire officer Joe Buffone and the CFA board. Emergency Services Minister James Merlino said the Fair Work Commission was always the appropriate forum to resolve the dispute, calling the court a “completely and utterly unnecessary political stunt”. “It is disappointing that the VFBV have chosen to take such a divisive, costly and unnecessary course of action,” Mr Merlino said.
Read more: theage.com.au/victoria/volunteer-firefighters-set-to-withdraw-from-supreme-court-battle-over-union-pay-deal-20161024-gs9t9p.html
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Matthews Bark Attorney, Criminal Defense, Family Law Attorney 