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New York

Jamestown Lawyer

A blawg by a solo practitioner in his first year of practice, covering various news stories and topics of interest to lawyers in the Chautauqua Region.

Post Frequency: 0.1/day

Last Entry: July 15, 2008 at 07:19:00

LL/T

Posted on July 15, 2008
The Post-Journal again reports on attempts to develop new landlord/tenant regulations in the City of Jamestown.The Jamestown Lawyer would like to highlight the comments of Councilman Rabb. I would never dispute that there are bad tenants. In fact, I have stories that would probably curl your hair...

Media Watch

Posted on July 07, 2008
Post-Journal headline: Rising Prices Drive Up Welfare Fraud.Actual content of article: Rising Prices May Increase Fraud and This Is How DSS Deals With It On A Regular Basis.Was the PJ so pressed for space that they couldn't insert a "may" in the headline?Or was it reflecting the editorial policies of the paper that seek to repeal the New Deal?I report...

Endangering Child Welfare

Posted on June 16, 2008
In the northern stretches of the Fourth Department, a Jefferson County city court judge has recently issued a couple of rulings regarding the sealing of records in EWOC cases. By keeping the records open, even if the plea was to a lesser charge, his goal is to maintain a public record of the original offense as a warning against entrusting children to these persons...

Public Defenders

Posted on June 07, 2008
The National Legal Aid and DefenderAssociation has released (in 2007 and 2008) fairly in-depth "report cards" of the public defender system in various NY counties. The links are available at the New York State Defenders Association, nysda.org.Check out Cattaragus County here...

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Update on Tampering Case

Posted on May 29, 2008
A few posts back, there was a link to a story regarding a JPD officer spitting into seized drugs, apparently to increase the weight and raise the level of offense. Today's Post-Journal contains another story on the matter. New charges have been filed against the former officer...

LL/T law

Posted on May 22, 2008
The City Council of Jamestown, as reported by the Post-Journal earlier in the week, is starting to consider some new landlord and tenant laws. The first step in this process is reviewing a report regarding rules and regs in other places.

Family Court

Posted on May 06, 2008
According to the Post-Journal, one of the judicial seats in the county will be subject to a contested race this year. Phil Cala has announced he plans to run for Family Court. Incumbent Judith Claire has also indicated she will run to retain the Judge position...

Sales Tax & Senecas

Posted on May 06, 2008
The Post-Journal reports today that the Appellate Division (The Jamestown Lawyer guesses Fourth Department, but it's not specified in the article) ruled the State cannot collect sales taxes on non-Native reservation purchases.Being a court decision, of course, the very broad and final-sounding sentence above is not entirely true, although that's what people are reacting to...

Sewer Service

Posted on April 30, 2008
Several times in my practice, the Jamestown Lawyer has been told, informally, that it's a waste to challenge an affidavit of service. Why would someone who makes a career of serving papers lie about it, I've been asked.Today's Post-Journal doesn't answer that question, but does highlight one process server who was cashing in without doing the work.

Judicial Pay

Posted on April 13, 2008
Linked from the NY Sun is some coverage of Judge Kaye's recent lawsuit regarding judicial pay.The Jamestown Lawyer has no strong feelings one way or the other on the lawsuit or the underlying question. One issue that does stay with me is the way the current and/or requested salaries are frequently highlighted...

Piper W.

Posted on March 31, 2008
Piper W., the daughter of Fredonia attorney Lydia Evans, is currently awaiting a liver transplant. Information on her disease and various fundraisers/donation ideas is here. Please check it out and assist as you are able.

JPD in the news

Posted on March 10, 2008
The Jamestown Police Department has many upstanding, honest officers.Unfortunately, something in the culture of the force seems to lead more toward this sort of incident than positive press.

Utility Deposit

Posted on March 10, 2008
This post from the blog of the Public Utility Law Project makes me question the Jamestown BPU's deposit requirement.

On a lighter note

Posted on March 04, 2008
Denver Nuggets coach George Karl might want to look into an attorney employing more subtle means. Link to Deadspin.

Condolences

Posted on March 03, 2008
The Jamestown Lawyer would like to extend deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of Jan Walker, Esq., managing attorney for the Jamestown office of Southern Tier Legal Services.

Labor dispute criminal charges

Posted on February 27, 2008
Law.com has covered an interesting case from downstate NY. An attorney has been charged, along with 10 nurses, for criminal conspiracy to resign en masse, which according to the DA endangered the lives of disabled patients. Although the State Ed Department, which oversees the nurses, found no liability, the DA presented the case to the grand jury...

Liens

Posted on February 17, 2008
Today's Post-Journal runs a short piece on the recent spate of lien notices sent out by the BPU to property owners. According to local law. unpaid utility bills become a lien on the property and, in some cases, can be transferred onto the property tax bill...

With all your spare time...

Posted on January 24, 2008
Lawyers, especially in private practice, tend to be overscheduled and stretched thin. That means that this suggestion will be starting from a bad position before it gains traction, sort of like most cars on the Washington Street hill here in Jamestown...

Lawyers make mistakes.

Posted on January 18, 2008
This is the footwear the Jamestown Lawyer has been wearing for six hours now, including an appearance in a very crowded city court.

Attorney convicted.

Posted on January 16, 2008
Ogdensburg attorney reaches plea arrangement resulting in 33 months prison time and automatic loss of law license. Brian K. Goolden, 38, admitted in U.S. District Court, Syracuse, that he defrauded 93-year-old James Gilmore, Naples Fla., a legally blind former Morristown businessman, by drafting a trust that was supposed to preserve Mr...

Law clerk charged with felony mischief.

Posted on January 11, 2008
Two quick points about this article from the Post-Standard, regarding what appears to be a "parking lot rage" incident involving a court employee. First, the Jamestown Lawyer believes strongly in the presumption of innocence in criminal cases. However, the Jamestown Lawyer also remembers quite a bit from law school about ethical conflicts and the importance of avoiding any situation where there is the appearance of conflict...

McKinney's still for sale

Posted on January 08, 2008
It might help if I gave contact information, though.Write me at injudicious [at] stny.rr.com if you are interested. All offers considered.

Slightly Dated McKinney's for Sale

Posted on January 05, 2008
I have a near-complete set of McKinney's (missing a couple volumes, a couple destroyed by water damage but still included) that I am offering for sale. Missing is Education Law 390-900 and damaged are SCPA 1701-2200 and 2201-end. That may be revised slightly as I pull items from the shelf...

Music

Posted on January 02, 2008
In an effort to crack down on illegally shared music, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has announced it will now start suing anyone who buys a CD, in the hopes that preventing CD sales will prevent file swapping. The industry hopes that preventing the sale of CDs will reverse the longstanding trend of decreases in CD sales...

Lawyers and Free Speech

Posted on December 20, 2007
An indication of why the blog traffic has slowed here can be gleaned from this article from Law.com, regarding a FL attorney who made less-than-politic comments about a judge on a blog.

End of the Year

Posted on December 19, 2007
Happy holidays to all, whichever you celebrate or don't, and good wishes for the new year.Posting will resume...eventually. Perhaps.

What is an adult?

Posted on December 05, 2007
News outlets that favor the salacious were quick to run with news on Debra Lafave, the former teacher convicted a couple years back of having a sexual relationship with a minor student. As reported in the St. Petersburg, FL, paper, Ms. Lafave was picked up on a violation warrant because she had unsupervised conversations with a 17 year old coworker...

Treatment Courts

Posted on November 20, 2007
It has been around long enough that "drug court" is just an accepted part of the criminal justice system. Nonviolent offenders with substance abuse issues are given an opportunity to avoid incarceration by completing a rigorous combination of counseling, treatment, staying out of further trouble, etc...

Something Positive

Posted on November 16, 2007
Well, the Jamestown Lawyer doesn't know how she does, but at least it's a non-critical post regarding Justice Courts.Town of Ellicott Judge Marilyn Gerace will be on Wheel of Fortune tonight, November 16, locally at 7pm on the ABC affiliate. The Post-Journal story is here...

Courts

Posted on November 08, 2007
A brief post. No guarantees any more will follow it.There is an effort underway to improve the Justice Court system. Judicial districts are hiring persons, preferably former Justice Court judges, to serve as resources on administrative and legal issues...

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