Criminal Law

Georgia Legislative Session Ends
"Public defender overhaul rejected," is the AP headline via the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. A proposal that would give lawmakers more control over the public defender system failed to pass the Legislature...

NYT: Lawyer Layoffs Hit Georgias Public Defender System
Lawyer-layoffs may be coming to a government near you. On Friday, reports the NYT, the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, which administers Georgia’s defender system, announced it would close the Metro Conflict Defender Office, one of four such offices in Georgia that handle cases in which it would be a conflict of interest for the [...

No Major Legislative Change to Georgia Indigent Defense This Year
"Public defender shakeup delayed," is the AP report from Friday's Augusta Chronicle. Georgia lawmakers have backed off plans to transfer parts of the state's public defender system back to county control, instead giving attorneys the rest of the year to...

Class action over New York's public defender system
We've been covering this issue for some time, but now comes news from WSJ Law Blog that the high court in New York has approved a class action suit about the efficacy of the public defender system there...

Gideons turning in his grave
From the very same state that gave us Gideon v. Wainwright comes the news that their public defender system is in dire straits. A judge in Miami ruled today that the public defender system is so overburdened and crushed by caseload that they can stop accepting some cases until the situation improves...

Georgia still struggling to pay for death penalty cases old and new
This notable AP report, which is headlined "Georgia public defender system still reeling from Nichols case," highlights the high and tangible costs of (poorly?) administering the death penalty: Georgia?s public defender system is still trying to recover its financial footing...

GNG Marketing Violations
Georgia Natural Gas to pay customers $2.5 million in settlement.

Kentucky lawyers
fraud case ends in mistrial.

Kia Motors America, Inc.
Kia Class Action Ends in $6 Million Verdict for Plaintiffs in NJ

Richard Mellon Scaife
Billionaire divorce lawsuit ends in a $725,000 a month settlement.