Monthly Archives: March 2012

Two grade-school victims of a predatory gym teacher have been awarded over $4 million in a civil suit against the Sacramento School District, in a trial that sharply questioned the district’s policies to detect and avoid sexual abuse. Girls molested in the school gym for four years School missed numerous signs of abuse Students not educated on how to report abuse   No Supervision Abdol Hossein Mehrdadi, a gym teacher at the John Still Elementary School in Sacramento, groomed and …

   Woman’s strangling death by neighbor leads to $10 million verdict A jury awarded $10 million to the family of a Chicago woman who was strangled to death in her apartment by a neighbor, but it’s likely the family will only collect a small portion of the amount based on the jury’s findings. Only four months after helping her daughter move into a new apartment, Mary Pat Dorner experienced a mother’s worst nightmare when her 21 year-old daughter Melissa was …

In 2006, the Center for Disease Control reported that more than 800,000 people seek treatment for dog bites each year. Over 30,000 were so bad the victim required reconstructive surgery. That number has grown. Bruce Millar, an attorney in Georgia and an advocate for harsher penalties for people whose dogs bite, cites  the American Humane Society’s estimates (National Canine Research Foundation, 2009) that there are about 5 million dog bites a year and about 20% have to seek medical attention. …

  When you create a power of attorney document, you’re authorizing someone else—known as your attorney-in-fact—to handle certain legal, financial and business transactions on your behalf. The power of attorney document comes in a few varieties: A limited power of attorney contains restrictions. For example, your attorney-in-fact may be limited to handling just certain responsibilities or may only be authorized to act on your behalf during a specific period of time. In contrast, a general power of attorney gives your …

The Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in preparation for a ruling on whether aspects of the massive health care overhaul are allowable under the Constitution. The main issue in front of the court is the health care law’s individual mandate, which would require all Americans to carry health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty. However, several other matters are also at stake, including whether striking the mandate would …