Marylanders: Hotel let the bedbugs bite
March 31, 2008
As someone who will be sleeping in a hotel bed within the week, I just say a big “EWW” on behalf of travelers everywhere.
From WSJ.com:
A Manhattan judge has scratched a request for punitive damages in a bedbug case.
But the judge… let go forward the negligence claims of two Maryland tourists for bites they sustained during a two-night stay at the theater district’s Milford Plaza.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentThe O’s vs. the Nats
March 31, 2008
Since today is Opening Day here in Baltimore (and the day after the Nats stadium debut), we thought we’d ask Baltimoreans about the 2008 season.
The problem: only a handful of people walking around downtown Baltimore last week were interested in talking about the Orioles. Ouch.
Seems that after a decade of losing, most people are unenthused about the 2008 year…
Law blog round-up
March 31, 2008
Good afternoon! Here are some law links to get your week started:
- Ron Miller at the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog has a post on the admissibility of expert witnesses’ financial information. Ron’s a busy guy; he’s also got a post speculating on how O’Malley will fill Judge Raker’s Court of Appeals seat. Click here to find out who Ron thinks the governor will pick. (As those of you who read On the Record regularly know, I am an unrepentant appellate judge selection nerd.)
- The Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog has this post about a cool-sounding (for IP types, anyway) panel at UM Law in a few weeks.
- You may not want to delete that e-mail.
- If you’ve been following the news about this Las Vegas judge-behaving-badly, here’s the latest story, courtesy of How Appealing.
- The Law Practice Management Blog offers this post about corporations pressuring their law firms to go paperless.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentA “master” by any other name?
March 31, 2008
The Maryland Judiciary is holding a contest among its employees to rename the position of master in Circuit Court. But that can’t stop us from having our own little contest, now can it?
First, some background: The Judiciary wants a different name besides “master” because of the word’s negative associations, particularly to slavery. The name actually derives from “master in chancery,” which dates back to medieval England and refers to a person who decides cases based on equity.
Maryland’s 63 masters are selected and overseen by the circuit court in each jurisdiction and hear primarily family and juvenile law cases. They can write opinions and recommendations but their work is not legally binding unless reviewed and signed by a judge.
As for the contest, 15 names had been submitted last week, including “baron,” “juris magistrate,” and “barrister,” which is my favorite because it makes me think of English guys in frilly, powdered wigs.
But who cares what I think. What do you think? What should Maryland rename its masters? Does the position need to be renamed at all?
DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentWeek in Photos, 03/24-03/28
March 28, 2008
Employees depart over NPO’s bachelor auction fundraiser
March 28, 2008
Is a firefighter bachelor auction held at a bar an appropriate fundraiser for the Red Cross?
This seems to be the question that’s led to a purge of employees from the Frederick County Red Cross - both resignations and terminations.
The group’s executive director was fired March 19 after objecting to the plans, according to a story in the Frederick News-Post. Two more longtime employees resigned this week.
Here’s the crux of the “inappropriate” argument: The Red Cross organization advises its workers and volunteers to avoid bars and taverns while representing the Red Cross.
However, there is no such language in the organization’s written code of conduct.
In this situation, once the Frederick chapter was told there were no legal concerns over the event, it was up to the board members to make the final decision.
And on Wednesday, the bachelor auction was held at the Greene Turtle Sports Bar and Grille. The event raised more than $4,000.
Do you think a bachelor auction is appropriate for an esteemed NPO? Or should nonprofits steer away from mixing business and pleasure?
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentDiscovery ordered to turn over tiger bone tapes
March 28, 2008
Assistant Business Editor Ben Mook uncovered an alarming story yesterday when the U.S. District Court for Maryland ordered Discovery Communications, of Silver Spring, to turn over footage to help the defense of an animal rights group that’s being sued in China.
A civil lawsuit filed in Beijing claims The International Fund for Animal Welfare impugned the reputation of a Chinese business through a web article claiming a wine it makes uses tiger skeletons as an ingredient.
The subpoenaed footage, which has not aired in the U.S., is from an episode of Animal Planet’s Crime Scene Wild series, and examines the Guilin Xiongsen Bear & Tiger Mountain Villa Entertainment Center and its making of “bone fortified wine.” Guilin Xiongsen runs a tiger farm, villa, restaurant and winemaking operation at Bear & Tiger Mountain.
The villa’s defense? They’ve got the wrong bones.
“The main ingredients of the ‘animal bone medicated wine’ produced by [Guilin Xiongsen] are rice wine, papayas and African lion bones, and do not include any ‘tiger bone’ ingredients at all,” the company said in the lawsuit.
Read Ben’s online-only story at our main Web site.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentCompetent enough to represent yourself?
March 27, 2008
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Indiana v. Edwards (07-208) on whether states can require that defendants who are competent to stand trial must prove they are also fit to proceed pro se, that is, to represent themselves at trial.
While I was reading through the transcript, I was reminded of a criminal trial I observed during my judicial clerkship in which a defendant represented himself. Without legal training and little formal education, he struggled to introduce evidence; he put on an inadequate defense and continually violated courtroom decorum and procedure. While he was certainly competent to stand trial with an attorney, I’m not sure if he was truly competent enough to represent himself. (He lost, by the way).
In a criminal case, a defendant is competent to stand trial only when he or she can be “mentally present” at the proceeding. Basically, the defendant must understand the charges and the trial process, and be able to assist in his or her own defense.
By contrast, in order to waive counsel, the court must find only that the waiver is “knowing and intelligent.” The judge determines if the defendant has received the charging document, advises the defendant of possible penalties and of the right to counsel, and explains the implications of waiver.
Should there be a separate determination that a defendant is competent to proceed pro se? If so, what should the test be? Do you think it should be the ability to “communicate coherently,” as Indiana’s solicitor general, Thomas M. Fisher, argued?
CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor
Sphere: Related ContentMd. poised to outlaw “inadvertent bear feeding”
March 27, 2008
This’ll teach you not to leave garbage on your front porch in Garrett County.
State wildlife regulators are about to adopt a regulation that would outlaw feeding of black bears — even if you don’t intend to.
The rule would penalize citizens (no report on how) for failing to remove bird feeders, garbage and other “attractants” after one warning has been issued.
DNR says the regulation is vital to reduce situations where bears become threatening to human safety. Last year, there were over 60 complaints that bears were snooping through people’s trash.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentThe “B” side of an otherwise somber trial
March 27, 2008
The trial of David Lee Miller, convicted Wednesday of killing Elizabeth Walters and their unborn child, was serious and emotional, with tears shed on the witness stand and in the gallery by family and friends on both sides.
But for a brief moment Wednesday morning there was laughter all around – thanks to Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Levitz’s cassette tape recorder.
It happened as Levitz was near the end of instructing the jury. He had gone through the responsibilities of jurors and thoroughly reviewed and defined the charges Miller faced. The judge reassured the panel that he was following his longstanding practice of recording his instructions in case the jury wanted to hear them again while deliberating.
Just then Levitz, whose voice booms even when he’s not raising it, was stopped silent by a “click” that was audible in the back of the courtroom.
One side of his cassette was full.
The whole courtroom chuckled as a smiling Levitz flipped the tape and continued.
DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
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