(SkyNewswire.com) --- Sally & Fitch LLP has been rated the #1 firm of corporate lawyers by The Boston 10, a website that ranks Boston area businesses and services in top ten lists over a wide range of major categories. The Boston 10 says, "From business litigation to traditional legal services, Massachusetts has a great selection of law firms to choose from," and it places Sally & Fitch LLP at the top of the list.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a published decision, held that Xue Lu and Jie Hao are entitled to their day in court for crimes committed by a United States asylum officer in the course of their application for political asylum in the United States.

In the Spring of 2000, United States asylum officer Thomas Powell attempted to extort payment and sexual favors in exchange for approval of both Ms. Lu and Ms. Hao's asylum applications, according to court documents. After Ms. Lu refused, her application was denied. Ms. Hao contacted her lawyer who then alerted the Justice Department. After a sting operation in which Ms. Hao wore a wire, Mr. Powell was arrested and subsequently convicted by a jury of deprivation of Ms. Lu's civil rights, and of seeking bribes from both Ms. Lu and Ms. Hao (Crim. No. 02-CR-667-ALL).

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Earlier this summer, South Carolina became the latest state to adopt sentencing reforms aimed at reducing penitentiary expenses. South Carolina's prison population rose abruptly from just over 9,000 inmates in 1983 to more than 24,000 by the end of 2009, with steep future increases projected. Over the same interval, the state prison budget rose from $63.7 million to almost $400 million. Despite this massive public investment, rates of violent crime and recidivism in the state have remained high.

According to The Pew Center on the States, spending on corrections throughout the U.S. increased more than fourfold over the past two decades. One percent of American adults are behind bars, and corrections budgets are the fastest growing expense item for state governments after Medicaid. The Pew Center, which advises many states about public safety performance, praised South Carolina's dedication to the issue. Richard Jerome, project manager of the organization's Public Safety Performance Project, said that "South Carolina policy makers put aside ideology, looked at the data and forged a comprehensive package of reforms that will get taxpayers a better return on their public safety dollars."

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Despite a flood of protest from local governments, a provision of Leandra's Law requiring ignition interlock devices for all New York drivers convicted of DWI is set to soon go into effect. These devices connect the ignition of an offender's vehicle to a breath alcohol analyzer, and prevent the vehicle from starting if the driver does not pass a breath test. As of August 15, every New York county is required to adopt a comprehensive ignition interlock program.

Some local governments, while optimistic about the law's intended effects, are worried about the financial burden created by the mandated installation and monitoring of the devices. In Dutchess County, for example, between 750 and 900 drivers are convicted of DWI each year; formerly, the Probation Department had monitored only about 20 offenders a year who were ordered to install ignition interlock devices following a felony DWI conviction. The new ignition interlock requirement is just one of the many impacts Leandra's Law has had on the state, suspects, and convicted defendants.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- A recent decision by the German Constitutional Court provides that men who father children out of wedlock need not obtain the mother's consent to seek legal custody. The court heeded a 2009 European Court of Human Rights ruling that German family law was inconsistent with a European directive to respect and sustain family life, and it also ran afoul of anti-discrimination laws. The interests of a German child in having a relationship with an unmarried father can no longer be subsumed by the mother's parental rights.

Some German conservatives decried the judgment, arguing that it undermined the institution of marriage and reduced its value to mere tax advantages. But reaction was generally positive, praising the long overdue recognition that all children equally deserve the benefit of having a legal relationship with both parents. The Frankfurt newspaper Allgemeine Zeitungput put it simply: "Children need both a mother and a father." Others recognized the practical realities in a country where nearly one of three children is born outside of marriage.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- One of the quickest ways to learn about the importance of having a solid and comprehensive estate plan is having to facilitate the process for elderly parents who encounter unexpected hardships. For adults with parents in their seventies or eighties, emerging health care issues may be the catalyst for decisions about factors not considered by a generation that may have associated estate planning more with financial issues resolved by a standard will. By seeking practical advice about strategies available to help a family cope with issues caused by advancing illness or the desire to keep a long-cherished family home, the younger generation can help elders avoid additional worries.

Several legal processes are available to confirm that trusted loved ones or counselors can make important decisions for people who are no longer in a position to do so for themselves. A durable financial power of attorney can be granted to a son or daughter to help an elderly parent manage a checkbook and make other money-related decisions. Such powers can also be made on a temporary basis to weather an illness or major surgery.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- According to a report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 3.7 million workers suffered reported nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in 2008. Like many other states, New Jersey has a comprehensive workers' compensation system in place to provide, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, a "no fault insurance program that provides...benefits to employees who suffer job-related injuries or illnesses". The Worker's Compensation benefits include:
- Payment of medical expenses for treatment. However, the treatment and medical provider has to be authorized by the Worker's Compensation insurance carrier.
- Up to 70% of wages if the authorized treating physician has determined that an employee is unable to work temporarily due to a work connected injury.
- An award for partial permanent functional disability that is calculated pursuant to the extent of disability and in accordance with a disability schedule.

Benefits in Workers' Compensation do not include pain and suffering. This is as a result of a compromise in the State Legislature when it was agreed that all injuries on the job, whether or not the injuries were caused by the employee's own negligence, would be covered under Workers' Compensation. As a result, an employee whose negligent actions caused his own injuries is still entitled to Worker's Compensation benefits.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Recently, the City of Dallas announced the start of its "Pay Up or Get Locked UP!" campaign. Dallas Police, working with City Marshalls and a total of five local agencies, began targeting those individuals with outstanding warrants in the city.

Designed to Close Budget Gaps
With the sagging economy and budget cuts hitting cities and local communities equally hard, cities are ramping up collection efforts as a way to close budget shortfalls, and Dallas is no exception. According to The Dallas Morning News, the city has over 450,000 outstanding warrants with unpaid fines totaling nearly $99 million.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Recently, two school buses were involved in a serious accident in Missouri. One student was killed, as was the driver of another vehicle involved in the accident, and over fifty students were injured in the crash. The incident renewed the debate over whether school buses should have seat belts installed and whether those belts would make buses any safer.

The crash occurred when a pick-up truck rear-ended a semi that had stopped for construction traffic. One of the school buses collided with the pick-up and was then struck from behind by the other bus.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Impirus announces the release of a document sharing portal, LegalPortal™, for law firms. The portal can be accessed through a law firm’s website, and allows for clients to view and upload documents. It also allows for co-counselors to login and share or upload files. The portal runs on a cloud-based platform, utilizing Microsoft Azure technology.

Matt Spradley, president and founder of Impirus says, “People don’t want to deal with fax machines anymore, and email is not secure. Consumers are adept at sharing files online, and expect to work in that fashion.” Collaborating through the portal is more convenient for clients. It is also more secure because the data is encrypted as it is sent back and forth.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- The DePuy ASR hip recall of the Johnson & Johnson Depuy ASR hip replacements finally occurred long after reports made it known that the hip implant fails at a very high rate. The Depuy ASR hip replacement causes high levels of metal ion release into patients implanted with the device. This results patients needing a revision surgery. The DePuy ASR revision surgery is complicated due to the adverse effects of the metal ions on the tissue.

The Depuy ASR hip replacement's high failure rate was documented in the 2008 Australian Registry. The DePuy ASR hip recall from the Australian market occurred in December 2009 according to the New York Times. The DePuy hip recall has finally occurred in the United States over six months later.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has stopped prosecutors and judges from employing an end-run around sex offender laws in their efforts to get offenders sentenced to harsher penalties.

The court's ruling came in the case of Commonwealth. v. Jarowecki (985 A.2d 955). Craig S. Jarowecki of West Reading was convicted in 2006 of eight counts of possessing child pornography for having six images and two movies on his computer.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- The Chicago area, including the collar counties, is currently in the midst of a heroin boom. According to a recent report from Roosevelt University, the metro area led the nation in cases of people with heroin problems using emergency rooms--a number 50 percent higher than New York, which ranked second.

Yet the problem may be even greater, as many users of heroin and other drugs are reluctant to use emergency medical services out of fear that they will be arrested on drug charges.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- A bill recently signed by Governor Quinn will require all law enforcement agencies to send rape kits (physical evidence collected after sexual assaults) for DNA testing. The bill, introduced in early February and passed unanimously in May, came in reaction to recent investigative journalism demonstrating that many of these kits sit on law enforcement shelves in Illinois without ever being tested.

The new law, which takes effect September 1, 2010, makes Illinois the first state in the nation with this requirement. Questions remain about how the state (already facing a budget crisis) will pay for the additional testing, as well as what effect the requirement will have on those accused of sexual assault and the victims of assault.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- There are two bills before the Tennessee legislature this term that could impose unfair limits on the rights of injured patients to bring medical malpractice claims against those responsible for harming them.

Higher Standard of Proof in Emergency Room Error Cases
Under H.B. 2543, emergency room patients who are injured by the acts of an ER doctor, on-call specialist or other ER department employee will have to prove the health care provider acted with gross negligence to succeed in a medical malpractice case.