“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sunday that Congress will take action on the baby formula shortage plaguing states throughout the country. The House is considering two pieces of legislation: first, a bill introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chair of the Education and Labor Committee, to “loosen some of the red tape,” connected to how people can purchase formula. Pelosi told CNN that half of the formula is bought by WIC recipients,” reports Chelsey Cox in USA Today.

“The second bill is being put together by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., that will allow the U.S. to purchase formula from overseas. Mexico, Chile, Ireland and the Netherlands have a formula supply on hand that may be immediately available, Pelosi told ABC News Sunday.”

Read the article.

“Johnny Depp’s United States defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard started on April 16. The trial is supposed to last six weeks and, just like a movie, is already full of twists, turns, suspense and drama,” reports Joshua Lee in Police1

“In 2012, Depp and Heard started dating. In 2014 they were engaged, and in 2015 were married. But by 2016, Heard filed for divorce stating irreconcilable differences. Soon after, Heard filed an order of protection saying Depp emotionally, verbally and physically abused her. Heard wrote an op-ed for “The Washington Post” speaking out against violence against women and the price they pay for speaking up against men.”

Read the article.

“A jury in Houston took just a few hours on Wednesday to find Baylor University and three former football players not responsible for the alleged sexual assault of a former female student athlete in 2017,” reports Paula Lavigne in ESPN Staff Writer

Read the article.

“Teams of lawyers led by Munger, Tolles & Olson and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are handling the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates, who announced Monday the end of their 27-year marriage,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Inc., is being advised by Munger Tolles partners Ronald Olson, Robert Denham, and Eric Tuttle in Los Angeles.”

“Olson, a name partner at the firm and longtime adviser and confidant of billionaire Warren Buffett, didn’t respond to a request for comment about how his law firm came to land a role on a divorce that will divide an estimated $146 billion fortune.”

Read the article.

“An Indianapolis lawyer who was suspended more than 20 years ago has been conditionally reinstated to the Indiana bar,” reports The Indiana Lawyer.

“The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated Scott R. Jones on the condition that he remain on probation for two years. During that time, Jones will remain under a monitoring agreement with the Indiana Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program.”

“Jones was suspended in October 2000 for at least six months without automatic reinstatement for repeated convictions of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Online court records show Jones previously petitioned for reinstatement in 2018, but that petition was denied in 2019.”

Read the article.

“South Dakota’s Republican attorney general was charged Thursday with three misdemeanors for striking and killing a man with his car last summer, avoiding more serious felony charges in a case that raised questions about how the state’s top law enforcement official first reported the crash,” reports Stephen Groves in AP News.

“Jason Ravnsborg could face up to 30 days in jail and up to a $500 fine on each charge: careless driving, driving out of his lane and operating a motor vehicle while on his phone.”

“Hyde County Deputy State’s Attorney Emily Sovell said the evidence simply didn’t support felony charges of vehicular homicide or manslaughter, which could have meant years of prison time. She noted Ravnsborg wasn’t intoxicated, and that a manslaughter charge would have required the state to show he “consciously and unjustifiably” disregarded a substantial risk.”

Read the article.

-Estimated 10,000 Navy and Marine Corps Veterans Wrongfully Denied Military Disability Retirement-

On February 2, 2021, the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) and Perkins Coie LLP, filed a class action complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, on behalf of Oscar D. Torres and former members of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps who were wrongfully denied military disability retirement. The lawsuit challenges the Navy’s use of the “Properly Referred Policy” to deny military disability retirement to Torres and other similarly situated servicemembers. A Sailor or Marine who is retired for disability is entitled to monthly retirement payments and military medical care (“Tricare”) for the servicemember, his or her spouse, and the servicemember’s children while they remain dependents.

At the time of Torres’s referral into the Navy’s Disability Evaluation System (DES), the Navy Council of Review Boards followed the “Properly Referred Policy.” That policy, which has since been revoked by the Navy, explicitly barred the Navy Physical Evaluation Board (PEB) from considering the disabling impact of any condition not “properly referred” to the PEB by listing it on the form used to initiate the DES process.

The lawsuit claims that the “Properly Referred Policy” violated the legal obligation of the Navy, under statutory law and Department of Defense instructions, to consider all medical conditions, including their combined effect, in making fitness determinations, not just those the Navy deemed “properly referred” on a particular form.

Torres served on active duty and in the reserves of the U. S. Marine Corps from August 29, 2007 until January 27, 2018, when he was honorably discharged from the military due to disability. The rigors of military service left Torres with disabling conditions of the back, shoulder, wrist, fingers and knees, ankles and hips as well as sleep apnea. He was referred into the Disability Evaluation System (DES) for review of these injuries. Yet, the Navy Physical Examination Board (PEB) deemed only his back condition and his sleep apnea to be “properly referred.” As a result, the PEB failed to consider whether Torres’ shoulder, wrist, finger, knee, ankle and hip issues rendered him unfit for continued military service. Torres was denied a military disability retirement and provided only a one-time lump sum disability severance payment. The lawsuit argues that the Navy’s failure to consider all of Torres’ medical conditions pursuant to the Navy’s unlawful “Properly Referred Policy” was arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence, and contrary to law.

The “Properly Referred Policy” was enforced from September 12, 2016, until June 11, 2018. It is estimated that 10,000 U.S. Navy and Marine Corps veterans were wrongfully denied military disability retirement as a result of this unlawful policy.

The Navy’s “Properly Referred Policy” was an outlier among the military branches. The Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard each have military disability evaluation procedures, but none of these other branches had a policy restricting the conditions that can be considered when making a fitness for duty determination like those contained in the Navy’s “Properly Referred Policy.”

Notably, the suit explains that “For years, the Program Manager for the Navy Disability Evaluation System Counsel Program decried the policy as ‘wrong’ and ‘contrary to both law and regulation.’”

In the lawsuit, NVLSP and Perkins Coie LLP represent Torres and a putative class of thousands of other veterans, who, like him were illegally denied military disability retirement due to the challenged Navy policy. They ask the Court to order new disability evaluation proceedings in which the Navy should consider all of the class members’ medical conditions, not just the subset of all the conditions that the Navy previously deemed “properly referred.”

If you are a Navy or Marine Corps veteran who was denied a medical retirement as a result of the “Properly Referred Policy,” NVLSP encourages you to email properlyreferred@nvlsp.org to learn more about this case.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on businesses across the country, several companies have thrived during the pandemic in areas such as the gig economy, work from home and e-commerce, entertainment, and social media. Litigation has followed success in many of these instances. The following is a representative sample of strong-performing companies that have experienced increased federal litigation during the pandemic in each of the aforementioned categories,” reports Kirsten Errick in Law Street’s Insights.

“The ‘gig economy,’ according to Investopedia, “is based on flexible, temporary, or freelance jobs, often involving connecting with clients or customers through an online platform.” Examples include Uber and Uber Eats, Lyft, DoorDash, GrubHub, and Postmates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these companies have faced COVID-19 related litigation, such as cases over driver misclassification and employment benefits. These companies have grown as people sought private rides over public transportation and food deliveries expanded as indoor dining shut down.”

Read the article.

“A Texas judge has ordered a Houston-area lawyer and his client to be jointly sanctioned $150,000 for the client’s ‘outright lies’ in litigation and ‘a mountain of evasiveness’ in discovery,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s News.

“In a Jan. 21 order, Judge R. O’Neil Williams of the 268th District Court in Texas imposed the sanctions on solo practitioner Paul B. Rosen of Bellaire, Texas, and his client Gen Fu Zhang.”

“The case involved a dispute over a commercial lease for a fast-food restaurant.”

“Williams said the client made false statements about property used as collateral in the lease transaction. Rosen did not conduct a reasonable investigation of the law and the facts before filing the suit, then failed to correct false and misleading claims in later pleadings, Williams said.”

Read the article.

“Eight acrobats severely injured when the rigging suspending them by their hair plummeted to the floor during a circus performance in Rhode Island in 2014 have reached a $52.5 million settlement with the ownership and management of the arena where the circus was held, their lawyer confirmed Monday,” posted in AP News.

“A metal clip that held the acrobats 20 feet (6 meters) above the floor of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center snapped during the May 2014 performance, causing the women to suffer broken bones and spinal injuries. A ninth worker on the ground was also hurt.”

“Some of the women still suffer from ‘life-altering’ injuries, according to Mandell, who said he could not get into specifics because of medical privacy laws.”

Read the article.

“A former lawyer faces multiple charges of theft and fraud after investigators say he stole about $700,000 from clients over a period of three years,” reports 10 Tampa Bay in their Crime. section.

“According to FDLE, 52-year-old Moein Marashi from Clearwater was arrested after an investigation found he had ‘deprived clients of money entrusted to him for legal services.'”

“Marashi was a member of the Florida Bar Association from 2002 until he was disbarred in August 2019, FDLE reports. The investigation also began in 2019.”

Read the article.

“Despite their collective years of practice, a recent case tried by four plaintiff lawyers was in some ways a unique experience,” reports Olivia Convington in The Indiana Lawyer.

“Of course there was the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that lawyers Louis “Buddy” Yosha, Rich Cook, Bryan Tisch and Brandon Yosha had to contend with during their trial in Marion Superior Court. There was also the fact that at the time the case of Simmons v. Indianapolis Power & Light Co. went to trial, Brandon Yosha had only been a licensed lawyer for five weeks.”

“Plus, in the world of personal injury cases, trials aren’t nearly as common as they used to be. What’s more, this trial lasted two full weeks — also uncommon in personal injury law.”

Read the article.

“The grievance committee for the Southern District of New York has suspended Richard Liebowitz, a New York lawyer notorious for filing low-value copyright cases on behalf of photographers, from practicing law while it investigates charges against him,” reports Caroline Spiezio in Westlaw Today.

“The committee’s chair, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Polk Failla, wrote in a Monday order that the interim suspension was needed to ‘protect the public’ because of Liebowitz’s ‘unwillingness to change despite 19 formal sanctions and scores of other admonishments and warnings from judges across the country.'”

“Liebowitz and his counsel, Brian Jacobs of Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello, did not immediately respond to request for comment on Tuesday.”

Read the article.

“A husband and wife were sentenced today to a combined 92 months in prison for their roles in a sophisticated fraud scheme that primarily targeted elderly Americans,” posts The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia.

“According to court documents, Chirag Choksi, 36, who was sentenced to 78 months in prison, and Shachi Majmudar, 36, who was sentenced to 14 months, were members of a criminal conspiracy in which members used a variety of schemes, including impersonating law enforcement officers and other government officials, to trick and coerce victims into mailing and shipping cash to other conspiracy members by convincing the victims, a disproportionate number of whom were elders, that it was in their best interests to do so.”

“These schemes generally started with automated “robocalls” from a call center in India that were designed to create a sense of urgency with unsuspecting recipients. The messages typically told the recipient that they had some sort of serious legal problem, and that if they did not immediately take a particular action demanded by the callers then there will be drastic consequences. Typically the recipients were threatened with arrest, significant financial penalties, or cessation of government benefits. The fraudsters almost invariably instructed the call recipient that, in order to prevent these dire consequences, the recipient must pay money, by wire transfer or cash, to some purported government entity. This conspiracy operated “money mule” cells in multiple states, including New Jersey, California, Indiana, Texas, Illinois and Minnesota. These money mules would receive parcels containing cash that had been sent by victims and then deposit the money in bank accounts controlled by conspirators.”

Read the article.

“Two Las Vegas residents made their initial court appearances in U.S. District Court on Friday for charges in connection with a multimillion dollar investment fraud scheme,” reports the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Nevada.

“A federal grand jury returned a 14 count indictment on Tuesday, charging John Frank Thomas III, 75, and Thomas Joseph Becker, 72, both of Las Vegas, with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 13 counts of wire fraud.”

“According to allegations in the indictment, from September 2010 to August 2019, Thomas and Becker maintained — and advertised to investors as supposed investment funds — the following entities: Sports Psychometrics; Vegas Basketball Club; Vegas Football Club; Einstein Sports Advisory; Quantum Sports Advisory; Wellington Sports Club; and Welscorp, Inc. Thomas and Becker made false representations to investors that they would use their sports betting skills and strategy to make sports bets with the investors’ money.”

Read the article.

“Doctor Shoaib Qureshi, Doctor Imran Mirza, Memphis Primary Care Specialists, Lunceford Family Health Center, and Getwell Family Medicine agreed to pay $341,690 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly charging Medicare for services rendered by nurse practitioners at the higher reimbursement rate for physician services, the Justice Department announced today,” released the Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs.

“Medicare pays a higher rate for physician services than for non-physician services. Medicare will pay the higher physician rate for services rendered by non-physician providers if the services are ‘incident to’ the services of a physician. Such ‘incident to’ services, however, must be provided under the direct supervision of a physician. The United States alleged that, from 2015 to 2018, Doctor Qureshi, Doctor Mirza, and their clinics billed Medicare as though the physicians had provided the services in question, when in fact nurse practitioners had treated the patients without the supervision required by Medicare’s ‘incident to’ rules. Indeed, the government alleged that the services were rendered when the physicians were out of the office, including times when they were traveling out of state or abroad.”

Read the article.

“… a disbarred lawyer in Westchester County, pled guilty today in White Plains federal court to stealing government funds. VILA’s plea results from his theft of approximately $1 million that the Department of Justice’s 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) had awarded to the defendant’s client, a 9/11 first responder,” released the Southern District of New York.

“VILA was arrested on September 3, 2020, and pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Vincent L. Briccetti.”

“Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: ‘As he admitted today, Gustavo Vila stole money awarded by the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund to his client, an NYPD officer and 9/11 first responder, and falsely told the client for more than three years that the stolen money had yet to be released by the Fund. Now Gustavo Vila awaits sentencing for his crime.'”

Read the article.

“A Middletown, R.I., man currently serving a term of federal supervised release having been convicted and incarcerated for robbing four banks, admitted in federal court in Providence today to fraudulently seeking more than $4.7 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act,” released the District of Rhode Island U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Michael C. Moller, 41, admitted that he applied for and received nearly $600,000 in PPP loans he claimed were to be used to pay employees for a Fall River, MA, businesses he operated, ‘Top Notch Tile.’ FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation agents determined that ‘Top Notch Tile’ was not incorporated with the Massachusetts Secretary of State, nor could investigators locate any tax or bank records for the company.”

Read the article.

“Former Portsmouth, Ohio, city council member and attorney Michael Mearan was arrested today on human trafficking, racketeering and related charges,” reports staff in Cincinnati.com The Enquirer.

“Mearan, 74, is charged with nine counts of promoting prostitution, five counts of compelling prostitution, three counts of trafficking in person and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activities.”

“All the charges are felonies … Mearan faces more than 70 years in prison if convicted.”

Read the article.

“A South Florida lawyer has been arrested for his involvement in at least five robberies or attempted robberies of local banks, FBI officials said Wednesday,” was reported in NBC South Florida’s Miami Dade County.

“Aaron Honaker, 41, was arrested Tuesday night as he was attempting to enter a bank in Coral Gables, officials said.

“According to allegations in the complaint affidavit, Honaker would follow a consistent approach during his robbery attempts and succeeded twice: Honaker would walk up to a teller and ask for assistance in making a withdrawal. He would then pass a handwritten note to the teller that would say messages like, ‘don’t touch the alarm or call the police,’ ’empty all of your $50s and $100s and put it in an envelope,’ and ‘keep calm, and give me all the money in the drawer, I have a gun.’ Honaker would take his note with him on the way out of the bank.

Read the article.