news

Bangor Daily News:  

Maine Gov. Paul LePage is getting some outside help negotiating a new labor contract for nearly 10,000 state workers.

Louis DiLorenzo, a managing partner in the firm Bond Schoeneck & King, which has offices in New York, Florida and Kansas, will be paid $295 an hour to help administration officials in their negotiations with the Maine State EmployeesAssociation.

A Wednesday meeting will discuss ground rules for upcoming negotiations.

The latest “Ask a Lawyer” column in the Bangor Daily news is about if and when you can copyright or trademark your own name.

Copyright and trademark law protect names in commercial uses. Copyright law protects “creative works,” including literary, music and visual works. Your given name — even one you give yourself — is not going to be considered a creative work that can be copyrighted. Names in a book, such as “Harry Potter” are protected by copyright as part of the literary work in which it is used.

Trademark law protects a name if it is associated with a product or service. An example of this is “Ralph Lauren,” which is a real person’s name, but also the name of the company that produces clothing. So the use of the name Ralph Lauren is protected by trademark law, because it represents the clothing and goods made by the Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.

If you are concerned about the unauthorized use of your name, Maine law prohibits the unauthorized use of your name or image for commercial purposes. The unauthorized appropriation of your name or likeness is considered a violation of your right to privacy. This comes up in advertisements, with lawsuits that typically involve famous people or celebrities.

The Portland Press Herald provides an update on the fallout from the actions of the former firm partner John Duncan.

Questions have lingered about the response to Duncan’s thefts within Verrill Dana, and whether other lawyers — most notably former managing partner David Warren — would be charged criminally or brought up for sanctions by the Maine Board of Bar Overseers.  While it appears that no one other than Duncan will face criminal charges, the lead counsel for the Board of Bar Overseers has accused six Verrill Dana lawyers of breaking ethics rules.

After investigating the matter for nearly three years, J. Scott Davis recently filed a court complaint outlining the allegations against Warren and James Kilbreth III, who chaired Verrill Dana’s executive board in the summer of 2007.  Davis also seeks unspecified sanctions against lawyers Eric Altholz, Mark Googins, Roger Clement Jr. and Juliet Browne, who served on the firm’s executive board at the time.  Disciplinary hearings for all of the lawyers have been scheduled for Dec. 13 and 14 in District Court in Lewiston.

More here, here, here, and here

After apparently ripping people off through online sales of things he did not actually deliver, or what was delivered was not as advertised, David Anderson will spend three years in jail.

MACHIAS — A Lubec man who sold baseball cards and other merchandise over the Internet was sentenced Tuesday in Washington County Superior Court to seven years in prison with all but three suspended for theft by deception.

David Anderson, 66, also was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $6,500 in restitution to three victims, according to the Washington County District Attorney’s Office.

In an April plea agreement with prosecutors, Anderson pleaded guilty to theft by deception. He was charged with a Class B crime because what he stole was valued at more than $10,000, according to Paul Cavanaugh, first assistant district attorney for Washington County.

Cavanaugh said Tuesday that Anderson offered items, including a large collection of baseball cards he had inherited from his father, for sale on the Internet between 2001 and 2005. After some of the sales were completed, local police and authorities in states where his customers lived, complained that the merchandise either never arrived or was not in the condition described by Anderson.

Cavanaugh said Tuesday that Anderson’s victims numbered 25 and their losses were estimated at $87,000.

via  – Bangor Daily News.

A jury has returned a $7.3 million verdict against one of Maine’s largest law firms, deciding that Bernstein Shur Sawyer & Nelson was negligent in its representation of a client in a workplace sexual harassment case.  Peter Redman alleged that Bernstein Shur worked against his interests in his dispute with his brother, Mark Redman, over control of Northern Mattress & Furniture Co., which has since gone out of business. Peter Redman, who was the company’s president, was prohibited from entering the family business’ headquarters in Fairfield because of a sexual harassment claim that he contends his brother orchestrated to take control of the business.

via The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

A lawsuit involving the town of Milbridge and Mano en Mano, a local nonprofit, was settled in U.S. District Court last week, a move expected by all parties. Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk ordered that all details be completed within 30 days, at which time the suit filed by Mano en Mano will be dismissed.

The lawsuit, initiated last summer, was based on alleged violations of the federal Fair Housing Act. Mano en Mano, a nonprofit advocacy group, was using $1.6 million in federal grant funds to construct a housing unit for permanent agricultural workers.When Milbridge voters in June 2009 approved a moratorium on such facilities, Mano en Mano sued the town.

via Bangor Daily News.

My alma mater, the UDC School of Law, is being looked at as a model for the UMass law school.

The city of Washington launched its public law school in 1988 with a lofty goal: to provide a legal education to minorities underrepresented in the field and empower them to serve their own communities and others in need.

… And its tumultuous journey offers hope and some valuable lessons for Massachusetts, where higher education officials are poised to approve a controversial plan to turn a little-known, poorly regarded law school in Southeastern Massachusetts into the state’s first public law school. The Board of Higher Education, which rejected a similar plan four years ago, is set to cast its vote Tuesday.

via  The Boston Globe.

The only district attorney to represent Maine’s Hancock and Washington counties since the system was created 35 years ago is planning to retire. Sixty-six-year-old Michael Povich of Ellsworth … held the post since Jan. 1, 1975, when Maine replaced the old county attorney system with district attorneys. Povich tells the Bangor Daily News one of the big differences in the criminal justice system is how domestic violence and sexual assault cases are prosecuted.  He says such cases used to be dismissed more often because of reluctance by victims to testify, or they ended up with fines and no jail time.

via  The Portland Press Herald.