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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.

The Portland Press Herald reports on the latest in the fallout from former Verrill Dana attorney John Duncan’s massive theft from the firm’s clients.  The state bar ethics board is trying to find out more about what and when the firm knew about Duncan’s actions, but the firm is claiming attorney-client privilege.

Libby eventually reached an agreement with Verrill Dana regarding his resignation. He pledged not to disclose the information he had gathered unless a court ordered him to do so. That’s exactly what Davis seeks. He issued a subpoena to Libby on Sept. 8, 2008. Davis wants Libby’s testimony and all of the documents. Verrill Dana filed a motion to quash the subpoena. The dispute went to Justice Warren Silver of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Silver reviewed the documents in his chambers, and he denied Verrill Dana’s motion.  Silver ruled that no attorney-client privilege existed because Libby “may have uncovered criminal conduct by partners of Verrill Dana.

“Under federal and state law, communications between clients and lawyers are no longer protected if the purpose of the communications was to aid in the commission of a fraud or a crime, or to actively conceal past wrongdoing. Justice Silver ordered Libby to turn over the documents to Davis. But Verrill Dana appealed to the full state Supreme Court.

In the Oct. 27 decision, the majority of the justices felt that Silver did not include enough information in his order to support the disclosure of the documents. Justices Robert Clifford, Jon Levy, Andrew Mead and Ellen Gorman sent the case back to Silver for clarification. They essentially asked Silver to review the law again and to make sure that the documents obtained by Libby are exempt from attorney-client privilege. It is not known whether Silver has issued a second order, which will likely have a major impact on the course of Davis’ inquiry.

For most people on a day to day basis, there is no duty of care owed to other people. Some people do have a duty, such as doctors who have a duty to their patients, or landlords who have a duty to their tenants. In a recent case, the Maine Supreme Court weighed if people owe a duty to others if action could prevent further harm.* So while you may be considered a hero if you save someones life who is in danger, you do not have a legal obligation (unless you put that person in the danger).

Steven Cilley, 54, of Princeton, sued Jennifer Lane, of Princeton, over the death of Cilley’s son. Joshua Cilley died on Jan. 31, 2005, at age 27 in the Calais Regional Hospital emergency room of a gunshot wound to the abdomen from a .22-caliber bullet. He was shot while in Lane’s trailer, according to court documents.

Lane, described as the younger man’s on-again, off-again lover, allegedly sat with him for at least 15 minutes after he was shot before attempting to seek medical assistance. Steven Cilley said earlier this year that the doctor who treated his injured son told him Joshua Cilley could have been saved if he had arrived at the hospital five minutes earlier.
…
“Because Cilley was a trespasser at the time of the incident, Lane’s only duty to him was to refrain from wanton, willful, or reckless behavior,” Justice Ellen Gorman wrote for the court. “Lane’s failure to contact emergency assistance for Cilley immediately after she heard the pop [of the gunshot] does not rise to the level of wanton, willful, or reckless behavior because Lane did not create the danger to Cilley, nor commit any act that led to his initial injury.”

via Bangor Daily News.

* I have not read the full case so I don’t know how the issue was exactly presented to the court.

Updated: The case indicates: The Estate contends that Lane owed Cilley a duty of care because he was a social guest in her home, and in the alternative has asked us to recognize a new common law duty: the affirmative duty to seek emergency assistance through reasonable means.