Attention Readers, It's Time For....

....THE MORNING ROUNDUP!!!

As respected members of the legal community, it behooves us to keep abreast of the various and sundry goings-on in the court system around the country. Enjoy.

--Barnard Lorence filed a $2 million lawsuit in Stuart, Fla., in November
against the First National Bank and Trust, accusing it of falsely advertising
that it cares about its customers. He said he had been charged a $32 fee for
overdrawing his checking account by $5, was unsuccessful in asking for a waiver,
and said the stress from the incident exacerbated a 2001 brain injury. [Palm
Beach Post, 11-10-05]  (Go get 'em Bernard!)

--The Boston Globe reported in September that the elite Palmer & Dodge
law firm in Boston had been awarded almost $100,000 in fee reimbursement after
putting a partner and three other lawyers to work representing a prison inmate
upset mainly at being restricted in his use of the prison law library and being
prevented from receiving "sexually explicit" photos in the mail. The
complainant, Daniel LaPlante, murdered a pregnant woman and her two children,
reportedly smirked at the jury, and was described by his trial judge as so
detestable that the judge would have "no problem" personally executing him.
[Boston Globe, 9-16-05] (Hmmmmm....I smell
appeeeeeeaaaaalllllll....)

--Inmate Robert Murray refused to appear at a court hearing in September in New
York City because he "found it humiliating" to have to wear Hannibal Lecter-type
restraints. (The HIV-positive Murray had admitted to at least four attempts to
infect police officers by spitting blood at them.) [New York Post, 9-9-05] (Hello Clarice.....)

        --And Biswanth Halder, facing 338 felony counts, including aggravated
        murder, in a shooting spree in Cleveland, declined to come to court in November
        until the judge let his lawyers go buy him a hairpiece. (The judge acquiesced.)
        [New York Post, 9-9-05] (Truth, Justice, and the Bosely Hair
        Institute.  God Bless America!)