Litigios

A lawsuit that sought information about the drugs Indiana plans to use in lethal injections
and that motivated the Legislature to use a late-night session to keep the veil of secrecy
intact has come to a close, with the state paying more than $800,000 in legal fees and
disclosing that its supply of lethal injection drugs has long been expired.

For "any kind of foreign litigation or arbitration ... that involves transactions in U.S. dollars, there's at least a possibility that there's going to be information in the U.S. and that tends to be attractive," said Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC partner A. Katherine Toomey.

“When I made this public records request in 2014, I never imagined that the state would spend the next seven years fighting to prevent these records from being released to the public,” Toomey wrote in an email. “Transparency is a key principle of good governance and the rule of law. The state should not be operating in secret and refusing to disclose vital information to the public.”

The Indiana Supreme Court has ordered the Department of Correction to pay more than $500,000 in legal fees in a fight over one of the state's deepest, darkest secrets.

It all comes back to the convoluted legal fight that started in 2014 with a public records request from A. Katherine Toomey, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represents groups opposing the death penalty.

Justices divided 2-2 in a case brought by a Washington, D.C., attorney against the Indiana Department of Correction over Indiana’s “secrecy statute” that prohibits disclosure of the state’s lethal injection drugs and who supplies them.

With Justice Geoffrey Slaughter not participating, the remaining justices split in an order issued Thursday. By rule, the lack of a majority affirms the rulings of Marion Circuit Judge Sheryl Lynch, ordering DOC to disclose the records, awarding $538,000 in attorney fees to Washington attorney Katherine Toomey and granting other relief.

A Manhattan federal judge said Tuesday it is “exceedingly suspicious” that there are minimal emails discussing the decision to force the NYPD’s first female three-star chief into retirement.

A lawyer for Mohamed Soltan, a US citizen who has filed a lawsuit alleging torture in Egyptian custody, said that plain-clothes officers raided the homes of six family members Sunday, detaining two cousins.

"Now the Egyptian regime is arresting his relatives to try to intimidate him into silence. Such tactics have no place in the international community," said Eric Lewis, a lawyer for Soltan.

"Now the Egyptian regime is arresting his relatives to try to intimidate him into silence," said Soltan's lawyer Eric Lewis. "Such tactics have no place in the international community. Egypt cannot seek the benefits of membership in that community while denigrating human rights and behaving with impunity and lawlessness."

A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer argued Monday that the United States can kill its own citizens without judicial review when litigation would reveal state secrets.

With the courts mostly closed, will sexual abuse plaintiffs get more time to sue? This article in City & State examines the effect of coronavirus-related court closures on Child Victims Act claims, quoting partner Jason Berland's recent piece in the New York Law Journal.

Six LBKM professionals have been selected to the 2019 New York and Washington, DC Super Lawyers lists - an honor limited to 5 percent of the lawyers in each state. In addition, one LBKM professional has been selected to the 2019 New York Rising Stars list. 

An amended complaint filed in Miami-Dade County alleges that Amicorp, an international trust services company, actively participated in a multi-million-dollar real estate fraud which victimized many Latin American families. 

“We are gratified that the court recognized that, as a U.S. citizen, Mr. Kareem has the right to be heard in court before his government can decide to kill him, and we look forward to these proceedings continuing to a final resolution,” said Tara J. Plochocki, partner with the Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss law firm.

In a decision issued on Feb. 5, the U.K. Supreme Court quashed a notice pursuant to Section 2(3) of the 1987 Criminal Justice Act, that sought to require a U.S. corporation, KBR Inc., to produce documents located in the U.S.  The decision has important consequences for cross-border discovery and investigations, as the U.S. and the U.K. appear to be taking divergent approaches.

Creating a potential Catch-22 for the adult survivors given the opportunity to bring claims during the one year look-back period, the COVID-19 crisis has closed state courts to any new civil case filings and effectively stopped any of these cases from proceeding.

In these tough times, when clients are looking to protect assets and increase revenue, it is more important than ever to ensure that their arbitral awards are collectible. A truly successful outcome requires the ability to enforce and monetize the award that was won in the arbitration. When faced with a recalcitrant award debtor, it is imperative to think strategically and work closely with counsel and experts to enforce and identify recoverable assets.