Maryland Lawyer Blog

• SCOTUS will hear a case out of Maryland next term, concerning an FMLA claim by a former employee of the state's court system.
• The numbers confirm it: there are too many lawyers, not enough law jobs. Some people go to law school (and presumably even take the bar, though why someone would put himself through that for nothing is beyond me) never intending to practice law, but that can't account for the serious imbalance reported here.
• Phylicia Barnes' family still doesn't know what happened to cause her death. Terribly sad.
• How the heck did this guy's line of thinking go? "Gee, I'm annoyed at Scott Shellenberger. I think I'll exercise my right to political protest by rigging up a toilet to look like a bomb, then leaving it outside the old courthouse in Towson. Yeah, a toilet, that's it. That'll sure show him." Geez.
• Home builders' group sues over EPA limits on development affecting the Chesapeake.
• A prosecutor went overboard in using a defendant's murderous rap lyrics against him, the Court of Appeals says. The guy gets a new trial.

A disbarred lawyer has filed a claim against Governor/Mayor/Maryland Icon William Donald Schaefer's estate claiming he was a caretaker for Schaefer since 2006.

The Plaintiff - I guess he is a plaintiff; he filed a claim with the Baltimore County Register of Wills - claims he took Schaefer out for meals and civic appearances three times a week beginning in September 2006 through the former governor’s death in April.

Here's why I think the claim fails. The Plaintiff would have to answer the question: Why would Schaefer pay him to hang out with him when he had a deep bullpen of sycophants around who would have been glad to take his place? I think his "Well, why was Charlie Sheen paying for hookers?" argument will fail.

I could not find a story on this in the Baltimore Sun. Is the Sun sleeping or do they think the claim should not be dignified with a story. I put the odds at even money on both possibilities.

• Baltimore City Solicitor George Nilson has negotiated a land deal for the first slots parlor in the city. Sun columnist Jay Hancock blames the BDC for apparently making a mistake that necessitated the deal in the first place.

• Horse-neglecting lawyer Hilton Silver doesn't have to pay rescue costs for two horses he used to own since he was never convicted of animal cruelty against them, only against a third horse that had to be euthanized. Still, there's this quote from prosecutor Adam Lippe: "Bad things happen to mean people."
• The Daily Record's weekly round-up links to our own John Bratt writing about how he wiped the floor with a defense expert at deposition.
• TDR tells Frank Conaway to get his office in order. HT: Baltimore Crime.
• Not quite Maryland, but the "I couldn't have been driving drunk because I was in the backseat receiving oral sex" personal injury lawsuit has wrapped up, with the plaintiff getting a $22,000 award from the guy with the sex excuse. Another defendant, who, despite what the sex guy claimed, does not even appear to have been in the car when it crashed, slept through parts of the trial. Had I been his attorney, I would have...I don't know...woken him up.
• Practicing family law can be dangerous.

I like the Baltimore County Bar Association's newsletter. I thought it was a good reason to be a member of the Baltimore County Bar Association in the first place. As it turns out, all of their newsletters are available online.

A 47-year-old Lutherville/Essex attorney/magician who - frighteningly - runs a children’s entertainment company in Baltimore County was arrested and charged with flying to Florida to have sex with a 14-year-old boy, It was a "Predators" type deal: the guy was really talking to undercover cops who posed as both the boy and - perhaps more creepily - the boy's caregiver. So this guy was all pumped up that everyone was on board.

This magician/lawyer - a combination that was bound to end badly - claims to be a criminal lawyer yet he fell for the ole "bring a basketball and a movie so we can identify your pathetic self" play.

The story is in the Baltimore Sun and the Maryland Daily Record. I love the Daily Record's title that the arrest could spur an Attorney Grievance Commission. Really? Ya think?