According to Associated Press, David Stern’s Plantation-based law practice will end operations March 31, 2011. “The firm once had more than 1,200 employees and handled tens of thousands of foreclosures each year.”
While one foreclosure mill is closing its doors, many more remain open for business. Lenders and borrowers involved with foreclosures should opt instead for competent local counsel to protect their interests. Got a foreclosure question? Call Brad Hogreve at 941.364.2400.
Today’s Snyder v. Phelps decision from the Supreme Court of the United States maintained the extensive protections afforded to speech in our country. This case was initiated by a father whose son was killed while serving in the military. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, picketed the military funeral, and the father sued claiming that such picketing inflicted severe emotional distress.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church regularly attend military funerals where they display signs which attribute the deaths of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to God’s punishment for America’s acceptance of homosexuality.
The Supreme Court found that, however hurtful the protest was for the father, the First Amendment protected the church’s speech.
The Supreme Court of the United States recently issued Staub v. Proctor Hospital. This decision adhered to a “cat’s paw” theory of employer liability for discrimination i.e., the Court found that employers would be subject to liability for discrimination “where lower-level supervisors with discriminatory motives influence, but do not make, adverse employment decisions made by higher-level managers.” (http://www.stoelrivesworldofemployment.com/2011/03/articles/supreme-court/supreme-court-upholds-cats-paw-theory-in-employment-discrimination-cases/) This decision is expected to make it more difficult for employers to resolve discrimination cases through motions for summary judgment.