Appeals in Brief
11th Circuit Tackles Fraudulent Transfers in Ponzi Schemes
With the collapse of multiple large scale Ponzi schemes in recent years, Federal courts in Florida and elsewhere have been wrestling with so-called "clawback" suits. The way Ponzi schemes work is that the schemers induce investors to give them money that is supposed...
Courts of Appeals Allow Enforcement of Foreign Governments’ Contracts in U.S. Federal Courts
U.S. federal courts are characteristically wary of overstepping their bounds when adjudicating cases involving foreign governments or issues and events occuring in foreign countries. That can pose a challenge for U.S. companies engaged in international business,...
Florida Courts’ Jurisdiction Over Foreign Assets Curtailed
(UPDATED) Courts' power to do justice in civil cases depends on their ability to enforce their judgments, i.e., to compel parties to pay up when they are found liable. But courts are also wary of extending their power outside of their own territory, and thus...
Late Disclosure in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Doesn’t Prevent Pursuit of a Claim
Florida's Third District Court of Appeal (in Miami) recently reaffirmed that making a mistake in one's bankruptcy filings is not necessarily fatal. The decision reversing summary judgment in Montes v. Mastec North America, Inc., No. 3D12-2622, was released on February...
Can Judges Be Facebook Friends With Lawyers?
Is a Facebook friendship really a friendship? Can judges be "friends" with attorneys on Facebook? Florida judges and legal ethicists have been debating these questions for more than four years. Florida District Courts of Appeal have now begun to offer their opinions,...
The Tipsy Coachman Doctrine And UNF’s Prohibition on Students Keeping Guns in Their Cars
Gun rights advocates received a big win in Florida's First District Court of Appeal on December 10, 2013. The 1st DCA took the unusual step of issuing seven separate opinions to explain the result. Sitting en banc in Florida Carry, Inc. v. University of...
Exclusion of Acupuncture and Massage Therapy From PIP Allowed — For Now
Florida's acupuncture physicians and massage therapists recently learned that they are (again) ineligible to be paid PIP benefits for treating automobile accident victims. Chiropractors learned that PIP coverage of their services has (again) been curtailed as well....
Florida Supreme Court Finds Lesbian Partner’s Parental Rights Constitutionally Protected
Issuing its opinion in DMT vs. TMH, a closely watched case that drew national attention, the Supreme Court of Florida today declared that a woman has constitutionally protected rights to raise a child created by artificial insemination using her ovum, with the...
Court of Appeal Disapproves of Circuit Judge’s Public Lambasting of Attorney
It's not uncommon to see pro se litigants butt heads with trial judges. It's less common to see attorneys doing so. Knowing that they will likely appear before the same judge in the future, most lawyers take great pains to put aside personal grievances in the interest...