Some of the stories about courts, the law and lawyers in the
news this past week:
Open meetings laws force public agencies to share more materials: The new requirement, an amendment to the state open meetings law, mandates that all public agencies make their agendas available to the public in advance of their meetings, as well as supplemental meeting materials such as resolutions or department reports.Wife of millionaire LI real-estate mogul gets judge to ripup her prenup: Longtime divorce lawyer Raoul Felder, who has never overturned a prenup in his three-decade career and has no involvement in the Petrakis case, called the decision “really rare” and precedent setting.Will FDA Use Obamacare to Tax Americans’ Smartphones and Tablets: Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are concerned that FDA may subject more smartphones and mobile apps to regulation as medical devices, which could result in their being taxed under Obamacare and harm the innovation and economic benefits of the U.S. mobile marketplace.Attorney wants to exclude Jews from Abdel Hameed Shehadeh’supcoming terror trial: Lawyer Frederick Cohn will ask a judge to bar Jews from the jury hearing the case against Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, who’s accused of lying about trying to join jihadists in Pakistan.Can lawyers ethically blog about their cases? According to the decision issued by the Virginia Supreme Court, not only can Virginia lawyers ethically blog about their cases, they can even list the names of their clients when doing so, as long as their blog includes an appropriate disclaimer.N.Y. Schools See Decrease in U.S. News Rankings: Bob Morse, director of data research at U.S. News, attributed much of the churn to a revised methodology involving the weight given to schools' success at landing their graduates in jobs.Judge halts mayor's soda ban, calls it 'arbitrary and capricious': Judge Tingling said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Board of Health overstepped their bounds, to enforce rules that should be established by the legislative bodies.
For more on each of these stories, click the links above.
