Sandra Skinner, the first woman to serve as clerk of the Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District, plans to retire after 29 years in office, the court announced Tuesday. Skinner, who will leave office effective June 30, joined the Springfield-based ...
Read More »Senator ‘not of a mind’ to change tort laws
The Missouri Legislature returned to the state Capitol on Wednesday for what already promises to be a contentious session. In the Senate, Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, used the normally perfunctory first day of session to rail against, among other ...
Read More »Past victim’s age may give father a second chance
The Eastern District Court of Appeals says a Monroe County man might be able to be reunited with his child because a previous conviction for abuse of a 17-year-old doesn’t automatically disqualify him. The father, identified in the opinion as ...
Read More »Report says executions remained low in 2017
A report from the Death Penalty Information Center says executions and death sentences remained near historically low levels in 2017, including in Missouri. However, the center said the single death sentence that Missouri carried out this year was part of ...
Read More »Right to farm doesn’t include pot, court says
A man convicted of growing pot said his “right to farm” under the Missouri Constitution had been violated. On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court nipped the argument in the bud. Mark Shanklin was arrested in 2015 after police found a ...
Read More »Med mal affidavit law gets third round in high court
For the third time in four years, the Missouri Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of a law that requires an expert to weigh in on a medical malpractice case when it is filed. This time, the case could hinge ...
Read More »‘Hellholes’ list relents a bit on St. Louis
The American Tort Reform Association gave an “attaboy!” to Missouri lawmakers on Tuesday, saying tort changes passed this year had made St. Louis less of a “hellhole.” The city of St. Louis ranked No. 3 on the national business lobbying ...
Read More »Supreme Court case could touch on MMPA exemptions
A case before the Missouri Supreme Court could be a landmark decision on the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. Or not. Jeff Reed, a former insurance salesman for The Reilly Company, sued over alleged violations of his employment contract when he ...
Read More »Pot grower seeks protection under ‘right to farm’ amendment
The Missouri Constitution protects the right to farm. Does that include the right to grow pot in the basement? The Missouri Supreme Court is considering the case of Mark Shanklin, who was arrested in 2015 after police found a marijuana-growing ...
Read More »Large judgment thrown out for aircraft parts distributor
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a judgment worth $8.6 million for a company that lost its distributorship with an aircraft instrument manufacturer. L-3 Communications Avionics Systems makes gyros, which calculate and display an aircraft’s position during flight, as ...
Read More »Court sides with insurer over ‘pollution exclusion’
The Missouri Supreme Court said Tuesday that an insurer for The Doe Run Resources Corp. isn’t obligated to defend the company from a series of lawsuits due to a “pollution exclusion” in its policy. Doe Run faced litigation in federal ...
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