MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.

Legal Aid of Western Missouri has good timing. One day after Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor and legal journalist who has written extensively about the nation's highest court, gave the keynote address at the organization's 11th annual Justice For All lunch. Rosen predicted that Sotomayor would be "handily" confirmed by the U.S. Senate, both due to her credentials and to Democrats' dominance of that body. What remains to be seen, he said, is how well she fits in with the current court and the extent to which she will embody President Barack Obama's call for more "empathy" from judges.

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As news of President Barack Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor spread quickly Tuesday morning, Missouri lawyers are already considering what the nominee could contribute to the U.S. Supreme Court and what kind of confirmation challenge she faces in the Senate. Washington University law professor Greg Magarian said Sotomayor was a "brilliant pick by Obama, just like [Chief Justice John] Roberts was a brilliant pick by Bush." But that doesn't mean special interest groups won't try to block her confirmation. Ed Martin, former chief of staff to Gov. Matt Blunt, wasted no time calling on Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to make sure Sotomayor embraces pro-life values.

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Solo and small-firm attorneys hoping for a stronger statute to pursue those who practice law without a license will have to wait at least another year. Rep. John Burnett, D-Kansas City, succeeded in getting an unauthorized practice of law provision tucked into a broad judiciary bill in the House. The language would place the unauthorized practice of law under the state's Merchandising Practices Act and allow a private cause of action against violators. The provision generated little discussion in the House Judiciary Committee (Chairman Bryan Stevenson is pictured) and became a few lines in a nearly 200-page bill that passed the House.

Tagged with: House Judiciary Committee John Burnett Merchandising Practices Act solo attorney

As part of his crackdown on fraudulent charity fundraisers, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has filed lawsuits against nonprofit organizations that he says solicited funds and minimally used donations for charitable causes. A lawsuit filed in St. Louis County Circuit ...

Tagged with: charity fundraisers Chris Koster nonprofit organizations

A cigarette butt sits outside the front doors of the Court of Appeals building as Lowell Gard and Megan Pfannenstiel, both of the Kansas City Prosecutor's Office, exit on Thursday. Kansas City's ban on smoking in public places violates state statute, an attorney fighting the ordinance told the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District on Thursday. The smoking ordinance, enacted last year, bans smoking in most public places, including bars, restaurants, theaters, bowling alleys and other establishments in Kansas City.

Tagged with: Kansas City smoking ban Missouri Clean Indoor Air Act smoking ban

The St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners announced today it uncovered "evidence of significant voter fraud" in the November election. The board said it turned over the evidence of voter fraud to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan commended the board's efforts to identify voter fraud. But Lloyd Smith, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, placed the blame on Carnahan, a Democrat. "Today's announcement by the St. Louis City Board of Elections makes it clear that voter fraud continues to thrive in Missouri, despite Robin Carnahan's attempts to cover up the problem," he said in a statement.

Tagged with: Lloyd Smith Missouri Republican Party Robin Carnahan St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners voter fraud

The man whose name has sat atop nearly every anti-death penalty lawsuit filed in Missouri in the last few years is dead. Earlier today, Dennis Skillicorn, 49, was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Mo. Skillicorn is the first inmate to be put to death in Missouri since October 2005. Skillicorn was executed for his role in the murder of Richard Drummond, who had stopped to help Skillicorn and two other men on the side on Interstate 70. Instead, they drove Drummond to a wooded area in Lafayette County and shot him.

Tagged with: death penalty Dennis Skillicorn

A six-year-old videotape of an injured plaintiff was either irrelevant and prejudicial or highly relevant to the plaintiff's case. It's up to the Missouri Supreme Court to decide. At stake is an $825,000 verdict a jury awarded to Phillip Sgroi, whose hip fracture went undiagnosed for weeks after he was first examined by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Paulo Bicalho in February 2002. Sgroi and his wife, Alice Geary, sued Bicalho and Saint Louis University Hospital (pictured). Attorney Robyn Fox said the videotape, which was a local newscast about Sgroi's recovery from a stroke, "was not practical, instructive or calculated to assist the jury in understanding the issues in the case."

Through last-minute parliamentary maneuvering, Sen. Jim Lembke (pictured), R-Lemay, became the unlikely sponsor of the first omnibus judiciary bill to pass the legislature in years. Lembke said he found the turn of events ironic. "My relationship with the judiciary has been tenuous at best," he admitted. Continue reading for a rundown of legal bills of note that passed in 2009, such as the caseload cap for public defenders, and those that failed, such as changes to the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan.

Tagged with: caseload DNA fathering courts public defender Second Injury Fund Supreme Court building

With the clock ticking down, lawyers for death row inmate Dennis Skillicorn are pulling out all the stops to try to prevent the state from executing him tonight. On Monday, the Missouri Supreme Court overruled a motion he filed last Wednesday for a stay pending a judgment from the U.S. Supreme Court on a petition for a writ of certiorari in Middleton et al. v. Missouri Department of Corrections. Skillicorn is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for his part in the August 1994 murder of Richard Drummond in Lafayette County.

Tagged with: death penalty Dennis Skillicorn

The 2009 legislative session ended with an unexpected gift for the courts and the Bar: the last-minute resurrection and passage of a wide-ranging judiciary bill, the first such bill to pass in at least four years.

Tagged with: Jim Lembke Judiciary Committee Chairman Bryan Stevenson Matt Bartle Missouri Legislature omnibus judiciary bill