Information and Insight on Criminal Law and Civil Rights
This week I had to write that "sorry, but I cannot take your civil rights case" letter to a man who had been badly assaulted in prison. In Idaho over the past year there have been a number of lawsuits filed by prisoners and lawyers on their behalf for damages they received when the prison failed to protect them from…
Continue Reading How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth In Boise, Idaho?
Can parents sue a school district for wrongful death, when their theory of liability is that the district owed their child a duty to supervise her or her killers? The answer here – no.
In Stoddart v. Pocatello School District, the Idaho Supreme Court (Justice Horton writing the decision) affirms the district court’s decision and dismisses the…
Continue Reading Idaho Supremes: Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against School District Dismissed
A recent Idaho Court of Appeals decision addresses an issue often raised by clients facing a restitution order following conviction or entry of a plea of guilty to a crime. In State v. Blair, a woman who had been convicted of stealing money from her employer objected to the amount of restitution the court determined she owed. She…
Continue Reading Restitution Hearing After Sentencing Not Required
The Idaho Statesman reports that an Idaho priest has been accused of sexual misconduct stemming from his assignment at an Idaho Falls church in 1981. The allegations involve a man who was under 18 at the time. A similar claim was apparently made against the priest in 2005, resulting in his treatment out of state in 2006.
Idaho law prohibits…
Continue Reading Idaho Priest Reportedly Accused of Sexual Misconduct
If you have been watching the news out of Portland, you know that a jury awarded the victim $1.4 million in a sex abuse case brought against the Boy Scouts of America for their failure to protect scouts from sex abuse at the hands of one of its Scout leaders. At trial the plaintiff argued that the Scouts had been…
The Idaho Supreme Court decided an interesting case in which the Boy Scouts of America sought to dismiss a case brought by sex abuse victims who had not proceeded with their cases until they were adults. Generally, Idaho civil law contains a statute of limitations that ends liability for civil cases after some number of years. For example – if…
Continue Reading Idaho’s Civil Action For Victims Of Sexual Abuse Not Applied Retroactively
Almost forgot about this one – Charles Hartman – pled guilty to sexual abuse of a minor in 2007. On January 13th a jury awarded his victim $1.9 million. Boise lawyer Walt Bithell represented the victim, who was 16 at the time she was molested. Speaking about the role of the civil case:
"The civil case is designed to do…
Continue Reading In Boise – Jury Awards Sex Abuse Victim $1.9 Million
Let’s say that you invest a cool hundred thousand or so into a real estate project and the developer who takes your check deposits that check into his or her personal bank account. The money is not spent to develop anything – but rather to buy a new boat or pay the developer’s mortgage or car payment. Is that fraud?
I was just reading an article about the dangers posed by big rig trucks and the statistics are alarming. Every year truckers kill innocent persons because they fail to drive safely. It happens because truck drivers suffer from fatigue, get too little sleep, drive too many miles and often rely on drugs to keep them on the road. The US…
A bank can be sued for failing to conduct a reasonable investigation before initiating a criminal complaint against an identity theft victim. In an unpublished opinion out of New Jersey, the appellate court reversed an order granting summary judgment to the bank, and held that the main issue – whether the bank had acted with malice in calling the cops…
Continue Reading Bank Can Be Sued For Identity Theft Prosecution