Judge to decide on Trump's hush money conviction, law firm profits soar in third quarter, would-be bride must return $70,000 ring and more ??

Judge to decide on Trump's hush money conviction, law firm profits soar in third quarter, would-be bride must return $70,000 ring and more ??

?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:


?? Judge to decide whether Trump's hush money conviction can stand

FILE PHOTO: A news stand shows off headlines following the announcement of the verdict on former U.S. President Donald Trump's criminal trial, over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Nyack, New York, U.S. May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

A New York judge is set to decide whether President-elect Donald Trump's criminal conviction on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star should be overturned in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's July ruling on presidential immunity.

Justice Juan Merchan has said he will make his decision by Nov. 12. It is the first of two pivotal choices that the judge must make after Trump's Nov. 5 election victory. Merchan also must decide whether to go ahead with sentencing Trump on Nov. 26 as currently scheduled. Legal experts have said sentencing now is unlikely to happen ahead of Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.

A favorable ruling by Merchan for Trump on the immunity question or a sentencing delay would pave the way for him to return to the White House largely unencumbered by any of the four criminal cases that once appeared to threaten his ambitions to win back the White House.

Officials at the DOJ are assessing how to wind down the two federal criminal cases brought against Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith due to its longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president. A separate case in Georgia involving state criminal charges concerning Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss remains in limbo.

Trump pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing in all four cases, which he portrayed as political persecutions by allies of Democratic President Joe Biden designed to thwart his campaign.

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?? Law firm profits soared in third quarter of 2024, report finds

File Photo: U.S. dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
File Photo: U.S. dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Law firms enjoyed near-record profits in the third quarter of 2024 with an 11.2% increase compared with the same time last year, a new analysis of firm financial data has found.

Higher lawyer productivity, strong billing rates and relatively modest increases in direct and overhead expenses suggest that 2024 will be a highly profitable year for firms, according to the Thomson Reuters Institute’s Law Firm Financial Index, released on Nov.11. The Thomson Reuters Institute and Reuters share the same parent company.

The Law Firm Financial Index compiles financial quarterly metrics from 195 large and midsized law firms and assigns an overall score based upon key factors such as demand, productivity, billing rates and expenses.

The third-quarter score of 71 is the second highest since the index was founded more than 15 years ago. The highest score—84—came in the second quarter of 2021, when demand for corporate practices such as mergers and acquisitions surged amid a spike in IPOs during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, before falling off dramatically in subsequent years.

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?? US judicial panel to develop rules to address AI-produced evidence

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

A federal judicial panel on Nov. 8 agreed to develop a rule to regulate the introduction of artificial intelligence-generated evidence and begin work on a policy to potentially help judges deal with claims that a piece of audio or video evidence is a "deep fake."

The U.S. Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules during a meeting in New York said they would press ahead with developing the two potential rules even as some expressed concern about whether old ones that predated the rise of AI technology were good enough to guard against "deep fakes."

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, a Manhattan-based judge who chairs the panel, acknowledged the need for "caution" in developing new rules for the evolving technology.

"I think there's an argument for moving forward to avoid getting caught completely flat-footed," Furman said.

But he noted that developing such rules can take years, raising the risk that doing nothing would leave the judiciary unprepared if and when new technologies create problems.

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?? Massachusetts would-be bride must return $70,000 ring, court rules

File Photo: A $70,000 Tiffany engagement ring at the center of a court battle before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., is seen in an undated photograph. Caroline Settino/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
File Photo: A $70,000 Tiffany engagement ring at the center of a court battle before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., is seen in an undated photograph. Caroline Settino/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Massachusetts' top court ruled that a would-be bride must return a $70,000 engagement ring from Tiffany & Co to her former fiancé. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court sided with Bruce Johnson in his years-long legal battle with his former romantic partner, Caroline Settino, in his bid to reclaim the pricey remnant of their relationship after he called off their wedding.

In making its ruling, the court said it was updating how it approaches lawsuits seeking the return of rings and join the "modern trend" of states that today treat engagement rings as gifts that must be returned to the donor regardless of fault.

Nicholas Rosenberg, Settino's lawyer, in a statement called the ruling disappointing, saying that "the idea of an engagement ring as a conditional gift is predicated on outdated notions."

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?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File and have a great day ahead!

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Mark Alan Bartholomew

Applied physics.(JOIN ME) the work presented here is entirely new

2 天前

Two of the things i've heard over the last few days are a bit troubling * new cities in America.... and what do we mean by this...?? Smart Cities?? * crypto currency Why, in America,..do we need ten new cities... and like Trump said in one of his campaign ads... "where young people can go and work".. is there some natural disaster on the horizon that we don't know about ? And... why the push for a digital currency? We've already lost our privacy to the DHS and the surveillance activities of our government...our corporations...our clandestine agencies...our military.... do we need to monitor and to manage what people buy?What happened to our constitution... our constitutional rights? JOIN ME.... instead in ushering in some new age... some new age of understanding of our natural world.... new science for a new age... an age of abundance, an age of eradication of disease We can thank the Trump administration once they take office But let us now to gather ourselves... in like mindedness.... and recognize the corruption that exists beyond one administration to the next and OUTLAW the corporate form INVERT hierarchies in each government AND rejoice MARK applied physics https://www.academia.edu/120841965/LETTER_OF_INVITATION

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Carlton Roark

Commercial Real Estate Broker

5 天前

He was sentenced.

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Ming Hai Chow

revenue | resiliency | innovation | analysis | art & culture | economy | luxury | sustainability | hospitality | gender equality | growth | philosophy | history

6 天前

Y all these cases never ending news? I thought he would be sent to jail but now becomes president. Y people here don't care about it, but always target me for personal gains, At the very minimum you could do for me, just tell me if anything will be used for charity or free trade so that I can choose not to write anymore. Stupid tech lab games

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Alessandro Machi

L.A. Emmy Winner, IMDB Credited, Credit Card Innovator, Dot Connector. News_Politics_Sports Commentary, Dementia Caregiver for Parent. Top Tongal Ideationist. Camera/Edit Expert, Social Media Policy Innovator, No Crypto.

6 天前

Why is there no quid pro acquittal considering the attorney who represented the plaintiff has been convicted of crimes.

Alessandro Machi

L.A. Emmy Winner, IMDB Credited, Credit Card Innovator, Dot Connector. News_Politics_Sports Commentary, Dementia Caregiver for Parent. Top Tongal Ideationist. Camera/Edit Expert, Social Media Policy Innovator, No Crypto.

6 天前

Why wasn't this storyline called Extortion attempt against Donald Trump?

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