Legal News
Jack Nichols Wins Large Verdict in Eastern North Carolina
Thursday, February 11, 2010
The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.) reports that a “. . .Camden County jury has determined that former John E. Ferebee Farming employee Ray Meiggs is entitled to nearly $300,000 in back salary and stock payments–an amount that could grown by another $150,000 after interest and penalties are factored in”, according to Everett Thompson one of Meiggs’ attorneys.“The jury, which heard testimony in the trial of Meiggs’ civil lawsuit last week, found that Ferebee had breached its contract with Meiggs. As a result, the farming corporation owes Meiggs $56,000 in back pay and nearly $225,000 for his shares in Ferebee.”
“Superior Court Judge Alma Hinton, who presided over the trial, will hold another hearing on March 23 to determine whether the $134,000 owed Meiggs should be paid by Ferebee Farming or Jennings and his wife, Susan.”
"Thompson said he and Meiggs’ other attorney", Allen and Pinnix attorney, Jack Nichols, “will submit affidavits to Hinton for their time spent on the case, which goes back as far as 2006".
“Both Meiggs and Jennings are well know in Camden. Meiggs, former economic development director fo the city of Elizabeth City, is the new director of Arts of the Albemarle. Jennings is a former chairman of the Camden Board of Commissioners”.
Divided Court Applies First Amendment to McCain-Feingold
Friday, January 22, 2010
On January 21, 2010 a closely divided Supreme Court struck the parts of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that prohibited companies from using money from their general treasuries to produce and run their own campaign ads and that barred union- and that corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.In a A 90 page dissent Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's longest-serving justice, said the majority's "glittering generality" that corporate speech, like individual speech, is protected under the First Amendment was a "conceit" that is "not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the court's disposition of this case."
The Washington Post noted that Stevens wrote of his conservative colleagues' "agenda" and said they had transformed a simple case about whether a conservative group's movie about Hillary Rodham Clinton violated McCain-Feingold into a constitutional quandary. Stevens said: "Essentially, five justices were unhappy with the limited nature of the case before us, so they changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law."
Kudos: Julius Chambers and James Ferguson Lauded
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The current issue of the American College of Trial Lawyers's publication The Bulletin profiles Julius Chambers and James Ferguson in an article “A Towering Presence in the Fight Against Injustice.” The “Small Racially Integrated Southern Law Firm.”
