Articles

US Supreme Court pushes deadline on Lake Michigan beach case

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t decide until next year whether to consider arguments from residents of Chief Justice John Roberts’ Indiana hometown of Long Beach over ownership of the Lake Michigan community’s shoreline. The case could have a ripple effect for public and private property rights across the Great Lakes states.

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Scrap dealer’s request to dismiss Hammond bridge theft charge denied

A federal judge has denied a northwestern Indiana scrap metal dealer’s request to dismiss charges for allegedly demolishing a historic Hammond railroad bridge and selling the metal for $18,000. Kenneth Morrison argued the grand jury didn’t get an accurate picture of whether the city of Hammond or the railroad company owned the Monon Bridge, but Judge Philip Simon said prosecutors only have to prove Morrison had no claim to the scrap metal.

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Southern District ruling makes declawing big cats illegal

A first-of-its-kind federal order has officially held that the process of declawing large exotic cats is illegal and in a violation of the Endangered Species Act and has prohibited a Charlestown veterinarian from providing any care to such exotic cats.

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Disciplinary Actions

Read who has been found in contempt, reinstated, reprimanded and suspended in the most recent reporting period.

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Justices expand online CLE, CME credit hours

Lawyers and judges can now take twice as many hours of continued legal education through online programming per three-year period after the Indiana Supreme Court amended an existing rule to education requirements. Similarly, mediators will not be denied credit for digital programs under an amendment to continuing mediation education requirements.

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Holcomb’s office ordered to hand over Pence Carrier emails

Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration has 30 days to turnover emails that passed between former Gov. Mike Pence, the Trump Organization and Carrier Corp. related to the negotiations that led then newly elected President Donald Trump to take credit for saving the Indianapolis plant from closing.

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Justices amend appellate, small claims rules

The Indiana Supreme Court has issued several orders amending rules of the court. Among them is a change that requires any appellate party to seek court permission to amend a filed appendix, and allows trusts and trustees to represent claims of less than $1,500 without counsel in small claims cases.

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Company ordered to pay $31.9M to SEC for biofuel fraud

Evansville-based Imperial Petroleum Inc. has been ordered to pay nearly $32 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission after it failed to reply to the SEC’s court filings seeking damages in a biofuels fraud case that resulted in prison time for the former company president.

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Ruling: DOC violating rights of inmates with hepatitis

The Indiana Department of Correction’s failure to provide inmates with recommended hepatitis C treatment violates their constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment, a federal judge ruled Thursday in a groundbreaking order.

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