Simple steps to declutter your law office 

If you can’t remember the last time you saw the top of your desk under all the client files, legal pads, books and assorted knick knacks, it’s time to declutter.

Failure to record time is a money pit 

I recently spoke with an executive whose company produces software to help lawyers record billable time. He discussed failure to record time as a “time leak,” because time is lost — and therefore not billed — when an attorney fails to make contemporaneous notations of work being done.

Wanted: Jurors who can serve for six months 

The St. Louis Circuit Court is gearing up for a tobacco trial that could require jurors to serve for six months.

Feds sue Arizona sheriff in civil rights probe

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks during a news conference in Phoenix in this July 30 photo. The U.S. Justice Department sued Arpaio on Thursday, saying the Arizona lawman refused for more than a year to turn over records in an investigation into allegations his department discriminates against Hispanics.

WHAT’S IN YOUR OFFICE, ELIZABETH MCCULLEY? 

Baker Sterchi Cowden & Rice associate Elizabeth McCulley’s office features memorabilia from her Jackson County prosecutor father’s campaigning days and part of the ornamental frog collection she inherited from him.

Supreme Court weighs commission’s authority 

The lawyer for a commission that disciplines Missouri judges asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to clarify what authority, if any, it has over commissioners.

Hog farms get more time for clean up 

In this Aug. 26, 2009 photograph, no trespassing signs at the entrance to a Premium Standard hog operation near Berlin, Mo., are shown. Missouri pork giant Premium Standard Farms has been given a two-year extension to install technology at its hog confinements to reduce odors after it failed to meet a July 31 deadline established by a Jackson County court six years ago.

Tax issue to go on ballot

A Missouri judge has ordered a real estate tax initiative to appear on the November ballot.

Man gets 12-plus years in mortgage fraud case

A Missouri man has been sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison for mortgage fraud.

Task force to review domestic violence laws 

A new task force will review Missouri’s laws dealing with domestic violence and recommend changes.

Paul Allen’s dog ate his patent suit

If someone stole your shiny new car, you wouldn’t wait until the 86th time you saw someone driving it around town to call the police.
In filing his patent infringement lawsuit against 11 e-commerce companies and Internet giants, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen staked an ownership claim to functions he says his shop developed a decade ago.
In [...]

Dodgers owner says he sought nothing from postnuptial 

Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said he sought nothing in return for a 2004 post-nuptial agreement that shielded his wife’s assets from debt he was assuming to buy the team and which she now says is invalid.

Bar puts judges at high end of the scale 

Christine Taylor-Butler and Joseph Roper discuss the results of the 2010 Judicial Performance Evaluation released on Wednesday. Taylor-Butler, a
nonlawyer, and Roper, of Foland, Wickens, Eisfelder, Roper & Hofer, are members of the committee that reviews the 16th Circuit.

NEWSMAKERS 

- Gov. Jay Nixon tapped Kip Stetzler as acting director of Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources following the resignation of Mark Templeton. Stetzler, who has been director of the governor’s western regional office, was an assistant attorney general under Nixon from 2000 until 2008. Templeton, also an attorney, is leaving state government to become executive [...]

Judge allows KKK suit  

A federal judge in St. Louis has rejected a state request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by a Ku Klux Klan group.

Jury opt-outs lead to new trial on meth charge 

A circuit court’s policy of allowing potential jurors to opt out of service by paying a fine and doing community service netted a drug defendant a new trial.

UPDATE: Bar committee recommends ousting Draper 

St. Louis County Associate Circuit Judge Judy P. Draper [left] should not be retained in the coming election, a judicial evaluation committee announced this morning.

Committees of lawyers and laypeople evaluate judges appointed to the bench under Missouri’s Nonpartisan Court Plan.

Facebook chief calls court motion a ploy to ‘harass’ 

Facebook Inc.’s founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, said the man who claims to own a majority of the company is fighting to move the lawsuit he filed back to state court “solely to burden and harass” Zuckerberg.

Former Polsinelli secretary sues over benefits 

A former Polsinelli Shughart legal secretary is suing the recently merged firm, saying she wasn’t paid or allowed to use a bank of personal leave accumulated at a predecessor firm.