UAW can’t pass out fliers inside auto show 
The St. Louis Convention & Visitor’s Commission’s ban on leafleting inside the America’s Center complex does not violate the First Amendment rights of United Auto Workers members who want to distribute fliers at the 2010 St. Louis Auto Show.
Supreme Court affirms $2M verdict, reduces interest
The Missouri Supreme Court found that an insurance company was liable for its $1 million policy limits after finding the policy’s business exclusion did not apply in the case.
The court rejected Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance Co.’s arguments that the court should interpret the ambiguity in the policy by engaging in a fact-based analysis of each [...]
Red-light photo case heads to Supreme Court
The Missouri Supreme Court is getting its chance to weigh in the validity of one city’s red-light camera procedures.
The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a case regarding whether the city of Springfield can use administrative hearings to impose civil penalties of red-light camera tickets.
However, attorney Jane Dueker, of Stinson Morrison Hecker, [...]
Gov. Nixon seeks $2M more for Public Defender System
Gov. Jay Nixon proposed a $170,000 reduction to the Missouri judiciary’s budget next year, as well as a $2 million increase to the state’s Public Defender System.
The judiciary’s budget remains essentially flat, losing only about $323,000 in federal stimulus money. That loss is partly made up for by additional state funding for a new judge’s [...]
Deferred associates start work at Bryan Cave
Most of the deferred first-year associates in Missouri have now started to work.
Thirteen first-year associates joined Bryan Cave’s St. Louis and Kansas City offices Tuesday.
Their starts followed Thompson Coburn’s announcement the previous week that six first-year associates and a law clerk had joined that firm’s St. Louis office.
Bryan Cave and Thompson Coburn were the only [...]
Corporate campaign spending backed by majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices
A divided U.S. Supreme Court struck down decades-old restrictions on corporate campaign spending, reversing two of its precedents and freeing companies to conduct advertising campaigns that explicitly try to sway voters.
The 5-4 majority, invoking the Constitution’s free-speech clause, said the government lacks a legitimate basis to restrict independent campaign expenditures by companies. The ruling went [...]
Nixon seeks cut for judiciary, increase for defender system
Gov. Jay Nixon proposed a $170,000 reduction to the Missouri judiciary’s budget next year, as well as a $2 million increase to the state’s Public Defender System.
Republicans want the Senate back with just one win
For the weight given Tuesday’s Senate race in Massachusetts, you would think the Democratic majority status in the Senate hung in the balance.
It didn’t. But its supermajority status did, and that’s what counts these days, sad to say. Without 60 votes to kill a threatened filibuster, it might take a legislative [...]
Suit filed over AT&T settlement
The recent settlement of a long-running lawsuit between Missouri cities and AT&T left everyone satisfied - except the company’s customers.
Mysteries abound in Medicare set-asides
Rumors swirl and tips are traded, but guidance is scant.
If clients are - or soon will be - Medicare beneficiaries, should Missouri plaintiffs attorneys consider setting aside a chunk of any settlement to pay back Medicare?
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services hasn’t issued a “yes” or “no” answer to that question as it [...]