Colorado Business Litigation Lawyer Blog

Be on the lookout for a wiener dog named “Spork,” especially if you work for a veterinarian.

Deborah Takahara of KDVR.com reports on February 23 that the 10-year old dog’s owners have been charged by the City of Lafayette, Colorado, with keeping a vicious dog because Spork bit a veterinary technician on the chin during oral surgery (on the dog).

The dog’s owners say that Spork is so cool he cries and won’t sleep without a blanket over him. They also say that the veterinarian tech got too close to Spork’s face with some scissors, which scared the dog. Who knows? Maybe Spork just wanted to keep his teeth intact.

State law does not allow people who work with animals to file vicious dog charges. There is no such exemption under Lafayette’s municipal code.

If the owners are convicted, Spork may suffer the ultimate penalty of euthanasia, a fate which the owners say they will spend their life’s savings to prevent.

All attempts at humor aside, I hope the person bitten has a speedy recovery.

Read more on Spork: "Lafayette Defends Prosecution of Spork the 'Vicious' Wiener Dog"

Google, the most popular computer search engine in Colorado and in the U.S., has expanded into China to augment Google’s user base by over 35% of the market share in China. The only problem is that Chinese law allows its government to require the removal of links on the website that China feels are “subversive or offensive.”

Google, of course, isn’t into censorship. It threatened to shut-down its search engine and possibly leave the country completely. Some observers believe the real reason for the censorship is to prevent China’s citizens from gaining access to politically sensitive information and images.

In order to explore the possibility of an acceptable compromise, Google has temporarily agreed to the censored search engine while Google and the Chinese government try to pursue a negotiated solution to the problem. Apparently, China’s public stance differs from its private one. Observers believe China doesn’t want to lose face by appearing to be anti-technology. And at the same time, Google wants to keep China’s very lucrative market. It is widely believed these tensions so far have prevented a compromise.

Google notes that its China web site has been subject to hack attacks from within China that have resulted in some of Google’s intellectual property being stolen. Google has not directly blamed the Chinese government for these attacks, since Google’s site was not the only site hacked. It is believed that a number of other large companies from various business sectors in the U.S. were also attacked. Google and the U.S. government are investigating in an effort to determine the identity of the hackers.

Google suspects the attack on its web site was for the purpose of accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Google says, however, that the attack was unsuccessful because only two accounts were accessed. The only information accessed in these two accounts was information such as the date the accounts were opened and the subject line of emails, but not the content of the emails themselves.

I will closely be monitoring this controversy to see who blinks first. Stay tuned.

Today’s blog has absolutely nothing to do with legal commentary, court decisions, or business law. 9news.com reported a story on 02/15/10 that warms my heart.

A Cheyenne, Wyoming couple saw a dining room set advertised on Craigslist™ that they were interested in buying. They drove to Aurora, Colorado, where the dining room set was located, with cash for the purchase.

After making the purchase and loading-up the furniture, they decided to stop to eat at a Wendy’s restaurant just off I-25 in Denver. The man apparently dropped his wallet with credit cards, IDs and $1,200 in it as he got out of the car. When they made a temporary stop on I-25, they discovered that the wallet was missing. They called Wendy’s, believing that the billfold--or at least the $1,200--would be missing.

Luckily, Maricella Juarez, a Wendy’s employee, had recently arrived for work. She saw the billfold on the ground and promptly reported the find to her boss, who put the billfold in the store’s safe.

The couple returned to Wendy’s, where the billfold--with all contents intact-- was returned to them. Ms. Juarez was commended by her boss and no doubt by the happy and relieved couple.

Isn’t America a great place?

Continue reading " A Colorado Woman with Honor and Integrity " »

The Denver Post reported on February 9, 2010, that a 19-year old University of Northern Colorado student was arrested and charged with attempted arson, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and illegal possession of alcohol allegedly for attempting to set fire to a bag of dog poop on his neighbor’s front porch. (Most of us remember this old Halloween trick of “make the neighbor stamp out the flaming bag of dog poop and howl with laughter”).

Apparently the neighbor had called the police earlier because the student and his friends were making too much noise. As the student approached the neighbor’s porch, matches and dog poop in hand, the neighbor-- whose newspaper earlier had been set afire on his porch-- was waiting and subdued the miscreant. The neighbor’s wife, armed with a camera, snapped-away as the events unfolded.

The police duly took photographs of the bag of dog poop and confiscated the matches.

A police spokesperson said the student was intoxicated.

Without attempting to minimize the seriousness of the incident, we should remember the old adage, “Boys will be boys.”

A December study by the legal consultancy firm of Altman Weil showed that the recession notwithstanding, some large law firms are raising their fees to corporations by an average of four per cent in 2010. It is unknown whether or not Colorado law firms were included in the study.

The hourly rate charged by senior partners in these large firms has gone as high as $700-$900 per hour. A local survey by Boston-based BTI Consulting in October disclosed that 15% of Boston’s law firms are raising their rates for 2010, while the remainder is keeping their fees the same as last year.

As I have written before, a corporation that is cost- conscious and result- oriented should look at the advantages of hiring a plaintiff’s firm that charges on a contingent fee basis, whereby legal fees are based upon a percentage of the amount recovered in a lawsuit. If the lawsuit is lost, the lawyer receives no fee. Of course, this type of fee arrangement is normally confined to instances where the corporation is suing another person or legal entity for monetary damages. If the corporation is the defendant in the case (the one being sued), contingent fees are usually not appropriate, although some plaintiff’s firms will fashion a fee agreement whereby the lawyer is paid based upon results in the case.

A corporation or other entity that is considering filing a suit for money damages should feel free to contact this firm for additional information on the various types of legal fee agreements available.

Related postings:

Why You Need a Contingent Fee Lawyer for Your Colorado Business Litigation

Why You Need a Contingent Fee Lawyer for your Colorado Business Litigation, Part II

Amber Turner, a 30-year old mother of one and a former Boulder, Colorado bookkeeper at Boulder-based Precision Phototonics, was sentenced on February 25, 2010, by a Boulder County judge to a 2-year jail sentence for stealing about $230,000 from her employer from early 2007 to the middle of 2008.

Turner apparently spent the money on such items as ski passes, a Mercedes-Benz, lingerie, cruises, trips to Las Vegas and show tickets.

Turner had forged the company president’s name on checks and used company credit cards. She would then intercept bank statements and bills to cover-up her theft.

According to her employer, because of Turners thefts, and Precision Phototonics’ resulting lack of operating funds, the company was forced to lay-off six of its 35 employees, including a Tibetan refugee, two Hmong refugees from Laos, and a grandmother with responsibility for taking care of her two grandchildren.

Turner was originally charged with 17 felony counts, including theft and forgery.

Related postings:

Federal Court Shuts Down Idaho Tax Preparer - Idaho Falls Woman Fraudulently Claimed Over $93 Million in Refunds for Customers

Colorado Man and Girlfriend Steal $11 Million from Revenue Department

On January 29, 2010, a Boulder County, Colorado jury awarded $37 million to Jennifer Latham of Lafayette, Colorado, whose health insurance was canceled after the woman sustained severe injuries in an auto accident, including multiple fractures and a brain injury.

Latham had purchased a health insurance policy from Assurant Health just five months before the 2005 accident. After she spent a month in the hospital and another month in rehabilitation at a cost of about $185,000, Assurant Health canceled her policy and refused to pay her medical bills, claiming that Latham had failed to disclose in her application an emergency room visit for shortness of breath and treatment for a uterine prolapse. Latham claimed her insurance company acted in bad faith. The jury agreed with Latham.

Assurant Health was one of the companies investigated by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for its policy cancellation practices.

It is not known if Assurant Health will appeal the verdict.