JUDICIARY

A federal court is on the verge of throwing out a lawsuit filed by Maine homeowners facing foreclosure action against Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC mortgage unit, which has been accused of wrongful foreclosure practices.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki ended a row over top judicial appointments that had threatened the country's fragile coalition government by saying on Tuesday that he would start the selection process afresh.

New York's elected judges will be barred from presiding over a case if the lawyer, plaintiff or defendant in that case has made any contribution of $2,500 or more in the judge's judicial election campaign during the two years prior to the trial, the state's top judge said.

New York's chief judge has taken steps to provide homeowners facing foreclosure legal representation free of charge.

The trial of Mark Ciavarella, a former Pennsylvania judge who has been charged with racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations, drew to a close on Friday with the jury returning a guilty verdict.

A Beverly Hills attorney has been sentenced to four months in county jail after he pleaded no contest to a single charge of attempting to smuggle black tar heroin into the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.

The fate of Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., a former Pennsylvania judge who has been charged with racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations, lies in the hands of the 12-member jury, who began their deliberations Wednesday.

The Kids for Cash trial resumed this week with former Pennsylvania Judge mark Ciavarella's attorneys trying to undermine the credibility of the prosecution witnesses and the accused vehemently claiming that though he has committed tax fraud, he never extorted money from others or took bribe in return for sending juveniles to a private detention center.

U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp. said it will challenge the ruling of an Ecuadorean judge who has ordered it to pay a record $9.5 billion fine after holding it responsible for polluting a wide swath of Amazon rainforest in Ecuador from 1972 to 1992 while it operated in a consortium with state-run Petroecuador.

Iranian lawmakers called for the death penalty on Tuesday for opposition leaders they accused of fomenting unrest after a rally in which a least one person was killed and dozens were wounded, state media said.

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Florida doctor who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for providing material support and offering treatment to wounded Al Qaeda militants.

A Maine judge has upheld a jury verdict that awarded $7.3 million in damages to a businessman who has accused a law firm of causing him emotional distress.

A judge in the U.S. has thrown David Beckham's $25-million libel lawsuit against In Touch, an entertainment magazine that claimed the soccer superstar has cheated on his wife several times by seeing a prostitute.

The trial of Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., a former Pennsylvania judge who has been charged with honest services fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion in connection with receiving $2.6 million in kickbacks from a private juvenile jail facility, resumes today and is grabbing national attention as the case highlights the dangerous gap in the juvenile justice systems of many states - children appearing in court without lawyers.

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who boycotted his war crimes trial for a third day on Friday, was granted the right to appeal over key documentation for a case that has drawn international interest.

Mehdi Karroubi, an Iranian opposition leader, has been placed under house arrest, according to his own official website.

Mark Zuckerberg, the multi-billionaire CEO of Facebook, has obtained a restraining order against a man who has sent him messages through Facebook, left flowers and a handwritten note at his home and showed up in person at Facebook officers looking for him.

The defence lawyer for former Liberian president Charles Taylor defied the Sierra Leone war crimes court on Tuesday, walking out in protest ahead of closing arguments in the case and calling it a farce.

With increasing number of government and other high-profile websites being targeted almost everyday, 'hacktivism' seems to have reached its peak. The recent targets of 'hacktivists' are listed here.

A California judge has ruled to allow a group of lawyers with connections to Oakland City Hall to represent alleged Nortenos gang members who are facing a city lawsuit that seeks to prevent them from hanging out in the city's Fruitvale neighborhood.

The Italian government’s website had been hacked over the weekend by a group of software experts called “Anonymous,” apparently as a protest against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.