The court joined two other circuits in holding that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, doesn’t prevent the government from garnishing the retirement assets of a defendant in order to satisfy a criminal restitution order under ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where a former town mayor was indicted on charges of embezzlement, but the case was dismissed after prosecutors discovered new evidence, the mayor’s suit against the investigator was dismissed because she was absolutely immune from claims she presented or conspired ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where a defendant’s attorney failed to object to a jury instruction on grand larceny because he was unaware that the premise for that instruction was legally incorrect, and there was a reasonable probability an objection would have led to a ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where a man alleged a post office employee intentionally exposed him to contact with an abnormally loud horn that caused hearing loss and tinnitus, the suit was dismissed because the gravamen of that claim sounds in battery, and the United ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Pamela A. Harris Tort

Where the government used a flawed analysis to convict the owner of a chain of pharmacies of Medicaid fraud, and he sued the prosecutor for fabricating evidence used at trial, the prosecutor was shielded by absolute immunity because she was ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the defendant was overseas on a Navy base when he used the internet to coerce a Virginia-based minor into sexual activity, his extraterritorially argument was rejected because the focus of the conduct and the child victim was in the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the sentencing court failed to address the defendants’ non-frivolous arguments against a life sentence, including his age and sentencing disparities with his co-conspirators, resentencing is required. Background A jury convicted appellant Lemont Jerrone Webb of multiple criminal offenses related ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

A company president who signed three agreements with a Chinese company that contained clauses requiring arbitration of any disputes in China could not use his unilateral decision not to hire his own Chinese counsel or his own independent Chinese interpreter ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Arbitration Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where there is a “branch office” within 200 miles of the borrower’s home, federal regulations require a bank to conduct a face-to-face meeting before initiating foreclosure proceedings. However, that obligation is only triggered where the “branch office” conducts some business ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Banking Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where a judge presiding over a criminal trial had prosecuted the defendant for bank robbery in 1989, mandamus was denied because it was not certain that the prior conviction would be relevant. The judge could preside over the case and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris