Atlanta Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

The Health Care bill that passed last night provides for additional funding to the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program (HCFAC). This program was established as a part of the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996 “to combat fraud committed against all health plans, both public and private.” The HCFAC program…

Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSblog discussed his predictions for the future of the Supreme Court yesterday. He predicts that Justice Stevens will retire, but Justice Ginsburg will remain on the bench. His entry includes an in-depth analysis of potential nominees to replace Justice Stevens, concluding that Solicitor General Elena Kagan is the most likely choice for…

Congratulations to Jake Waldrop and the Federal Defender Office here in Atlanta for winning one at the Court of Appeals this week! Yesterday, the Eleventh Circuit held that Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35, which imposes a seven-day jurisdictional time limit on modifications of sentences, applies to crack resentencings, as well as original sentencings. The…

Last week, the Third Circuit, which hears appeals from federal cases in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, heard oral arguments in a worrisome electronic privacy case: In The Matter Of The Application Of The United States Of America For An Order Directing A Provider Of Electronic Communication Service To Disclose Records To The Government. The…

Last week the Eleventh Circuit, which sits here in Atlanta, Georgia, decided U.S. v. Jules. The Court held that “when a district court intends to rely on new information in deciding a motion for the modification of a sentence pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2),” both the federal government and the criminal defendant are entitled…

Yesterday, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion in U.S. v. Patterson. Even though the criminal defense attorney below failed to object to the Presentence Investigation Report (PSI) and Patterson lost his appeal on the plain error standard, this opinion provides a good review of the Eleventh Circuit law regarding intended loss, actual loss, and restitution…

Prosecutions against executives accused of fraud in connection with backdating stock options have been plagued by prosecutorial misconduct. In August, the Ninth Circuit reversed the conviction of Gregory Reyes, former CEO of Brocade Communication Systems, due to prosecutorial misconduct. Last week, Judge Carney of the Central District of California dismissed charges against former Broadcom executives…

Last Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Black v. U.S. and Weyhrauch v. U.S., two of the three federal honest services fraud cases currently before the Court. On Friday, lawyers for Jeffrey Skilling submitted their brief in the third, Skilling v. U.S. This Monday, the Court set oral arguments for Skilling…

Recently we have been following several federal criminal cases involving the payment of fees to lawyers. Another one of those cases was finally laid to rest the day before Thanksgiving, when the United States moved to dismiss its indictment in U.S. v. Velez, involving Ben Kuehne, a highly regarded Florida criminal defense attorney. Mr. Kuehne…

Ed. Note: The first of this month, the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s 2009 Amendments to the federal Sentencing Guidelines went into effect. This is our final post analyzing some of the more important changes to the Guidelines. The Sentencing Commission’s reader-friendly guide to the 2009 amendments is available here. As we discussed in this post in…