Summaries of Selected Opinions
| Publication year | 2010 |
| Pages | 157 |
| Citation | Vol. 39 No. 7 Pg. 157 |
2010, July, Pg. 157. Summaries of Selected Opinions
July 2010
Vol. 39, No. 7 [Page 157]
Summaries of selected Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Opinions appear on a space-available basis. The summaries are prepared for the Colorado Bar Association (CBA) by Katherine Campbell and Frank Gibbard, licensed Colorado attorneys. They are provided as a service by the CBA and are not the official language of this Court. The CBA cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the summaries. Full copies of the Tenth Circuit decisions are accessible from the CBA website: www.cobar.org (click on "Opinions/Rules/Statutes").
No 08-1491. Kaufman v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co. 04/20/2010, D.Colo. Judge Tacha. Attorney Sanctions-Protective Order-Class Action-Client Solicitation.
A client of the Silvern Law Offices (Silvern) was involved in an automobile accident with a driver insured by defendant. Silvern filed a class action lawsuit against the insurance company, alleging that the company promised injured parties such as its client that it would settle but never did. Silvern got access to the insurance company's files to determine if the numerosity requirement for a class action could be met by the number of claimants to whom the company had sent a letter promising to settle. In allowing access, the district court issued a protective order limiting Silvern's use of the files to prepare for trial in only this case. Silvern, however, solicited additional class plaintiffs from the files. The district court sanctioned Silvern for violating the protective order. Silvern's client then settled. An attorney for the insurance company made an ex parte telephone call to the court clerk to inquire about retaining jurisdiction, even though the nominal plaintiff had settled. The district court also sanctioned that attorney.
Silvern appealed the sanctions imposed for violating the protective order. The Tenth Circuit rejected Silvern's argument that the protective order permitted it to solicit additional clients. The Circuit declined to require district courts to expressly enumerate each and every act prohibited by a protective order, even when the prohibited acts are obvious.
Next, the Circuit rejected Silvern's First Amendment claim, holding that the contact with prospective clients involved commercial speech, which enjoys only limited protection. After denying Silvern's due process claim, the court affirmed the sanction imposed on the insurance company's attorney, but declined Silvern's request for a remand to pursue its speculative claim that additional ex parte communications had ensued. The district court's orders were affirmed.
No. 09-7091. United States v. Burkhart. 04/23/2010. E.D.Okla. Judge Kelly. Probable Cause-Stale Information Used for Warrant-Nexus Between Crime and Place Searched-Multiple Warrants for Different Premises.
Defendant pled guilty to possession of matter containing a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. In his plea agreement, defendant reserved the right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to suppress the evidence found in a search of his home. The search took place as the result of an investigation of a child pornography ring by the European Law Enforcement Organization (Europol). After investigating an Italian national who operated a website that sold child pornography, Europol passed on to the FBI e-mails from the pornographer to U.S. citizens, including someone with defendant's name.
The FBI was unable to...
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