Author Archives: George Bourguignon
Measure twice and cut once, they say, and this applies with restraining orders.
22 September 2023 Someone is harassing/abusing you and you want to seek some sort of order from a court, typically called by people a “restraining order.” You head down to court without any advice from an attorney, because hey, who needs that, and fill out some documents the clerk hands you after asking you a […]
Life is not fair in the world of consumer protection.
11 September 2023 You have been the victim of an unfair business practice and it has caused you damage. The kind of act that evokes the response, “ouhh, that is mean” when you describe to another of how this business conducted itself. You seek assistance from an attorney to address the matter and he tells […]
Sanctions for spoliation are getting serious.
29 August 2023 Spoliation is the destruction of material that can be used as evidence in a (civil) court case, either intentionally or negligently. Destruction of even potential evidence, in other words, even before a lawsuit is filed, can be considered spoliation. The typical mischief at hand today in our ever increasing electronic world is […]
I am a public employee and I think I might have been fired for my first amendment expressions, what can I do and what do I have to prove?
24 February 2023 Answer: You can bring a claim in court, and what you have to prove is to meet the burden shifting test enunciated in a 1977 United States Supreme Court decision named Mt. Healthy City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle. The Mt. Healthy standard was just applied to a recent case […]
My adversary in a civil action in Connecticut just sought to withdraw his jury claim, what does this mean and what should I do?
23 February 2023 Answer: It means that the other party made a jury claim earlier in the case and paid $400.00 for it and the case was set for jury and now they want it to be tried in front of a judge instead (and they also may want their $400 returned). What to do […]
I sued someone and they responded in their answer with sidestepping, indirect statements that neither admitted nor denied my allegations, what can I do?
22 February 2023 Answer: Move to strike the offensive responses and have them deemed admitted. Alternatively, you may simply regard them as admitted and proceed accordingly. It is common for defendants of claims when answering the complaint to provide evasive responses to many of the allegations when they really should just expressly admit them. In […]
Settlement of class actions is tricky business.
7 February 2023 As a general matter, settlement of a class action, either before or after a class is certified, requires court approval. The concern is that the named parties collude to settle the matter at the expense of the purported class. In more specific words, that the plaintiff will improperly use the threat of […]
I was just kicked out of college after an investigation by the school that wasn’t a fair one, do I have rights to challenge the decision?
4 February 2023 It is possible you do, one pertinent question is whether the college followed its own rules in the investigation. Recently in the case of Doe v. Stonehill College the student convinced the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to overturn a decision of the trial court that ruled his […]
The federal FACE act, an acronym standing for “freedom of access to clinic entrances” has teeth and protects both access to reproductive health service clinics and religious places of worship.
8 June 2022 The FACE act is widely know as the federal law that supports the enforcement of “buffer zones” around abortion clinics across the country or otherwise prevents people from interfering with others accessing the clinics. However, the act, in the body of the law but not in its title, provides the identical protection […]
Should I hire the cheapest lawyer I can find for my bankruptcy (or any other legal needs I have)?
13 May 2022 Probably not. One reason is that it is likely the least expensive lawyer is not completing all the tasks necessary to ensure your best interests and you are taking risk you are unaware of. A recent ruling provides information that will display the kind of task the cheapest lawyer, at least in […]