Maloy defends ex-hospital CEO: The former CEO of Thomasville’s Archbold Medical Center goes on trial today before U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands in Valdosta for allegations that he falsified Medicaid records. Ken Beverly’s attorneys are J. Converse Bright of Valdosta and W. Bruce Maloy of Atlanta. (Thomasville Times-Enterprise)

U.S. Trustee opposes foreclosures: Donald F. Walton, the Justice Department’s U.S. Trustee for the Georgia region, filed motions in bankruptcy court in Atlanta contending that two banks, Chase Home Finance and Wells Fargo, trying to foreclose on home mortgages have not shown they have legal standing to do so. (New York Times)

Johnson represents Liberian kids: Atlanta attorney Melvin T. Johnson is representing five Liberian-born children in a custody dispute in Major County District Court in Oklahoma. The children were adopted by a couple who were later convicted of child abuse. (Enid (Okla.) News & Eagle) 

Chattooga contract protest: Summerville attorney W. Benjamin Ballenger is protesting Chattooga County’s awarding of a contract to renovate the county’s jail. Ballenger said the contract violates U.S. District Court Judge Beverly B. Martin’s consent order because the county didn’t accept bids. County attorney Christopher L. Corbin said the result was proper. (Summerville News)

Thomson advises Hutcheson: Alston & Bird public-finance partner Glenn R. Thomson is representing Hutcheson Medical Center of Fort Oglethorpe in partnership negotiations with Erlanger Health System of Chattanooga. (Catoosa County News)

Murray advises Franklin: Roger E. Murray, a public-finance attorney with Murray Barnes Finister, is working on Franklin County’s $54 million bond sale to fund construction of a new Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center. (Franklin County Citizen)

Expert witness changes?: Republican state Rep. Thomas D. Weldon Jr., a Ringgold lawyer, filed legislation to update standards for the qualifications of expert witnesses and address the way DNA is handled. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

A legal news roundup from across Georgia:

Cobb sued: Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele partner Kevin Moore is representing a former Cobb County employee in a suit that claims his reputation was damaged by the county’s false accusations that he stole laptops. (Marietta Daily Journal)

DOJ visits Valdosta: U.S. Justice Department lawyers visited Valdosta city schools to monitor whether the school district is complying with a 1970s consent order that it maintain a racially balanced staff and student body. (Valdosta Daily Times)

Murray schools sued: The parents of a Murray County elementary school student sued the school district for not preventing three bullies from breaking their son’s arm. (Dalton Daily Citizen)

Prison sentence: Michael Clark, a Gwinnett County Superior Court judge, sentenced a former Lawrenceville official to four years in prison on a count of child molestation. The defendant was already serving a 10-year federal prison sentence. (Gwinnett Daily Post)

Legal fees: A man who sued the Cobb County school district is disappointed with the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded to him by Cobb Superior Court Judge James Bodiford. (Marietta Daily Journal)

Lake lawsuit: Grady County hired Athens attorney Edward D. Tolley to represent it in litigation filed by an environmental group to block the construction of a lake on Tired Creek. Tolley is the primary outside counsel to the University of Georgia’s athletic department. (Cairo Messenger)

Lawyer testfies: Moultrie attorney Rick Collum testified on Wednesday that a Nashville man who’s been charged in connection with a November 2004 murder volunteered information about the case to get his sentence reduced in a separate drug case. (Moultrie Observer)

Polk sheriff sued: Two former employees of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office who filed a federal wrongful-termination suit against the county claiming their due process rights were violated each had only one performance evaluation in their files. (Cedartown Standard)

A legal news roundup from across Georgia:

Public defenders’ problems: The public defenders representing a woman charged in a 2007 murder and robbery said they don’t have adequate resources to represent her and have been preparing her defense “literally out of the trunks of our cars,” according to a motion filed in the case before Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Michael N. Annis. The lawyers asked for a continuance, meaning Lacy Barnard didn’t plead guilty on Tuesday and thus could face the death penalty instead of a sentence of life in prison. Barnard has had six attorneys in three years, said Brad Gardner of Georgia Capital Defenders. (Augusta Chronicle)

Bullock court clerk probed: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the Bulloch County clerk of courts office for allegations of misappropriated funds. (Statesboro Herald)

Goss rules against Albany: Dougherty Circuit Superior Court Judge Stephen S. Goss ruled that the city of Albany violated the constitution when it tried to block the residential development of an 18-acre tract by refusing to rezone it from industrial. (Albany Herald)

Planning director challenges firing: Alpharetta attorney Eric Chofnas is representing the former Forsyth County planning director in a legal challenge of his termination earlier this year. (Forsyth News)

Taxis want minimum fare: Taxi cab owners in Athens have asked the Athens-Clarke County commission to establish a minimum fare to prevent taxis from undercutting each other on price during peak times, such as weekend nights. County attorney Bill Berryman said a fare minimum would be legal. (Athens Banner-Herald)

A roundup of legal news from across Georgia.

School board to pay legal fees: Cobb County Superior Court Judge James Bodiford ordered the Cobb County school board to pay “reasonable” legal fees to three residents who sued the board for placing the location of a cell phone tower at a school on an agenda at the last minute. (Marietta Daily Journal)

Craft hearing: Tonya Craft, the north Georgia teacher acquitted of child molestation charges this year, faces her husband in a child-custody hearing today before Hamilton County (Tenn.) Circuit Court Judge Marie Williams. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Sentence issued: J. Randall Hall, U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Georgia, on Monday sentenced a man to a decade in prison for stealing the identities of prisoners to file fake income tax returns. (Augusta Chronicle)

Memo criticized: An internal state memo drafted in response to a July chemical spill in a tributary of the Oconee River did not acknowledge that there were no signs warning people not to play in the river after the spill, according to environmental lawyer Justine Thompson of GreenLaw. (Athens Banner-Herald)

Firm represents taxpayers: The law firm Turner, Bachman & Garrett is representing a taxpayer group that’s seeking information on the Lincoln County school district’s use of $7.7 million to build a new school. (Augusta Chronicle)

Suit settled: A Madison County man reached a $60,000 settlement of his three-year-old lawsuit with the Madison County commission over a flooded road that has been closed. (Athens Banner-Herald)

Billboard litigation: Atlanta lawyer E. Adam Webb is representing a billboard company in federal litigation challenging the billboard ban in city of Southern Pines, N.C. (Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer)

A legal news roundup from across Georgia:

Judge candidate’s appeal dismissed: Jim Barnes, a Milledgeville public defender who’s in a runoff election for a seat on Bibb County Superior Court, was sued in the 1990s by a credit card company to collect about $13,000. He lost and the Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Barnes’ appeal and fined him $1,000 for filing a “frivolous” appeal. Barnes faces former Bibb District Attorney Howard Simms in the runoff. (Macon Telegraph)

Lake plan faces legal challenge: The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a suit last week against the Army Corps of Engineers to block the construction of a planned lake on Tired Creek in Grady County, saying it would destroy streams and wetlands. The Grady County attorney, Kevin S. Cauley of Cairo, said the group’s concerns have already been addressed. (Thomasville Times-Enterprise)

Deal sets bond: Northeastern Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Jason J. Deal set bond at $20,000 for the North Georgia College Prep Academy sports director, who’s been charged with writing thousands of dollars in bad checks to employees and businesses. (Dawson News)

Director probed: The Three Rivers Regional Commission is investigating its executive director for the termination of an employee who filed a sexual harassment complaint and for sending inappropriate e-mails, according to the commission’s attorney, Leigh C. Hancher of the Whalen Law Firm in Griffin. (Thomaston Times)

DA indictment: Kermit N. McManus, district attorney for the Conasauga Judicial Circuit, indicted a Whitfield County man this week for vehicular homicide in connection with two deaths. (Dalton Daily Citizen)

Open Records Act audit: One in five college journalism students were denied access to documents that should be public under the state’s Open Records Act, according to an audit sponsored by the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. (Atlanta Unfiltered)

A legal news roundup from across Georgia:

Fayette commission winner sued: Fayette County Commissioner Eric Maxwell sued the man who defeated him, Allen McCarty, seeking his disqualification for failure to pay taxes. McCarty said he’s paid the taxes. McCarty also said the suit is retribution for a suit filed against the county commission by the West Fayetteville Bypass Coalition, of which McCarty is a member. Maxwell is a lawyer in Fayetteville. (Fayette County Citizen)

Judge Burke dies: Walker D. Burke, the first judge on the Houston County State Court, died on Friday at the age of 89. (Macon Telegraph)

St. Marys may be sued: The fired former tourism director for the city of St. Marys has filed notice that she intends to sue for wrongful termination, according to city attorney Jim Stein. The city has 30 days to respond before the complaint is filed in Superior Court. (Florida Times-Union)

Grand jury to hear report: A Stephens County grand jury will hear details early next year from a GBI investigation of a law enforcement officer who was charged with the wrongful shooting of a person during a drug investigation, according to Brian M. Rickman, district attorney for the Mountain Judicial Circuit. (Toccoa Record)

Attorneys apply for judgeship: Five lawyers applied for a judgeship opening on the Jackson County State Court. The position became vacant last month after the death of Judge Jerry C. Gray. (Athens Banner-Herald)

Albany schools probed: Franklin T. “Tommy” Coleman III, the attorney for the Dougherty County Board of Education, said state investigators have been in Albany for “several weeks” interviewing school district personnel about allegations the district altered standardized test results. (Albany Herald)

Lawyers lead Dems, GOP: Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives chose two attorneys, Stacey Y. Abrams of Atlanta and Douglas C. McKillip of Athens, for their top two leadership posts. Another attorney, Lawrence “Larry” O’Neal of Bonaire, was picked as the GOP House leader earlier in the week. (Athens Banner-Herald)

Magistrate denies bond: U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Leon Barfield on Monday denied bond for an ex-national guardsman who is charged with impersonating a U.S. Army soldier at Fort Gordon. (Augusta Chronicle)

Pretrial diversion debated: In the runoff election for Houston County district attorney, one candidate is criticizing his opponent’s proposal to end the circuit’s pretrial diversion program. (Macon Telegraph)

Kirschenbaum reps client: Atlanta criminal defense attorney Seth Kirschenbaum is representing James Loftus, a former security executive for the Rooms to Go furniture retailer, on federal charges that Loftus and another executive took $838,000 in kickbacks from a security vendor. (St. Petersburg Times)

Attorney general-elect Sam Olens on Monday named 17 lawyers and a sheriff to serve on his transition team. Olens also said he met with Attorney General Thurbert Baker last week to discuss the transition.

Jimmy Franklin of the Statesboro firm Franklin Taulbee Rushing Snipes & Marsh, former Cobb County Sheriff Bill Hutson and Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele partner Robert Ingram of Marietta are co-chairs of Olens’ committee. Read more »

Throughout his unsuccessful campaign for attorney general, Ken Hodges said his support wasn’t limited to his own Democratic Party, but that Republicans also backed him.

Hodges’ GOP support, which came from sheriffs, district attorneys and former gubernatorial candidate Howard “Bo” Callaway, wasn’t enough to help him beat Republican Sam Olens. But it might have played a factor in Hodges outperforming all other Georgia Democrats in yesterday’s election. Read more »

A roundup of legal news from across Georgia.

Deal attacks Barnes: Republican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal attacked Democrat opponent Roy Barnes in a Sunday debate for a “frivolous lawsuit” over voter IDs and registering as a lobbyist. (WSB-TV)

DA blasts DNA delays: Delays in getting DNA test results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab, which can take as long as a year, are “inexcusable,” Coweta District Attorney Peter J. Skandalakis said. The DA blamed state budget cuts for the delays. (Newnan Times-Herald)

BioLab deadline: The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York set a deadline of Jan. 5 to join the BioLab class-action settlement. The suit was filed after a 2004 fire at BioLab’s Conyers facility produced a chlorine gas cloud in the area. (Rockdale Citizen)

Development attorney retiring: Jerry B. Dye, the attorney for the Development Authority of Richmond County, will retire this year. Robert C. Hagler of Fulcher Hagler will replace him. (Augusta Chronicle)

New courthouse considered: Burke County voters will decide tomorrow whether to approve a special purpose local option sales tax to generate $17 million for a new courthouse and expanded jail. (Augusta Chronicle)

Athens waives fees: The municipal court of Athens-Clarke County is waiving late fees for people who owe overdue fines to reduce a case backlog, Judge Leslie Spornberger Jones said. (Athens Banner-Herald)