Word: contempts
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...about personal injury cases. Because of the law's delay and Distillers' refusal to offer more than niggardly settlements to the victims, the case dragged on into the '70s. All the while, the British press was banned from saying anything about it. The reason: under British "contempt of court" law, judges quickly impose fines and jail terms on editors and reporters who comment on any case under court review. The purpose of the law is to prevent "trial by newspaper," but no attempt is made to balance fair trial and free press; the law is applied...
...National Shame," the Sunday Times made it clear that Distillers had been miserly with the Thalidomide victims. The stories provoked public outrage and pressured Distillers to raise its original settlement offer sevenfold, from an average of about $25,000 per child to $175,000. The articles were clearly in contempt of court. But the Sunday Times managed to avoid fines and jail terms by striking a deal: it agreed to show its final-and most damning-article to the government before publishing it. That article, detailing how Distillers had been negligent in selling the dangerous drug in the first place...
Even now, however, the man refuses to lower his fists. In a cascade of speculation, Sirica declares that if Nixon had refused to surrender the tapes, he would have been held in contempt. Fines of $25,000 to $50,000 would have been levied every day. In the book's most belligerent section, the judge wishes that Nixon had indeed been indicted and gone to trial. If convicted in Sirica's court, he would have been sentenced to jail, regardless of the psychological consequences to the country. The judge, whose penchant for stiff sentences earned him the sobriquet "Maximum John...
...these, according to gay leaders, perhaps only 1% or so are out of the closet. The rest are still known as homosexuals only to themselves and perhaps a few trusted friends. Until a decade ago, they had nothing in common but their sexual orientation and fear of society's contempt...
When Attorney General Griffin Bell was cited for contempt last summer and threatened with jail for refusing to release confidential FBI files, Washington Lawyer Charles Morgan Jr. teasingly sent his good friend an unusual present. The Attorney General escaped the jail threat, but he hung the gift on his office door. It was still there when Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. faced a contempt threat as a result of a North Carolina civil rights suit. Bell, who would be called on to defend his fellow Cabinet member, forwarded the offering to Califano. "What a hell...