The New England Patriots were caught cheating in the first week of the 2007 season. Now, Newsday reports that a New Jersey man is suing the Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick for more that $184 million.

The Patriots were caught “illegally” videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals. The NFL has already fined Belichick $500,000, fined the team $250,000, and stripped the team of a first round draft choice next year for violating the “integrity of the game.”

Attorneys Carl Mayer and Bruce Afron are suing for damages as part of a class-action suit over what they call the Patriots’ history of cheating during Jets-Patriots games.

Gentlemen ….. Good luck.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge did not approve a motion filed by the lawyers of Lindsay Lohan to dismiss part of the lawsuit filed against her by a man who was involved in an auto accident with Lohan in October 2005.

The lawyers for Raymundo Ortega included as part of the personal injury lawsuit against Lohan a statement that they had reason to believe the singer/actress had been drinking at the time of the accident, and fled the scene to hide in a retail store after it occurred.  One piece of evidence they offered was the fact that Lohan was admitted into rehab shortly after the incident.

Lohan’s lawyers countered that the lawsuit lacked legal sufficiency, that Ortega’s inclusion of the assertion that Lohan was "tipsy" at the time of the accident is just an attempt to be "inflammatory" and get her to settle, but Judge Michael L. Stern rejected their motion and set the court date for April 7.

Although California Highway Patrol officers determined that Ortega had caused the accident while executing an illegal U-turn, Ortega is demanding $200,000 from Lohan to compensate for injuries sustained during the accident, in which he was knocked unconscious.  He claims that she was negligent when she ran away and hid, leaving him unconscious, as well as in driving while intoxicated.

Lohan is currently in rehab in Utah, where it is reported that she must complete a county coroner program which includes visiting the morgue and talking to victims of DUI and drunk driving.

A man from Mobile, AL, who was arrested in the summer of 2005 for making an obscene gesture with his middle finger at a police officer, has recently been awarded a $3,000 settlement by the city.

56-year-old Addison DeBoi pled not guilty to disorderly conduct and was acquitted.  He later sued the city because he believed that the officer acted inappropriately and trumped up the charges in order to get DeBoi convicted.

However, before the case could unfold, the story of his arrest and subsequent lawsuit made national news.  On his popular, controversial Fox News Channel show, commentator Bill O’Reilly profiled the case in a segment titled "Is It Legal?"  O’Reilly’s determination: "This is a pinhead judge."

In the ruling on DeBoi’s case, the Judge Michael McMaken declared that precedent dictates that police officers must have “thicker skin” than a normal citizen.

The city of Mobile is contesting the award, moving for a new trial at a higher court.

In an interesting twist of events in a recent FELA case in Omaha, Nebraska, the jury who was deciding on a verdict for the injured railroad worker only wanted to know one thing before they made their decision: were they allowed to award more than he was asking?

That was good news for 36-year-old Kendall Walsh, who received nearly $2.8 million after seeking $2.3 million in compensation for injuries he sustained as a maintenance crew member replacing railroad ties for Union Pacific Railroad.  The Columbus, Nebraska man was standing near a stacked pile of concrete railroad ties when the pile shifted and one of the 900-pound ties fell and critically injured his right arm. 

Walsh has undergone three surgeries since the accident, but will never regain full grasping ability with his right hand as a result of the injury.  His lawyer successfully argued that Union Pacific was negligent for not stacking the ties with standard wooden dividers that are used to maintain stability.  The award was made for lost wages, future impairment of earning capacity, pain and suffering and the loss of the victim’s ability to enjoy life.

The suit was made according to the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA), which was enacted in 1908, as the United States expanded its railroad network, to compensate railroad workers injured on the job.  In FELA cases, as in other workers’ compensation cases, the employee must prove that the railroad company was negligent in any accident; however, FELA cases tend to carry significantly higher compensation awards than those for non-railroad employees under State Worker’s Compensation.

Perhaps even more strange given their insistence on increasing the award, the jury decided that Walsh was 2 percent to blame for the incident.  This knocked $56,000 off of the $2.8 million award.  Still, it’s far better than Walsh was expecting.