Law Offices of Paul Weich

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Mark Finchem’s ready-to-be-disbarred-because-I’m-old attorney, Daniel McCauley, tried to use the disciplinary proceeding to escape from his appeal of the $48,000 in sanctions AND reset the appeal back to square one. The Court of Appeals swiftly rejected the effort.Yesterday, McCauley asked to withdraw from the appeal and to cancel the briefs he had already filed in the election contest case. He noted that it was because of the “finding by the State Bar of Arizona, in PDJ 2023-9064”. However, he did not elaborate on what the finding was that caused a conflict between him and his client.McCauley famously told the
Continue Reading BREAKING: Court REJECTS Mark Finchem's Attorney's Effort To Escape The Election Contest Sanctions Appeal Because Of State Bar Disciplinary Action

Kari Lake does not have the right to get Maricopa County early voters’ ballot affidavit envelopes with their signatures, a judge ruled today.After an unusual two day public records request trial in September, Superior Court Judge John Hannah waited until the end of his 60 days to issue his opinion. The 12-page Minute Entry (below) explains why he concluded that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer was correct in denying Lake’s PRR for the envelopes.Hannah indicated that he had earlier denied the County’s Motion to Dismiss the Special Action lawsuit because the parties had not clearly defined whether the envelopes that
Continue Reading BREAKING: Kari Lake's Lawsuit To Get Ballot Envelopes Fails; "Her Goose Failed To Lay The (Golden) Egg She Expected" (READ Minute Entry)

 (This is a breaking story. Please check back for further info.)UPDATE: The indictment has now been set in Maricopa County (CR2023-008495).WORTH NOTING: The activity allowing it to proceed in Maricopa – rather than Cochise – County is that their actions “affected the Secretary of State’s ability to complete the canvass/certification.”
This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. “AZ Law” includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as trial and appellate courts, etc. AZ Law is founded by Phoenix attorney Paul Weich, and joins Arizona’s Politics
Continue Reading BREAKING: Indictments Returned Against Cochise County Supervisors For Election Interference

The Arizona Supreme Court unanimously refused Kari Lake’s latest effort to leapfrog the intermediate Court of Appeals, and have the Justices instead decide her 2022 Election Contest appeal.Justice Bill Montgomery drew the short straw to write up the Order (below) before the Thanksgiving holiday. (Lake had filed the Motion last week to transfer the case.)”Appellant Lake does not show good cause for transferring the appeal from the court of appeals, where the matter has been fully briefed.”On Monday, Lake asked the Justices to sanction Maricopa County for their Response, alleging “repeated and deliberate mischaracterizations of the record and
Continue Reading BREAKING: "No Thanks"; AZ Supreme Court Giving Kari Lake The Boot In Latest Effort To Remove Her 2022 Election Contest Appeal From Southern Arizona Appeals Court

A 9th Circuit panel today ruled that Arizona abortion providers do have the necessary standing to ask for an injunction stopping the state’s ban on abortions sought solely because of a genetic abnormality in the fetus. The Opinion REVERSES a lower court ruling earlier this year that refused to stop the 2021 law from going into effect after the Dobbs‘ decision reversed Roe v Wade.The opinion, written by Judge Ronald Gould – the other two, approving judges were Arizonans Andrew Hurwitz and Roopali Desai – rested partly upon the physicians’ assertions that the vagueness in the law have
Continue Reading BREAKING: 9th Circuit REVERSES, and Rules Arizona Abortion Providers Do Have Standing To Challenge State's Ban On Abortions Due To Genetic Abnormality

The Arizona Supreme Court this afternoon sanctioned unsuccessful Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) more than $55,000 for filing an improper Special Action Petition with the highest court in the state.The sanctions are designed to cover the attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by now-AG Kris Mayes and the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.Hamadeh had found himself in a strange situation (fully-documented by Arizona’s Law) because the trial court judge in his Election Contest long failed to sign an appealable judgment (thus making an appeal premature).Hamadeh’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to not only order Judge Jantzen to sign
Continue Reading BREAKING, SANCTIONS SCOREBOARD UPDATE: AZ Supreme Court SANCTIONS Hamadeh $55,000 For Improper Special Action Petition (READ Order

A panel of 9th Circuit judges did not require much time to affirm the dismissal of Kari Lake and Mark Finchem’s lawsuit to force all future ballots to be tabulated by hand. The unanimous Opinion handed down today agreed that Lake and Finchem had only presented “speculative allegations that voting machines may be hackable”, and that they therefore could not establish that they had a right to bring such a suit.Lake and Finchem had initially attempted to force a handcount in the 2022 elections. That case was dismissed by District Court Judge John Tuchi. Since they both lost in that
Continue Reading BREAKING: 9th Circuit Re-DISMISSES Kari Lake Hand Count Lawsuit (READ Opinion)

The benches for the U.S. Supreme Court Justices are barely warm today as they begin their new term, but they have again taken aim at Arizona, vacating another death sentence and sending the case back to Maricopa County Superior Court.Without any noted dissents, the Justices summarily vacated the death sentence given to Manuel Ovante for one of his 2008 killings (while he and his friends were looking for meth). He pled to the murders after a judge told him he could be eligible for parole if he was sentenced to life. The sentencing jury was later told that, too, and
Continue Reading BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court Vacates ANOTHER Arizona Death Sentence; Although This Time, Without Scolding Arizona Supreme Court

After years of litigation and months of both settlement efforts and disputes about the settlement, a judge today approved a Consent Decree between Arizona and the ACLU. The Decree finds that Arizona’s 2017 decision that it would not permit health insurance companies to cover state employees’ gender reassignment surgeries is unconstitutional.U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Marquez also had to resolve several issues that arose out of efforts to resolve the legal challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. For example, she decided to reject Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen’s effort to file an
Continue Reading BREAKING, IT'S FINAL: Arizona Must Cover Employees' Gender Reassignment Surgeries; ALSO: Judge Rejects Petersen/Toma While Reducing AZ's Payment To ACLU

 In a 27-page Order, Maricopa County Superior Judge Scott Blaney gave Phoenix until November 4 to clear out the homeless “Zone” in central Phoenix, granting local businesses the permanent injunction they sought to deal with the public nuisance.Blaney had issued a temporary injunction iu March, and noted that the city has had “nearly two years” since the plaintiffs had first sought help from the City Council. The tents and makeshift structures must be gone and the city is to keep the public property free of “biohazardous materials including human feces and urine, drug paraphernalia and other trash”.Blaney notes
Continue Reading BREAKING: Businesses in Phoenix's Homeless "Zone" Granted Permanent Injunction; Phoenix Has Until Nov. 4 To Remove Tents, Etc.

 SHORT ANSWERS:1) Kari Lake‘s Election Contest (Governor race) is in the intermediate Court of Appeals (Division 2). She just filed her Opening Brief.2) Abe Hamadeh‘s Election Contest in the ultra-close (280) Attorney General race is in the strange purgatory time period between filing the Notice of Appeal in the trial court and the Court of Appeals docketing it.3) Mark Finchem‘s Election Contest in the ultra-not-close Secretary of State race is in the Court of Appeals. He has dropped his substantive appeal of the dismissal and is only contesting the $48,000 in sanctions assessed by
Continue Reading WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Updates on Arizona's 3 Ongoing 2022 Election Contest Cases!

While Abe Hamadeh’s slow-rolling 2022 Election Contest of the ultra-close Attorney General race is still in a legal system purgatory between the trial court and the appellate courts (see accompanying article), the fur is flying with sanctions filings above and below.Above, in the Arizona Supreme Court, the Hamadeh legal team is OBJECTING to the Justices’ Order imposing sanctions on them for their quickly-denied Special Action Petition. Hamadeh attorney Tim LaSota filed the objection to Contestee (not in her official capacity) Kris Mayes’ $42,000+ legal bill – but not the Secretary of State’s $13,000 application.LaSota attempted
Continue Reading SANCTIONS SCOREBOARD UPDATE(S), HAMADEH EDITION: (1) Mayes and Secy of State APPEAL DENIAL of Sanctions In Trial Court, (2) Hamadeh OBJECTS To Sanctions In Supreme Court

Kari Lake’s have apparently given up challenging the results of the 2022 gubernatorial election. Instead, their appeal brief slings new allegations alleging that Maricopa County officials intentionally sabotaged the election and then perjured themselves. They tell the Court of Appeals judges that a new trial would be “futile”. So, instead of correcting alleged errors by the trial judge, they ask the appellate court to just order a new election.Besides not being how either Election Constests or appeals work, the 61-page Opening Brief devotes nearly half of its bulk addressing “new evidence” about Maricopa County’s certifications of the Vote Center tabulators
Continue Reading NEW: "Uncharted Territory" – Lake's Attorneys File Appeal(?) Brief Morphing Their Election Contest Into Demand For 2022 Election Re-Do, Sling Sabotage and Perjury Allegations (READ Brief)

Arizona pays its bills, and it has paid the $2.1M remediation bill from the U.S. government for the shipping container border wall. The U.S. dismissed its lawsuit against Governor Ducey-then-Hobbs today, indicating the check went through.The total cost to Arizona taxpayers for the stunt (the containers were said to be ineffectual) was more than $163M.The federal government sued because it alleged Arizona had placed the containers on land along the border that it was not permitted to use.
This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. “AZ Law” includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the
Continue Reading UPDATE: Arizona Pays Feds' $2.1M Bill For Shipping Container Border Wall Remediation, Case Dismissed

Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen’s aggressive strategy of intervening in court cases backfired today, as a judge ruled that they waived their legislative privilege in a challenge to voter registration/citizenship laws passed last year.Democrats will now be able to depose Toma and Petersen and to obtain otherwise-privileged communications into why they passed HB2243 and HB2492 in 2022. Democrats, Native American and progressive groups challenged the laws claiming they were discriminatory and would illegally disenfranchise thousands of voters.HB2492 requires proof of citizenship and proof of location of residence be provided along with the voter registration form.
Continue Reading BREAKING: Oops, Petersen/Toma's Aggressive Intervention Strategy Backfires In Arizona Voter Registration/Citizenship Lawsuits (READ Order)

ASU’s Michael Crow and UA’s Bobby Robbins (in addition to the 8 other university Presidents) are incentivized to harm what remains of the PAC-12 conference at next week’s meeting. Therefore, Washington State and Oregon State filed suit today to prevent the 10 departing members from participating in future meetings.(On the same side now)The Complaint was filed in Washington state court, against the PAC-12 Conference and its (soon-to-be) outgoing Commissioner George Kliavkoff. A Board Meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday.Judge Gary Libey has set a hearing on a Temporary Restraining Order for Monday morning (11am).UA and ASU – along
Continue Reading BREAKING: PAC-12 Breakup Heads To Conference Family Court On MONDAY (READ Complaint)