JUDGE WINS $7 MILLION IN LIBEL TRIAL - A Kane County jury Tuesday decided a small local newspaper should pay $7 million to the Illinois Supreme Court's chief justice for defaming him in two columns published three years ago. Justice Robert Thomas cried and hugged his attorneys as Judge Donald J. O'Brien read the verdict Tuesday afternoon. Thomas, 54, of Wheaton shook hands and embraced jurors leaving the wood-paneled courtroom in the historic courthouse in downtown Geneva. From the Chicago Tribune.

JUDGE DISMISSES FOUR FROM POLICE BIAS SUIT - A federal judge Tuesday dismissed four of the six plaintiffs from a long-running racial discrimination lawsuit against the city of Springfield but stopped short of tossing out the entire case, as the city had hoped. Unless there is a settlement, the two remaining current and former black police officers will have their day in court starting Jan. 22, four years after the suit was filed. From Springfield's State Journal Register.

CASE REOPENED AFTER VICTIM RECANTS - Cook County prosecutors have reopened a nearly 10-year-old attempted murder case after the victim reportedly recanted her identification of the attacker. June Siler, whose face and neck were slashed with a box cutter at a South Side bus stop one February night in 1997, now is claiming that Robert Wilson did not attack her, though Wilson was convicted of the crime and is serving a 30-year sentence at Logan Correctional Center. "Enough questions have been raised in this case that we are taking this reinvestigation seriously," said John Gorman, spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office. From the Chicago Sun-times.

CASA GETS CANINE VOLUNTEER - Quinn, that rare canine who carries his own business card, is a friendly but hard-working therapy dog trained to work with children and adults in stressful situations. The 4-year-old Labrador retriever soon will become the first four-legged volunteer for the Court Appointed Special Advocates, who represent abused or neglected children in the child-welfare system. The next time a frightened child has to testify in court, Quinn could be right beside him to provide support. From Champaign's News-Gazette.

ABA RELEASES ETHICS OPINION REGARDING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS - Lawyers who receive electronic documents are free to look for and use information hidden in metadata - information embedded in electronically produced documents - even if the documents were provided by an opposing lawyer, according to a new ethics opinion from the American Bar Association. The opinion is contrary to the view of some legal ethics authorities, which have found it ethically impermissible as a matter of honesty for lawyers to search documents they receive from other lawyers for metadata or to use what they find, according to the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. From the ABA.