DA says Rockland Selectmen Violated Open Meeting Law

The Plymouth County district attorney's office has found that selectmen in Rockland, Mass., violated the open meeting law in the process of hiring a full-time accountant, The Patriot Ledger reports. A town accountant search committee also violated the law.

Under the Open Meeting Law, e-mail can be a double-edged sword

On Beacon Hill and in municipal buildings across the state, government officials are getting the message that e-mail can be a double-edged sword, writes State House reporter Dan Ring in The Republican of Springfield.

Towns prepare for substantial changes in Open Meeting Law

"The state's Open Meeting Law requires that meetings of governmental boards and committees be conducted in sessions open to the public, with few exceptions which are strictly limited. The goal of the law is to eliminate as much of the secrecy around discussions and decisions of public policy, by requiring that discussion to be done in a public meeting.

"Amendments to the Open Meeting Law have been made many times since it was first adopted in 1958, most recently last July when Gov. Deval Patrick signed the ethics, lobbying and campaign finance reform bill that included changes to the Open Meeting Law. The changes, some of which are substantial, are scheduled to go into effect July 1."

Read more: Towns prepare for substantial changes in Open Meeting Law | SouthCoastToday.com.

Boston Lawyer Wins Libel Case for Former V.I. Judge

A former Superior Court judge in the U.S. Virgin Islands won a $240,000 libel verdict this week against the Virgin Islands Daily News. The former judge, Leon Kendall, was represented in the lawsuit by Howard Cooper, the Boston lawyer who in 2005 won a $2.1 million verdict against The Boston Herald for former Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy.

According to a report today in The Daily News, the jury on St. Thomas returned the verdict Tuesday. Jurors found