An outspoken Chinese human-rights lawyer, who mysteriously disappeared about a year ago, said publicly that he is leaving his former role as a government critic to be reunited with his family.

Gao Zhisheng, who resurfaced about two weeks ago, declined to elaborate on the details of his disappearance, and wouldn’t say whether he was abused by the Chinese government during his time away. According to the New York Times, Gao looked like he had lost weight and was more reserved than in past contacts with him.

Gao said during his first interview since resurfacing that the ordeal had been very difficult for him, as well as for his wife and two children. His family left China in a clandestine way because of repeated harassment by Chinese police after Gao disappeared.

“I don’t have the capacity to persevere,” Gao said during the interview. “On the one hand, it’s my past experiences. It’s also that these experiences greatly hurt my loved ones. This ultimate choice of mine, after a process of deep and careful thought, is to seek the goal of peace and calm.”

Described as pugnacious and dauntless, 44-year-old Gao was among a few activist lawyers in China that were a constant source of discontent for the government. Gao took on complicated and difficult cases of persecuted Christians, as well as members of the Falun Gong spiritual group that was labeled by the Chinese government a cult and declared illegal.

During times when Gao was not jailed and possibly tortured as a response to his human rights work, he was constantly monitored by police officers, according to the Times. When he disappeared 14 months ago, an international outcry was expressed by human rights organizations, the United Nations and governments including the United States and England.

During the interview, he reportedly was brought to tears when recalling his first visit back to his old house, and finding traces of his family’s presence.

“I completely lost control of my emotions, because to me these are the three dearest people in the world, and now, we’re like a kite with a broken string,” he said.

Gao’s desire to not elaborate on where he has been and what happened to him raised concern over whether he is still being monitored by Chinese authorities. There were hints during the interview that his ceasing to work as an activist was part of deal to be connected with his family again, according to Times.

“You know that past life of mine was abnormal, and I need to give up that former life,” Gao said. “I hope I can become part of the peaceful life of the big family.”

Attorneys general from 14 states have taken their fight against President Barack Obama’s health care plan to court, after the Florida Attorney General filed a lawsuit claiming that any law requiring people to buy insurance is unconstitutional.

Thirteen of the officials filed the suit in a Pensacola, Fla. federal court, just minutes after the president signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the health care reform bill. Health care reform has been a major push by Obama’s administration, and an equally major fighting point taken by Republicans against the president.

The complaint describes the act as an “unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states” and requests that a federal judge block it from being permissible as a federal law.

The suit states that “the Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage.”

The lawsuit was filed by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, and was backed by 11 other Republican state attorneys general and one Democrat, according to CNN. McCollum said the health care act will require states to extend themselves far beyond any realistic means at their disposal, and it doesn’t provide any resources to accomplish these goals.

Aside from McCollum, the other attorneys general hail from Washington, Utah, Texas, South Carolina, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Idaho, Louisiana , Alabama, Michigan and Colorado, according to CNN. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell was the lone Democrat who joined the suit. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a suit separate of McCollum’s to block the act’s passage.

“It’s a question for most of us in the states of the costs to our people and to the rights and the freedoms of the individual citizens in upholding our constitutional duties as attorneys general,” McCollum said.

The White House did not appear too worried.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on March 22 that the administration has been advised by lawyers that the federal government will win the suits. Democratic Party Spokesman Hari Sevugan described the legal efforts a waste of state money “during the worst economic crisis in a generation.”

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna returned home to criticism from the state’s governor, Democrat Chris Gregoire, who said she would actively oppose the lawsuit.

Legal professionals told CNN that the constitution grants Congress plenty of power over state laws, and that the lawsuit will face an uphill battle against decades of legal precedence that favors Congress.

A human rights group said Chinese authorities have located a Chinese lawyer who has been missing for over a year, although his family has yet to contact him, according to the BBC.

The circumstances surrounding Gao Zhisheng, one of few lawyers who dared to stand against Chinese government, has brought international scrutiny against the large nation considering how long he has been missing. Gao also said he was on the receiving end of severe violence and torture at the hands of Chinese authorities, which has also cast a dubious veil over his case.

The Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights organization based in San Francisco, released a statement that said they were told by the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. that Gao was in the Xinjiang region, about 1,800 miles west of Beijing, according to the Associated Press.

John Kamm, executive director of the foundation, said it wasn’t clear what Gao was doing in that area of the country or what has happened to him in the last year.

“On Feb 12, the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC informed John Kamm, executive director of The Dui Hua Foundation, that Mr. Gao Zhisheng is working in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and that he has been in contact with his wife and relatives in China,” according to a statement from the foundation. Gao’s wife Geng He said she has not been in touch with him.

Considered one of the best known activist lawyers in China, Gao was known for his legal work involving religious groups that were targeted by the Chinese government, including underground Christians and the banned Falun Gong spiritual group, Reuters reported.

Gao was last seen in his home in the Shaanxi province on February 4, 2009, according to the Associated Press. At the time, his wife and children had already escaped the home and fled to Bangkok where they waited to be granted asylum in the United States.

Both the U.S. and the European Union had called on the Chinese government to find out what happened to Gao.

In August 2006, Gao was arrested on a subversion charge and shortly thereafter was placed under house arrest when he was convicted after a one-day trial. Since then, he was under constant police monitoring and would be secretly detained for random periods of time, Geng told Reuters after she was granted asylum in the U.S.

In 2005, Gao wrote an open later to China’s president demanding the country stop persecuting practitioners of Falun Gong, which the Chinese government considers a fanatical cult.

Most people hate the feeling that they are getting ripped off - and that doesn’t just stop at your average everyday person.  Celebrities don’t like it either, but they have a much larger pay scale to worry about.

Former wrestler Hulk Hogan, also known as Terry Bollea, filed a lawsuit in Pinellas County, Fla. against his lawyers, according to Tampa Bay Online.

The lawsuit states that the lawyers overcharged him $1 million for his son Nick’s car crash back in 2007. Nick had crashed his vehicle into a palm tree after his car jumped over a median.  He and his passenger, John Graziano, were severely injured and taken to the hospital.

In the lawsuit, Hogan is claiming he paid more than $1 million to his lawyers to defend his son for a civil case filed by Graziano from the accident.

According to the Tampa Bay papers, Hogan states that his insurance company, Progressive Select Insurance Co., could and should have supplied him an attorney at no cost to him under his insurance policy.

At the time of the accident, the vehicle Nick was driving, a Toyota Supra, was insured by Progressive. The policy covered bodily injury limits of $250,000 per person and has a total limit of $500,000 per accident. Progressive would defend the policy holder if any civil suit arose from the accident.

Hogan states that no one at the insurance company had contacted him with this information until much later after he decided to hire out different attorneys, Tampa Bay Online reported.

About two weeks after the accident Hogan decided to consult with Morris Weinberg Jr. and Lee Fugate from the Zuckerman Spaeder law firm. He hired them to defend his son Nick against criminal charges and to protect him against civil lawsuits.

Hogan later found out the insurance company had sent letters to everyone except for him - including his business managers and his financial managers stating the company had appointed him an attorney.  Word of this, according to Hogan, also reached his newly hired attorneys, but they never told him they received the letter.

He also alleges that the attorneys told Progressive Hogan wanted only this law firm to represent him and they came to an agreement with the insurance company that they would only charge Hogan $145/per hour.

According to Tampa Bay news reports, Hogan claims the law firm charged him much higher rates from $475 and up. Hogan could no longer retain the law firm for the case.

Progressive had already paid the firm $350,000 from the $444,000 they were seeking in reimbursement.  The insurance company then decided they were no longer going to represent Hogan due to his bills being “grossly inflated and unnecessary.”

The firm states that Hogan’s claims are “baseless” and they will fight in court.

In America, a fashion crime won’t get anyone forty lashes, but unfortunately it can in Sudan.

Northern Sudan is predominantly Islamic, and the Islamic law has restrictions on public indecency, mainly for women, according to CNN.com.

Lubna Al-Hussein was threatened with forty lashes for wearing pants that were allegedly “too tight” with a sheer blouse. According to Al-Hussein, she was wearing pants, a blouse and a hijab (a head scarf worn by Muslim women).

Lashing – a common punishment in Sudan for both men and women - can be held in public.  The public lashings are reserved mainly for men, and for women the lashings are handled in private and occur shortly after the trial.

At the time of her arrest, Al-Hussein was attending a restaurant party in Khartoum when Sudan police barged in and began inspecting woman at the party to make sure their clothes were decent for public appearance.

Al-Hussein was not the only one arrested at the party - 18 other women were arrested with her. Her lawyer, Nabil Adib, does not think she was targeted specifically. According to Adib, it’s a common occurrence for police to enter public and private parties to hold these inspections.

Courts found her guilty of the crimes, but decided not to give her the lashes. They instead ordered that she pay a fine of 500 Sudanese pounds, which is equal to 209 American dollars. If she did not pay the fee, then she would be thrown in prison for one month. Her trial lasted a day and she was not allowed any witnesses or to present a defense case, according to her Adib.

Al-Hussein chose jail time and refused to pay the fine based on principal. Now, she’s looking to appeal the court’s decision in hopes to make the effort to declare the Muslims’ decency law unconstitutional.

Al-Hussein worked as a journalist for the media department of the United Nations and resigned from her position to waive her immunity as an international worker and face trial.

This action brought attention across the world and many protestors showed up at the court hearing to protest this offense. Police had to throw tear gas into the crowds to break up the protesting.

According to CNN they detained 47 supporters, apparently injuring some of these women. From Amnesty International to United Nations, this is one trial that has everyone around the world was watching, and waiting to see the results.

Nebraska lawmakers voted today to restrict the age of a child that can be dropped off at a hospital without the parents facing prosecution. According to CNN, the state Senate- the only chamber in Nebraska’s Legislature- approved final passage of the revision. This change will totally dismantle the current version of the law, which has no age limitation. The new version of the law will state that no child older than 30 days old can be dropped off at a Nebraska hospital.

To date, 35 children have been dropped off at Nebraska hospitals since the law took effect in September. All but six of the children were older than 10. Officials also stated that no infants were among those left at area hospitals. One commentator described this phenomenon as exposing America’s “dirty little secret” - that parents are having a tough time with parenting skills and issues. While the amendment to the Nebraska law solves one state issue as to the true intent of the statute, a greater problem looms. This issue being the availability of help for parents feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of raising a non-infant.

As one director of family services observed, parents should not wait until they are in the moment of crisis, they should reach out for help from family and friends as soon as possible. Hopefully, this piece of advice will aid those who are currently feeling the stress of parenting.

President-elect Barack Obama’s advisers are creating a proposal to ship dozens (maybe hundreds) of Guantanamo-Bay prisoners to the United States to face criminal trials.

Obama has opposed the imprisonment of the terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, calling it a “sad chapter in American history”. He made a campaign promise to close the prison and said that the United States is generally equipped to handle the legal proceedings; however, he has offered few details on what he planned to do.

Under the proposed plans, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted through the U.S. criminal court system.

The detainees who have cases that are entangled in classified information may see their cases before a new court designed to handle sensitive cases involving national security.

These plans were disclosed to the Associated Press in anonymity because the plans aren’t final. Stay tuned to Total Lawyers for information as it develops.

Related Article: The Election and the Supreme Court

On election day in California, voters were asked to decided whether same-sex marriages should remain legit. The results are in and 52 percent of them voted that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Opponents filed a legal challenge today with California’s Supreme Court to keep the ban from taking effect. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Equality California and consisted of six same-sex couples who didn’t marry before the election but want to marry.

Lawyers for same sex-couples said they’ll argue that the anti-gay-marriage law was an illegal revision to the constitution, saying that it doesn’t provide for equal protection guarantee.

Elizabeth Gill, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, told reporters that “A major purpose of the Constitution is to protect minorities from majorities. Because changing that principle is a fundamental change to the organizing principles of the Constitution itself, only the Legislature can initiate such revisions to the Constitution.”

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Do you believe you’ve been wronged? If you’re thinking about filing a lawsuit, consider talking to a lawyer today. Total Lawyers has a wide network of lawyers ready to listen to you.

The people have spoken. Here’s some of the latest state law updates:

• California voters have decided to ban same-sex marriage with 52 percent voting to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. The CA State Attorney said those who have already been married in the state will retain their validity; however, legal challenges are possible. They join 27 other states that have already banned same-sex marriage.

• Florida and Arizona voters also voted to ban same-sex marriage, with 62 percent and 56 percent voting to limit marriage to heterosexuals.

• Washington voted to allow doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

• South Dakota and Colorado voters rejected curtailing abortion rights.

• Michigan constituents voted to allow the use of medical marijuana.

• Nebraska voted to end race and gender-based affirmative action.

Total Lawyers stays ontop of the law. If you have questions regarding the law, or if you are considering filing a lawsuit, talk to one of our sponsored lawyers today. Check out TotalLawyers.com for more information.

On Friday, a Philadelphia federal judge threw out a complaint that was filed by a lawyer claiming that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) wasn’t a legal U.S. citizen. the lawyer was aiming to get Obama taken off the Nov. 4 ballot.

Phillip J. Berg alleged that Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya and was actually a citizen of Indonesia and was therefore ineligible to be the president of the United States.

On Sept. 24, Obama and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) asked the judge to dismiss his complaint, calling his allegations “ridiculous” and “patently false”. They further said the Berg had “no standing” to challenge the qualifications of any presidential candidate because he didn’t show the requisit harm to himself.

Berg had earlier requested a temporary restraining order on Aug. 22, which was denied by the same judge; however, the judge didn’t rule on the merits of this lawsuit until last week.

On Friday the judge agreed with Obama and the DNC. In a 34-page document, the judge wrote that Berg’s accusations of harm were “too vague and too attenuated” to award standing to any voter.

The judge further said the Berg’s claim and tactics were “frivolous and not worthy of discussion”.

Berg had argued that Obama’s Democratic nomination kept people from voting for Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-NY), for whom Berg had backed in the primary elections.

The judge said Berg’s arguments “ventured into the unreasonable”.

The FACTS

Obama was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961. He is a U.S. citizen.

In an effort to squash the rumors, the campaign posted a documents issued by the state of Hawaii on its Web site to confirm his birth on American soil.

Berg alleged that the document was a forgery.

The nonpartisan Web site, FactCheck.org examined the original documents and ruled it legitimate.

In addition, a Aug. 13, 1961 birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser listed Obama’s birth there on Aug. 4.

Additional Resources:

–The Presidential Candidates on the Economy

–Obama Talks about Credit Card Debt and Bankruptcy

–Presidential Candidates on the Housing Crisis

–2008 Presidential Election: A Look at the Foreclosure Crisis, Taxes & Retirement