Speaking up about wrongdoing at work takes courage. If your employer punished you for it, you may feel isolated and unsure of your next step. Careful documentation can protect your rights and strengthen any claim you choose to pursue. Start with your protected...
Losing a loved one to someone else's carelessness leaves you with grief and unanswered questions. You may also face funeral costs, medical bills and lost income. New Mexico law gives families a path to seek compensation after a preventable death. Who can file a claim...
There have been many reports of institutional misconduct across New Mexico over the years. Many of the survivors of these traumatic events suffer in silence for decades before feeling safe enough to come forward. It is completely natural to feel overwhelmed by the...
Police officers sometimes need to use force to protect themselves or others. Even so, the law places limits on how much force they may use. If you believe an officer used more force than the situation required, you may wonder how a court decides where the legal line...
Today, in the case of Johnson v. Bd. of Educ. for Albuquerque Pub. Schs., S-1-SC-39961 (2025), the New Mexico Supreme Court has held that public schools are “public accommodations” for purposes of the New Mexico Human Rights Act, and that students in public schools...
An article authored by members of the HM legal team has been published in a special issue of the New Mexico Law Review. The article, titled A New Jurisprudence of Constitutional Duty, addresses a subset of constitutional “failure to protect” claims that have historically been constrained by the United States Supreme Court’s holdings in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of…
Albuquerque, New Mexico – Sandra Lente, the personal representative of the estate of her daughter April Peterson, represented by Huffman & Monagle, LLC, has filed a lawsuit against the Board of CountyCommissioners for the County of Bernalillo. The lawsuit alleges severe negligence and violation of civil rights that led to the tragic and preventable death of Ms. Peterson in the…
Albuquerque, New Mexico – Seven members of the APD Academy training staff – Steve Martinez, Tillery Stahr, Lisa Neil, Shane Treadaway, Alix Emrich, James Jacoby, and Kelsey Lueckenhoff – have filed a lawsuit inthe Second Judicial District Court, alleging violations of the Whistleblower Protection Act in the form of retaliation motivated by nepotism. The lawsuit originates from a series of…
A lawsuit filed in New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe accuses CYFD and the Bair Foundation of failing to protect a five-year-old boy from physical and sexual abuse in a treatment foster care home. The victim, referred to only as “A.T.,” is alleged to have suffered this abuse at the hands of two treatment foster care parents…
The New Mexico Supreme Court has issued an opinion cautioning against the use of the term “and/or” in jury instructions, writing that “[t]he term and/or has proved singularly unsuited to formulating clear and effective jury instructions, to the degree that our trial courts would be well-served to avoid its use in jury instructions altogether.” In its opinion in State v. Taylor, S-1-SC-38818…