Appellate

  • March 22, 2024

    High Court Mifepristone Battle Goes Beyond Abortion

    The first major abortion battle to reach the U.S. Supreme Court since the Dobbs decision is about a lot more than abortion.

  • March 22, 2024

    'Common Sense' Mich. Ruling Says Photos Not Eavesdropping

    Michigan appellate judges said it's common sense that taking a photograph isn't the same as overhearing a conversation, agreeing with a lower court that a union leader's eavesdropping claim against a rival should be tossed because an image of him posted online doesn't convey a private discussion.

  • March 22, 2024

    5th Circ. Asked For Do-Over In Hurricane Coverage Feud

    The owners of a New Orleans apartment complex urged the Fifth Circuit to rethink ordering them to arbitrate Hurricane Ida damage claims under New York law, arguing New York's choice-of-law clause would ordinarily be unenforceable under Louisiana law if it weren't couched within the arbitration provision.

  • March 22, 2024

    Dollar General Can't Nix $1.48M Slip-And-Fall Verdict

    A Florida appeals panel on Friday affirmed a $1.48 million slip-and-fall verdict against Dollar General, saying the company "falls far short" of showing that there was no evidence it was aware of water on the floor after bringing a pair of carts in from the rain.

  • March 22, 2024

    Pot Co. Investor Gets Colo. Contract Breach Suit Revived

    A Colorado appeals court has revived an investor's suit alleging that the head of a six-company cannabis enterprise failed to pay out as agreed, finding the trial court was wrong to find the investor did not have a legally protected interest in the enterprise.

  • March 22, 2024

    Colo. Water District Illegally Doubled Tax Rate, Panel Says

    A water conservancy district violated the Colorado Constitution when it doubled its property tax rate without voter approval, a state appeals court ruled, reversing a lower court's decision against a proposed class of property owners.

  • March 22, 2024

    3rd Circ. Says Tax Court Has Power To Tackle Debt Offset Case

    A woman whose tax refunds were withheld by the Internal Revenue Service for five years to satisfy what the agency said was her underlying tax liability will get another chance to convince the U.S. Tax Court that the government was wrong, the Third Circuit ruled Friday.

  • March 22, 2024

    5th Circ. Revives Coverage Row Over SXSW Ticket Refunds

    Texas music festival South by Southwest's insurer must cover its defense in a class action by ticket holders who didn't receive refunds after the city of Austin canceled the March 2020 event because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fifth Circuit said, reviving the dispute.

  • March 22, 2024

    Ex-Drug Rep Won't Serve More Time After 1st Circ. Victory

    The second sentencing of a former Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. salesman did not add a day in prison to the roughly seven months he served before the First Circuit wiped away his initial conviction on charges he schemed to fraudulently sell the company's cholesterol treatment.

  • March 22, 2024

    Ill. Judges End Diversity Rules That Drew Conservative Ire

    The Seventh Circuit's chief judge has resolved judicial misconduct complaints targeting allegedly discriminatory standing orders by some Illinois federal judges encouraging younger, female and minority attorneys to handle oral arguments, after two of the judges rescinded their policies in response to the complaints.

  • March 22, 2024

    Ga. GOP Chair Must Face State Court Charges, 11th Circ. Told

    Fulton County prosecutors on Thursday urged the 11th Circuit to keep former Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer's election interference case in state court, arguing that his federal removal bid is based on the "fiction" that his role as a would-be elector for the 2020 election somehow grants him federal officer status.

  • March 22, 2024

    What Patent Attys Should Know About 5th Circ. Transfer Case

    Federal Circuit practitioners should have their eye on a precedential Fifth Circuit decision from earlier this month that provided new guidance on weighing factors used to analyze whether to transfer a case, in particular factors related to court congestion and convenience for witnesses.

  • March 22, 2024

    NLRB Urges 7th Circ. To Toss Union's Sanctions Bid

    The National Labor Relations Board challenged an International Union of Operating Engineers local's "wholly inappropriate" sanctions bid against the agency at the Seventh Circuit, telling the appeals court that the union can't raise an argument related to the lawfulness of a punch-in policy for strike replacement workers.

  • March 22, 2024

    NJ Appeals Court Shuts Down Fired White Worker's Bias Suit

    A New Jersey appeals court backed a life sciences company's win in a former manager's suit claiming she was unlawfully fired for posting statistics about police violence on social media following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, ruling she hadn't shown the company discriminated against white workers.

  • March 22, 2024

    2nd Circ. Revives Case Against Man Held By ICE Despite Bail

    The Second Circuit said Friday a Brooklyn federal judge overstepped by tossing a case against a Dominican man who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being granted bail in an illegal-reentry case, disagreeing with the judge's finding that the government was merely trying to thwart a court order.

  • March 21, 2024

    5th Circ. Backs FDA's Vivid Warnings Of Cigarette Dangers

    Government mandated text warnings and graphic images on cigarette packs to advertise the health risks of smoking do not violate the free speech rights of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and other cigarette manufacturers, the Fifth Circuit ruled Thursday, saying the warnings are "factual and uncontroversial" and pass constitutional muster.

  • March 21, 2024

    6th Circ. Probes Outside Firm's Outreach To Class Members

    A Sixth Circuit judge suggested Thursday that there may be free-speech issues with an order barring outside attorneys from sending solicitation letters to potential class members poised to benefit from a pending settlement over Michigan counties' tax foreclosure practices.  

  • March 21, 2024

    9th Circ. Partially Backs Meta Class Cert. In Ad Reach Row

    A split Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday affirmed certification of a damages class of Meta Platforms advertisers who were allegedly deceived about Facebook's "potential reach" tool, but upended certification of an injunction class, telling the district court to take a fresh look at whether the lead plaintiff actually has standing.

  • March 21, 2024

    Schumer Urges Texas District To Adopt Judge-Shopping Rule

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday urged the chief judge of the Northern District of Texas to quickly implement the Judicial Conference of the United States' updated policy that looks to prevent litigants from judge shopping, arguing that the district's current practices are "dangerous."

  • March 21, 2024

    10th Circ. Doubts Officers Can Get Redo In Training Attack

    A Tenth Circuit panel was skeptical Thursday that tactical officers at a Colorado supermax prison can challenge a trial court's decision not to hold an evidentiary hearing in a suit about a training exercise that turned violent, with one judge noting that the officers did not object at the time.

  • March 21, 2024

    Trump Misquotes Justices In Immunity Case's Opening Brief

    Former President Donald Trump invoked the writings of three sitting U.S. Supreme Court justices in a brief Tuesday to argue that former presidents are absolutely immune from criminal prosecution. Yet the cited opinions and papers actually express the opposite theories from what he claims — a miscue attorneys say could backfire on him.

  • March 21, 2024

    Mexico Slams Texas Migrant Law As State-Sanctioned Bias

    The government of Mexico denounced Texas' law empowering state officials to arrest and deport immigrants, telling the Fifth Circuit on Thursday that allowing the law to take effect would result in "state-sanctioned acts of bias" against its citizens. 

  • March 21, 2024

    Texas High Court Drills Down On Oil Cos.' Depth Dispute

    Texas Supreme Court justices prodded the arguments of both Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Citation Oil & Gas Corp. in their dispute over depth limitations on an assignment of mineral interests in West Texas, asking Thursday why both sides seemingly didn't want to argue for all the evidence while presenting their cases.

  • March 21, 2024

    'Access Hollywood' Tape Key To Trump Verdict, 2nd Circ. Told

    Writer E. Jean Carroll urged the Second Circuit on Wednesday not to undo a $5 million verdict finding that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed her, saying the jury rightly viewed the former president's infamous "Access Hollywood" tape because it revealed "his modus operandi."

  • March 21, 2024

    Year Deadline On Inspection Tort Is 'Absurd,' Ga. Justices Told

    A lawyer for the family of a man who was killed when his home's retaining wall collapsed told the Supreme Court of Georgia on Thursday that the home's inspector should be liable for his death, calling a one-year cutoff on litigation asserted by the inspector "absurd."

Expert Analysis

  • 3 Administrative Law Lessons From 5th Circ. Appliance Ruling

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    Showing that mundane details can be outcome-determinative, the Fifth Circuit's recent decision in Louisiana v. U.S. Department of Energy — that the government's repeal of rules affecting dishwashers and laundry machines is invalid — highlights the relationship between regulatory actions and statutory language, say Michael Showalter and Vyasa Babu at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Skirting Anti-Kickback Causation Standard Amid Circuit Split

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    Amid the federal circuit court split over the causation standard applicable to False Claims Act cases involving Anti-Kickback Statute violations, which the First Circuit will soon consider in U.S. v. Regeneron, litigators aiming to circumvent the heightened standard should contemplate certain strategies, say Matthew Modafferi and Terence Park at Frier Levitt.

  • Bid Protest Spotlight: Standing And A Golden Rule

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    In this month's bid protest roundup, Victoria Angle at MoFo examines one recent decision that clarifies the elements necessary to establish prejudice and federal claims court standing in multiphase protests, and two that exemplify a government procurements golden rule.

  • Employer Trial Tips For Fighting Worker PPE Pay Claims

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    Courts have struggled for decades to reach consensus on whether employees must be paid for time spent donning and doffing personal protective equipment, but this convoluted legal history points to practical trial strategies to help employers defeat these Fair Labor Standards Act claims, say Michael Mueller and Evangeline Paschal at Hunton.

  • Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout

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    While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • Opinion

    Gilead Ruling Signals That Innovating Can Lead To Liability

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    A California appeals court's ruling last month in Gilead Life Sciences v. Superior Court of San Francisco that a drug manufacturer can be held liable for delaying the introduction of an improved version of its medication raises concerns about the chilling effects that expansive product liability claims may have on innovation, says Gary Myers at the University of Missouri School of Law.

  • Grant Compliance Takeaways From Ga. Tech's FCA Settlement

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    Georgia Tech’s recent False Claims Act settlement over its failure to detect compliance shortcomings in a grant program was unique in that it involved a voluntary repayment of funds prior to the resolution, offering a few key lessons for universities receiving research funding from the government, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Series

    Competing In Dressage Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My lifelong participation in the sport of dressage — often called ballet on horses — has proven that several skills developed through training and competition are transferable to legal work, especially the ability to harness focus, persistence and versatility when negotiating a deal, says Stephanie Coco at V&E.

  • High Court Case Could Reshape Local Development Fees

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    If last month's oral arguments are any indication of how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, it's unlikely the justices will hold that the essential nexus and rough proportionality tests under the cases of Nollan, Dolan and Koontz apply to legislative exactions, but a sweeping decision would still be the natural progression in the line of cases giving property owners takings claims, says Phillip Babich at Reed Smith.

  • Employer Lessons From Nixed Calif. Arbitration Agreement

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    A California state appeals court’s recent decision to throw out an otherwise valid arbitration agreement, where an employee claimed a confusing electronic signature system led her to agree to unfair terms, should alert employers to scrutinize any waivers or signing procedures that may appear to unconscionably favor the company, say Guillermo Tello and Monique Eginli at Clark Hill.

  • Ch. 11 Ruling Highlights 'Two-Step' Challenges In 4th Circ.

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    A North Carolina bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Bestwall’s Chapter 11 case, and the decision's interpretation of Fourth Circuit law, suggests that, compared to other circuits, it may be more difficult to dismiss so-called Texas Two-Step bankruptcy cases within the Fourth Circuit, say Brittany Falabella and Kollin Bender at Hirschler Fleischer.

  • EEO-1 Ruling May Affect Other Gov't Agency Disclosures

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    By tightly construing a rarely litigated but frequently asserted term, a California federal court’s ruling that the Freedom of Information Act does not exempt reports to the U.S. Department of Labor on workplace demographics could expand the range of government contractor information susceptible to public disclosure, says John Zabriskie at Foley & Lardner.

  • What Retailers Should Note In Calif. Web Tracking Suits

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    As retailers face a deluge of class actions alleging the use of conventional web analytic tools violate wiretapping and eavesdropping provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, uncovering the path toward a narrow interpretation of the law will largely depend on how these cases proceed, say Matthew Pearson and Kareem Salem at BakerHostetler.

  • Sentencing Shift Might Not Help Most White Collar Defendants

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    Many have lauded the new zero-point offender adjustment in the U.S. sentencing guidelines, which may provide a pathway for noncustodial sentences for first-time offenders — but given the types of cases federal prosecutors often pursue, it likely won't offer much relief to white collar defendants, says Saurish Appleby-Bhattacharjee at BCLP.

  • Del. Ruling Adds Momentum For Caremark Plaintiffs

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    The Delaware Supreme Court's recent opinion in Lebanon County Employees' Retirement Fund v. Collis could be viewed as expanding plaintiffs' ability to viably plead a Caremark claim against directors, so Delaware companies should be on heightened alert and focus on creating a record of board oversight, say attorneys at V&E.

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