Appellate

  • April 08, 2026

    Mass. Justices Divided Over $325M Pro Soccer Stadium Project

    Justices on Massachusetts' highest court on Wednesday appeared split on whether a $325 million professional women's soccer stadium currently being built on part of Boston's historic Franklin Park is subject to a requirement for legislative approval of plans to convert parks to a new use.

  • April 08, 2026

    Fiat Chrysler Loses 'Absurd' Arb. Bid In Defect Suit At 9th Circ.

    A Ninth Circuit panel has rejected Fiat Chrysler's request to send a certified class action over allegedly defective Jeep and Dodge headrests to arbitration, finding that FCA's theory would lead to "absurd" results in which third parties with "no connection whatsoever to the underlying arbitration agreement" could force arbitration.

  • April 08, 2026

    Fla. Panel Says Pump Station Contract Recitals Aren't Binding

    A Florida state appeals court issued a split opinion Wednesday upholding a lower court decision favoring a commercial developer in a dispute over the construction of a pump station, ruling a city can't rely on the introductory language of a contract to avoid paying cost reimbursements.

  • April 08, 2026

    Mich. Appeals Panel Hears Challenge To School Aid Waiver

    A Michigan appellate panel heard arguments Wednesday over whether a school safety funding provision unlawfully forces districts to waive legal privileges in the event of a mass casualty investigation, with school districts saying the law is unconstitutionally vague and the state countering that it applies only to entities, not individuals. 

  • April 08, 2026

    NC High Court Asked to Review Castle Doctrine Killing Case

    A North Carolina man who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter following a dispute with a friend on his property has asked the state's highest court to review his case, claiming that recently decided precedent about how to instruct juries in castle doctrine cases would have changed the outcome of his trial.

  • April 08, 2026

    TD Bank Beats Whistleblower's Appeal For Shielded Info

    A New Jersey state appeals court on Wednesday backed a lower court's holding that TD Bank does not have to produce information it's seeking to shield from a whistleblower, finding that the disclosure of the information would have violated federal law.

  • April 08, 2026

    ERISA Recap: 6 Noteworthy Decisions From March

    JPMorgan Chase & Co. narrowed but couldn't escape a suit from workers who said their health plan paid too much for prescription drugs, Genworth Financial Inc. unwound a class at the Fourth Circuit, and the Sixth Circuit breathed new life into proposed class actions against FedEx and Kellogg. Here, Law360 looks at these and three other notable decisions from March in ERISA cases.

  • April 08, 2026

    Pa. Panel Splits Bellwether Pediatrician Sex Abuse Trial

    A Pennsylvania appeals court has reversed an order consolidating four civil cases against a hospital and pediatrics association related to sexual abuse allegations against a now-incarcerated doctor, saying putting the four cases together in one trial would prejudice the defendants and likely confuse the jury.

  • April 08, 2026

    $37M Award For Whistleblowers Nixed In Medicaid Fraud Row

    A Texas state appeals court did away with an order awarding three whistleblowers a $37 million share of the state's settlement resolving Medicaid fraud allegations against Xerox, finding their respective cases over the alleged scheme were based on publicly available information.

  • April 08, 2026

    Google Search Judge Mulls If Mandates Will Need More Fixes

    A D.C. federal judge wondered aloud Wednesday if the continuously evolving technological landscape will necessitate even more changes down the line to his order in a U.S. Department of Justice monopolization case requiring Google to prop up its rivals with syndicated search results and data.

  • April 08, 2026

    Shutterstock, Photographer Clash Over DMCA Safe Harbor

    A landscape photographer and Shutterstock have filed dueling bids for summary judgment in a copyright lawsuit in Manhattan federal court over whether the stock photo company can be held liable for allegedly infringing images uploaded by its users, or whether the claims are barred by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor protections.

  • April 08, 2026

    NY, RealPage Spar Over Justices' Conversion Therapy Ruling

    The New York Attorney General's Office contested RealPage Inc.'s argument that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling against a Colorado conversion therapy ban bolsters its First Amendment suit against the state, disputing the company's characterization of the high court's holding.

  • April 08, 2026

    Where Dormant Commerce Clause Cannabis Cases Stand

    Lawsuits across the country challenging the constitutionality of state and local cannabis licensure programs continue to move through the federal appellate courts, with judges reaching different conclusions on a topic with broad implications for marijuana regulation.

  • April 08, 2026

    Appeals Court Wipes Out PacifiCorp Wildfire Liability Verdict

    A verdict that made power utility PacifiCorp liable to a class of property owners around Oregon from Labor Day 2020 wildfires must be overturned because of a faulty jury instruction, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

  • April 08, 2026

    1st Circ. Mulls If Puerto Rico Restructuring Shields Officials

    The First Circuit wrestled Wednesday with whether to overturn a ruling that Puerto Rico's debt restructuring does not block civil rights lawsuits against the commonwealth's officials as individuals, giving no clear indication as to how the panel may rule.

  • April 08, 2026

    ERISA Trumps Tennessee PBM Laws, 6th Circ. Says

    The Sixth Circuit backed a trial court's conclusion that Tennessee laws regulating pharmacy benefits managers conflicts with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, ruling the state law's requirement that "any willing provider" be accepted to PBMs' networks impermissibly dictates how the plans are designed.

  • April 08, 2026

    Delaware High Court Revives LG's $12.8M Patent Award

    The Delaware Supreme Court has revived a larger damages award for LG Electronics Inc. in a long-running patent licensing dispute, ruling that a lower court improperly slashed a jury verdict and wrongly denied key financial add-ons, while otherwise upholding the jury's findings that the defendants breached their agreement.

  • April 08, 2026

    Ind. Panel Finds NCAA Had No Duty To 1960s Football Player

    An Indiana appeals court won't revive a suit from the estate of a former football player alleging the NCAA failed to protect him from concussions, saying the trial court correctly determined that the NCAA did not owe the player a duty to protect him from the long-term risks of repeated head trauma.

  • April 08, 2026

    Bondi To Skip Epstein Deposition After DOJ Cites AG Exit

    Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not sit for her scheduled deposition next week on the Epstein files now that she has left the role, and the Justice Department has asked the House Oversight Committee to withdraw its subpoena.

  • April 07, 2026

    Calif. Dialysis Bill Violates 1st Amendment, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday struck down provisions of a California law that aims to restrict dialysis providers' ability to profit from patients receiving health insurance premium assistance from nonprofit charities, ruling in a published opinion that the provisions violated nonprofit American Kidney Fund's and dialysis providers' First Amendment rights.

  • April 07, 2026

    Google Convinces 5th Circ. To Move Antitrust Case To Calif.

    A split Fifth Circuit on Tuesday transferred from Texas to California a mobile analytics software company's case accusing Google of monopolizing mobile device search markets, agreeing with the tech giant that the district court misapplied the law when determining the case should stay in the Lone Star State.

  • April 07, 2026

    DC Circ. Quizzes Gov't On Ex-Navy Admiral's Bribery Case

    A D.C. Circuit judge said Tuesday that she couldn't understand why prosecutors asked — and the court allowed them — to cut 45 minutes from the interview of a retired high-ranking U.S. Navy admiral who was on trial for bribery tied to allegations he steered contracts to a firm that had promised him a job.

  • April 07, 2026

    NCAA Asks 9th Circ. To Revive 5-Year Eligibility Cap On Player

    The NCAA urged a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday to reverse an injunction that allowed a college baseball player to pitch beyond the five-year window the organization normally limits players to, saying his antitrust suit doesn't establish a relevant market or explain any anticompetitive effects of the five-year rule.

  • April 07, 2026

    $8.7M FCA Whistleblower Attys Award Too High, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit held Monday that a district court's award of $8.7 million in fees and expenses to attorneys representing a whistleblower who claimed Academy Mortgage submitted false insurance claims was too high, saying the case is not "exceptional," and the court didn't justify its lodestar multiplier of 1.75.

  • April 07, 2026

    Woman Says Protection Order Shouldn't Bar Damages Claim

    A woman pursuing civil claims against her alleged stalker asked a Colorado Court of Appeals panel to reverse a state court ruling that she is unable to seek damages because she obtained a civil protection order against the man in a separate case.

Expert Analysis

  • 2 Strands Of Patent Law In High Court's 'Skinny Label' Case

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    Amarin v. Hikma, which is set for oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court this month, highlights the distinction between two different strands of intellectual property law — analogizing a patent to either a propety deed or a home, says Jonas McDavit at Spencer West.

  • Justices' Geofence Ruling May Test 4th Amendment's Future

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Chatrie v. U.S. whether law enforcement may use geofence warrants to compel Google to disclose location history data, the ruling is likely to become an important statement about the future of Fourth Amendment law in data-driven investigations, says Duncan Levin at Levin & Associates.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    In the first quarter of 2026, New York's banking developments were headlined by initiatives to expand oversight of financial institutions and strengthen consumer protection laws, including a new framework for buy now, pay later lenders, a sweeping debt collection rule and a revised corporate self-disclosure program for financial crimes, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Seeking A Policy Fix As Merger Reporting Fight Continues

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    A recently announced request by the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice for public comment on the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger reporting requirements, as litigation challenging the commission's updated requirements continues, suggests the government's willingness to address how best to support modern merger enforcement without unduly burdening filing parties, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • Opinion

    Wash. Amazon Ruling Should Reshape Suicide Liability

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    The Washington Supreme Court's reinstatement of negligence claims in Scott v. Amazon.com, brought by the families of people who died by suicide after purchasing chemicals online, signals a reckoning for digital commerce and the rejection of the defense that online marketplaces are merely passive technology platforms, says Donald Fountain at Clark Fountain.

  • Axed Trade Secret Award Cautions Against Bundling Damages

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent ruling in Trinseo v. Harper, vacating a $75 million jury verdict for trade secret misappropriation due to a bundled damages model, offers a strong reminder to apportion damages so a jury can award a nonspeculative figure when it credits only some alleged secrets, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • 2 Rulings Poke Holes In Mandatory Restitution Framework

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Ellingburg v. U.S., as well as the Third Circuit’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Abrams, provide criminal defense practitioners with new tools to challenge Mandatory Victims Restitution Act orders, and highlight several restitution-related issues that converged in the recent prosecution of former Frank CEO Charlie Javice, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • Pivotal 6th Circ. Ruling Threatens Decades Of NLRB Decisions

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Brown-Forman v. National Labor Relations Board fundamentally challenged the NLRB's long-standing practice of establishing policies through adjudication rather than formal rulemaking, giving employers and unions a new avenue to procedurally attack the vast majority of its rules, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • Exploring When Fraud Asset Freezes Limit Right To Pick Atty

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    The defendant’s claim in the Seventh Circuit’s pending U.S. v. Shah case that the government restrained his assets until he couldn’t afford his chosen counsel presents a useful case study in how criminal forfeiture procedure interacts with U.S. Supreme Court rulings on Sixth Amendment rights and appealing complex fraud convictions, says Elisha Kobre at Sheppard.

  • How Justices' GEO Ruling Resets Gov't Contractor Litigation

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent GEO Group v. Menocal decision, holding that government contractors cannot immediately exit cases via interlocutory appeals, may increase litigation costs, strengthen plaintiffs' leverage in settlement negotiations and dampen the government's ability to attract bids on high-risk or sensitive projects, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Appellate Strategy Lessons From Pa. Excess Coverage Ruling

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    In FedEx v. National Union Fire Insurance, a Pennsylvania state court recently set forth a clear holding that policyholders may recover postjudgment interest under excess liability insurance policies only when the policy language expressly allows, offering important takeaways for planning appeals, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Defense Counsel Options Widen As No-Bill Rate Increases

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    Citizens impaneled on grand juries in politically motivated cases who are reasserting their role as a critical check on state power could provide criminal defense attorneys an opportunity to pursue seldom-used preindictment strategies, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • How Cos. Can Prepare For 'Made In America' Ad Scrutiny

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    The Trump administration's executive order to combat fraudulent "Made in America" claims in consumer-facing advertising, along with actions by the Federal Trade Commission, suggest a potential increased focus on consumer protection and pricing-related matters, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Similar-Looking Designs May Not Always Prove Infringement

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Range of Motion Products v. Armaid is a reminder that even a strikingly similar design might not be found to infringe upon a patented design once design features driven by functionality are filtered out from consideration, say attorneys at BCLP.

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