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Appellate
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May 06, 2024
University Policy Is Enforceable Promise, Colo. Justices Find
The University of Denver must face breach-of-contract claims by a former student who alleges school officials botched a sexual misconduct probe used to support his expulsion, with the Colorado Supreme Court concluding on Monday that the promise in university policy to conduct "thorough, impartial and fair" investigations is enforceable under contract law.
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May 06, 2024
Employer's Good Faith Axes Paystub Fine, Calif. Justices Rule
The California Supreme Court on Monday held that if an employer had a good faith belief it was providing complete and accurate wage statements to its employees, it has not knowingly and intentionally violated state labor law, meaning workers cannot recover civil penalties offered for intentional violations of wage statement requirements.
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May 06, 2024
5th Circ. Revives Airline Workers' Hearing-Loss Suit
A pair of flight attendants seeking to hold Boeing liable over hearing loss they suffered due to an aircraft's allegedly faulty smoke alarm have successfully convinced a Fifth Circuit panel to allow them to refile their case, bringing their claims back from the brink almost three years after the appeals court tossed them.
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May 06, 2024
7th Circ. Backs Ford In Black Ex-Plumber's Bias Suit
The Seventh Circuit on Monday upheld Ford Motor Co.'s defeat of a former plumber's lawsuit alleging she was punished for reporting she'd been treated harshly by her supervisor because she's a Black Muslim woman, finding nothing wrong with a lower court tossing the case.
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May 06, 2024
Fed. Circ. Urged Not To Limit Use Of Patents Apps At PTAB
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Samsung, and tech industry groups have urged the Federal Circuit to reject an argument that patent applications can only be used to invalidate patents in inter partes reviews based on their publication date, saying the filing date is what counts.
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May 06, 2024
9th Circ. Hints Walmart Can't Avoid Jury In Disability Bias Suit
A Ninth Circuit panel indicated Monday that it doubted Walmart Inc. was being honest when it told a vision-impaired employee seeking to come back from a leave of absence that no jobs were available, with one judge suggesting a jury should decide if the retail giant lied to the worker.
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May 06, 2024
FCC Calls High Court Telecom Subsidy Challenge Premature
The Federal Communications Commission has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to forgo review in two constitutional challenges to the agency's Universal Services Fund brought by free-enterprise groups, arguing that the appeals were filed too early and are based on a speculative circuit split that hasn't formed yet.
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May 06, 2024
NJ Justices Erase Gov't Workplace Probe Confidentiality Rule
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday struck down part of a state statute that directs investigators to request, but not require, confidentiality in discrimination or harassment investigations involving state workers, ruling the provision still reached too far and chilled protected speech.
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May 06, 2024
Mass. Justices Wary Of Spiking Uber, Lyft Ballot Questions
Justices on Massachusetts' highest court appeared unlikely Monday to strike down ballot proposals to reinvent app-based drivers' relationships with Uber, Lyft and the like, commenting that the scattershot ideas for voters in March all carry the underlying theme of creating a carveout from the state's worker-friendly employee classification law.
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May 06, 2024
4th Circ. Clinches NBA Star Win In Legal Saga With Ex-Agent
NBA star forward Zion Williamson secured a Fourth Circuit victory on Monday in a prolonged legal battle with his would-be agent, with a unanimous panel ruling his contract with the Florida marketing agency was void under a North Carolina law governing student-athlete representation.
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May 06, 2024
DeSantis, Ousted Fla. Atty Clash Over Reinstatement Powers
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and ousted prosecutor Andrew Warren have offered dueling takes over whether federal courts have jurisdiction to reinstate suspended state officers in competing briefs filed with the Eleventh Circuit.
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May 06, 2024
Calif. Doctors Can't Escape Med Mal Atty's Defamation Suit
A California appeals court has said two California doctors cannot escape a defamation suit over an allegedly defamatory website they created about a malpractice attorney whom they'd had a fee dispute with, denying an anti-SLAPP motion because the language the lawyer identified in his amended complaint was not protected activity.
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May 06, 2024
Margolis Edelstein Wants Redo Of Malpractice Ruling In Del.
Margolis Edelstein wants the Delaware Supreme Court to reconsider its decision reviving an insurer's malpractice suit claiming its incompetence caused the insurer to have to settle a case for $1.2 million, and is asking the full court to rehear the matter.
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May 06, 2024
Ritz-Carlton Defeats Post-Hurricane Layoff Claims At 1st Circ.
The First Circuit has said a Puerto Rico federal judge was right to rule in favor of a Ritz-Carlton hotel in a suit by a proposed class of employees who claimed they were wrongfully laid off after the island was decimated by back-to-back hurricanes in 2017.
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May 06, 2024
3rd Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Pa. Agency Atty's Firing Suit
The Third Circuit on Monday declined to revive a former Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development attorney's suit alleging his firing violated his 14th Amendment rights, reasoning that the lawyer failed to show how his termination constitutes a deprivation of property.
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May 06, 2024
New Jersey High Court Disbars Twice Suspended Atty
The New Jersey Supreme Court has disbarred a Morris County attorney, agreeing with a state disciplinary review board that said his failure to cooperate with their investigations and continued misconduct warrants a ban from practicing in the state.
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May 06, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
A record $100 million settlement, a fishy Facebook decision, a canceled Amazon delivery and an upended $7.3 billion sale dispute topped the news out of Delaware's Court of Chancery last week. There were also new cases involving Hess, Microsoft and the 2022 World Cup.
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May 06, 2024
Nothing 'Unusual' About Claims Appeals, Mich. Tells 6th Circ.
Michigan defended the appellate setup of its claims court in a Sixth Circuit brief Friday, pointing to federal circuit courts' en banc review procedure to argue it is not so extraordinary to ask judges to scrutinize their colleagues' work.
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May 06, 2024
Why The Wash. Supreme Court's Docket Has Been Shrinking
When the Washington State Supreme Court met last month, justices could have decided to set new case law in a dispute over contractual royalty payments or when county governments need to turn over public records. But they passed on those cases and 32 others, taking on just three, part of a decadelong trend that’s seen their annual opinion count fall by half.
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May 06, 2024
Texas Says EPA Methane Rule Would Burden Regulators
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's director of the Office of Air told the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has grossly underestimated the cost of complying with its expanded methane emissions control requirements, and should therefore pause the rule's implementation.
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May 06, 2024
Full NC Court Asked To Review Panel's 'Double Odor' Pot Test
A man who pled guilty to cannabis-related charges after a traffic stop is asking for an en banc review of a North Carolina appeals panel's rejection of his argument that the evidence against him was unconstitutional.
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May 03, 2024
Ala. High Court Won't Rethink Decision On Frozen Embryos
The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday refused to revisit its February decision finding that frozen embryos count as children, a first-of-its-kind decision that has been received as potentially ruinous for in vitro fertilization services in the Yellowhammer State.
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May 03, 2024
Meta Asks 9th Circ. To Revisit Predominance In Ad Class Cert.
Meta Platforms Inc. on Friday asked the Ninth Circuit to take a fresh look at a split panel decision affirming certification of a damages class of potentially millions of advertisers who were allegedly deceived about Facebook's "potential reach" tool, taking issue with the panel majority's "sweeping" interpretation of the predominance requirement.
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May 03, 2024
10th Circ. Blasted For Warhol Reading In 'Tiger King' IP Suit
Filmmakers, authors and law professors have urged the Tenth Circuit to revisit its decision to revive part of a copyright complaint against Netflix for its popular "Tiger King" docuseries, arguing that an appeals panel misapplied the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Warhol decision when it ruled against the streaming service.
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May 03, 2024
5th Circ. Stands By Keeping CFPB Late Fee Case In Texas
A Fifth Circuit panel will not reconsider its decision rejecting the cross-country transfer of a bank industry-backed challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee standard, denying the agency's bid to move the case back to Washington, D.C., from Texas.
Expert Analysis
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Strategies For Single-Member Special Litigation Committees
The Delaware Supreme Court's recent order in the Baker Hughes derivative litigation allowing testimony from a single-member special litigation committee highlights the fact that, while single-member SLCs are subject to heightened scrutiny, they can also provide unique opportunities, says Josh Bloom at MoloLamken.
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10th Circ. Ruling Means More Okla. Oilfield Pollution Litigation
By applying Oklahoma's statutory definitions of pollution to a private landowner's claim for negligence for the first time, the Tenth Circuit's recent decision in Lazy S Ranch v. Valero will likely make it harder to obtain summary judgment in oilfield contamination cases, and will lead to more litigation, say attorneys at GableGotwals.
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Race Bias Defense Considerations After 11th Circ. Ruling
In Tynes v. Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed that the McDonnell Douglas test for employment discrimination cases is merely an evidentiary framework, so employers relying on it as a substantive standard of liability may need to rethink their litigation strategy, says Helen Jay at Phelps Dunbar.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.
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Fed. Circ. In Feb.: Using Prior Products To Invalidate A Patent
The Federal Circuit's recent Weber v. Provisu ruling, that prior-product operating manuals constituted printed publications that can be used to invalidate patents in an inter partes review proceeding, makes it easier for a petitioner to invalidate a patent, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.
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7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves
As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.
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What's At Stake In Pending Fed. Circ. Design Patent Test Case
The full Federal Circuit recently heard argument in LKQ v. GM Global, a case concerning patent obviousness in the aftermarket for auto parts; the court's decision will likely influence how design patents are obtained, enforced and challenged, and affect the broader innovation ecosystem, says Larry DeMeo at Hunton.
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Series
Cheering In The NFL Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Balancing my time between a BigLaw career and my role as an NFL cheerleader has taught me that pursuing your passions outside of work is not a distraction, but rather an opportunity to harness important skills that can positively affect how you approach work and view success in your career, says Rachel Schuster at Sheppard Mullin.
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Perspectives
Compassionate Release Grants Needed Now More Than Ever
After the U.S. Sentencing Commission's recent expansion of the criteria for determining compassionate release eligibility, courts should grant such motions more frequently in light of the inherently dangerous conditions presented by increasingly understaffed and overpopulated federal prisons, say Alan Ellis and Mark Allenbaugh at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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Args In APA Case Amplify Justices' Focus On Agency Power
In arguments last week in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Supreme Court justices paid particular importance to the possible ripple effects of their decision, which will address when a facial challenge to long-standing federal rules under the Administrative Procedure Act first accrues and could thus unleash a flood of new lawsuits, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.
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After TikTok, Tiptoeing Toward Patent Transfer Alignment
Following the Fifth Circuit's TikTok decision, which aimed to standardize transfer analysis in patent cases, the Federal Circuit and Texas federal courts facing transfer requests have taken small steps to consider the practical realities of patent litigation, reinforcing the intensely factual focus of the analysis, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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Mitigating Whistleblower Risks After High Court UBS Ruling
While it is always good practice for companies to periodically review whistleblower trainings, policies and procedures, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent whistleblower-friendly ruling in Murray v. UBS Securities helps demonstrate their importance in reducing litigation risk, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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What Recent Setbacks In Court Mean For Enviro Justice
Two courts in Louisiana last month limited the federal government's ability to require consideration of Civil Rights Act disparate impacts when evaluating state-issued permits — likely providing a framework for opposition to environmental justice initiatives in other states, say attorneys at King & Spalding.
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Perspectives
Justices' Double Jeopardy Ruling Preserves Acquittal Sanctity
The U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision last week in McElrath v. Georgia, barring the state from retrying a man acquitted of murder after a so-called repugnant verdict, is significant in the tangled web of double jeopardy jurisprudence for its brief and unequivocal protection of an acquittal’s finality, says Lissa Griffin at Pace Law School.
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Setting The Stage For High Court BofA Escrow Interest Case
Dori Bailey and Curtis Johnson at Bond Schoeneck examine relevant legislation and case law dating back 200 years ahead of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in Cantero v. Bank of America, the outcome of which will determine whether state laws governing mortgage escrow accounts can be enforced against national banks.