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Appellate
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April 17, 2025
Another Xerox Patent Bites The Dust At Fed. Circ.
Federal Circuit judges on Thursday affirmed yet another patent board ruling that scratched out claims in a patent issued to a Xerox unit that was asserted against a trio of major social media companies.
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April 17, 2025
9th Circ. Signals Support For Tribes' Cultural Loss Claims
A Ninth Circuit panel was skeptical Thursday that a Teck Resources unit could dodge the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation's claims for tribal service losses stemming from a smelter's Columbia River pollution, with one judge saying Teck's argument was "splitting hairs."
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April 17, 2025
NC Justice Unsure Contractor Can Avoid Workers' Comp Payout
A North Carolina Supreme Court justice seemed skeptical of a construction company's argument that a sheriff's department should cover the entire cost of a workers' compensation payout to a deputy injured while directing traffic on a bridge repair job, citing the court's precedent on the topic during an oral argument Thursday.
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April 17, 2025
DC Circ. Says Lateness Doomed Starbucks' NLRB Challenge
The National Labor Relations Board was not obligated to accommodate Starbucks after its attorney filed a challenge to a board judge's ruling 23 minutes late, the D.C. Circuit ruled Thursday, holding that the board did not abuse its discretion by refusing to process the challenge.
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April 17, 2025
Army Corps Says Miss. Dolphin Harm Suit Rightfully Tossed
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has urged the Fifth Circuit to affirm its decision to divert trillions of gallons of polluted floodwater into the Mississippi Sound, which Mississippi local governments and industry groups allege unlawfully harms bottlenose dolphins.
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April 17, 2025
4th Circ. Refuses To Halt Abrego Garcia Probe In Sharp Order
A Fourth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's "extraordinary" emergency motion to stay a discovery order in litigation over Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation to El Salvador, while cautioning the administration against ignoring federal courts, saying it could degrade both executive and judicial branch powers and that "law in time will sign its epitaph."
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April 17, 2025
Wash. Justices Back Consumers In Old Navy Spam Email Suit
Washington's highest court said in a 5-4 ruling Thursday that the state's spam law bars commercial emails that include any false information in their subject lines, endorsing two consumers' broader interpretation of the statute in a proposed class action against Old Navy.
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April 17, 2025
6th Circ. Says Michigan AG Can Pursue 'False Elector' Case
The Sixth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a federal district court's refusal to interfere with a state court case in which Michigan's attorney general accused a former Republican presidential elector candidate of plotting to submit false electoral votes in the wake of the 2020 election.
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April 17, 2025
Mich. Defenders Seek $2.3M After Life Sentence Ruling
Michigan's appellate defender office told lawmakers Thursday that it would need to hire additional staff to represent more than 300 people whose sentences will need to be reviewed after the state's top court declared that automatic life-without-parole sentences for 19- and 20-year-olds are unconstitutional.
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April 17, 2025
Navajo Man Owed Relocation Benefits, 9th Circ. Rules
The Ninth Circuit has ruled in a published opinion that a Navajo Nation member was wrongly denied relocation benefits after the U.S. government awarded his ancestral land to the Hopi Tribe, saying the federal relocation office relied on flawed findings and arbitrary reasoning when denying his claim.
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April 17, 2025
6th Circ. Revives Fight For Docs In Prison Co. Investors' Suit
The Sixth Circuit ordered a do-over of a judge's decision to shield court records in a securities lawsuit against private prison operator CoreCivic on Thursday, saying it isn't enough to invoke unspecified "confidentiality" interests.
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April 17, 2025
DC Circ. Refreezes EPA Climate Grant Funds
The D.C. Circuit has paused a federal court's order directing Citibank to start disbursing funds to nonprofits undertaking climate change projects that were appropriated by Congress to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden administration.
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April 17, 2025
9th Circ. Tosses Objections To $10.4M CVS Wage Settlement
A pharmacist's objections to a $10.4 million settlement of a wage and hour class action affecting 24,000 CVS employees hold no weight, a Ninth Circuit panel found, ruling Thursday that a California federal judge adequately considered the merits of each objection before tossing them.
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April 17, 2025
Copyright Office Opines On Harper Lee 7th Circ. Appeal
The U.S. Copyright Office is lending its opinion in a dispute over who has the rights to authorize stage adaptions of Harper Lee's iconic book "To Kill A Mockingbird," saying in an amicus brief to the Seventh Circuit that the company that once had the rights for the play cannot prevent others from creating new adaptions after the late author terminated those rights.
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April 17, 2025
Wash. Justices Strike Down Spokane's Homeless Camp Law
The Washington Supreme Court said a voter-approved initiative restricting encampments for homeless people in Spokane is unconstitutional, in an opinion Thursday that said the measure exceeds the scope of local initiative power because it impermissibly "tinkers" with a policy the city had previously adopted.
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April 17, 2025
Ga. Judicial Watchdog To Weigh Cases Against Pair Of Judges
Separate hearings have been set for a Georgia Superior Court judge accused of intervening in a legal matter on behalf of her uncle and locking a woman in a cell during her parents' divorce hearing, as well as a state probate judge accused of causing extensive case delays.
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April 17, 2025
Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Network Tech Patent Suit
The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld a lower court's finding that Seattle-based technology company F5 did not infringe a patent owned by WSOU Investments LLC covering a network traffic distribution technology.
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April 17, 2025
Sacramento Says Dormant Commerce Doesn't Apply To Pot
The city of Sacramento told the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday that a federal district judge was correct to toss a constitutional challenge to the city's cannabis licensure program, saying the dormant commerce clause does not apply to a federally illegal industry.
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April 17, 2025
High Court Sets Arguments Over Birthright Pause
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ordered special oral arguments over President Donald Trump's bid to pause or limit three nationwide court orders prohibiting implementation of his executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, keeping the president's mandate on hold until at least mid-May.
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April 17, 2025
Calif. Court Says Co.'s Heart Monitors Are Not Tax-Exempt
A California company is not eligible for a $3.3 million refund of sales and use tax paid on heart monitoring devices because the devices aren't considered tax-exempt medicine, a state appeals court ruled.
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April 17, 2025
Ex-Dole Employee Can't Swap Other Worker Into PAGA Suit
A California trial court correctly prevented a former Dole employee from substituting himself in his Private Attorneys General Act case with another worker suing the company, a state appeals court ruled, saying the two workers didn't have much in common.
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April 17, 2025
Palin-NYT Retrial Delves Into Evidence Not Seen By 1st Jury
Sarah Palin's lawyers confronted a former New York Times editor Thursday with information showing an assassination attempt against a congresswoman may not have been connected to political rhetoric, breaking new ground in their bid to hold the paper liable for erroneously tying Palin to the violence in a 2017 editorial.
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April 17, 2025
Justices Revive Cornell Workers' ERISA Fee Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court revived a class action Thursday from Cornell University workers who said their retirement plans were saddled with excessive fees, finding the Second Circuit shouldn't have nixed their claim that the plans' arrangements with recordkeepers violated federal benefits law.
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April 16, 2025
11th Circ. Revives FCA Claim Against Fla. Medical Suppliers
The Eleventh Circuit said Wednesday that a Florida district court rightly dismissed most of a False Claims Act lawsuit by two former employees of medical supply companies, reviving a single claim that it said was pleaded with enough specificity.
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April 16, 2025
Ed Martin Discloses Russia TV Spots, Coloring Books, Jan. 6
Ed Martin, President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has disclosed dozens of additional media interviews with right-wing and Russian-state outlets, according to a letter obtained on Wednesday by Law360.
Expert Analysis
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What Insurers Should Know About AI Use In Litigation
As the use of artificial intelligence in litigation evolves, insurers should note standing court orders, instances of judges utilizing AI to determine policy definitions and the application of evidentiary standards to expert evidence that incorporates AI, says Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty.
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Series
Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.
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UK Lawyers Can Access Broad US Discovery To Win Cases
Given its breadth, U.S. discovery can be a powerful tool in litigation in the U.K. and other jurisdictions outside the U.S., and a survey of recent cases indicates that discovery requests made in the U.S. are likely to be granted — with many applications even proceeding without contest, say lawyers at Miller & Chevalier.
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7 Employment Contracts Issues Facing DOL Scrutiny
A growing trend of U.S. Department of Labor enforcement against employment practices that limit workers' rights and avoid legal responsibility shines a light on seven unique contractual provisions that violate federal labor laws, and face agressive litigation from the labor solicitor, says Thomas Starks at Freeman Mathis.
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Ruling Shows High Court Willing To Limit Immigration Review
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bouarfa v. Mayorkas is the latest demonstration of the court’s readiness to limit judicial review in the immigration space, a notable break from other recent decisions that expanded judicial review of agency decisions in other areas, says Mark Fleming at WilmerHale.
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025
Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Managing Litigation Side-Switching During 2nd Trump Admin
Now that the new presidential administration is in place, the government will likely switch positions in a number of pending cases, and stakeholders should employ strategies to protect their interests, say attorneys at Covington.
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High Court Unlikely To Expand FSIA In Holocaust Asset Fight
Not surprisingly for a court where the majority are strict textualists, the U.S. Supreme Court justices appear poised to rule in favor of Hungary in Republic of Hungary v. Simon, reaffirming the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act as a narrow exception to jurisdiction, say attorneys at Lewis Baach.
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The Fed. Circ. In 2024: 5 Major Rulings To Know
In 2024, the Federal Circuit provided a number of important clarifications to distinct areas of patent law – including design patent obviousness, expert testimony admissions and patent term adjustments – all of which are poised to have an influence going forward, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.
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Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win
Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.
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Mass Arbitration Procedures After Faulty Live Nation Ruling
Despite the Ninth Circuit's flawed reasoning in Heckman v. Live Nation, the exceptional allegations of collusive conduct shouldn't be read to restrict arbitration providers that have adopted good faith procedures to ensure that consumer mass arbitrations can be efficiently resolved on the merits, says Collin Vierra at Eimer Stahl.
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Lessons From Two New Year's Eve Uptier Exchange Decisions
On the last day of 2024, two different courts issued important decisions relating to non-pro rata uptier exchanges — and while they differ, both rulings highlight that transactions effected in reliance on undefined terms in debt agreements come with increased risk, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Public Corruption Enforcement In 2024 Has Clues For 2025
If 2024 activity is any indication, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely continue to rein in expansive prosecutorial theories of fraud in the year to come, but it’s harder to predict what the new administration will mean for public corruption prosecutions in 2025, says Cathy Fleming at Offit Kurman.
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Issues To Watch In 2025's ERISA Litigation Landscape
Whether 2024’s uptick in new Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases will continue this year will likely depend on federal courts’ resolution of several issues, including those related to excessive fees, defined contribution plan forfeitures, and pleading standards for ERISA-prohibited transaction claims, say attorneys at Groom Law.
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Patent Ruling Sheds Light On Printed Matter Doctrine
Patent attorneys should pay attention to the claim language highlighted in Ioengine v. Ingenico, where the Federal Circuit held that program code was not printed matter, but essentially instructions or content, and therefore not subject to the printed matter doctrine for patent challenges, says Irah Donner at Manatt.