Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Appellate
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
May 03, 2024
Calif. Appeals Court Calls Firm's Conduct 'Woefully Uncivil'
A California state appeals court has backed sanctions against The Vanderpool Law Firm in a dispute with Masimo Corp., finding that the firm had engaged in misconduct during discovery and noting that it was "woefully uncivil" in its emails with opposing counsel.
-
May 03, 2024
9th Circ. Orders 2nd Look At Stay In PG&E Wildfire Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Friday told a lower court to reconsider its order staying claims PG&E investors brought against officers, directors and others over wildfire liability, saying more factors should have been considered before the stay was granted.
-
May 03, 2024
6th Circ. Drops Bettors' Appeal Over Doped Derby Horse
Kentucky Derby gamblers who claimed they had winning bets after officials disqualified the race's lead horse cannot sue Churchill Downs or the horse's Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, the Sixth Circuit ruled, saying courts can't "turn a losing wager into a winning one."
-
May 03, 2024
Eolas Is Latest Patent Owner To Take Alice Loss To High Court
A patent licensing outfit run by a onetime computer lab director at the University of California, San Francisco, is the latest to go to the U.S. Supreme Court to complain about patent eligibility.
-
May 03, 2024
USPTO Wins Remand To Polish Up TTAB Holding
The Federal Circuit agreed Friday to let the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rework a trademark board ruling to align it with more recent precedent, a move that lawyers for the maker of the NordicTrack treadmill brand have blasted procedurally as a "rudderless remand."
Expert Analysis
-
Opinion
High Court's Gifts Problem Taints Public Corruption Cases
A history of U.S. Supreme Court justices failing to disclose luxurious gifts from wealthy donors coincides with a troubling line of court precedent overturning jury convictions in public corruption cases, indicating that perhaps justices aren't presently fit to be making these decisions, says Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
-
The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift
As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.
-
UK Court Ruling Reinforces CMA's Info-Gathering Powers
An English appeals court's recent decision in the BMW and Volkswagen antitrust cases affirmed that the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority can request information from entities outside the U.K., reinstating an important implement in the CMA's investigative toolkit, say lawyers at White & Case.
-
Fed. Circ. In Jan.: One Word Can Affect Claim Construction
The Federal Circuit's recent Pacific Biosciences v. Personal Genomics decision highlights how even construction of a simple term can be dispositive, and thus disputed, in view of the specific context provided by the surrounding claim language, say Jeremiah Helm and Sean Murray at Knobbe.
-
5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money
As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.
-
1869 Case May Pave Off-Ramp For Justices In Trump DQ Fight
In deciding whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from Colorado's Republican primary ballots, the U.S. Supreme Court could rely on due process principles articulated in a Reconstruction-era case to avert a chaotic or undemocratic outcome, says Gordon Renneisen at Cornerstone Law Group.
-
Series
Playing Competitive Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experience playing competitive tennis has highlighted why prioritizing exercise and stress relief, maintaining perspective under pressure, and supporting colleagues in pursuit of a common goal are all key aspects of championing a successful legal career, says Madhumita Datta at Lowenstein Sandler.
-
New Strain Of Web Tracking Suits Pose Risks For Retailers
Amid an ongoing surge of California state and federal lawsuits that are using novel theories to allege companies used certain recording technologies to illegally track website users, retailers should take steps to develop a potential argument that customers consented to any alleged uses of these devices, say attorneys at Benesch.
-
The Questions Around Prometheum's SEC-Compliant Strategy
While the rest of the crypto industry has been engaged in a long-running battle to escape the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's jurisdiction, a once-obscure startup called Prometheum has instead embraced the SEC's view to become the first crypto special-purpose broker-dealer, but it's unclear whether it can turn its favored status into a workable business, says Keith Blackman at Bracewell.
-
Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Djerassi On Super Bowl 52
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Ramy Djerassi discusses how Super Bowl 52, in which the Philadelphia Eagles prevailed over the New England Patriots, provides an apt metaphor for alternative dispute resolution processes in commercial business cases.
-
Strict Duty To Indemnify Ruling Bucks Recent Trend
A South Carolina federal court's recent decision that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to decide an insurer's duty to indemnify prior to the finding of insured liability sharply diverges from the more nuanced or multipronged standards established by multiple circuit courts, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.
-
AI Takes Transformers Beyond Robots In Disguise
At the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law, the shape-shifting models known as transformers raise the question of whether using copyrighted materials to train such models constitutes a transformative use, says Sean Li at Benesch.
-
Black-Led VC Fund Case Could Hinge On Nature Of Grants
Organizations whose missions involve any manner of race-conscious funding should closely monitor arguments this week in American Alliance v. Fearless Fund, a case filed against a grant program that seeks to address the gap in venture capital funding for Black women-led businesses, which will examine whether grants are charitable under Civil Rights Act Section 1981 liability, say Kali Schellenberg and John Stapleton at LeVan Stapleton, and Kenneth Trujillo at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.
-
Ex-OpenSea Staffer Case May Clarify When Info Is Property
In considering the appeal of a former OpenSea manager’s wire fraud conviction in U.S. v. Chastain, the Second Circuit may soon provide guidance about whether economic information is traditional property in certain insider trading prosecutions — a theory of fraud that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly narrowed, say attorneys at Debevoise.
-
NC TikTok Order Holds Lessons On Handling State AG Probes
Earlier this month, a North Carolina appeals court compelled TikTok to give the state attorney general information relating to 98,000 recorded Zoom meetings, reminding companies that successful civil litigation strategies may have the opposite effect in the state or regulatory investigation context, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.