Appellate

  • October 30, 2025

    Mich. Top Court Upholds Gilead Immunity In COVID Drug Case

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday said it won't consider an appeal from a man who was injected with a COVID-19 treatment made by Gilead Sciences Inc. that was later recalled for containing glass shards, a few months after a lower appellate court found the company immune because of a federal health emergency law.

  • October 30, 2025

    Mich. Justices Take Up Stellantis Supplier's Contract Dispute

    The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to take up a Stellantis supplier's appeal of a decision forcing it to continue supplying the automaker with parts at a loss, giving the court a chance to resolve the enforceability of a common supply contract term.

  • October 30, 2025

    Habba Cites Essayli Ruling To Defend Role In NJ Cases

    The U.S. Department of Justice has urged the Third Circuit to reinstate Alina Habba's authority in two criminal prosecutions, arguing a recent California ruling backs her power to supervise cases as first assistant, even if she's barred from acting as U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey under federal vacancy law.

  • October 30, 2025

    3rd Circ. Affirms Tax On Interest In $191M Pharma Family Feud

    A pharmaceutical company's $191 million payment settling a family feud was for the sale of a family trust's ownership shares and included interest taxed as ordinary income, the Third Circuit said Thursday, rejecting the trust's claim that the money should be taxed at the lower, capital gains rate.

  • October 30, 2025

    7th Circ. Seems Skeptical Of Alcoa Retirees' Benefits Win

    The Seventh Circuit appeared open Thursday to unraveling trial court orders that required metals giant Alcoa to provide lifetime healthcare benefits to union retirees, with judges picking apart different aspects of the lower court's judicial estoppel analysis.

  • October 30, 2025

    Health Group Urges 1st Circ. To Deny FCA Suit Fee Challenge

    A Massachusetts health network has asked the First Circuit to deny a whistleblower's attempt to secure more attorney fees for a False Claims Act suit, arguing that a federal judge properly denied numerous claims for fees after a $2.5 million settlement.

  • October 30, 2025

    Ga. Panel Finds No 'Bad Faith' In Wells Fargo Trust Suit

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court's finding that Wells Fargo Bank, as trustee, misinterpreted language in a trust established in a man's last will and testament and its order that numerous distributions be made to one of the trust beneficiaries.

  • October 30, 2025

    Wash. Justices Reinstate $185M Monsanto PCB Verdict

    The Washington State Supreme Court has restored a $185 million jury verdict against Monsanto in the first of a series of chemical poisoning trials tied to a Washington state school site, finding a lower appellate court misapplied choice-of-law principles when overturning the win for three school teachers.

  • October 30, 2025

    Pa. Justice Dougherty Took On Abortion, Gun Rights, Voting

    As he faces a vote on Election Day over whether he should be retained for a second 10-year term on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Justice Kevin Dougherty is leaning on a record that includes key opinions over voting rights, abortion, gun control, and immunity for public officials.

  • October 29, 2025

    Visa Must Face Cardholders' Antitrust Claims, Judge Says

    A New York federal judge has trimmed two antitrust suits against Visa Inc. over its use of exclusive contracts in the U.S. debit card market, axing certain state law and damages claims but also finding that the consumer plaintiffs plausibly alleged the company's conduct suppressed competition.

  • October 29, 2025

    Bank Groups Press 5th Circ. To Rehear OCC In-House Case

    Banking industry groups have urged the Fifth Circuit to revisit a panel decision allowing federal regulators to try banking enforcement cases in-house, arguing the ruling was wrong and risks stripping thousands of banks and millions of bankers of their right to a jury trial.

  • October 29, 2025

    5th Circ. Backs Texas County's Redistricting Plan

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday refused to block a redistricting plan in Texas that a group of voters alleges disenfranchises minority voters, ruling in a published opinion that the voters failed to show any intentional race discrimination by the Lone Star State's Tarrant County.

  • October 29, 2025

    'Pitt' Producers Appeal Order Keeping 'ER' Suit Alive

    Warner Bros. Television appealed a California judge's order that declined to toss a suit from the widow of writer Michael Crichton alleging its HBO Max show "The Pitt" is a ripoff of his NBC show "ER," saying Tuesday the court was wrong not to kill the suit on free speech grounds.

  • October 29, 2025

    FBI Weaponized Loneliness, IS Crypto Funder Tells 4th Circ.

    A Virginia man sentenced to over 30 years for bankrolling the Islamic State group with cryptocurrency challenged his convictions to the Fourth Circuit, arguing the government investigated him for years primarily based on his distasteful Facebook posts while weaponizing his "loneliness" by introducing him to covert agents who entrapped him. 

  • October 29, 2025

    5th Circ. Backs FERC's Approval Of Pacific NW Pipeline

    The Fifth Circuit has affirmed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of a TC Energy Corp. natural gas pipeline, rejecting states' claims that FERC didn't fully consider costs to consumers and green groups' claims that an environmental review was inadequate.

  • October 29, 2025

    Union Pacific Gets OK To Challenge BIPA Exemption Denial

    An Illinois federal judge gave Union Pacific the green light on Tuesday to ask the Seventh Circuit to determine mid-case whether he correctly held the Biometric Information Privacy Act's government contractor exemption applies only when a violation occurs within the scope of a government contract.

  • October 29, 2025

    Ga. Panel Partially Revives Solar Farm Property Dispute

    The Georgia Court of Appeals found a trial court should have let a jury decide whether two solar companies were obligated to pay $150,000 per year in fixed fees to the owners of 295 acres of property in Mitchell County that they planned to develop for solar energy production.

  • October 29, 2025

    Del. Justices Mull Call To Revive Amazon-Blue Origin Suit

    An Amazon.com stockholder attorney told Delaware's justices on Wednesday that the company's board "failed to do a thing" as founder Jeff Bezos convinced directors to pump billions into the Blue Origin space launch business with purportedly scant oversight, looking to salvage a Court of Chancery derivative suit dismissed in January.

  • October 29, 2025

    Where PTAB Institution Reviews Stand As Squires Takes Lead

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires will be maintaining the agency leader's new role of gatekeeper at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Here's what to know about his plans and the pushback on them.

  • October 29, 2025

    2nd Circ. Says Visa Denials Are Shielded From Court Review

    The Second Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive claims from two U.S. citizens over the State Department's denial of visas for their relatives in China, holding that a New York federal judge correctly held that the visa denials are insulated from judicial review.

  • October 29, 2025

    Fla. Panel Orders New Trial For Man Denied Public Defender

    A Florida state appeals court on Wednesday ordered a new trial for a man who was made to represent himself in court after a trial judge refused to hold a hearing to determine whether he met the income threshold to qualify for a public defender.

  • October 29, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Insurer's Win Over Retaining Wall Failure

    The Ninth Circuit upheld a Washington federal court's no-coverage decision over a contractor's $2.66 million settlement relating to faulty retaining walls it constructed, agreeing Wednesday that a "sudden and accidental" exception in an "impaired property" exclusion did not apply to reinstate coverage for one wall that had failed.

  • October 29, 2025

    Wash. Judges Probe Starbucks Shareholders' Labor Claims

    Washington state appellate judges on Wednesday pushed shareholders suing Starbucks Corp. leaders to identify exactly where in their lawsuit they claimed the coffee retailer intentionally turned a blind eye to alleged union-busting efforts by store managers.

  • October 29, 2025

    Chicago Metra Says Union Pacific's $2.3M Fees Claim Is Invalid

    Chicago's commuter rail system Metra has asked an Illinois federal judge to toss Union Pacific's lawsuit alleging Metra owes more than $2.3 million for the use of three Union Pacific-owned lines amid an ongoing contract dispute, saying a federal rail regulator still needs to determine any owed compensation.

  • October 29, 2025

    Hertz Urges Del. Justices To Reverse $170M Insurance Ruling

    Hertz Corp. urged the Delaware Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn a lower court's ruling that freed the car rental giant's insurers from covering $170 million in false-arrest settlements, arguing the settlements all stemmed from a faulty theft-reporting system and trigger just one self-insured retention.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

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    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • Quantifying Trading-Based Damages Using Price Impact

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely increasingly rely on price impact analyses to demonstrate pecuniary harm from trading-related misconduct, meaning measuring price impact will be helpful in challenging SEC disgorgement, determining appropriate remedies, and assessing loss causation and damages in private litigation, says Vyacheslav Fos at Boston College and Erin Smith at Compass Lexecon.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

  • ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

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    The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

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