Appellate

  • January 08, 2026

    Amazon Drivers Can Keep Wage Suit In Court, Calif. Panel Says

    Amazon cannot ship to arbitration six drivers' individual claims under California's Private Attorneys General Act that they were misclassified as independent contractors, a state appeals court has ruled, agreeing with a trial court that their last-mile deliveries were part of an uninterrupted interstate trip.

  • January 08, 2026

    Trump Admin Says Climate Grant Class Suit Is Moot

    The Trump administration has told the D.C. Circuit that a proposed class action accusing it of illegally terminating a $3 billion environmental justice block grant program is moot because Congress has rescinded the funds that green groups and local governments are seeking to recover.

  • January 08, 2026

    Ex-Dean Of 2 Law Schools Nominated To Lead NYCBA

    The New York City Bar Association on Thursday announced the nomination of the former dean of the Fordham University School of Law and Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to serve as its next president, elevating a prominent voice at the intersection of law and social welfare.

  • January 08, 2026

    Amici Back CoStar's Review Bid For Rival's Antitrust Claims

    Technology industry coalition Chamber of Progress and other parties are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant commercial real estate information company CoStar's review petition for a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived a business rival's antitrust counterclaims.

  • January 08, 2026

    Audits Get Final Word On Economic Substance, IRS Atty Says

    IRS attorneys provide legal guidance during audits on whether a transaction lacks economic substance, but examiners make the ultimate determination, an agency associate chief counsel said Thursday while explaining how the agency applies a powerful anti-abuse tool in audits.

  • January 08, 2026

    Trump Admin Can't Undo Block On Drug Rebate Program

    A First Circuit panel has refused to lift a district judge's block on a Trump administration plan to pilot a rebate model for a federal drug discount program that benefits low-income patients, saying the federal government is unlikely to win its appeal.

  • January 08, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Navy Doesn't Owe Contractor Labor Costs

    The Federal Circuit affirmed an Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals decision denying a materials supplier $1.15 million in labor costs allegedly owed by the U.S. Navy, finding the blanket purchase agreement did not separate out that expense.

  • January 07, 2026

    10th Circ. Halts Kan. Bank's $20M FDIC Appeal For Settlement

    The Tenth Circuit will hold off on hearing a small Kansas bank's push to challenge a $20 million anti-money laundering enforcement proceeding from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after the two sides said Wednesday that they have reached a settlement.

  • January 07, 2026

    Trader Asks Wary Colo. Appeals Court To Award $10M Penalty

    A Colorado appellate panel pushed back Wednesday on an ex-trading director's bid for a $10 million statutory penalty against his former employer following a $6.8 million judgment against the natural gas marketing company for failing to pay him a bonus on lucrative trades made during a 2021 winter storm.

  • January 07, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Notes Ambiguity In VA Data Migration Procurement

    A Federal Circuit judge on Wednesday acknowledged that a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs solicitation for data migration services was confusing, but challenged a protester's attorney to answer why his client never asked for clarification during the procurement.

  • January 07, 2026

    NJ Panel Says Erlinger Only Applies To Direct Appeal Cases

    A New Jersey state appeals court on Wednesday held that new rules from the U.S. Supreme Court over how a criminal defendant's prior convictions are used when calculating sentences cannot be applied retroactively if the defendant has previously appealed their sentence.

  • January 07, 2026

    Fla. Panel Says Tenants Can't Delay Condo Partition After Fire

    A Florida state appellate court on Wednesday upheld an order denying a class affected by a Miami condominium fire from intervening in a receiver's action to partition and sell units to distribute proceeds to the owners, ruling that tenants have no ownership interests in the properties.

  • January 07, 2026

    VW Joins The Fed. Circ. Fray Over Patent Review Discretion

    Volkswagen is the latest company to contest policy changes at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that make it harder to pursue patent challenges, telling the Federal Circuit that the agency's "unfettered discretion" to deny such challenges violates the U.S. Constitution.

  • January 07, 2026

    11th Circ. Affirms YouTube Win Over DMCA Safe Harbor

    The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a win for YouTube in a dispute with a movie producer, finding that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not require YouTube to police its site for infringing clips beyond responding to takedown notices.

  • January 07, 2026

    Home Depot 401(k) Fight Wraps Before High Court Gets A Say

    The Home Depot and workers alleging mismanagement of their 401(k) plan told the nation's highest court Wednesday they wrapped up their legal battle, just a month after the U.S. solicitor general urged the justices to grant the workers' bid for review and rule for the retailer.

  • January 07, 2026

    Wash. Appeals Court Overturns Double-Voting Conviction

    A split Washington state appeals court has overturned the conviction of a man found guilty of voting in two states, ruling that because they were different elections with separate issues and candidates, he did not violate a state voting law.

  • January 07, 2026

    Incora Minority Noteholders To Appeal 'Uptier' Loss

    Minority noteholders that lost collateral rights in a 2022 financing deal at aircraft parts supplier Incora will appeal a decision by a Texas federal judge that had upheld the debt exchange, according to a notice filed Tuesday.

  • January 07, 2026

    3rd Circ. Says Visa Omission Of Kids Sinks Naturalization Bid

    In a precedential opinion Wednesday, the Third Circuit ruled that a green card holder attempting to gain U.S. citizenship was properly denied naturalization for failing to list his two children on the original visa paperwork, an omission that made his permanent residence unlawful.

  • January 07, 2026

    Reckless Conduct Can Be Willful FBAR Failure, 2nd Circ. Says

    The standard for willful failure to report foreign bank accounts includes reckless conduct, and a 6% late payment penalty is mandatory for a couple who neglected fines for stashing millions in an undisclosed Swiss account, the Second Circuit said Wednesday, upholding a lower court's judgment.

  • January 07, 2026

    FERC Defends Grid Planning Policy Revamp At 4th Circ.

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told the Fourth Circuit that the overhaul of its regional transmission planning policy was needed to address a pervasive failure to efficiently build out the U.S. electric grid, and that allegations the agency acted unlawfully are meritless.

  • January 07, 2026

    NFL Takes Arbitration Fight In Flores Case To Supreme Court

    The National Football League has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether its arbitration process, overseen by the commissioner, complies with federal law, appealing a Second Circuit ruling in favor of a coach suing the league for discrimination.

  • January 07, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Suggests Sepsis Test IP Needs Claim Construction

    U.S. Circuit Judge Todd M. Hughes appeared largely persuaded Wednesday that a Delaware federal jury improperly engaged in post-trial claim construction when overriding Magnolia Medical Technologies Inc.'s $2 million infringement verdict, in an appeal that also had the Federal Circuit jurist thanking God that he doesn't try patent cases.

  • January 07, 2026

    NC Panel Backs GOP In Judicial Appointment Power Clash

    A split panel in North Carolina's intermediate appeals court Wednesday sided with Republican lawmakers in an ongoing constitutional battle over the governor's appointment powers, finding the Legislature can restrict his ability to fill judicial vacancies in the state appellate courts.

  • January 07, 2026

    Objector To PACER Overcharge Settlement Faces Uphill Battle

    An objector to a $125 million settlement to end class claims alleging the federal government overcharged nonprofits and other lawyers to access court documents faced a skeptical Federal Circuit panel Wednesday, with judges indicating they had not found legal errors in the district court's approval of the deal.

  • January 07, 2026

    Pittsburgh Paper To Close In Midst Of Legal Woes With Union

    The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced plans to close after nearly 240 years, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted Justice Samuel Alito's stay of a Third Circuit order making the company comply with a National Labor Relations Board order to restore its newsroom workers' healthcare plan.

Expert Analysis

  • 2nd Circ. Peloton Ruling Emphasizes Disclosure Context

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    The Second Circuit’s recent decision to revive shareholders’ suit alleging that Peloton made materially misleading statements makes clear that public companies must continually review risk disclosures to determine if previous hypotheticals have materialized, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • Series

    Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

  • Lessons From 7th Circ. Decision Affirming $183M FCA Verdict

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    The Seventh Circuit's decision to uphold a $183 million False Claims Act award against Eli Lilly engages substantively with recurring materiality and scienter questions and provides insights into appellate review of complex trial court judgments, say Ellen London at London & Naor, Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz and Kimberly Friday at Osborn Maledon.

  • How Calif. High Court Is Rethinking Forum Selection Clauses

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    Two recent cases before the California Supreme Court show that the state is shifting toward greater enforcement of freely negotiated forum selection clauses between sophisticated parties, so litigators need to revisit old assumptions about the breadth of California's public policy exception, says Josh Patashnik at Perkins Coie.

  • AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

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    Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

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    In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

  • How 9th Circ. Ruling Deepens SEC Disgorgement Circuit Split

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sripetch creates opposing disgorgement rules in the two circuits where the SEC brings a large proportion of enforcement actions — the Second and Ninth — and increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Calif. Justices Continued Anti-Arbitration Trend This Term

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    In the 2024-2025 term, the California Supreme Court justices continued to narrow arbitration's reach under state law, despite state courts' extreme caseload backlog and even as they embraced contractual autonomy in other contexts, says Josephine Petrick at The Norton Law Firm.

  • DC Circuit Charts Path On FERC Orders In Loper Bright Era

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    The D.C. Circuit's recent decision in Solar Energy Industries Association v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, upholding the agency's assessment of a power production facility's output, laid out an approach for addressing statutory interpretation in FERC appeals in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's game-changing Loper Bright decision, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Lessons From Fed. Circ. On Expert Testimony In Patent Cases

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    Several recent decisions from the Federal Circuit are notable for their treatment of expert testimony, with relevance to the three pillars of every patent case — infringement, invalidity and damages — and offer lessons on ensuring that expert testimony is both admissible and sufficient to support the jury's verdict, say attorneys at Honigman.

  • When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

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    Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

  • Fed. Circ. In September: The Printed Matter Doctrine Expands

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Bayer v. Mylan represents an extension of the doctrine that adding new words to an existing product or method will not support patentability unless there is a functional relationship, bringing new considerations for both patent holders and challengers, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Justices' LabCorp Punt Leaves Deeper Class Cert. Circuit Split

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    In its ruling in LabCorp v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court left unresolved a standing-related class certification issue that has plagued class action jurisprudence for years — and subsequent conflicting decisions among federal circuit courts have left district courts and litigants struggling with conflicting and uncertain standards, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • State Of Insurance: Q3 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey discusses three notable Pennsylvania auto insurance developments from the third quarter, including the Third Circuit weighing in on actual cash value, a state appellate court opining on the regular use exclusion and state legislators introducing a bill to increase property damage minimums.

  • Opinion

    Courts Must Continue Protecting Plaintiffs In Mass Arbitration

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    In recent years, many companies have imposed onerous protocols that function to frustrate plaintiffs' ability to seek justice through mass arbitration, but a series of welcome court decisions in recent months indicate that the pendulum might be swinging back toward plaintiffs, say Raphael Janove and Sasha Jones at Janove Law.

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