Appellate

  • July 01, 2025

    RI Urges 1st Circ. To Toss Challenge To Pot License Regs

    Rhode Island marijuana regulators told the First Circuit on Tuesday that a lower court federal judge was correct to toss a constitutional challenge to the state's cannabis regulations, which had not yet been published when the lawsuit was initially filed.

  • July 01, 2025

    Justices Face Busy Summer After Nixing Universal Injunctions

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to limit nationwide injunctions was one of its biggest rulings of the term — a finding the court is likely going to be dealing with all summer. Here, Law360 takes a look at the decision, how it and other cases on the emergency docket overshadowed much of the court's other work, and what it all means for the months to come.

  • July 01, 2025

    Hurricane Beryl Lawsuits Combined Into MDL

    The Texas Multi-District Litigation Panel has agreed to consolidate cases stemming from a July 2024 hurricane into an MDL.

  • July 01, 2025

    Compounding Restitution Is Unconstitutional, High Court Told

    Nonprofits, think tanks and legal scholars filed briefs this week urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that a federal law requiring criminals to continue paying restitution with compounding interest for decades after conviction is unconstitutional because it can exponentially increase punishment for a crime.

  • July 01, 2025

    No New Trial, But $10.5M Ga. MedMal Verdict Could Be Cut

    A Georgia OB-GYN practice that was hit with a $10.5 million verdict over the death of prematurely delivered twins was denied a shot at a new trial Tuesday by the Georgia Court of Appeals, but could get a chance to slash the judgment thanks to a recent Supreme Court of Georgia ruling.

  • July 01, 2025

    Unvaccinated Ex-Staffer Can Pursue Leaked Health Info Claims

    A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday revived a former hospital staffer's claims that her former employer failed to protect her medical records while she was a patient, leading to her coworkers finding out she was unvaccinated against the COVID-19 virus and them harassing her until she resigned.

  • July 01, 2025

    Mass. Justices Affirm Insurers Can Tap Workers' Comp Fund

    Insurers who have stopped writing workers' compensation policies but are still paying on older claims in Massachusetts are entitled to partial reimbursement from a state trust fund created to offset the higher costs of covering some individuals, because the money comes from employers rather than the insurers, the state's highest court concluded on Tuesday.

  • July 01, 2025

    Ga. Justices To Review $33M Verdict In Student Crash Death

    The Supreme Court of Georgia has agreed to review a state appellate court's decision that a metro Atlanta city must pay a $33 million verdict awarded to the parents of a college student who died after crashing into a roadside planter.

  • July 01, 2025

    US Attorney Picks Include Alina Habba And Senator's Son

    The president sent 14 U.S. attorney nominations to the Senate on Tuesday, including Alina Habba, the president's former counselor and personal attorney, for the District of New Jersey and Arch Capito, the son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., for the Southern District of West Virginia.

  • July 01, 2025

    Texas Law Shield Must Face Revived Client Solicitation Suit

    A Texas appeals court has revived an anti-barratry lawsuit accusing a legal organization that advises people hit with firearms-related actions of illegally and unethically marketing attorney services during a training session on active shooters in late 2022, finding that fact issues raised in the case had not been addressed.

  • July 01, 2025

    Pa. Leaders Split At 3rd Circ. Over Tossing Undated Votes

    A Third Circuit panel's uncertainty over Pennsylvania's rejection of undated mail-in ballots intensified Tuesday during an oral argument as top Keystone State officials took opposing sides about the constitutionality of the date requirement.

  • July 01, 2025

    Top Personal Injury, Med Mal News: 2025 Midyear Report

    A U.S. Supreme Court ruling over whether personal injury claims can be brought under a RICO statute and a $7.4 billion settlement reached with the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma are among Law360's top personal injury and medical malpractice cases from the first six months of 2025.

  • July 01, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Rig Worker Not A Party To Arbitration Pact

    A rig worker's limited liability company — but not the worker himself — is a party to an oil and gas company's arbitration agreement, the Fourth Circuit ruled Tuesday, rejecting the firm's bid to send the former employee's wage and hour suit to arbitration.

  • July 01, 2025

    7th Circ. Backs Walmart's 'Raw Honey' False Ad Dismissal Win

    A Walmart customer who accused the retail giant of falsely labeling processed honey as raw or organic "pled himself out of court" by acknowledging the product's higher chemical compound levels could have other obvious explanations beyond simply overheating, the Seventh Circuit said Tuesday.

  • July 01, 2025

    Proxy Firms Don't 'Solicit' Investor Votes, DC Circ. Rules

    A D.C. Circuit panel Tuesday ruled that proxy advisory firms do not "solicit" proxy votes, thus denying a manufacturing industry group's attempt to revive a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule regulating those firms.

  • July 01, 2025

    Democracy Forward Boosts Appellate Bench With Latest Hires

    The legal organization Democracy Forward announced a new round of hires Tuesday, adding a group that includes appellate practitioners with significant experience at the U.S. Department of Justice and major law firms.

  • July 01, 2025

    2nd Circ. Scrubs $4M Wet Wipes Settlement Over Atty Fees

    The Second Circuit on Tuesday vacated a $4 million settlement agreement to end claims that wet wipes made by Kimberly-Clark Corp. are not flushable as advertised, saying the trial court didn't properly consider the allocation of recovery between class counsel and the class.

  • July 01, 2025

    Groups Urge Fed. Circ. To Stop USPTO Retroactive Denials

    Advocacy groups in the communications, automotive and technology fields have thrown their support behind Motorola's challenge of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision to retroactively apply a decision withdrawing earlier guidance on when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board should not review patent challenges.

  • July 01, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revisit Jepson Claim Ruling In Xencor IP Case

    The Federal Circuit won't rethink the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision rejecting Xencor's application for an antibody patent that used the so-called Jepson claim format.

  • July 01, 2025

    Senate Passes Budget Bill, Rebuking National Injunctions

    The Senate voted 51-50 on Tuesday to pass the budget reconciliation bill, including various provisions that seek to greatly restrict the use of nationwide injunctions, which Republicans heavily criticized after district courts repeatedly stalled parts of President Donald Trump's agenda with the legal maneuver.

  • July 01, 2025

    ND, Tribes Spar Over High Court Order In 8th Circ. Voting Row

    Two Indigenous tribes and North Dakota's secretary of state are feuding in the Eighth Circuit about how much weight a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found a Planned Parenthood patient doesn't have a private right to sue South Carolina carries over a bid to rehear a voting rights dispute.

  • June 30, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Faults PTAB Ax Of Patent On Bausch Eye Drops

    The Federal Circuit ruled Monday that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly invalidated all the claims of a patent that Bausch & Lomb licenses for its Lumify eye drops, saying the board used an incorrect claim construction when siding with generics maker Slayback Pharma.

  • June 30, 2025

    Trump Tariff Challenge Belongs In Trade Court, Groups Argue

    The America First Legal Foundation and Coalition for a Prosperous America on Monday backed the federal government in an appeal brought by toy makers challenging President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs, arguing that the lower court should've never issued an injunction because the dispute belongs in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

  • June 30, 2025

    9th Circ. Nixes Suit Against Allianz Over $6B Fraud Sentence

    A man can't bring securities fraud claims against Allianz SE after one of the German financial services giant's former businesses pled guilty to investment fund fraud and was ordered to pay roughly $6 billion, the Ninth Circuit ruled, finding he failed to sufficiently allege Allianz SE itself acted fraudulently.

  • June 30, 2025

    Detainees Say Alien Enemies Act Meant For 'Large Scale' War

    A group of Venezuelans facing deportation over accusations of gang affiliation told the Fifth Circuit on Monday that the nation's founders didn't intend for a rarely invoked 1798 law to be used for anything other than "large-scale" war.

Expert Analysis

  • Google Damages Ruling Offers Lessons For Testifying Experts

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in EcoFactor v. Google represents a shift in how courts evaluate expert testimony in patent cases, offering a practical guide for how litigators and testifying experts can refine their work, says Adam Rhoten at Secretariat.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Communicating With Clients

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    Law school curricula often overlook client communication procedures, and those who actively teach this crucial facet of the practice can create exceptional client satisfaction and success, says Patrick Hanson at Wiggam Law.

  • One Year On, Davidson Holds Lessons On 'Health Halo' Claims

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    A year after the Ninth Circuit's Davidson v. Sprout Foods decision — which raised the bar for so-called health halo claims — food and beverage companies can draw insights from its finding, subsequently expanded on by other courts, that plaintiffs must be specific when alleging fraud in healthfulness marketing, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Justices' NRC Ruling Raises New Regulatory Questions

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    In Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the NRC's authority to license private, temporary nuclear waste storage facilities — and this failure to reach the merits question creates new regulatory uncertainty where none had existed for decades, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Rocket Mortgage Appeal May Push Justices To Curb Classes

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    Should the U.S. Supreme Court agree to hear Alig v. Rocket Mortgage, the resulting decision could limit class sizes based on commonality under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Evidence as opposed to standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, say attorneys at Carr Maloney.

  • 3 Judicial Approaches To Applying Loper Bright, 1 Year Later

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    In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in its Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, a few patterns have emerged in lower courts’ application of the precedent to determine whether agency actions are lawful, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Shifts In Parallel Proceedings Strategy

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    Dynamics are changing between the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and federal courts, with two recent discretionary denials and one Federal Circuit decision offering takeaways for both patent owners and challengers navigating parallel proceedings, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • What Businesses Need To Know To Avoid VPPA Class Actions

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    Divergent rulings by the Second, Sixth and Seventh Circuits about the scope of the Video Privacy Protection Act have highlighted the difficulty of applying a statute conceived to regulate the now-obsolete brick-and-mortar video store sector in today's internet economy, say attorneys at DTO Law.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From US Rep. To Boutique Firm

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    My transition from serving as a member of Congress to becoming a partner at a boutique firm has been remarkably smooth, in part because I never stopped exercising my legal muscles, maintained relationships with my former colleagues and set the right tone at the outset, says Mondaire Jones at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Opinion

    IRS Should Work With Industry On Microcaptive Regs

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    The IRS should engage with microcaptive insurance owners to develop better regulations on these arrangements or risk the emergence of common law guidance as taxpayers with legitimate programs seek relief in the federal courts, says Dustin Carlson at SRA 831(b) Admin.

  • FLSA Interpretation Patterns Emerge 1 Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court's monumental decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, four distinct avenues of judicial decision-making have taken shape among lower courts that are responding to their newfound freedom in interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act through U.S. Department of Labor regulations, say attorneys at Kutak Rock.

  • A Pattern Emerges In Justices' Evaluation Of Veteran Statute

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    The recent Soto v. U.S. decision that the statute of limitations for certain military-related claims does not apply to combat-related special compensation exemplifies the U.S. Supreme Court's view, emerging in two other recent opinions, that it is a reviewing court's obligation to determine the best interpretation of the language used by Congress, says attorney Kenneth Carpenter.

  • Fed. Circ. In May: Evaluating Opportunistic Trademark Filings

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    The Federal Circuit's decision last month in the "US Space Force" trademark case gives the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board additional clarity when working through opportunistic trademark filings, particularly when the mark's value is primarily due to the potential value of a false connection, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Opinion

    Senate's 41% Litigation Finance Tax Would Hurt Legal System

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    The Senate’s latest version of the Big Beautiful Bill Act would impose a 41% tax on the litigation finance industry, but the tax is totally disconnected from the concerns it purports to address, and it would set the country back to a time when small plaintiffs had little recourse against big defendants, says Anthony Sebok at Cardozo School of Law.

  • Drawbacks For Taxpayers From Justices' Levy Dispute Ruling

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    The Supreme Court's June decision in Commissioner v. Zuch, holding the Tax Court lacks jurisdiction to resolve disputes where the IRS has stopped pursuing a levy, may require taxpayers to explore new tactics for mitigating the increased difficulty of appealing their liability via collection due process hearings, says Matthew Roberts at Meadows Collier.

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