Appellate

  • September 03, 2026

    Boeing Investors Say 4th Circ. Ruling Imperils Class Actions

    Boeing investors have asked the full Fourth Circuit to rehear a panel's "extreme" decision overturning class certification in a suit against the aerospace company over its alleged concealment of safety issues with its 737 Max fleet, arguing that the panel decision will create a "vague and unworkable standard" in the circuit if left intact.

  • September 03, 2026

    Williams-Sonoma Urges 9th Circ. To Snip Thread-Count Class

    Williams-Sonoma told the Ninth Circuit on Thursday that a district judge overseeing a certified false advertising class action over bedsheet thread-count labels should have excluded certain class members who purportedly agreed to arbitrate, arguing that the court wrongly couched the arbitration decision in a ruling on the class' definition.

  • September 03, 2026

    Fla. Panel Revives State's Indemnity Suit In Diving Injury Case

    A Florida appellate court revived an agency's lawsuit seeking indemnification from Miami Beach in a decades-old complaint brought by a man who became a quadriplegic from a diving injury, ruling the judgment in favor of the city was premature because the underlying case hasn't concluded.

  • September 03, 2026

    Mass. Justices Say Town Can Take Northeastern U. Property

    Massachusetts' top appellate court on Thursday granted a tiny Bay State town a win in an ongoing land battle with Northeastern University, finding that the community was within its rights to use eminent domain to take property the school had hoped to use to expand a research center.

  • September 03, 2026

    1st Circ. Orders Redo In Puerto Rico Hospital Loan Fight

    The First Circuit revived hospital Instituto Medico Del Norte's Chapter 11 lawsuit against a lender, remanding the case after it "struggled to make sense" of a Puerto Rico bankruptcy judge's decision to dismiss the litigation.

  • September 03, 2026

    5th Circ. Unsure Provision Allows Contractor To Get Atty Fees

    A Fifth Circuit panel wanted to know why a construction company should get to collect attorney fees without a prevailing party provision in its joint venture contract, saying Thursday that the language of the parties' contract seemed to require a breach of contract.

  • September 03, 2026

    8th Circ. Says Exclusion Bars Oil Well Blast Coverage

    The Eighth Circuit said Thursday that an AIG unit does not owe $25 million to an ExxonMobil subsidiary for injury claims stemming from a 2016 oil and gas well explosion, finding the energy company did not meet a notice requirement needed to sidestep a pollution exclusion.

  • September 03, 2026

    EPA Appeals Order To Determine Soot Standard Compliance

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it's appealing a California federal judge's decision ordering it to designate what parts of the country are meeting or not meeting new air quality standards for fine particulate matter by early February.

  • September 03, 2026

    Cities, Groups Ask Judge To Keep $3B EPA Grant Funding Alive

    Cities and groups challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's cancellation of nearly $3 billion in environmental climate justice grants asked a South Carolina federal judge, who ruled the termination unlawful, on Wednesday to preserve the funding while the agency appeals the decision.

  • September 03, 2026

    8th Circ. Won't Hear 'Withholding-Only' Removal Relief Case

    The Eighth Circuit said it couldn't review an immigration judge's decision denying a Mexican citizen the opportunity to seek protection under the Convention Against Torture and avoid deportation back to Mexico, since the decision didn't involve a final removal order.

  • September 03, 2026

    Kavanaugh Stays Out Of Mich. Voter ID Referendum Row

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined Thursday to wade into a dispute over Michigan election officials' refusal to put on ballots this November a proposed amendment to the state's constitution that would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to participate in state and local elections.

  • September 03, 2026

    DC Circ. Won't Reconsider Argentina's $391M Arbitral Fight

    The D.C. Circuit on Thursday refused to reconsider its decision affirming the enforcement of a $391 million arbitral award issued against Argentina in a 17-year-old dispute over the renationalization of its state-owned airline and denied the country's petition for a rehearing. 

  • September 03, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Judge's Post-Decision Recusal Won't Lead To Redo

    U.S. Circuit Judge Richard G. Taranto's decision to recuse himself from a case based on newly inherited Amazon stock is not enough to justify reconsidering the opinion he'd already issued, the Federal Circuit has ruled.

  • September 03, 2026

    Mich. Court Keeps Ann Arbor Public Power Measure On Ballot

    A Michigan appellate panel has kept a proposal to create a municipal electric utility in Ann Arbor on the November ballot, ruling that the city clerk was not clearly required to reject supplemental petition signatures submitted after the proposal's initial filing. 

  • September 03, 2026

    Conn. Justices Uphold Guilty Verdict Despite Juror's Remorse

    The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a guilty verdict in an attempted murder case despite one juror's comment that the top charge left her feeling "a little guilty," with the justices characterizing the phrase as an indication of the juror's "strong and unsettling emotions," not her "uncertainty or equivocation."

  • September 03, 2026

    Phil Berger Jr. Won't Seek Reelection To NC High Court

    North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Phil Berger Jr. said Thursday that he will not seek another term in 2028, meaning the Republican justice will leave the state's highest court after completing his current term.

  • September 03, 2026

    XPO Fights 'Drastic' Sanctions In Fatal Crash Suit

    XPO Logistics Freight Inc. told a North Carolina appeals court that a trial judge went too far by effectively deciding liability against the company in a wrongful death suit over a fatal 2023 tractor-trailer crash as a sanction for alleged discovery violations.

  • September 03, 2026

    Nippon Tells 9th Circ. Not To Revive US Steel Merger Case

    Nippon Steel urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday not to revive a consumer lawsuit challenging its now-completed purchase of U.S. Steel Corp., arguing the district court rightly found the plaintiffs too far removed from the steel market to allege higher prices when buying steel-containing products.

  • September 03, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Solidifies Vifor Win Over Iron Deficiency Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's decision that pharmaceutical company Vifor did not infringe a patent covering a method of making iron supplements asserted by rival Biofer.

  • September 03, 2026

    Judge Suggests Mail Ballot Rule Too Late For Midterms

    A Massachusetts federal judge appeared poised Thursday to extend her block on the U.S. Postal Service implementing new requirements that would allow the agency to refuse to deliver potentially thousands of mailed ballots this November, suggesting the midterm elections are too close to make such a sweeping change.

  • September 03, 2026

    Former Girardi Keese CFO Drops Appeal Of 5-Year Fraud Term

    The Seventh Circuit has granted onetime Girardi Keese financial chief Christopher Kamon's request to drop the appeal he lodged fighting an Illinois federal judge's order adding five concurrent years onto the 10 he is already serving for his role helping Tom Girardi, the head of the firm, steal millions from plane crash clients who settled cases in Chicago.

  • September 03, 2026

    11th Circ. Won't Toss Grouper Catch Limit Over Council Defect

    An Eleventh Circuit panel Thursday agreed the structure of a regional fishery management council runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution's appointments clause, but refused to throw out a challenged rule that reduced catch limits for gag grouper in the Gulf of Mexico.

  • September 03, 2026

    Boutique Firms Emerge As Trump Admin's 'Achilles' Heel'

    Less fearful of retribution than some of their BigLaw counterparts, small law firms are taking on an outsize role handling cases seen as adversarial to the Trump administration.

  • September 02, 2026

    Split 9th Circ. Curbs Foreign Asset Forfeiture Without Control

    A split Ninth Circuit panel Wednesday held that courts must determine that they have, at the very least, constructive control over a foreign defendant's property to establish jurisdiction in a forfeiture case, pointing to the Fifth Amendment's due process clause.

  • September 02, 2026

    Trading Firm To Seek Justices' Input On Arbitration Questions

    The Seventh Circuit said Wednesday that it will wait to make its arbitration rejection official so a Chicago trading firm can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether it was correctly ordered to litigate proposed class securities manipulation accusations.

Expert Analysis

  • 3rd Circ. Hotel Ruling Flags Key Issues In Dynamic Pricing

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    The Third Circuit's recent decision in Cornish-Adebiyi v. Caesars Entertainment relies on allegations that competitors used nonpublic data to set real-time rates considered exorbitant, highlighting both the potential risks and substantial benefits of utilizing emerging technologies, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • 4th Circ. Class Cert. Ruling Offers Tips For Damages Experts

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision reversing class certification in litigation against Boeing raises the cost of a bare-bones damages model proposal for plaintiffs, but it also clarifies what a defensible proposal should contain, say Alok Khare and Erica Rose at FTI Consulting.

  • Opinion

    'Plain Meaning' Requires Plainer Meaning In IP Litigation

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Socket Solutions v. Import Global highlights the frequent ambiguity surrounding courts' references to "plain meaning" in patent claim construction — an ambiguity that should be resolved by courts, not litigants, say attorneys at Klarquist Sparkman.

  • What To Know As Legal Duty To Consider AI Takes Shape

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    While the U.K. Jurisdiction Taskforce’s recent statement on liability for artificial intelligence harms is nonbinding for both U.K. and U.S. lawyers, it highlights the importance of being able to distinguish between the availability of a tool and a professional obligation to use it, say Jonny Frank and Michael Costa at StoneTurn.

  • Patent Ruling Shows Concrete Tech Solution Key To Eligibility

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent Ceiva Opco v. Amazon.com decision offers an important reminder that software-related inventions can remain patent eligible when they claim a concrete technological solution to a specific problem, says Irah Donner at Manatt.

  • Appellate Vape Rulings May Expand State Regulation Powers

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    Two recent federal appeals courts decisions rejecting Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act preemption challenges to state electronic nicotine delivery systems directory laws signal an emerging appellate consensus that could significantly expand states' power to regulate vaping product sales where federal enforcement falls short, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • How Solar Fraud Case Affects Lender Oversight Of Dealers

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to review the Third Circuit's ruling in Migliore v. Sunlight Financial means that residential solar finance companies are protected from vicarious liability for deceptive acts by independent solar dealers — but lenders must still take steps to guard against dealer misconduct, says Rand Manasse at Green Lane Partners.

  • Fed. Circ. Rulings Emphasize Adjudicative Access And Review

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    Decisions from the Federal Circuit's 2026 docket indicate that the court is increasingly paying attention to whether tribunals possess authority to act, meaning practitioners will need to properly address procedural hurdles before they can argue the merits of a case, say attorneys at Reichman Jorgensen.

  • Amazon v. Perplexity Ruling Limits CFAA Reach Over AI Tools

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Amazon v. Perplexity provides important early guidance on how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act applies to agentic artificial intelligence, and is the latest in a line of rulings in which courts have declined to stretch existing statutes to broadly regulate AI, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Managing OSHA Mental Illness Logs After 5th Circ. Vacatur

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    Employers with facilities in multiple states need to carefully weigh their recordkeeping procedures following the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cannot require employers to log work-related mental illness, as inconsistent logs across facilities may raise other issues, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Expect More Probes After 3rd Circ. Algorithmic Pricing Ruling

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    The Third Circuit's recent decision in Cornish-Adebiyi v. Caesars Entertainment, allowing algorithmic price-fixing claims to proceed past motions to dismiss, may serve as a road map for how to contend with increased litigation risk in this developing area of antitrust law, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Series

    Being In A Band Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing shows in storied New York City venues and rehearsing with my bandmates in poorly ventilated rooms helped develop the professional qualities I rely on as a litigator, including an ability to collaborate with strong-minded equals and the determination to treat each client with singular focus, says Eliad Shapiro at Herrick Feinstein.

  • Notable Q2 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    After 2026's second quarter, there is more authority rejecting class certification on total loss valuation theories from courts at the federal circuit, federal district and state appellate level — along with a resolution of a novel issue of depreciation on a wildfire claim, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

  • 10th Circ. Ruling Undermines False Ad 'Two Clicks' Rule

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    The Tenth Circuit’s recent ruling in KetoNatural Pet Foods v. Hill's Pet Nutrition substantially challenges a long-standing assumption that a company can avoid responsibility for promotional claims simply because the consumer encountered them by clicking a hyperlink to a third-party website, say attorneys at Venable.

  • How Drug Trial Prediction Markets Pose Insider Trading Risks

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    Multiple prediction market platforms have recently announced plans to offer event contracts related to clinical trial outcomes and regulatory decisions, creating new insider trading risks by expanding the group of people possessing related material nonpublic information far beyond traditional corporate insiders, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

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