Appellate

  • October 29, 2026

    Penn National Tells 4th Circ. Insurer Dodged Injury Defense

    A Fourth Circuit appellate panel on Thursday questioned what insurance company Penn National could possibly recover from another insurer that the former says shirked its defense responsibilities in a personal injury suit from VRBO renters, noting the other insurer had paid its policy limit in settling the underlying case.

  • October 29, 2026

    Fla. High Court Finds No Atty Misconduct Over PACER Snafu

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday entered a judgment in favor of an attorney accused of knowingly making false statements when explaining why he missed a client's hearing, finding that he may have been "sincerely confused" over why he wasn't notified through the federal PACER filing system.

  • October 29, 2026

    1st Circ. Seeks Mass. Justices' Input On USAA Rate Row

    The First Circuit asked Massachusetts' highest court to weigh in on a suit by service members alleging USAA improperly considered their military pay grade when issuing auto insurance policies, finding the dispute implicates questions of state law.

  • October 29, 2026

    Gov't Urges 11th Circ. To Lift Sanctions Over Trump-IRS Deal

    A federal judge's order barring President Donald Trump, the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department from citing the agreement made to settle his $10 billion suit against the tax agency is unsupportable and should be reversed, the government told the Eleventh Circuit.

  • October 29, 2026

    Mass. Panel Won't Undo OUI Plea Over Now-Void Breath Test

    A Massachusetts man cannot take back his 2015 admission to operating under the influence based on later revelations of state crime lab misconduct concerning the calibration of breath-test devices, given the other "overwhelming" evidence of drunken driving, an intermediate state appellate court said Thursday.

  • October 29, 2026

    NLRB Urges 7th Circ. To Ponder Injunction Harm Burden

    The National Labor Relations Board urged the full Seventh Circuit to rethink a ruling that raised the bar for the agency to win injunctions, saying the panel's merits conclusions and its take on what constitutes irreparable harm to workers' labor rights conflict with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • October 29, 2026

    Split 4th Circ. Stays Man's Removal Over Competency Issue

    The Fourth Circuit has extended a stay preventing the removal of a self-represented noncitizen detainee who said his "mental condition" prevented him from fully arguing his case to an immigration judge, finding that the full administrative record is needed.

  • October 29, 2026

    Pa. Court OKs Unemployment Comp Despite Off-Duty Lie

    A Pennsylvania nurse didn't commit "willful misconduct" by refusing to answer questions about a coworker visiting her while he was on duty and she was off duty, so the nurse remained eligible to collect unemployment benefits after she was fired, a state appellate court ruled Wednesday.

  • October 29, 2026

    Trump Admin Appeals Block Of DC Golf Course Work

    The Trump administration is appealing a D.C. federal judge's order that stopped further tree removals at East Potomac Golf Course and required advance notice before irreparable changes are made to the facility.

  • October 29, 2026

    5th Circ. Will Review Texas Content-Filtering Law Ruling

    The Fifth Circuit has granted Texas' request for an en banc rehearing of a July panel opinion that partly upheld a block on the state's new law requiring companies to filter content for underage users.

  • October 28, 2026

    Democracy 'At Stake': Feds Can't Set Aside 20K Calif. Ballots

    A California federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration's request to require the state to set aside mail-in ballots for some 20,000 voters the federal government contends are "likely" noncitizens, saying it would "wreak havoc" on the midterm elections that are already underway.

  • October 28, 2026

    RNC Files New Suit Over FCC's Campaign Ad Rates

    The Republican National Committee, Republican Party of Texas and several Republican candidates Wednesday filed a fresh suit over the Federal Communications Commission's longtime requirement that broadcasters charge the lowest political ad rates for committees tied to candidates, calling it "a drag on First Amendment freedoms."

  • October 28, 2026

    Landlord's Suit Over Seattle Tenant Laws Revived On Appeal

    A Washington Court of Appeals panel has reinstated a real estate company's challenge to a string of Seattle landlord-tenant laws, finding the firm has adequately detailed how the contested ordinances stunted its property rights as the owner of a downtown affordable housing development.

  • October 28, 2026

    Ga. University System On Hook For $3M In Child Death Suit

    The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that the parents of a child who allegedly died due to negligent cancer treatment at a state-owned hospital are owed $3 million rather than $2 million under a Georgia law that caps damages for public entities.

  • October 28, 2026

    Abbott Scores Freeze On State Rep's Access To Musk Emails

    A Texas appellate court froze a lower court's order giving state Rep. Gina Hinojosa access to unredacted correspondence between Gov. Greg Abbott's office and the sometime trillionaire Elon Musk.

  • October 28, 2026

    Patients Tell Colo. Justices Hospital Defied Gender Care Order

    Transgender youth patients of Children's Hospital Colorado are challenging a judge's discharge of their contempt citation against the hospital for not resuming the provision of medical gender-affirming care to them, urging Colorado's justices to decide whether the hospital complied with an injunction prohibiting it from refusing to provide the care.

  • October 28, 2026

    Shipbuilder Must Face Bridge Wreck Suit In US, 3rd Circ. Told

    The Dali cargo ship's owner and manager told the Third Circuit on Wednesday that a Pennsylvania federal judge improperly tossed their lawsuit alleging South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. designed and built a "fatally flawed" ship that subsequently slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge.

  • October 28, 2026

    'Lessons Learned': 9th Circ. Judge Doubts Uber Clawback Bid

    A Ninth Circuit judge doubted Uber's request Wednesday to claw back 42 documents inadvertently produced in sexual assault multidistrict litigation during its attorney-client privilege rereview, telling counsel, "At a certain point, we have to say stop, put your pencils down," and asking why this shouldn't be "an example of lessons learned."

  • October 28, 2026

    Full 4th Circ. Won't Rehear Boeing Investor Class Ruling

    The Fourth Circuit on Wednesday denied a request from Boeing investors for the full court to rehear a panel's decision overturning class certification in a suit against the aerospace company over its alleged concealment of safety issues with its 737 Max fleet.

  • October 28, 2026

    Ex-Chemical Co. Owner Fights $69.2M Trade Secrets Award

    The former owner of a chemical manufacturer and his nephews urged the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a nearly $69.2 million trade secrets judgment, arguing the award rests on an inflated estimate of what it would cost to recreate stolen formulas, while buyer Arxada insisted the defendants should not profit from taking them.

  • October 28, 2026

    4th Circ. Judge Sees 'Big Brother' In Va. Social Media Limits

    A Fourth Circuit judge Wednesday expressed concern with a Virginia law limiting children's access to social media, telling counsel for the commonwealth that the provision has a "Big Brother atmosphere" to it and suggesting he'd back the district court's injunction halting enforcement of the regulation.

  • October 28, 2026

    4th Circ. Judge Doubts DOJ Can Be Kicked From FCA Suit

    A Fourth Circuit judge appeared unconvinced Wednesday by an attorney's claim that the U.S. Department of Justice should have been disqualified from representing the federal government in a whistleblower suit brought by a man incarcerated for defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense.

  • October 28, 2026

    9th Circ. Open To Decertifying BofA COVID Fee-Relief Class

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared open Wednesday to decertifying a class of Bank of America account holders who allege the bank abruptly ended a COVID-19 fee-relief program without notice, with all three judges criticizing the class definition for being overly broad, and two judges suggesting individualized issues predominate.

  • October 28, 2026

    9th Circ. Judge Calls Out Whole Foods For Standing Flip-Flop

    A Ninth Circuit judge confronted Whole Foods on Wednesday for reversing its position in a proposed class action alleging failure to include wage information in job listings, pressing its counsel on why an appellate panel should accept its new standing argument and let the case proceed in federal court instead of Washington state court.

  • October 28, 2026

    Satellite Co. Asks Fla. Court To End $15M Finder's Fee Suit

    A satellite technology company asked a Florida state court on Wednesday to once and for all end a lawsuit alleging it owes $15 million in finder's fees for help with sourcing funders, arguing the complaint was already considered and rejected by federal courts. 

Expert Analysis

  • What's Next For Prediction Markets If States Win At High Court

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    While the Supreme Court hasn't taken up a prediction market case yet, a high court win for the states in their quest to regulate the exchanges would likely mean a wave of state legislature bills and regulatory guidance arriving on different timelines, rather than a single uniform transition, says Howard Herndon at Bradley Arant.

  • 3rd Circ. Ruling Shows ADA Limits Amid Worker Misconduct

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    In Hileman v. West Penn Allegheny Health System, the Third Circuit recently rejected a wrongful termination claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act, illustrating that disability and leave laws don't automatically insulate employees from the consequences of prior workplace misconduct, say attorneys at Bond Schoeneck.

  • AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

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    The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six recent rulings involving pecuniary loss in false price comparison advertising, privity in an insurance fee class, antitrust standing, immigration class representatives, retirement beneficiary class commonality, and Rule 23(f) appeals in Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

  • Florida Condo Ruling Offers Tips For Contractor Lien Disputes

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    A recent Florida appellate decision, holding condo owners may challenge liens placed on their units, despite not being party to the underlying disputed agreement their association struck with contractors, offers lessons on lien enforcement to both contractors and condo owners, say attorneys at Adams & Reese.

  • BIA Ruling Could Make Immigration Bond A Catch-22

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    A recent Board of Immigration Appeals decision refining the way immigration judges assess flight risk, when read broadly, could create a circular rule under which a noncitizen can be treated as a flight risk because they have too few ties to the U.S., but also because they have too many, says Georgianna Pisano Goetz at the National Immigrant Justice Center.

  • 8th Circ. Ruling Raises Bar For Seeking Disability Benefits

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    The Eighth Circuit's recent ruling in Post v. Bisignano signals that claimants seeking Social Security disability benefits may need to offer convincing proof of functional restrictions beyond their treating doctors' opinions and illustrates that the court's proclaimant jurisprudence no longer prevails, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • Series

    Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

  • Teva, Wyeth Show How Claimed Advances Shape Enablement

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    Two recent Federal Circuit decisions involving method-of-treatment claims — Teva v. Eli Lilly and Wyeth v. AstraZeneca — reached opposite enablement outcomes from strikingly similar procedural postures, but a closer comparison of the cases reveals a three-step framework for understanding the court's reasoning, says Kendall Gurule at Polsinelli.

  • Opinion

    Calif. Bill Goes Too Far In Trying To Regulate Attorney AI Use

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    California’s first-in-the-nation act regulating how attorneys and arbitrators use generative artificial intelligence will likely soon become law, but read broadly, the provisions may dissuade lawyers from employing AI at all, thereby depriving them of key work tools, says Joshua Wurtzel at Schlam Stone.

  • Wis. Coverage Ruling Rejects Strict Ensuing Loss Test

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    In Cincinnati Insurance v. Ropicky, the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently examined the relationship between an insurance policy's construction defect exclusion and ensuing loss exception, providing policyholders support in claiming that an additional cause may produce covered damage despite an excluded condition being part of the loss sequence, says Alexander Hopkins at SDV Fenchurch.

  • The Preemption Gap In Prediction Market High Court Petitions

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    The Supreme Court is considering three certiorari petitions following a split in prediction market litigation between the Third and Ninth circuits, but one of the petitions would not allow the court to reach the express preemption question, which would leave the dispute half-resolved, says Jordan Garman at Withers.

  • 5th Circ. Embedding Decision Could Recast Copyright Claims

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    The Fifth Circuit's decision in Emmerich v. Particle Media addresses decades of ambiguity surrounding whether embedded content can constitute copyright infringement, potentially affecting how defense counsel fight against such claims, say attorneys at Greenberg Glusker.

  • A Texas Ruling May Offer Guidance On Freight Broker Liability

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport removed federal preemption defenses to freight broker negligent-selection claims, and a July verdict in Texas against C.H. Robinson raised further questions about how brokers can achieve compliance — but another recent Texas decision involving Home Depot may offer some answers, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Raises Bar For Arbitration Pacts Via Email

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent holding in Rickes v. Thermo Fisher that the mere delivery of an email doesn't establish an employee's assent to the arbitration agreement underscores that rollout processes should both give employees notice of the agreement and create evidence of their assent, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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