California

  • August 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Grounds Lufthansa Refund Deal On Atty Fee Question

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday vacated an order that granted class certification and gave final approval to a $56.6 million settlement reached between Lufthansa and customers in a dispute concerning refunds for flights canceled due to COVID-19, saying a district court's calculation gave class counsel a disproportionate distribution.

  • August 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Ex-Atty Sued By CFPB Still On Hook For $243M

    The Ninth Circuit refused to free a disbarred attorney from a $243 million order that included civil penalties to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for his role in a student loan scam, finding no genuine dispute whether the former lawyer violated consumer protection law.

  • August 08, 2025

    Hospital, Clinic Exit Suit Over Man's Fatal Stabbing

    A California appeals court has refused to revive a woman's suit against a psychiatric hospital and outpatient clinic blaming them for the death of her husband who was stabbed by her mentally ill son, saying the healthcare providers are shielded by a psychotherapist immunity statute.

  • August 08, 2025

    LA Judges Tosses Suit Over $5.7M Pot Loss In Fire

    A Los Angeles cannabis entrepreneur must pay the legal fees of his neighbor, whom he sued for $5.7 million on claims that the defendant allowed his property to become a fire hazard through lax safety standards and by allowing transient people to live there, resulting in an inferno which destroyed millions of dollars worth of cannabis flower.

  • August 08, 2025

    UC President Says $1B DOJ Demand Would Cripple University

    The head of the University of California system said Friday that a $1 billion settlement proposed by the Trump administration in order to spare UCLA from threatened federal research funding cuts would "completely devastate our country's greatest public university system."

  • August 08, 2025

    Vape Maker Must Arbitrate Claims Of Distributor Misconduct

    A California federal judge has ordered the owners of a Hong Kong vape maker to arbitrate their claims accusing a competitor of trying to "usurp" their place in the market, concluding that an underlying arbitration agreement was applicable despite the competitor's founder not signing the pact.

  • August 08, 2025

    George Clinton Fights Sanctions In Decades-Long IP Battle

    Funk legend George Clinton has asked a Florida federal court to reject sanctions and lawsuit dismissal bids from music executive Armen Boladian, arguing that his copyright ownership complaint is not frivolous.

  • August 08, 2025

    Calif. Justices Rip Deference To Regulator's Solar Ruling

    The Golden State's highest court unanimously struck down a lower court ruling that the justices said gave too much deference to the California Public Utilities Commission in a dispute over rooftop solar rates, saying when reviewing decisions of the state's utilities regulator, courts "remain the final arbiters of statutory meaning."

  • August 08, 2025

    LAPD Wins Bid To Withhold 'Embarrassing' Body Cam Footage

    The public will not get to see body-camera footage allegedly showing a Los Angeles police officer destroying an MRI machine after his rifle was pulled into its magnetic field during a raid on an X-ray clinic that was wrongly assumed to be a cannabis grow site, a California federal court ruled, seeking to avoid "embarrassing" the officers named in the civil suit.

  • August 08, 2025

    FTC Maintains Support For Right-To-Repair In Med Robot Case

    The Federal Trade Commission is providing important backing for a surgical repair company's Ninth Circuit bid to revive claims accusing Intuitive Surgical of blocking third parties from refurbishing components for its popular da Vinci surgery robot, in an amicus brief suggesting defending right-to-repair work remains important for the Republican-controlled agency.

  • August 08, 2025

    Longer Child Detentions At Border Is 'Disturbing,' Judge Says

    A California federal judge overseeing enforcement of a decades-old settlement agreement governing the custody of immigrant children indicated Friday she will reject the government's effort to end the consent decree, and also finds recent reports of children being held for long periods at border stations "disturbing."

  • August 08, 2025

    Colleges, Universities Sued Over Early Admissions Offers

    Thirty-two colleges and universities violated federal antitrust laws by sharing data about students admitted through an "early decision" process, reducing competition and inflating tuition by boxing applicants out of potentially more rewarding financial aid packages elsewhere, students alleged in a proposed federal class action on Friday.

  • August 08, 2025

    Allbirds Faces New Del. Derivative Suit In Chancery

    Stockholders of footwear and clothing venture Allbirds Inc. launched a new Delaware Court of Chancery derivative suit Friday naming the company's key corporate figures, citing in part a now-third-amended securities action in the Northern District of California.

  • August 08, 2025

    Administration Says States Can't Second-Guess ACA Changes

    The Trump administration urged a Massachusetts federal court to reject a request by a group of states seeking to stay implementation of new rules that will reduce Affordable Care Act healthcare marketplace subsidies and enforce certain enrollment restrictions.

  • August 08, 2025

    Tesla Ousted HR Workers Who Flagged Race Bias, Suit Says

    Five former human resources workers and one former security employee at Tesla's beleaguered Fremont, California, facility said in a new lawsuit that higher-ups systemically punished employees who pushed back against racist and other discriminatory behavior at the plant.

  • August 08, 2025

    Hueston Hennigan Ups The Summer Bonus Ante

    Continuing the summer bonus trend some firms are offering, Law360 Pulse has learned Los Angeles-based litigation firm Hueston Hennigan LLP will award summer bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 to associates, regardless of their class year.

  • August 08, 2025

    Ex-Girardi Keese Atty Indicted For Role In Client Theft Scandal

    Former Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin has been criminally indicted in Illinois federal court for his role in the once-mighty firm's spectacular collapse, with prosecutors alleging he violated court orders and covered up the theft of client funds.

  • August 08, 2025

    X Says Former Employee Was Fired For Misconduct

    A former X employee was fired after writing on Slack about a "kill command" that could have turned off the website, according to the social media company, telling a California federal court that his Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act suit can't stand.

  • August 08, 2025

    $47M Fat Brands Tax Case Tossed After DOJ Quits Pursuing It

    A California federal judge dismissed an indictment accusing Fat Brands and its founder of hiding $47 million from the IRS through a loan scheme after the U.S. Department of Justice had said the case was no longer a priority.

  • August 08, 2025

    Google Loses Bid To Send Patent Case From WDTX To Calif.

    A Western District of Texas magistrate judge has refused to ship to California a lawsuit accusing Google of infringing patents covering ways to safely do financial transactions on a mobile device, finding the tech giant failed to show the Golden State was more convenient.

  • August 08, 2025

    Medical Tech Startup Heartflow's Upsized IPO Raises $317M

    Venture-backed medical technology company Heartflow Inc. began trading publicly on Friday after raising nearly $317 million in an upsized initial public offering that exceeded its initial price range, marking the latest in a wave of medtech startups to go public recently.

  • August 07, 2025

    'Star Wars' Actor, Disney Agree To End Political Bias Suit

    A former "Star Wars" actor has agreed to drop her suit claiming that The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm fired her for sharing her political views on social media, according to a joint stipulation of dismissal filed Thursday in California federal court.

  • August 07, 2025

    Meta Can't Ax 'Pen Register' Claim In Tax Data Tracking Row

    A California federal judge overseeing a consolidated class action accusing Meta of unlawfully collecting sensitive information from several tax filing websites has refused to cut a claim that the social media giant's tracking pixel qualifies as a "pen register" device prohibited by the state's wiretap law.  

  • August 07, 2025

    Experian Gets CFPB Credit Reporting Suit Tossed, For Now

    A California federal judge dismissed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit accusing Experian of mishandling consumer credit reporting disputes, saying the agency hasn't sufficiently shown that a tolling agreement with Experian's parent company stopped the clock on the claims, but gave the agency a chance to rework its complaint.

  • August 07, 2025

    Trump Admin Asks Justices To Halt ICE Arrest Limits In LA

    The Trump administration on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a California federal court's order temporarily blocking the government from conducting immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area without probable cause, arguing that it threatens officials' ability to enforce immigration laws.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Calif. Must Amend Trade Secret Civil Procedure

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    A California procedural law that effectively shields trade secret defendants from having to return company materials until the plaintiff can craft detailed requests must be amended to recognize that property recovery and trade secret analysis are distinct issues, says Matthew Miller at Hanson Bridgett.

  • Previewing State Efforts To Regulate Mental Health Chatbots

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    New York, Nevada and Utah have all recently enacted laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence to deliver mental health services, offering early insights into how other states may regulate this area, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • What Dismissal Rulings May Mean For ERISA Forfeiture Cases

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    Following an influx of Employee Retirement Income Security Act class actions challenging the long-standing practice of plan sponsors using plan forfeitures to offset employer contributions, recent motion to dismiss rulings and a U.S. Department of Labor amicus brief may encourage more courts to reject plaintiffs' forfeiture theories, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions

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    In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Opinion

    9th Circ. Customs Fraud Ruling Is Good For US Trade

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    In an era rife with international trade disputes and tariff-evasion schemes that cost billions annually, the Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Island Industries v. Sigma is a major step forward for trade enforcement and for whistleblowers who can expose customs fraud, say attorneys at Singleton Schreiber.

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Courts Redefining Software As Product Generates New Risks

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    A recent wave of litigation against social media platforms, chatbot developers and ride-hailing companies has some courts straying from the traditional view of software as a service to redefining software as a product, with significant implications for strict liability exposure, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • CEQA Reform May Spur More Housing, But Devil Is In Details

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    A recently enacted law reforming the California Environmental Quality Act has been touted by state leaders as a fix for the state's housing crisis — but provisions including a new theoretically optional traffic mitigation fee could offset any potential benefits, says attorney David Smith.

  • What To Know About NCAA Deal's Arbitration Provisions

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    Kathryn Hester at Jones Walker discusses the key dispute resolution provisions of the NCAA's recently approved class action settlement that allows for complex revenue sharing with college athletes, breaking down the arbitration stipulations and explaining how the Northern District of California will handle certain enforcement, administration, implementation and interpretation disputes.

  • Series

    Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • Midyear Rewind: How Courts Are Reshaping VPPA Standards

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    The first half of 2025 saw a series of cases interpreting the Video Privacy Protection Act as applied to website tracking technologies, including three appellate rulings deepening circuit splits on what qualifies as personally identifiable information and who qualifies as a consumer under the statute, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • How The Healthline Privacy Settlement Redefines Ad Tech Use

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    The Healthline settlement is the first time California has drawn a clear line in the sand around how website tracking must function in practice, so if your site uses tracking technologies, especially around sensitive content like health or finance, regulators are inspecting your website's back end, not just its banner, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • AI Infrastructure Growth Brings Unique IP Considerations

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    The explosive rise of artificial intelligence has triggered an equally dramatic transformation in the supporting infrastructure required to meet growing AI demand, and the technology used in these data centers has its own intellectual property considerations to navigate, says Vincent Allen at Carstens Allen.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw

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    As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.

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