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April 15, 2024
TTAB Sides With Pharma Co.'s Opposition To 'SageForth' TM
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled in favor of biopharmaceutical company Sage Therapeutics Inc.' opposition to a psychological service provider's attempt to register "SageForth" as a trademark, saying the name is likely to cause confusion with Sage Therapeutics' treatments for postpartum depression.
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April 15, 2024
LA County Tells FCC It Supports Plan To Georoute 988 Calls
Support is growing for a Federal Communications Commission proposal to require georouting calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, with Los Angeles County backing the idea Friday in a filing with the agency, and other groups saying even more urgency is needed.
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April 15, 2024
Feds Seek Prison For Group That Invaded Abortion Clinic
Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences for six anti-abortion activists convicted of storming a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic, including a six-year term for the alleged "criminal mastermind" behind this and other blockades.
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April 15, 2024
Pharmacy, Courier Co. Settle Driver's Classification Suit
A delivery driver and a CVS-owned pharmacy and a logistics and courier firm told an Illinois federal court that they have reached a settlement resolving claims that the company misclassified workers as independent contractors and paid them neither minimum nor overtime premium wages.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Won't Nix FDA Labeling Preemption For State Claims
The Supreme Court on Monday let stand lower court findings that the unique authority of the federal Food and Drug Administration preempted and, therefore, justified dismissing a proposed class action that alleged a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary broke Massachusetts law by misbranding Lactaid drug products as dietary supplements.
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April 15, 2024
High Court Turns Away Fired Male Doctor's Sex Bias Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review a cardiologist's unsuccessful gender bias suit alleging he was fired after being falsely accused of mistreating female colleagues, despite his argument that the Second Circuit used the wrong legal standard when it backed the case's dismissal.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Won't Review ERISA Suit Over Heart Transplant
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review the Fourth Circuit's decision only partially reviving a suit brought by the mother of a deceased airline worker whose employer refused to cover his heart transplant surgery until after his death.
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April 12, 2024
'Much More Is Coming': Experts See Wave Of AI-Related Suits
Legal experts speaking Friday at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law's symposium on artificial intelligence and evidence in civil litigation warned that broadening usage and increased regulation will lead to a wave of litigation over the technology, leaving courts to analyze the "black box" of corporate AI algorithms to determine liability.
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April 12, 2024
NJ Court Revives Spinal Injury Suit After E-Filing Glitch
A New Jersey appeals court on Friday reinstated a medical malpractice suit accusing a physician of causing a woman's severe spinal injuries, saying an unexplained glitch in the trial court's electronic filing system wrongly led to a dismissal of the suit.
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April 12, 2024
Wash. Hospital Workers Say Class Suits Are Mirror Images
A group of healthcare workers urged a Washington state judge to find that their employer has violated the same wage laws that an affiliated hospital system was recently found liable for in a parallel case, contending at a Friday hearing that the two class actions ultimately target the same parent company.
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April 12, 2024
NY Health Network To Pay $1M For Deceptive COVID Test Bills
Long Island, New York-based hospital network Northwell Health will pay $1 million over allegations that it fraudulently billed patients for a hospital visit after they came for what they thought was a free COVID-19 test, the state's attorney general said Friday.
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April 12, 2024
Judge Rejects Tehum's $54M Bid To Resolve Injury Suits
A Texas bankruptcy judge has rejected prison healthcare company Tehum Care Services Inc.'s $54 million settlement to resolve hundreds of personal injury suits while declining the claimant committee's request to dismiss the Chapter 11 case.
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April 12, 2024
Mich. Hospital Must Face MedMal Suit Against Contract Doc
A hospital will have to face claims related to the alleged medical malpractice of its ICU director, a contractor, because the hospital did not make it clear to a patient who died that the doctor was not one of its employees, a Michigan appellate panel has said.
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April 12, 2024
DEA Unlawfully Pushing Psychedelics Ban, Researcher Says
A psychedelic research company has asked a Washington federal judge to block the Drug Enforcement Administration from proceeding with its plan to ban two psychedelic substances, saying the agency's process for bringing the matter before an administrative judge has been unlawful.
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April 12, 2024
Atrium Stakes Claim To Trust Of Prominent NC Textile Family
Atrium Health is looking to sack trustees currently standing in the way of the hospital system inheriting a substantial sum of money from one of North Carolina's most prominent families, saying the trustees have refused to pay its distributions and are hiding information.
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April 12, 2024
Split Mich. Panel Restores Overdose Suit Against Pain Doctor
Pandemic-prompted court orders that gave litigants in Michigan extra time to file lawsuits have continued to divide the state's appellate bench, as another three-judge panel couldn't agree Thursday on whether the orders gave a woman's estate extra time to sue her doctor.
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April 12, 2024
Mich. High Court Snapshot: Atty Sanctions Kick Off April
The Michigan Supreme Court returns Tuesday for its April session, hearing oral arguments about judges' ability to sanction lawyers for past attorneys' work in a case, what defendants say could be double recovery in wrongful death cases, and an attempt to use a Larry Nassar-inspired law to sue Catholic priests for decades-old abuse allegations.
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April 12, 2024
Trade Groups Urge Senators To Advance Patent Reform Bills
Groups representing inventors, startups and medical technology companies are putting pressure on U.S. senators to pass bills that would prospectively limit the ability of courts to throw out patent lawsuits, a month after tech industry groups argued the legislation would trigger an onslaught of patent litigation.
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April 12, 2024
Woman Pleads Guilty To $1.3M COVID Tax Credit Fraud
A California woman pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining $2 million in COVID-19 government loans and falsely claiming $1.3 million in tax credits, crimes that could result in a 20-year prison sentence, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
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April 12, 2024
Asbury Park Escapes Pot Co.'s Zoning Board Conspiracy Suit
A New Jersey federal court has dismissed a medical cannabis company's suit alleging Asbury Park and its zoning board conspired with a rival to block it from operating a treatment center, saying the complaint fails to support its allegations of the scheme.
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April 11, 2024
Sandoz Says Feds Misclassified Generics As 'Innovator Drugs'
Pharmaceutical company Sandoz Inc. sued the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Washington, D.C., federal court on Wednesday, alleging the agency ignored the company's objection to classifying two of its generics as "innovator drugs," which could impact Sandoz's rebate obligations under Medicaid.
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April 11, 2024
FTC Curtails Treatment Provider's Sharing Of Health Data
The Federal Trade Commission took its latest step Thursday to crack down on the mishandling of sensitive health information, announcing a settlement that requires a New York-based alcohol addiction treatment service to obtain affirmative consent before sharing this data with third parties and bars the company from disclosing this information for advertising purposes.
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April 11, 2024
UnitedHealth Patients' Addiction Coverage Suit Revived, Again
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday revived for the second time a proposed class action accusing UnitedHealth of wrongly rejecting coverage for outpatient substance use disorder treatments in violation of federal benefits law, finding the plaintiff plausibly alleged the insurer employed an excessively strict review process for those claims.
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April 11, 2024
Hospitals Responsible For Contract ER Docs, Justices Say
Washington state's high court ruled on Thursday that hospitals may be held liable for alleged neglectfulness of contracted doctors working in their emergency rooms, reviving negligence claims against the medical center brought by the estate of a woman killed by a flesh-eating disease that ER caregivers allegedly failed to diagnose.
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April 11, 2024
Full 8th Circ. Hears Ark. Bid To Revive Youth Trans Care Ban
An en banc panel of the Eighth Circuit weighing whether to revive an Arkansas state law that banned gender-affirming care for children and teens heard oral arguments Thursday, as Arkansas officials sought to demonstrate that the law does not unconstitutionally discriminate based on sex.
Expert Analysis
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Planning For Healthcare-Private Equity Antitrust Enforcement
U.S. antitrust agency developments could mean potential enforcement actions on healthcare-related acquisitions by private equity funds are on the way, and entities operating in this space should follow a series of practice tips, including early assessment of antitrust risks on both the state and federal level, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.
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3 Health Insurance Paths For Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Ahead of potential U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals for psychedelics as insured treatments, attorneys at Husch Blackwell review pathways for these drugs to achieve coverage as treatments for complex mental health conditions.
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Series
Serving As A Sheriff's Deputy Made Me A Better Lawyer
Skills developed during my work as a reserve deputy — where there was a need to always be prepared, decisive and articulate — transferred to my practice as an intellectual property litigator, and my experience taught me that clients often appreciate and relate to the desire to participate in extracurricular activities, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Nonprecedential, Unreasonable, Scope
James Tucker at MoFo examines three recent decisions showing that while the results of past competitions may inform bid strategy, they are not determinative; that an agency's award may be deemed unreasonable if it ignores available information; and that a protester may be right about an awardee's noncompliance but still lose.
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Fears About The End Of Chevron Deference Are Overblown
While some are concerned about repercussions if the U.S. Supreme Court brings an end to Chevron deference in the Loper and Relentless cases this term, agencies and attorneys would survive just fine under the doctrines that have already begun to replace it, say Daniel Wolff and Henry Leung at Crowell & Moring.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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Direct Claims Ruling May Alter Gov't Ties To Software Firms
A recent Federal Circuit decision allowing a software developer to pursue legal action under the Contract Disputes Act could change the government's relationship with commercial software providers by permitting direct claims, even in third-party purchase situations, say Dan Ramish and Zach Prince at Haynes Boone.
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AI In Accounting Raises OT Exemption Questions
A recent surge in the use of artificial intelligence in accounting work calls into question whether professionals in the industry can argue they are no longer overtime exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, highlighting how technology could test the limits of the law for a variety of professions, say Bradford Kelley at Littler and Stephen Malone at Peloton Interactive.
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What To Know About State-Level Health Data Privacy Laws
Companies that handle consumer health data, including those in the retail sector, should take a conservative approach when interpreting the scope of new health privacy laws in Washington, Nevada and Connecticut, which may include development of privacy notices, consent procedures, rights request response processes and processor contracts, say attorneys at Hunton.
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Opinion
Intoxicating Hemp Products: It's High Time For Clarity
Thanks to ambiguity in the 2018 Farm Bill, intoxicating hemp cannabinoid products are largely unregulated and are widely available without restrictions on who can buy the products, and although there are several possible solutions, voluntary industry action by good actors is the best option, say Andrew Kline and Tommy Tobin at Perkins Coie.
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HHS' Updated Tracking Tech Guidance Offers Little Clarity
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights' updated guidance on the use of online tracking technologies appears more focused on legal issues raised in ongoing litigation with the American Hospital Association and less on practical guidance for covered entities, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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What Rescheduling Could Mean For Cannabis Bankruptcies
Bankruptcy courts have historically been closed for cannabis-related businesses, but recent case law coupled with a possible reclassification of cannabis provides cautious optimism, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Opinion
Pharmacies Need More Protection Against PBM Fee Practices
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' recent reform regarding direct and indirect remuneration fees will mitigate the detrimental effects that pharmacy benefit manager policies have on struggling pharmacies, but more is needed to prevent PBMs from exploiting loopholes, says Bhavesh Desai at Mazina Law.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.