More Healthcare Coverage
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December 20, 2024
Biggest Illinois Decisions Of 2024
A U.S. Supreme Court decision narrowing the federal bribery statute caused waves in several high-profile Chicago public corruption cases at every litigation stage, almost instantly making a former Indiana mayor's high court win one of the biggest Illinois cases of the year.
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December 19, 2024
GAO Says Army Can Stop Solicitation After Multiple Protests
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a protest over the U.S. Army's decision to cancel a medical instructor support deal, saying the Army reasonably found it had to address changed circumstances after a string of related protests.
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December 19, 2024
Army Escapes Black Hospital Worker's Race Harassment Suit
A Kansas federal judge tossed a Black former U.S. Army hospital worker's suit claiming she was investigated for creating a hostile work environment after she complained that she faced racism on the job, ruling the worker had failed to show her complaints triggered the investigation into her behavior.
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December 18, 2024
Amgen Hit With $50M Infringement Verdict Over Leukemia Drug
Germany's Lindis Biotech has persuaded a Delaware federal jury that Amgen should pay $50.3 million in damages for encouraging healthcare providers to infringe the Munich company's immunotherapy patents through administering the leukemia drug Blincyto.
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December 18, 2024
Homeless Woman's Residency Unclear In Inter-Insurer Dispute
A Michigan state appeals court has vacated a trial court order finding the insurer for a homeless woman's parents must cover injuries she suffered after being run over by a semitruck, ruling that questions remain over whether the woman had another established residence.
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December 18, 2024
Medical Center Escapes COVID Outbreak Blame-Trading Suit
A Michigan state appeals panel nixed a wedding venue's defamation suit alleging it was falsely blamed after several guests at a reception contracted COVID-19, handing a win to a healthcare provider the venue pointed to as the source of the outbreak.
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December 16, 2024
UnitedHealthcare Shooting Suspect Hires Ex-NYC Prosecutor
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former veteran prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, has been retained to represent the man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan earlier this month, a spokesperson for Agnifilo's firm said Monday.
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December 16, 2024
The Biggest Patent Decisions Of 2024
This year's notable patent decisions from the Federal Circuit provided clearer guidelines on double patenting and opened the door for new ways to invalidate design patents. Here's a look at the cases from 2024 that will shape patent litigation going forward.
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December 16, 2024
Feds Ask To Speak With Juror In Failed $34M Kickback Trial
Prosecutors on Monday asked a New Jersey federal judge if they could speak with the foreperson of a jury that acquitted a Philadelphia pharmacy executive of scheming to bilk $34 million from insurers by paying kickbacks, after the juror offered to share feedback ahead of a possible retrial.
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December 16, 2024
Dental Workers' Retaliation Appeal Nixed For Lack Of Docs
A California appeals court declined to revive a suit brought by two dental office workers who claimed they were fired after complaining that their boss sexually harassed them, saying they hadn't provided enough details for the court to evaluate their case.
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December 13, 2024
Pa. Contractor Hit With $4.2M Verdict In Pot Software Row
A Pennsylvania federal jury hit a cannabis software company with a $4.2 million judgment in a lawsuit from a subcontractor claiming it was brought on to help with a government project because of its Black-owned status, then pushed out of the $10 million deal.
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December 12, 2024
BakerHostetler Can't Ditch RICO Claims In Bankruptcy Fight
A Texas bankruptcy judge Wednesday trimmed fraud and legal malpractice claims alleging BakerHostetler aided a $100 million insurance fraud scheme, but he refused to throw out civil racketeering claims, finding that the allegations are "well-pleaded," and he must assume, for now, that they're true.
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December 12, 2024
Anti-Abortion Activists Say Clinic Pushed Bogus Hack Claim
The lawyer for an anti-abortion "pregnancy crisis center" on Thursday accused a Massachusetts abortion provider of knowingly filing a "far-fetched" complaint falsely accusing his clients of computer hacking, after the plaintiffs said they will be dropping those allegations but adding new claims in an amended complaint.
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December 12, 2024
MOVEit Data Breach MDL Survives Dismissal Bid
Progress Software and a group of more than 100 businesses, healthcare providers and government agencies can't end a putative class action over a data breach tied to Progress' MOVEIt file transfer tool, a Massachusetts federal judge said Thursday.
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December 12, 2024
Judge Troubled By Conduct Of Pot Farmer And State Officials
A federal judge said this week that he's concerned by the "tone and tenor" that both a medical marijuana cultivator and Oklahoma law enforcement officials have taken in a case involving millions of dollars' worth of farm equipment destroyed during an erroneous raid, saying he's going to be looking closely at the conduct of all parties.
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December 11, 2024
Pot Farmer Opposes Sanctions In Suit Over Mistaken Raid
An Oklahoma medical marijuana cultivator whose property was destroyed when state drug enforcers mistakenly raided his legal farm is pushing back on efforts to hit him with sanctions for allegedly being belligerent during a deposition, telling a federal court that he's offered to sit down for a second round of questioning.
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December 11, 2024
Law Firm Manager Gets Prison For Bribes In No-Fault Scam
A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday hit a former law firm manager with a five-year prison sentence for paying $800,000 in bribes that fueled a $70 million no-fault automobile insurance fraud racket, saying his lawbreaking "was massive in scope."
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December 09, 2024
Condom Co. Says Rival Owes $744K In 'Naked' IP Dispute
A U.S.-based condom company told a Florida federal judge during a bench trial on Monday that an Australian rival owes at least $744,000 in attorney fees after losing in a dispute over use of the trademark "naked," saying the two had made a formal agreement but didn't memorialize it in writing.
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December 09, 2024
HIPAA Doesn't Require Interview Alerts, Mich. Panel Says
A trial judge should not have forced an assisted living facility to notify a resident suing it for medical malpractice about which healthcare providers it was interviewing in ex parte meetings, a Michigan appeals panel has ruled.
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December 09, 2024
Ohio Justices Uphold Dialysis Co.'s Tax Liability On Services
A dialysis company's receipts from laboratory tests and certain administrative costs should be sourced to Ohio, the state's highest court ruled Monday, rejecting the company's arguments that they should be sourced to other states where employees handling that part of the business performed work.
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December 09, 2024
High Court Won't Hear Zimmer Biomet Royalties Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday shot down Zimmer Biomet Holdings' challenge to the Seventh Circuit's finding that the company shouldn't have stopped paying royalties on knee replacement devices it developed using an orthopedic surgeon's various patents after those patents expired.
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December 06, 2024
Hospital Insists Colo. Justices Should Allow Lien Discovery
A Colorado hospital facing a class action alleging that it unlawfully filed liens against patients without first billing insurers told the state Supreme Court this week that a discovery order requiring a plaintiff to turn over information related to a car accident is directly relevant to whether class members actually suffered harm meriting a class action.
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December 06, 2024
Black Doctor Says BCBS Axed Her From Network Due To Race
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan wrongfully terminated a Black dermatologist from its network of health providers because of her race, the doctor told a Michigan federal court, alleging the health insurer terminated her after it claimed her "error rate" in billing was too high.
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December 05, 2024
Atlanta VA Surgeon Botched Routine Hysterectomy, Suit Says
A patient at the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Medical Center has sued the government in Georgia federal court over claims that a doctor at the facility negligently stitched her bowel wall to her vaginal wall during a routine laparoscopic hysterectomy and disregarded signs of serious complications in the surgery's aftermath.
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December 04, 2024
7th Circ. Asks If Feds Went Too Far In $25M Kickback Case
The Seventh Circuit questioned where it should draw the line between "perfectly legal" and improper marketing conduct Wednesday as it considered vacating a medical equipment pharmacy owner's conviction for running an alleged $25 million kickback scheme with a patient-leads broker.
Expert Analysis
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How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources
Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.
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Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.
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The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO
The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.
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Webuild Ruling Complicates Arb. Award Enforcement In US
A Delaware federal court's recent decision in Sociedad Concesionaria Metropolitana de Salud v. Webuild, if read literally, could undercut the United States' image as a proarbitration jurisdiction by complicating creditors' efforts to enforce awards against property in this country, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.
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Tobacco Surcharge Suits Spotlight Wellness Reg Compliance
A mounting wave of tobacco-user surcharge litigation against employee benefit plans highlights compliance challenges associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act wellness regulations, and reminds plan sponsors to ask existential questions about the utility of their wellness programs, say Finn Pressly and Lesley Wolf at Ballard Spahr.
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The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.
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8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.
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This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.