Analysis

False-Statement Case Puts Comey In Rare Company

By Phillip Bantz

Former FBI director James Comey is the latest addition to the relatively short list of government officials who have been criminally charged over the past several decades with making false statements to Congress.

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Jenn Mascott Of WH Counsel's Office Confirmed To 3rd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 50-47 on Thursday to confirm Jenn Mascott, currently serving in the White House Counsel's Office, to the Delaware seat on the Third Circuit.

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9th Circ. Changes Stance On Appeals Of Anti-SLAPP Denials

By Hailey Konnath

The full Ninth Circuit on Thursday held that denials of California anti-SLAPP motions can no longer be appealed in the midst of litigation, diverging from 22-year-old circuit precedent and finding that such orders aren't immediately appealable because they don't resolve issues "completely separate from the merits."

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7th Circ. Nominee Taibleson Advances To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced on party lines the nomination of Rebecca Taibleson, a federal prosecutor in Wisconsin, to serve on the Seventh Circuit, as well as four district judicial nominees and five U.S. attorney nominees.

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Alex Jones Wants Justices To Pause $1.4B Sandy Hook Award

By Hailey Konnath

Infowars host Alex Jones has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay enforcement of a Connecticut court judgment awarding more than $1 billion to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, arguing that he has faith in the high court overturning the judgment against him.

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Tort Report: Nuked 'Nuclear Verdict' Stays, Texas Justices Say

By Y. Peter Kang

The fate of a "nuclear verdict" that was used to jump-start tort reform campaigns across the country and a settlement of a suit over a Kiss guitar technician's death lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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Justices Urged To Clarify Patent Validity In Entresto Case

By Ryan Davis

Generic-drug makers, academics and others are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take a case involving Novartis' blockbuster cardiovascular drug Entresto, saying the justices must bring consistency to conflicting Federal Circuit precedent on the role of later technology in assessing patent validity.

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Whistleblower Asks High Court To Revive NASA Fraud Case

By Madeline Lyskawa

A whistleblower is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to revive a False Claims Act suit accusing a NASA contractor of overbilling, arguing that the Sixth Circuit wrongly let the government dismiss the case without considering the whistleblower's time and money commitment.

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Fed. Circ. Gets Shutdown Extension For Newman Response

By Ryan Davis

The D.C. Circuit on Thursday gave the judges on the Federal Circuit an extension until after the government shutdown ends to respond to Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's request for the rehearing of a decision upholding the dismissal of her suit against the colleagues who suspended her.

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Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB Wins For Samsung In Earpiece Cases

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday shot down appeals of a series of Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions that found claims across three patents covering earpieces and attached microphone technology invalid.

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USPTO Says Overturned PTAB Invalidation Can't Be Appealed

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is urging the Federal Circuit to turn away an appeal from Verizon Connect Inc., whose successful challenge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board was overridden by the acting director.

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Brief

Fed. Circ. Affirms Contractor Is Due Money For COVID Delays

By Madeline Lyskawa

The Federal Circuit on Thursday backed an Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals decision finding the government must compensate a contractor for fees incurred during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, just days after hearing oral argument. 

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2nd Circ. Says Immigration Board Ignored Torture Evidence

By Tom Lotshaw

The Board of Immigration Appeals glossed over evidence and failed to justify its decision to overturn an immigration judge who granted an El Salvador man protection from removal under the Convention Against Torture, a Second Circuit panel said.

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ADA Doesn't Stop At Prison Gates, 3rd Circ. Says In Reversal

By Parker Quinlan

The Third Circuit ordered a lower court to accept an incarcerated man's amended Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit against a Pennsylvania prison that he says denied him proper medical treatment when a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed in his cell.

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Patient Asks 4th Circ. To Revive Faulty Ethicon Stapler Suit

By Mike Curley

A surgery patient is asking the Fourth Circuit to reinstate his suit against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery LLC over faulty staples used in his procedure, saying the district court was wrong to deny his request to extend an expert deadline after he finally narrowed down the type of stapler used.

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5th Circ. Says Army Corps Didn't Harm Dolphins In Miss.

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' operation of a spillway likely did not cause harm to bottlenose dolphins in the Mississippi Sound, saying Thursday that local governments failed to demonstrate how continued use would harm the marine mammals.

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6th Circ. Says Facebook Posts About Firm Not Defamation

By Emily Sawicki

The Sixth Circuit has declined to revive a defamation suit over social media posts alleging an unethical connection between a New Jersey-headquartered law firm and members of the Flint, Michigan, city council.

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Judge Seeks NCAA Ruling's Impact On Tenn. Player's Suit

By David Steele

With an appeal by the NCAA over an injunction permitting Vanderbilt University quarterback Diego Pavia to continue playing football tossed out by the Sixth Circuit last week, a Tennessee federal judge has given the NCAA and a former college basketball player until Oct. 30 to explain how the ruling affects a separate challenge to the organization's eligibility rules.

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Nissan, Drivers Reach Deal To End Faulty Brake Claims

By Emily Field

Nissan North America Inc. and drivers on Thursday reached a settlement in principle in Tennessee federal court that would end multistate claims alleging the automatic braking systems in certain Nissan vehicles would sometimes trigger and cause the cars to stop suddenly, creating an unpredictable hazard.

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7th Circ. Denies Rehearing In Harley-Davidson Warranty Case

By Matthew Perlman

The Seventh Circuit again affirmed the dismissal of customers' challenge to terms and conditions in Harley-Davidson's motorcycle warranties that limit coverage when third-party parts are used.

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9th Circ. Probes Buyers On HIV Drug Antitrust Claims

By Matthew Perlman

Insurers and health plans told a Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday that a lower court was wrong to toss their claims that Gilead orchestrated a product-hop scheme for its HIV drugs ahead of trial and for not seeing a price drop as evidence of an alleged agreement with Teva to delay generics.

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Feds Urge 9th Circ. To Allow Portland Troop Deployment

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit panel appeared split Thursday on the Trump administration's bid to preserve its ability to send Oregon National Guard members to Portland, with one judge suggesting the president's decision is entitled to deference and another panelist skeptical that the federal government would suffer harm if the deployment plan is tabled.

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Biotronik Wants Full 9th Circ. Review Of Whistleblower Ruling

By Tom Lotshaw

Biotronik Inc. urged the full Ninth Circuit to review a panel ruling that revived a whistleblower suit alleging the company used unlawful compensation tactics to boost heart-device sales, saying it should have been tossed based on prior disclosures in news articles.

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Anti-Union Firm Joins Fight Against Calif. Cannabis Labor Law

By Emily Brill

An anti-union group has thrown its weight behind a cannabis retailer's challenge to a California law that requires marijuana businesses to sign labor peace agreements with unions, arguing before the Ninth Circuit that the law is preempted by the National Labor Relations Act.

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Brokerage Urges 10th Circ. To Revive NAR Antitrust Suit

By Isaac Monterose

A residential brokerage startup has pushed the Tenth Circuit to reinstate its permanently dismissed antitrust suit against the National Association of Realtors and multiple brokerages, which were accused in Utah federal court of conspiring against the startup because it offered lower buyer-broker commission fees.

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Florida Says Its Immigration Law Doesn't Preempt Federal Law

By Carolina Bolado

Florida asked the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday to overturn a block on a state law that criminalizes the entry of unauthorized immigrants into the state, arguing that there is no preemption of federal immigration law.

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Longtime Top NY State Judge In Brooklyn To Retire

By Frank G. Runyeon

Longtime New York state Judge Lawrence Knipel told Law360 that he will retire next month with plans to go into commercial law and mediation after 35 years on the bench.

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Calif. Sentence Reform Laws Act 'Harmoniously,' Justices Say

By Brandon Lowrey

The California Supreme Court on Thursday held that prisoners up for sentence reductions under a recent law may also be eligible to have their indeterminate life terms thrown out under the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 during resentencing, saying the laws "operate harmoniously."

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Former California Solicitor General Joins WilmerHale In SF

By James Mills

WilmerHale is expanding its appellate team, announcing Thursday it is bringing in the former California solicitor general as a partner in its San Francisco office starting in early December.

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Top Texas Court Halts Execution In Shaken Baby Case

By Marco Poggio

Texas' top criminal court on Thursday paused the execution of a man convicted of killing his daughter under the discredited "shaken baby syndrome" theory, ordering a trial court to consider whether a recent ruling in another capital case involving the same theory could justify granting a new trial.

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Paxton Can Move To Close Houston Nonprofit, Panel Says

By Gina Kim

Texas appellate court justices on Thursday said Attorney General Ken Paxton can initiate legal proceedings to take away an immigrant-led nonprofit's corporate charter and tax-exempt status, noting his allegations claiming it failed to comply with its purpose by engaging in political activities show there's probable ground to proceed. 

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Texas Justices Weigh $26M Fracking Water Pipeline Verdict

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Supreme Court pushed Equinor Energy LP on Thursday to explain how language in a contract gave it the right to seek water for fracking from other sources, asking why the company should get out of a $26 million verdict.

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Brief

San Antonio Abandons Out-Of-State Abortion Travel Appeal

By Spencer Brewer

The city of San Antonio on Thursday conceded defeat in its request for court approval to go forward with a program that included funding for out-of-state travel for abortions, handing a victory to the state's attorney general.

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Fla. High Court Hears Ex-Marvel CEO's Punitive Damages Bid

By David Minsky

The former CEO of Marvel Entertainment on Thursday urged the Florida Supreme Court to revive his punitive damages claim over the secret collection of his wife's DNA in connection to a hate letter campaign, arguing his client was wrongfully held to a higher burden in order to establish the claim. 

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Pa. Court Nixes Gun Shop Rules In Town's Zoning Code

By Matthew Santoni

A Pennsylvania town's "conditional use" zoning requirements that restrict gun shops operating in certain parts of town are preempted by laws that say only the state Legislature can regulate guns, a split state appellate court found Thursday.

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NJ Justices Probe Insurer's Role In $12M Settlement Fight

By Carla Baranauckas

The New Jersey Supreme Court zeroed in Thursday on how far insurers can go in reserving their rights without taking a definitive position on coverage, as Mist Pharmaceuticals LLC accused Berkley Insurance Co. of stonewalling a $12 million settlement by hiding behind ambiguity in its "capacity exclusion" clause.

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Tire-Maker Takes 13 Revived Asbestos Suits To NC High Court

By Hayley Fowler

Continental Tire is asking North Carolina's top court to review whether more than a dozen workers' compensation cases linked to alleged asbestos exposure at one of its factories should carry on, saying the claimants cannot skirt the results of a bellwether trial.

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Ga. Panel Revives Broad & Cassel Malpractice Claims

By Chart Riggall

The Georgia Court of Appeals has partially revived a legal malpractice suit filed against Broad & Cassel LLP over allegations that one of its partners blew an auto dealership's lawsuit in the midst of a mental health crisis, ruling that the claims may not have been filed too late after all.

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Ga. Panel Considers Reviving Suit Over Fatal Work Fall

By Kelcey Caulder

The family of a man who fell to his death at SK Battery America Inc.'s lithium-ion battery production plant in Commerce, Georgia, on Thursday urged the state's intermediate appellate court to revive the case, arguing a trial court wrongly granted summary judgment to SK and its contractors.

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McKesson Aims To Escape Dealer Claims In Overdose Death

By Chart Riggall

Pharmaceutical distributor McKesson urged the Georgia Court of Appeals Thursday to throw out a suit trying to hold the company liable for a man's prescription opioid overdose death, arguing that allowing it to go forward would wrongly expand the scope of liability under a statute designed to punish illegal drug dealers.

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Mich. Justice Eyes Scope Of Judge-As-Grand-Jury Issue

By Danielle Ferguson

Michigan's chief Supreme Court justice on Thursday pondered the real-world implications of retroactively applying a 2022 ruling that judges cannot act as a one-person grand jury to issue indictments, saying the practice seems to have grown more prevalent.

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Mich. Justices Mull Tort Damages Bar For Nonresident Drivers

By Carolyn Muyskens

Members of Michigan's Supreme Court on Thursday expressed reservations about an intermediate appellate court's decision that nonresidents who fail to carry Michigan insurance for a vehicle they regularly drive in the state can recover tort damages after a car accident.

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Mich. Justices Urged To Restore Diminished Capacity Defense

By Carolyn Muyskens

A lawyer for a man awaiting trial for murder told the Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday that a jury deserves to hear that his client was mentally ill and possibly suffering from delusions, urging the court to lift a decades-old bar on so-called diminished capacity evidence.

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Wash. High Court Rules Tribe Is Immune From Property Claim

By Ben Adlin

Washington's Supreme Court on Thursday sided with the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians in a dispute over land rights, ruling that the federally recognized tribe is immune from a lawsuit filed by a farm seeking to wrest ownership of a piece of property along the Stillaguamish River.

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Va. Panel Nixes $2.5M Med Mal Verdict Over Jury Instruction

By Mike Curley

A Virginia state appeals court has overturned a $2.5 million verdict awarded to a woman who sued an anesthesiologist because he did not provide anesthesia before her cesarean section, finding that the jury should have been given an instruction on superseding cause.

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Justices May Decide Whether Restitution Is A Punishment

Forthcoming oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Ellingburg v. U.S. will focus on whether criminal restitution qualifies as criminal punishment under the U.S. Constitution — a key question as restitution has expanded in reach and severity, while providing little meaningful compensation for victims, says Lula Hagos at George Washington University Law School.

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Series

Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Painting trains me to see both the fine detail and the whole composition at once, enabling me to identify friction points while keeping sight of a client's bigger vision, but the most significant lesson I've brought to my legal work has been the value of originality, says Jana Gouchev at Gouchev Law.

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Up Next At High Court: Voting Rights & Warrantless Entries

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will return Tuesday to hear oral arguments in four cases, including a dispute over the constitutionality of the last remaining provision of the Voting Right Act and whether federal prisoners seeking postconviction relief are subject to the same rules as state inmates.

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Atty's Due Process Claims Challenging Disbarments Trimmed

By Emily Sawicki

A former attorney has had most of a due process suit fighting his disbarment in Florida and reciprocal discipline in Massachusetts and New York thrown out, with a Manhattan federal judge finding that New York lacks personal jurisdiction over out-of-state disciplinary officials.

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CFTC Crypto Task Force Head Returns To Akin

By Aislinn Keely

The former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Digital Asset Task Force has left the agency to return to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as senior counsel in its white collar defense and government investigations practice.

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9th Circ. Flouting 'Imperial Judiciary' Warning, Judges Assert

By Jeff Overley

A large contingent of Ninth Circuit judges accused colleagues Friday of ignoring recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting legal remedies in politically charged disputes, adding fresh fuel to a heated debate over the judiciary's handling of suits against the Trump administration.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Paddington Bear's creators and Studio Canal sue the company behind Spitting Image, Blackpool Football Club's former owner Owen Oyston bring a fresh claim against the club, and Mishcon de Reya sue a Saudi investment group.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the full Ninth Circuit held that denials of California anti-SLAPP motions can no longer be appealed in the midst of litigation.

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NJ Senate President Calls For Monitor Of State AG Unit

By Madison Arnold

New Jersey Senate President Nicholas Scutari on Friday called for the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the state's Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, saying it has been troubled with failed prosecutions, botched investigations and misconduct.

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Ga. Judge Charged With DUI At Florida Strip Club

By Chart Riggall

The Georgia judge who heads up the state's council of superior court jurists was arrested for driving under the influence outside a Jacksonville, Florida, strip club this week after hitting another vehicle with his Mercedes, according to arrest records.

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Brief

Bill Would Let Judges, Prosecutors Carry Concealed Guns

By Courtney Bublé

Two Republicans have introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow current and retired federal judges and state, local and federal prosecutors to carry concealed firearms in response to increasing concerns about judicial security.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

It is of little solace to general counsel that most big law firms hiked their billing rates this year just slightly less than last year's increase. And it looks like Elon Musk is settling with the former chief legal officer and the general counsel of Twitter, along with two other executives, over their suit to obtain millions in promised severance pay. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Retribution, Intent Claims May Defuse Bombshell James Case

By Phillip Bantz

The Trump administration's indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James is tightly crafted and offers a straightforward presentation of the government's case, but experts say James appears to have a strong argument that she did not intend to break the law and is being unfairly targeted for what amounts to a minor offense.

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