Hagens Berman Sanctioned For Bot Errors In OnlyFans Case

By Emily Sawicki

A California federal judge sanctioned Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for submitting four briefs that contained errors blamed on ChatGPT while representing OnlyFans users pursuing proposed class fraud claims against the online platform, tossing the suit but allowing the users a chance to refile.

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2 Firms Tapped To Lead Class Suit Against Vans Shoes Parent

By Katryna Perera

A Colorado federal judge on Tuesday consolidated two securities class actions against outdoor apparel company VF Corp. and appointed Levi & Korsinsky LLP and Pomerantz LLP as co-lead counsel in the merged suit, which claims VFC misled investors about the progress it made on a corporate turnaround strategy meant to return its shoe brand Vans to positive growth.

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Va. Judge Advances Most Claims In Stelara Antitrust Case

By Elliot Weld

A Virginia federal judge has allowed health insurer CareFirst's anticompetition and patent fraud claims against Johnson & Johnson to move forward in a case alleging anticompetitive behavior in relation to the immunosuppressive drug Stelara, while letting the pharmaceutical giant escape some claims of misrepresentation.

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'Choking Challenge' Suit Against YouTube, TikTok Is Tossed

By Mike Curley

A California federal judge has dismissed without leave to amend a suit by parents and an advocacy group alleging YouTube and TikTok's reporting and moderating tools are defective and fail to take down dangerous videos, saying the complaint suffers from the same deficiencies that got a previous version dismissed.

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$1.4M Deal In Workers' 401(k) Fee Suit Gets Initial OK

By Chart Riggall

A California federal judge gave initial approval to a $1.4 million settlement that would end claims that security firm Allied Universal levied excessive fees on its workers' retirement accounts.

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Merck Sued Over Time Rounding, OT Averaging At NC Plant

By Benjamin Morse

A Merck manufacturing facility in North Carolina rounded workers' time to short them on pay, averaged out overtime across two weeks and fired an operator technician because of his sleep apnea, the worker told a federal court in a proposed class and collective action against the pharmaceutical giant.

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B. Riley Must Face Investor Suit Over Alleged Fraud Losses

By Sydney Price

A California federal judge has allowed to move forward a proposed investor class action accusing B. Riley Financial Inc. of failing to disclose risks related to its dealings with Brian Kahn, an investment manager who recently pled guilty to securities fraud, though some company executives were allowed to escape the suit.

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Digital Marketing Co. Ibotta Seeks To Ditch Suit Over IPO

By Emilie Ruscoe

Digital consumer discount company Ibotta Inc. and its brass and underwriters seek to shed a consolidated proposed investor class action alleging the company misled investors in the lead-up to its 2024 initial public offering, arguing that it properly disclosed certain risks that later purportedly affected trading prices for its shares.

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Pepsi Boosted Prices For Walmart Rivals, Antitrust Suit Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A proposed consumer antitrust class action against Pepsi and Walmart was filed in New York federal court on Monday, days after an unsealed Federal Trade Commission lawsuit abandoned by the Republican-controlled FTC showed the agency previously accused the soda giant of giving Walmart discounts denied to the retailer's rivals.

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PVC Pipe Buyers Defend Price-Fix Conspiracy Claims

By Lauraann Wood

Polyvinyl chloride pipe purchasers say they've alleged more than enough to show a Chicago federal judge that certain manufacturers participated in a plausible and illegal price-fixing conspiracy, urging the court to let their consolidated action proceed to discovery.

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Six Flags Can't Escape Privacy Suit Over Website Tracking

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge has refused to release Six Flags Entertainment Corp. from a proposed class action accusing it of illegally allowing third parties to track the browsing activities of visitors to its Cedar Point amusement park website, finding that the plaintiff had sufficiently asserted an array of claims for invasion of privacy, wiretap, fraud and unjust enrichment.

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Judge Trims Ziff Davis Copyright Claims In OpenAI MDL

By Elliot Weld

A Manhattan federal judge has dismissed part of a suit from digital media publisher Ziff Davis Inc. against OpenAI alleging that its chatbot ChatGPT was trained on copyrighted content scraped from the internet and gives re-creations of those works when prompted.

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Mass. Judge Considers Nixing 3rd-Country Removal Accounts

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge said he may strike accounts detailing the experiences of noncitizens removed to countries where they have no ties as he considers whether the federal government's third-country removal policy is unlawful.

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Feds Say Nat'l Guard Shooting Warrants Special Visa Pause

By Ganesh Setty

The Trump administration asked a D.C. federal court to pause its processing of special immigrant visas for Iraqi and Afghan individuals who assisted American troops overseas, pointing to the November shooting of two National Guard troops near the White House.

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9th Circ. Ruling Clarifies Auditor Liability For IPO Errors

The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Hunt v. PricewaterhouseCoopers elucidates the legal standard for claims against auditors in connection with a company's initial public offering, confirming that audit opinions are subjective and becoming the first circuit to review this precise question since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 Omnicare ruling, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Opinion

A Uniform Federal Rule Would Curb Gen AI Missteps In Court

To address the patchwork of courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence, curbing abuses and relieving the burden on judges, the federal judiciary should consider amending its civil procedure rules to require litigants to certify they’ve reviewed legal filings for accuracy, say attorneys at Shook Hardy.

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Bonus Spotlight

Susman Godfrey Bests Market With Bonuses Of Up To $280K

By Andrea Keckley

Susman Godfrey LLP announced on Tuesday that it is topping New York's bonus scale with payouts that range from a median of $120,000 for first-year associates to a median of $280,000 for the most senior associates.

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Kasowitz Hid Plummeting Profits From Ex-Partner, Suit Says

By Andrea Keckley

A former Kasowitz LLP partner has accused the firm and its founder, renowned litigator Marc Kasowitz, of misrepresenting its finances and failing to pay him the millions he is owed in a lawsuit in New York state court, alleging the firm's profits have plummeted due to poor management.

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DOJ Says NY Court Can't Handle Maurene Comey Firing Suit

By Adrian Cruz

The U.S. Department of Justice has said former prosecutor Maurene Comey's suit challenging the circumstances of her firing should be dismissed, arguing that it is an attempt to sidestep the Civil Service Reform Act.

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Fired Top Antitrust Official Warns Of 'Politicization'

By Courtney Bublé

The former No. 2 at the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division until he was terminated this year testified Tuesday about the "politicization" of antitrust enforcement.

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Levona Says New Docs Show Reed Smith Lied In $102M Feud

By Emily Sawicki

Levona Holdings Ltd. is pressing a Manhattan federal court to vacate what it calls a fraudulent $102 million arbitral award issued to international shipping company Eletson, arguing that new documents released under the crime-fraud exception show that the company and its prior attorneys at Reed Smith LLP lied during the arbitration.

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Ex-State High Court Chiefs Start Group To Defend Rule Of Law

By Jake Maher

A group of over 40 former chief judges of state supreme courts across the country this week launched a new project to speak out against attacks on the judiciary's independence and educate about the rule of law. 

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Quinn Emanuel Fee Fight Bound For Texas Or Mass. Court

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge is weighing whether to kick Quinn Emanuel's bid for $30 million in legal fees from a former client's parent company, Nano Dimension Ltd., to state court or to the Texas bankruptcy court where the client is undergoing Chapter 11 proceedings.

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Bullivant Houser Files For Ch. 11 After November Closure

By Rose Krebs

The now-shuttered Bullivant Houser Bailey PC has filed for Chapter 11 protection in California, with its chief dissolution officer saying the bankruptcy was filed so the firm can liquidate its assets as it continues "an orderly wind-down" of its operations.

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Corporate Transparency Act Is Constitutional, 11th Circ. Says

By Kevin Pinner

The Corporate Transparency Act is constitutional because it regulates economic activities with a substantial impact on interstate commerce and doesn't violate protections against unreasonable searches, the Eleventh Circuit said Tuesday, reversing a lower court's decision.

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