Thread Count Claims Clear, 9th Circ. Says, Reviving Target Suit

By Emily Field

The Ninth Circuit on Friday found that a lower court erred in dismissing a proposed class action alleging that Target Corp. sold bedsheets claiming to be 100% cotton with a thread count of 600 or more, which can't be achieved with purely cotton fabric, saying that a reasonable consumer can still be deceived by a physically impossible claim.

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California Is Latest Battleground In Defining Access To Justice

By Brandon Lowrey

A pair of dueling California ballot initiatives both purport to increase consumers' access to justice — a righteous cause, most would say. If only the initiatives' backers agreed on what that means.

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Judge Resets Investors' Lead Counsel In Globe Life Suit

By Sydney Price

A Texas federal judge has reset the leadership structure in consolidated shareholder derivative litigation involving Globe Life Insurance Inc., granting the Plymouth County Retirement Association's bid to serve as sole lead plaintiff and appointing Scott + Scott Attorneys at Law LLP and Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP as sole co-lead counsel.

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Psychiatrist Challenges Uber Rider's Memory In Assault Trial

By Hayley Fowler

A psychiatrist testified Friday that a North Carolina woman who has accused an Uber driver of sexually assaulting her in 2019 has "pervasive" memory issues due to her history of substance abuse, telling a Charlotte federal jury she is a "pretty poor historian of her own history."

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4th Circ. Says Merrill Bonus Plan Exempt From ERISA

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Fourth Circuit on Friday refused to revive an ex-Merrill financial adviser's proposed class action claiming he was shorted deferred compensation, backing a lower court's holding that the retention bonuses at issue were exempt from federal benefits law.

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Lockheed Can't Slip Workers' 401(k) Self-Dealing Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

Lockheed Martin can't escape a proposed class action alleging the company breached fiduciary duties under federal benefits law by offering underperforming proprietary target-date fund offerings in several employee 401(k) plans worth approximately $50 billion, after a New Jersey federal judge largely refused to toss the dispute.

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Brief

BofA, Ex-Workers Get OK For Boot-Up Time Deal

By MJ Koo

A North Carolina federal judge has approved a settlement resolving a wage suit alleging that Bank of America Corp. failed to pay workers for time spent booting up and shutting down their computers before and after their shifts.

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Property Manager Hit With OT, Face Scan Privacy Class Action

By Isaac Monterose

A proposed class action filed in Illinois federal court accuses a multifamily property management company of deliberately paying its employees less overtime by making them work off the clock and of using technology to collect their face scans without written consent.

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Systemic Bias Norm At Taiwan Semiconductor, Engineer Says

By Rachel Riley

A software engineer for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has alleged the microchip-maker systematically discriminates against women by hiring them less frequently than men, underpaying women and fostering a "sexually-charged environment" rife with innuendo and harassment.

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Caitlyn Jenner's Crypto Token Isn't A Security, Judge Says

By Katryna Perera

A California federal judge has permanently tossed a proposed class action against Caitlyn Jenner over the $JENNER cryptocurrency token she created and promoted, finding that the digital assets in question are not securities.

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Rocket Lab Beats Investor Suit Over Launch Timeline For Good

By Katryna Perera

A California federal judge has permanently tossed a proposed shareholder class action alleging that Rocket Lab USA Inc. and its top brass intentionally concealed issues that would delay the test and commercial launches of a vehicle it developed, finding that the suit did not adequately allege a motive for fraud by the defendants.

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Norfolk Slams Investors' Cert. Bid In Rail Safety Claims Suit

By Gina Kim

Norfolk Southern opposed a class certification bid in Georgia federal court Thursday by investors alleging it misrepresented safety practices up until the fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, arguing the lead plaintiffs' claims are atypical and, accordingly, are inadequate representatives for those who bought company stock after the derailment.

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AI Health Co. Illegally Shared Genetic Data, Patients Say

By Celeste Bott

A healthcare company powered by artificial intelligence violated Illinois' genetic privacy law and other consumer protection laws by compelling a genetic testing business it acquired to disclose patients' genetic information, which it then shared through data agreements with pharmaceutical giants such as Eli Lilly and AbbVie, a lawsuit in Illinois federal court says.

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Security Camera Co. Tracks, Shares Website Activity, Suit Says

By Nadia Dreid

Home security camera company Wyze has been sued in Washington federal court for allegedly tracking and sharing the activity of people who visit its website with social media companies like TikTok and Meta, even if they reject all nonessential cookies.

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UPS Slapped With Suit Seeking Refunds For 'Illegal' Tariffs

By Kelcey Caulder

United Parcel Service Inc. should have to repay consumers for the tariffs they paid on certain imported products following the U.S. Supreme Court's holding that those tariffs weren't authorized by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to a proposed class action filed in Georgia federal court.

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Kenvue Says Shea & Cocoa Butter Oil Is Accurately Labeled

By Gina Kim

Kenvue urged a New Jersey federal court to nix a proposed class action alleging its shea and cocoa butter oil is deceptively advertised, as it's primarily made with a petroleum byproduct, arguing Thursday the front label truthfully identifies it as an oil enriched with shea and cocoa butter. 

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Aston Martin file an appeal in a row with Chinese carmaker Geely over its winged logo for London black cabs, Ineos sue Ben Ainslie's America's Cup team for a £180 million ($244 million) boat, White & Case face a claim from two energy storage companies, and a golf tour company bring a claim against Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund after the fund invested in its rival.

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Doc Says Texas Man Can't Sue Over Mailed Abortion Pills

By Mark Payne

A Texas man suing his ex-girlfriend's out-of-state doctor for prescribing mail-order abortion pills can't prove that the doctor caused the wrongful death of their unborn child, the doctor told a federal court, saying the case should be dismissed because he's not responsible for the woman's actions. 

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Fanatics Unit Says Bettor Can't Enforce Wagering Limits Rule  

By Melanie Dorsey

A Fanatics sportsbook affiliate has urged a Michigan federal court to deny a bettor's bid for partial summary judgment, arguing that he has no private right to enforce the state gaming rule at issue, lacks standing to assert claims under other states' laws and sought judgment before discovery had even begun.

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What AI Analysis Can Reveal About Securities Class Actions

AI-based reviews of complaint text can enhance securities litigation analysis by enabling more systematic identification of comparable class actions and by improving the accuracy of settlement amount predictions, particularly in larger cases, say Mark Howrey and Emma Dong at Analysis Group.

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2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.

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Black McDermott Atty Says White Men Favored For Partner

By Lauren Berg

A Black female McDermott Will & Schulte attorney accused the firm of gender, race and pregnancy discrimination in a lawsuit lodged in California state court, saying she has been consistently bypassed for promotion by less-experienced white attorneys and was yanked off casework after taking medical leave following a life-threatening illness during pregnancy.

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'Kind Of Lawyering We Don't Like': Judge Rips Quinn Emanuel

By Bonnie Eslinger

Guardant Health Inc. urged a California federal judge on Monday to make Quinn Emanuel pay nearly $1.3 million on top of $3 million in sanctions already imposed over misrepresentations lawyers made representing its rival Natera Inc., prompting the judge to criticize Quinn Emanuel lawyers for making distinctions so fine they veer into misrepresentation.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fish & Richardson's Nitika Gupta Fiorella

By Dani Kass

Fish & Richardson PC principal Nitika Gupta Fiorella is "a no-stone-unturned, always super prepared" lawyer who "epitomizes professionalism and respect," according to Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP partner Cora Holt.

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Fox Lawyer In Dominion Case Confirmed To Texas Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-46 Monday evening to confirm Andrew Davis, a partner at Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP who defended Fox News in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case, to serve on the bench in the Western District of Texas.

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Justices Won't Consider IP Theft Allegations Against Akin

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a former Cornell University graduate student's petition trying to revive his malpractice suit against Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP stemming from patent litigation against Illumina Inc. over DNA sequencing intellectual property.

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DC Ethics Office Says Ex-Interim US Atty Can't Remove Case

By Emily Sawicki

Washington, D.C., ethics officials have asked a federal court to send U.S. Department of Justice official Ed Martin's ethics case back to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, arguing the D.C. federal court lacks jurisdiction over a disciplinary matter, which is neither a civil action nor a criminal prosecution.

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Ex-Newman Clerks, Judges Back High Court Suspension Fight

By Adam Lidgett

A group of former clerks for Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, as well as former federal judges, have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the challenge to her suspension imposed by her colleagues.

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Insurer Intentionally Avoiding $200M Loan Claim, Court Told

By Hope Patti

A litigation funding firm has accused its insurer of wrongfully refusing to pay out its policy's guaranteed $200 million in coverage for an unpaid loan, saying the insurer buried it in duplicative and burdensome information requests to avoid paying a valid claim.

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Judge Says Ill. Justices Can't Fire Him Over MAGA Op-Ed

By Jack Karp

Illinois Supreme Court justices have no authority to remove a state judge from the bench for alleged misconduct, so their effort to dismiss a retired state trial judge's claims that his removal for penning a political opinion column violated his constitutional rights should be rejected, the retired jurist has said.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week delivered another mix of procedural rulings, fiduciary duty disputes and deal litigation, highlighting both the court's gatekeeping role and its continued focus on stockholder rights and transactional fairness.

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