Citi Investors Can't Have New Shot At Suit Over $400M Fine

By Jon Hill

A New York federal judge has declined to revive a proposed securities fraud class action that accused Citigroup of concealing risk-management failures that led to a $400 million fine, ruling that investors' revamped complaint remains too thin to sustain the case.

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Law School Admission Council Pushes To Toss Antitrust Suit

By Andrea Keckley

The Law School Admission Council is continuing its push to toss a proposed class action accusing it of fixing application fees with its member schools, saying in a Pennsylvania federal court filing last week that the applicant's opposition to its dismissal motion "entirely fails to engage with the incoherence at the core of his case."

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Sunoco Gets $75M Knocked Off $180M Oil Royalty Ruling

By Hailey Konnath

The Tenth Circuit on Monday partially upheld a nearly $180 million judgment against Sunoco Inc. for withholding late interest payments on oil royalties to Oklahoma landowners, leaving in place a $103.9 million compensatory damages award for the landowners but striking $75 million in punitive damages.

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Tesla Wins Bid To Unwind Class In Race Harassment Suit

By Grace Elletson

A California judge said a class of thousands of Black workers should be disbanded in a suit alleging rampant racist harassment at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, after the workers' lawyers faced difficulty in securing witness testimony and asked the court for a new trial plan. 

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GOP States Urge Justices To Clarify Collective Cert. Standard

By Patrick Hoff

A coalition of 21 states and two business groups told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that lower courts' allegedly premature certification of collective actions drives up the cost of litigation and forces employers into multimillion-dollar settlements, backing Eli Lilly & Co. in a worker's age bias case.

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Brief

NY Beer Distributor To Pay $1M In Drivers' OT Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

A New York-based beer distributor has agreed to pay $1 million to more than 1,675 drivers and helpers who claimed they were not properly paid overtime under state law, the workers told a federal court, asking it to greenlight the deal.

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Ga. Staffing Firm To Pay $450K To End OT Suit

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia-based staffing and project management agency has agreed to pay nearly $450,000 to two dozen former workers who accused it of stiffing them on overtime by "slapping a 'salary' label" on their paychecks, according to a deal a federal judge approved Monday.

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Tyson Shorted Wash. Workers On Breaks And OT, Suit Says

By Rachel Riley

Tyson Foods has been accused of systematically shorting Washington state workers on breaks, sick leave and overtime pay, according to a proposed class action the meat processing giant removed to federal court on Friday.  

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Brief

Cos. Seek Wash. Justices' Clarity On Wage Disclosure Reach

By Irene Spezzamonte

A McDonald's franchise operator and the operator of Jack in the Box restaurants asked the Washington Supreme Court to clear up the reach of a state law requiring job postings to list pay information in two related cases involving Houston Casualty Co.

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Union Benefit Plans Ask 9th Circ. Not To Revive Worker's Suit

By Emily Brill

A California federal judge was right to toss a carpenter's attempt to compel a group of union benefit plans to resume covering him and his coworkers, the plans told the Ninth Circuit, asking the appellate court to keep the suit dead.

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American Airlines Beats Investor Suit Over Sales Strategy

By Sydney Price

American Airlines has won dismissal of an investor suit that alleged it implemented a botched sales and distribution strategy, with the court finding the suit's reliance on vague statements of optimism and faulty confidential witness claims aren't enough to show the company acted fraudulently.

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Fintech Ryvyl Gets First OK For Derivative Suit Deal

By Sydney Price

Blockchain-based payment solutions company Ryvyl Inc. has reached a deal with its investors to settle their derivative claims that the company was damaged by an alleged concealment of accounting issues.

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Disney Brass Fumbled Streaming Strategy, Investor Suit Says

By Emilie Ruscoe

Walt Disney Co. leaders, including longtime CEO Bob Iger, are facing a proposed shareholder derivative action alleging they mismanaged the launch of the Disney+ streaming service then concealed that an aggressive push for subscriber growth was made "at the expense of overall profitability."

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Origin Materials Investors Seek First OK For $9M Deal

By Katryna Perera

Investors in sustainable materials maker Origin Materials Inc. have asked a California federal judge to grant the first green light to a $9 million deal in a class action that claims the company and its co-CEO failed to disclose a change in direction in the company's manufacturing plans and a delay in building a new plant.

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Russia-Tied Payments Co. Escapes Investor Suit For Good

By Emilie Ruscoe

Payments company Qiwi PLC no longer faces investor claims it hid its noncompliance with Russian financial regulation and hurt investors when the company disclosed that a Russian central bank audit had led to a fine and certain payments restrictions.

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TerraForm Stockholders Settle Suit Over Brookfield Merger

By Jeff Montgomery

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and TerraForm Power Inc. stockholders reported a tentative, undisclosed deal on Monday to end their nearly four-year Delaware Chancery Court battle over Brookfield's alleged "exploitation" of TerraForm's minority stockholders in a deal dating to 2020.

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Senior Home Referral Site Must Face False Ad Claims

By Chart Riggall

A senior living placement site must face a false advertising suit filed by a Georgia assisted living home alleging the platform runs on a pay-to-play model, as a federal judge said he wasn't buying Caring.com's defense that its advertising was innocuous "puffery."

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Clothier Loft Tied Up In Latest Wash. Spam Email Suit

By Ben Adlin

Women's apparel brand Loft is facing a proposed class action in Seattle federal court accusing the company of misleading Washington shoppers through false or misleading subject lines on marketing emails, adding to a string of suits filed in recent months under the state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act.

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Cannabis Co. Not Covered In Product Safety Suit, Insurer Says

By Hope Patti

A cannabis company is not entitled to coverage for a proposed class action accusing it of misrepresenting the nature and safety of its cannabis-infused products, a Nationwide unit told an Illinois federal court, saying the suit doesn't allege bodily injury, property damage, or personal and advertising injury to trigger coverage.

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Patients Net $2.55M Deal To End Plasma Co. Data Breach Case

By Hayley Fowler

A group of patients is seeking a final seal of approval from a North Carolina federal judge on their $2.55 million settlement with a plasma collection company accused of failing to safeguard their personal data from hackers in an April 2024 data breach.

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Salesforce, Clients Accused Of Ignoring Data Breach Scheme

By Joyce Hanson

Credit bureau TransUnion, airline Qantas and luxury goods seller Louis Vuitton — all clients of software company Salesforce Inc. — failed to adequately protect millions of users' data from a July "hub-and-spoke" data breach, a class action filed in California federal court claims.

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Kansas City Bank Can't Nix Cert. Over Inmate Debit Card Fees

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge has denied the Central Bank of Kansas City's bid to decertify a nationwide class in a suit accusing it of charging former jail inmates unfair fees on prepaid debit cards, billing the motion as "premature" on Friday while leaving room for the bank to raise the issue again later.

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NC Hospital Data Sharing Class Gets $2.45M Deal, $750K Fee

By Abigail Harrison

A North Carolina Business Court judge gave final approval Monday to a $2.45 million class action settlement for almost half a million patients who accused a health system of sharing sensitive information with Meta Platforms Inc., with class counsel securing $750,000 in attorney fees.

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NJ Justices Unsure Boys & Girls Club Abuse Suit Belongs In NJ

By George Woolston

New Jersey Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared skeptical of the breadth of relief sought in litigation over alleged sexual abuse in the 1970s and '80s by a then-counselor at the Boys and Girls Clubs of America's Hudson County chapter, questioning where the line is drawn if they decide Garden State courts have personal jurisdiction over the nonprofit.

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9th Circ. Strikes Down Trans Patients' Win In ACA Bias Case

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Ninth Circuit upended a win Monday for patients who challenged Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois' administration of their employer-provided health plans containing gender-affirming care exclusions, ordering a lower court to reexamine the case in light of intervening authority from the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Ill. ICE Detainees Win Class Cert. Over Facility Conditions

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge said Monday that he will give class treatment to two civil immigration detainees' claims that they experienced "inhumane" conditions at a holding facility officials have allegedly used as a detention center during ramped-up enforcement operations.

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Judge Tests DOJ Claim That TPS Decisions Can't Be Reviewed

By Britain Eakin

A New York federal judge Monday grilled a government attorney over the Trump administration's termination of temporary protected status for Syrians, pressing him on the outer limits of judicial review of such decisions.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court and Delaware Supreme Court last week had a dense slate of fiduciary duty battles, merger-process challenges, post-bankruptcy fights and a series of cases probing the limits of fraud pleading, credible-basis inspections and board-level disclosure duties.

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Jailing People For Unpaid Garbage Fees Illegal, 11th Circ. Told

By David Minsky

A group of Alabama residents urged the Eleventh Circuit on Monday to revive their proposed class action alleging a city wrongfully jailed people for unpaid garbage collection fees, saying the complaint was improperly tossed. 

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Assessing The SEC's Changing Approach To NFT Regulation

Early U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission actions on nonfungible tokens pushed for broad regulation, but subsequent court decisions — including a recent California federal court ruling in Adonis Real v. Yuga Labs — and SEC commissioners' statements have narrowed the regulatory focus toward a more fact-specific approach, say attorneys at Wilson Elser.

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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Dynamic Databases

Several recent federal court decisions illustrate how parties continue to grapple with the discovery of data in dynamic databases, so counsel involved in these disputes must consider how structured data should be produced consistent with the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: November Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five recent rulings and identifies practice tips from cases involving claims related to oil and gas royalty payments, consumer fraud, life insurance, automobile insurance, and securities violations.

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How To Prepare If Justices Curb Gov't Contractor Immunity

Given the very real possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will determine in GEO v. Menocal that government contractors do not have collateral immunity, contractors should prepare by building the costs of potential litigation, from discovery through trial, into their contracts and considering other pathways to interlocutory appeals, says Lisa Himes at Rogers Joseph.

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Bonus Spotlight

Cravath Unveils Associate Bonuses, Multiple Firms Follow

By Aebra Coe

Multiple firms swiftly fell in line Tuesday evening just hours after Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP announced associate bonuses in line with those offered last year, continuing a long tradition of BigLaw firms following Cravath's lead on compensation.

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Analysis

Perkins Coie's Trump Fight Doesn't Scare Off UK Suitor

By Chris Villani

Perkins Coie LLP's ongoing fight with the Trump administration did not deter a proposed combination with British law firm Ashurst, signaling that the legal community is not worried about fallout from the president's suspension of the firm's security clearances.

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Republican Senators Seek Judge Boasberg's Suspension

By Courtney Bublé

Six Republican senators, three of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are asking that Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia be administratively suspended while Congress considers his impeachment.

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Sanctioned Atty Convinces Mo. Court Errors Not Caused By AI

By Emily Sawicki

A Missouri federal judge sanctioned former counsel for Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Co. Monday for including citation errors in a motion this fall, finding that, although the attorney likely inserted the errors herself without the use of AI software, "such carelessness, exacerbated by a lack of internal guardrails, is entirely unacceptable."

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Brief

Conn. Atty Fined $500 For AI-Generated Errors In Wage Suit

By Emily Sawicki

In an order that noted an attorney's remorse, a Connecticut federal judge sanctioned a solo practitioner $500 this week for submitting a brief packed with false, AI-generated case citations, finding the fake authorities wasted court resources, risked misleading a pro se litigant and undermined trust in the judicial system.

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Disbarred NC Atty Must Pay $5.2M For Escrow Fund Misuse

By Abigail Harrison

A disbarred attorney was ordered to pay $5.2 million in restitution and serve four years of probation during a Tuesday sentencing hearing in North Carolina federal court, after he pled guilty to a criminal wire fraud charge related to the misuse of escrow funds.

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Judge Upholds NY Law Blocking ICE Courthouse Arrests

By Andrea Keckley

New York beat back a federal lawsuit challenging the state's policy barring immigration officials from arresting people near its courthouses, after a federal judge rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's preemption claims.

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NY AG James Blasts 'Outrageous Conduct' Behind Indictment

By Adrian Cruz

New York Attorney General Letitia A. James has told a Virginia federal court to dismiss the U.S. government's indictment of her, calling it "patently unconstitutional" and "outrageous conduct."

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McGuireWoods Is Delaying Defamation Case, NC Justices Told

By Hayley Fowler

The former CEO of a managed care organization who alleges McGuireWoods and one of its ex-partners defamed him during a press conference more than seven years ago has told North Carolina's top court not to take up the case, panning their petition as yet another stalling tactic.

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Brief

Missouri Federal Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool of the Western District of Missouri has given notice he will take senior status upon the confirmation of state Judge Megan Benton, whose nomination to the federal bench President Donald Trump announced Friday.

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CFPB's Gradler Takes Deputy Post Amid Agency Uncertainty

By Jon Hill

Geof Gradler, a former industry lobbyist who recently joined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's front office, said that he is taking over as the agency's deputy director, a job that positions him as a potential successor to acting director Russell Vought.

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