Meta Owes $25B After NM Data Privacy Trial

By Cara Salvatore

A New Mexico judge ruled Wednesday that Meta must pay $25 billion for the "systematically broadcast" lies the social media giant offered the public regarding its data privacy practices, including in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

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Intuitive Surgical Strikes $450M Deal In Robot Antitrust Suit

By Craig Clough

Intuitive Surgical said in its quarterly earnings report Tuesday that it reached a $450 million settlement to resolve a hospital class action alleging it monopolized the market for servicing its da Vinci surgical robots, subject to approval by a California federal judge.

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Coinbase Defeats Investor Suit Over Regulatory Disclosures

By Hailey Konnath

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday threw out an investor's proposed class action accusing Coinbase of not being up front with shareholders about its regulatory compliance, ruling that the company's statements about its anti-money laundering measures weren't false or misleading.

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6th Circ.'s Sutton Floats Class Action Limits At Judiciary Panel

By Jeff Overley

An influential federal judge is proposing new restrictions on class actions that aim to broadly block government policies, judiciary advisers heard at a Wednesday gathering, which also explored transparency ideas affecting legal finance and hard-to-access court records in the red-hot realm of immigration litigation.

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Ecolab Agrees To Settle Pension Calculation Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

A proposed class of Ecolab Inc. retirees who alleged their joint-and-survivor annuity pension benefits were miscalculated told a Minnesota federal judge the water management and sanitation company had agreed in principle to settle their federal benefits lawsuit, according to a court filing.

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Brief

Providence Health Gets Green Light For 401(k) Forfeiture Deal

By Patrick Hoff

A Washington federal judge has approved a nearly $43 million settlement agreement that ends a lawsuit alleging Providence Health & Services unlawfully used forfeited retirement funds to cover employer contributions instead of plan expenses.

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9th Circ. Judges Hint Hospital CBA May Mandate Arbitration

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit panel appeared receptive on Wednesday to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center's argument that a nurse should be forced to individually arbitrate proposed class break claims, with two judges suggesting that a union contract's repeated references to Golden State labor law bolster the hospital's position.

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Lowe's Moonlighting Action Remanded To Wash. State Court

By Ben Adlin

An employee's proposed class action accusing Lowe's Home Centers LLC of wrongfully restricting lower-wage workers from moonlighting in violation of Washington law must return to state court, a Seattle federal judge ruled Tuesday, finding insufficient evidence that the employee suffered the necessary injury to establish federal standing.

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United Rentals Hit With ERISA Suit Over 401(k) Forfeitures

By Brian Steele

A proposed class action in Connecticut federal court accuses United Rentals (North America) Inc. of violating the federal retirement security act by shifting nearly $8.7 million in 401(k) expenses to plan members while using $14.3 million in forfeitures to offset its own contributions.

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Colo. Cleaning Equipment Co. Accused Of Shorting Pay

By Zach Dupont

A cleaning equipment company employee claimed in Colorado state court Tuesday that the company violated several state wage laws by not paying employees for hours worked off the clock, failing to properly compensate overtime premiums and more.

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Game Co. Investors Seek OK Of $13M Deal On Valuation

By Sydney Price

Investors of online gaming company Shanda Games Ltd. have asked a New York federal court to preliminarily approve a $13 million settlement that would end claims the company severely and intentionally undervalued a 2015 going-private transaction.

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Data Center Co. Looks To Toss Investors' Gas Wells Suit

By Isaac Monterose

A data center infrastructure company told a Texas federal court to toss a proposed securities fraud class action that accused the company of damaging its stock value because of a hidden gas well transfer deal and a fraud lawsuit filed by New Mexico.

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Gemini Says Crypto Downturn Sank Stock Post-IPO, Not Fraud

By Sydney Price

Crypto exchange operator Gemini Space Station Inc. and some of its current and former executives and directors, including founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, say an overall downturn in the cryptocurrency market is responsible for the exchange operator's plans to shift focus to the prediction market, and the risk of the shift was fully disclosed to investors.

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Keurig Judge Aims Trimmed K-Cup Antitrust MDL Toward Trial

By Lauren Berg

A New York federal judge trimmed claims in multidistrict litigation accusing Keurig Green Mountain of anticompetitively cutting out rivals with exclusive dealings and exclusionary product design, but sent to trial a number of monopolization, tying and false advertising allegations, according to an order unsealed Tuesday.

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Google Must Provide Limited Depo In Apple Antitrust Case

By Craig Clough

A California federal magistrate judge on Tuesday ordered Google to provide deposition testimony in a proposed class action accusing Apple of monopolizing cloud storage for its mobile devices, although she placed limitations on the topics the plaintiffs can ask nonparty Google about.

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Target Is 'Healthwashing' Electrolyte Drink Powder, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Target is accused of "healthwashing" its Up & Up brand electrolyte drink powder supplement mix by labeling it as though it's sugar-free, despite the presence of allulose, an ingredient the Seventh Circuit recently confirmed is a sugar, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in Illinois federal court.

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EdTech Provider Kaplan Must Face Trimmed Data Breach Suit

By Allison Grande

A Florida federal judge refused to fully toss a proposed class action over a 2025 data breach at online education provider Kaplan, finding that the plaintiffs adequately asserted negligence and contract claims while blocking, for now, allegations that the company unjustly enriched itself and violated California's data privacy law.

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Ex-Employee Of Seyfarth Client Drops Suit Over Data Breach

By Craig Clough

A Texas woman who filed a proposed class action against Seyfarth Shaw LLP over a data breach voluntarily dropped the claims Tuesday without prejudice, according to a filing in Illinois federal court. 

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Marines Sue DOD Over Data Breach Affecting 3M People

By Jared Foretek

Two Marines have brought a class action in D.C. federal court accusing the U.S. Department of Defense of taking nearly nine months to discover a data breach exposing the records of millions of service members, veterans and staff.

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Apartment Operator Hit With NC Tenant Junk Fee Class Action

By Hayley Fowler

A Florida-based property management company has been charging residents exorbitant junk fees that flout North Carolina consumer protection statutes and drive up evictions, two renters said in a proposed class action.

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Zillow Seeks Dismissal Of Fresh TCPA Class Action Over Texts

By Ben Adlin

The same day a California woman filed a proposed class action accusing Zillow of sending consumers unwanted text messages in violation of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the real estate listings giant urged the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the texts weren't prohibited "phone calls" and were merely informational.

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Anthropic's Lyric 'Mash Up' May Be Fair Use, Judge Says

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge Wednesday appeared open to Anthropic's defense that using copyrighted song lyrics to train Claude AI is fair use, saying during a daylong hearing that "mash-up" lyrics produced by AI might constitute fair use while also questioning how to "slice and dice" the case's scope.

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Siemens, Calif. Water District Sued Over Lithium Battery Fire

By Gina Kim

Siemens and a southern California water district were hit with a proposed negligence class action Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court over a lithium-ion battery storage system fire that broke out last month with the water district's facility, prompting evacuation orders for about 500 homes and several businesses.

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High Court Lets Block On Prison Gender Care Ban Stand

By Yeji Jesse Lee

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed federal prisons to continue to offer gender transition medical services to incarcerated people.

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GEO Gets Split Trial In 12-Year-Old Colo. Forced Labor Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A 12-year-old class action by former detainees of a Colorado immigration detention facility alleging private prison operator The GEO Group Inc. unlawfully profited from their forced labor will have a split trial and begin Nov. 2, as scheduled, a Colorado federal judge ruled.

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2022 College Athletes Say NCAA Rehashes Failed Arguments

By Zach Dupont

A group of Division II and Division III athletes asked a Colorado federal judge Tuesday to not toss their proposed class action against the NCAA seeking a fifth season of competition eligibility, arguing the college sports governing body rehashed arguments that were already rejected in a different case in its motion to dismiss.

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2nd Circ. Says NYC Could Have Sped Up Man's Rikers Release

By Parker Quinlan

The Second Circuit has revived a suit by a man held on Rikers Island for over seven years who alleged that inadequate procedures by the agency that runs the New York City jail kept him incarcerated for an extra 17 days.

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New Weil-Willkie Domains Add To Merger Speculation

By Marialuisa Taddia

Two domain names that combine the names of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP have been registered, fueling speculation about a potential merger between the two prominent Wall Street law firms.

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JPMorgan, Ex-Frank Execs Clash Over $2.1M In Legal Fees

By Jarek Rutz

JPMorgan Chase & Co. faced renewed demands in the Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday to pay about $2.1 million in withheld legal fees for convicted Frank founder Charlie Javice and former executive Olivier Amar, as their lawyers accused the bank of using repeated billing objections to delay funding for their criminal defenses.

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Bonus Spotlight

Hueston Hennigan Bumps Clerkship Bonus To $205K

By Lynn LaRowe

Trial boutique Hueston Hennigan is offering a $205,000 bonus to lawyers who have completed one or more federal clerkships, the firm confirmed Thursday.

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Jackson Walker Hits Back At Fee Clawback Sanction Move

By Vince Sullivan

Law firm Jackson Walker said Wednesday that it should not be sanctioned for failing to bring to a Texas federal judge's attention additional cases involving an undisclosed romantic relationship between a bankruptcy judge and one of its attorneys because the U.S. Trustee already investigated those cases and didn't take action.

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Texas Judge Probe Shows Lack Of Mental Impairment Process

By Jack Karp

Fifth Circuit officials have done a reasonable job of handling a rare situation involving a Texas federal judge who appears to be undergoing a mental health crisis, but the episode highlights that a more standardized way of dealing with federal judges experiencing mental impairment needs to be established, experts and scholars say.

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GOP Reps. Seek Probe Of Fla. Judge's Sanctions Order

By Courtney Bublé

Top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asked the Judicial Conference Thursday to investigate a Florida federal judge for potential misconduct with an order she issued in the case involving the leak of President Donald Trump's tax returns.

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