Texas Court Hesitant To Undo $56M Plastic Plant Judgment

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appeals court seemed hesitant to undo a $56 million judgment against a subsidiary of chemical and polymer heavyweight LyondellBasell Industries, saying Wednesday that the trial court found that the company breached its agreement with a contractor in the construction of a $1 billion plastic pellet manufacturing plant.

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Eli Lilly Hit With $90M Verdict In Nektar's Rezpeg Breach Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal jury on Thursday found Eli Lilly breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in an agreement to co-develop Nektar Therapeutics' autoimmune-disease drug Rezpeg, awarding Nektar $90 million — a considerable sum that fell short of the $1 billion the clinical-stage biotech company had sought.

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Attorneys Say Unpaid Sanction No Basis To End Antitrust Suit

By Tom Lotshaw

Attorneys representing a shuttered soccer league say an unpaid $24,000 sanction that a Puerto Rico federal judge imposed on them for error-riddled court filings is no reason to dismiss the league's antitrust suit against FIFA and two affiliates.

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Boeing Pushes For Pretrial Win In Norwegian Air 737 Max Suit

By Hailey Konnath

The Boeing Co. has asked a Washington federal judge to hand it a win in Norwegian Air subsidiaries' suit over their purchase of 737 Max airplanes, arguing there is no evidence supporting the subsidiaries' claims that Boeing misled them as to the safety and reliability of the aircraft.

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Data Center Co. Says It Was Misled By Texas Land Seller

By Isaac Monterose

A developer accused a property seller in Texas federal court of obscuring how much of its land was dedicated to oil and gas development, claiming the energy operations are impeding a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence data center project.

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Fla. Panel Won't Hear City's Immunity Bid In Partnership Suit

By David Minsky

A Florida state appellate panel issued a split decision on Wednesday dismissing a bid by a city to overturn an order striking its motion to argue for immunity in a lawsuit over a public-private partnership to build a green waste facility near protected wetlands, saying it lacks jurisdiction. 

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9th Circ. Says Pre-2013 Life Policies Needn't Get Lapse Forms

By Hope Patti

Life insurers are not required to send designation forms to California policyholders whose policies were issued before 2013, when a state law requiring carriers to provide applicants with a form to designate another individual to receive notice of a lapse or termination went into effect, the Ninth Circuit ruled.

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Medicare Brokers Say Feds Won't Identify Alleged False Claims

By Julie Manganis

A group of insurance companies and brokers accused in a False Claims Act case of colluding to steer Medicare recipients to certain Medicare Advantage plans said Tuesday that the federal government has refused to provide specifics of the allegations.

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Blue Shield Still Facing Therapy 'Ghost Network' Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge ruled Wednesday that Blue Shield of California must face the majority of claims brought in subscribers' proposed class action alleging the insurer maintained a "ghost network" of mental-health providers that didn't exist or accept new patients, saying the suit adequately claims contract terms were not met.

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State Pols Urge Justices To Rein In Kalshi's Sports Offerings

By Alex Lawson

A coalition of state lawmakers has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Third Circuit decision allowing Kalshi to keep its sports offerings online in New Jersey, emphasizing that sports betting oversight must be left to the states.

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Crypto Co. Wins Bid To Send $100M RICO Suit To Arbitration

By Joyce Hanson

A California federal court has granted data cloud platform Cerebellum Networks Inc.'s motion to compel arbitration in a former employee's $100 million suit accusing company executives of running a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency fraud scheme.

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Honeywell Aerospace Hit With Suit Over $2M DOJ Settlement

By Katryna Perera

Honeywell Aerospace is facing an investor suit alleging it failed to disclose a federal investigation that led to a $2 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and that a small set of suppliers had a "disproportionate impact" on the aerospace and defense company's revenue.

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OpenAI Looks To End SpaceXAI's Apple Deal Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

OpenAI is urging a Texas federal court to end an antitrust case from Elon Musk's SpaceXAI over a deal integrating ChatGPT into Apple devices, saying the pact is not exclusive and does not block competition from rival chatbots.

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Vape Shop Owners Say Supplier Can't Ditch THC-Content Suit

By Mike Curley

A Texas smoke shop and its owners are urging a federal judge to keep alive their suit alleging that Delta Munchies LLC misrepresented the amount of THC in its products, leading to their prosecution, saying they've sufficiently alleged that they were misled and hurt on both the business and personal levels.

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Mich. Judge Gives Cannabis Cos. Chance To Fix Complaint

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge has given two companies challenging the city of Menominee's marijuana licensing process a chance to amend their complaint after the city argued that a waiver signed as part of a license application bars their nine-count lawsuit.

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Opinion

Calif. Bill Goes Too Far In Trying To Regulate Attorney AI Use

California’s first-in-the-nation act regulating how attorneys and arbitrators use generative artificial intelligence will likely soon become law, but read broadly, the provisions may dissuade lawyers from employing AI at all, thereby depriving them of key work tools, says Joshua Wurtzel at Schlam Stone.

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Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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