J&J, Ovarian Cancer Talc Claimants Unveil $5.5B Global Deal

By Lauren Berg

Johnson & Johnson announced Monday that it has agreed to pay some $5.5 billion to put to rest tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer, with plaintiffs' counsel calling the deal "long-delayed justice" for their clients.

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Yale, Biohaven Win $4M In Biotech Trade Secret Trial

By Ivan Moreno

A Delaware federal jury has awarded Yale University and Biohaven Therapeutics $4 million after finding that venture capital firm RA Capital Management GP breached a confidentiality agreement and, along with co-defendant Avilar Therapeutics, misappropriated a Yale-developed trade secret for designing protein-degrading drug molecules.

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Pepsi, Frito-Lay Accuse Sugar Companies Of Price Fixing

By Susan Smiley

Prominent food and beverage companies including Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Bimbo Bakeries and Frito-Lay filed an antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota federal court Friday alleging that major sugar refineries and producers have been involved in a price-fixing scheme since 2019.

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Oryx Says Constellis' Fee Bid Appears Hallucination-Based

By Tom Lotshaw

An Afghanistan camp operator asked a Virginia federal judge to throw out counterclaims brought by defense contractors it sued, asserting that one seeking costs and fees appears to be based on hallucinated language not found in cited agreements.

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DC Circ. Overturns Its Own Holocaust Art Ruling

By Caroline Simson

The D.C. Circuit has substantially vacated its ruling ending long-running litigation brought by the descendants of a Hungarian Jewish art collector seeking the return of a priceless art collection looted by the Nazis, citing the passage of a new law.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving restrictive covenants, corporate governance, trade secrets, real estate investments, receiverships, and books and records demands.

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Trade Group Can't Challenge Calif. PBM Law

By Kellie Mejdrich

A healthcare industry group representing pharmacy benefit managers lost its initial bid to challenge a California state law restricting their business practices, after a federal judge determined its complaint didn't go far enough to prove standing for the group representing PBMs, which intermediate between drugmakers, pharmacies and insurers.

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Wash., Hayden Homes Reach $1.6M Deal To End Fee Claims

By Isaac Monterose

Hayden Homes LLC and affordable housing-focused nonprofit lender First Story agreed to pay more than $1.6 million to settle Washington state's claims that they charged home sellers illegal private transfer fees, the state's attorney general announced Monday.

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Insurers Don't Owe Grocer Coverage For Opioid Settlement

By Hope Patti

A group of insurers owes no coverage to grocery chain Harris Teeter for amounts that its parent company, Kroger, paid as part of a $1.37 billion global settlement of opioid suits brought by government entities, North Carolina's business court ruled.

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OceanGate Foundation Insurer Launches Titan Coverage Suit

By Rachel Riley

Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co. urged a Seattle federal court Friday to find it has no duty to defend nonprofit OceanGate Foundation from a lawsuit filed by the family of a French explorer who died during the Titan deep-sea submersible's 2023 expedition, or otherwise rule any coverage obligations are capped at $100,000.

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Installer Sues Canadian Solar After He's Crushed By Panels

By Mike Curley

A Washington man who owns a solar component contractor is suing Canadian Solar Inc. and its affiliates in federal court, alleging poor packaging caused 1,800 pounds of solar panels to fall over and crush him.

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Texas Ranchers Ask For Judgment In Cattle Fraud Scheme

By Spencer Brewer

Two ranching companies asked a Texas federal court for partial summary judgment in a suit alleging Hall Cattle Feeders LLC lost their cattle and refused to pay for it, saying the undisputed evidence shows that Hall breached federal agriculture law.

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Consultant Says Fla. Co., Owner Stole Her Training Model

By David Minsky

A linguist claimed in a Florida federal court that the owner of a job consulting business breached their collaboration agreement and stole a training model she developed, alleging she wasn't given equity in the company as promised and that her copyrighted intellectual property was published in a book without her authorization.

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Kalshi Seeks To Keep Operating In Wash. Pending Appeal

By Katryna Perera

Kalshi has urged a Washington judge to pause a recent order granting the state attorney general's bid to preliminarily enjoin the prediction market platform from operating within the state, saying the injunction causes Kalshi to face a "'Hobson's choice' between state enforcement and its federal duties."

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Boom Fantasy User Must Arbitrate Illinois Gambling Suit

By David Steele

A proposed class action accusing Boom Shakalaka Inc. of operating an illegal gambling platform disguised as a fantasy sports app will be sent to arbitration, after an Illinois federal judge ruled that the app's arbitration clause was easily accessible to users.

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Investment Bank Says Workers' Wage Suit Is Contract Dispute

By Benjamin Morse

An investment bank and two managing directors are urging a Texas federal judge to toss a proposed collective action alleging employees went months without pay, arguing that the workers were exempt from overtime and had turned a contract dispute into a federal wage law case.

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Live Nation, DOJ Say States Have Enough Discovery Into Deal

By James Boyle

The U.S. Department of Justice has joined with Live Nation to resist a discovery request by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general seeking more information about a settlement the federal government reached with the company in the middle of an antitrust trial.

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Bus Co. Settles Bid-Rigging Claims For $2.4M

By Julie Manganis

A national student transportation company will pay $2.4 million to settle allegations that two Massachusetts subsidiaries colluded with another bus company to allocate contracts in three Greater Boston communities, the state attorney general's office announced Monday.

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Regeneron Says Drug Approval Irrelevant In Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

Regeneron told a Delaware federal court the recent regulatory approval of a new cholesterol drug is irrelevant to its case accusing Amgen of bundling Repatha with other medications, as the court mulls an injunction bid following Regeneron's $407 million jury win.

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Epic Says Google Wants To Hide Rival App Stores In Search

By Lauren Berg

Epic Games and Google asked the California federal judge overseeing the gaming giant's antitrust battle against the tech giant to resolve a dispute over whether the court's injunction requires rival app stores to be shown in Play Store search results or whether Google can "relegate" rivals to a separate page.

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Cannabis Store Owners Seek To Toss Most Claims In $5M Suit

By Zach Dupont

The owners of a chain of Colorado retail cannabis stores accused of owing more than $4.8 million in unpaid obligations asked a Colorado federal judge Friday to dismiss the bulk of claims against them and their business because, they said, many of the claims weren't sufficiently pled to clear even the lower standards required to survive dismissal.

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Series

Judges On AI: Examining Administrative, Organizational Uses

U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas examines how artificial intelligence could transform a court's ability to deal with administrative work and organize materials when preparing for hearings or drafting opinions, thereby affording judges more time to resolve contested issues.

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Trader In BigLaw Deal-Tipping Scheme To Plead Guilty

By Chris Villani

A Florida resident is set to plead guilty to his alleged role in a sweeping scheme to trade on insider information about impending acquisitions that was stolen from major law firms, according to a court filing Tuesday.

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Simpson Thacher Stock Work Hurt 2 Companies, Jury Told

By Madison Arnold

The chief financial officer for an insurance company told a Florida jury Tuesday that a stock drop for Patriot National Inc. — which is suing Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP for malpractice for allegedly putting together a shoddy securities offering — dramatically affected his own business as well.

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AT&T Whistleblower Told To Cut Facts From Ethics Case Filing

By Sue Reisinger

Former AT&T in-house counsel and whistleblower Theodore Marcus has been asked to delete part of his response to professional misconduct charges pending against him in Washington, D.C., because the filing allegedly contains privileged information.

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1st Circ. Asked To Save Mayer Brown $21M Fee Bid In RI Suit

By Linda Chiem

The American Trucking Associations told the First Circuit that its attorneys at Mayer Brown LLP reasonably justified their request for $21 million in fees and costs after securing "substantial" wins in long-running litigation over Rhode Island's truck tolling program, disputing a district court's determination that the trucking trade group wasn't actually a "prevailing party."

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Winston Taylor Seeks Sanction Against Ex-Client Hunter Biden

By Rae Ann Varona

Winston Taylor urged a D.C. state court on Monday to sanction its former client Hunter Biden in its legal bills collection suit, saying the former president's son destroyed Signal communications that would have proved he understood that he owes the law firm more than $50,000.

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Court Is In Session Whenever A Judge Says It Is, 6th Circ. Told

By Susan Smiley

Court is wherever and whenever a judge says it is, counsel for a Detroit judge told a Sixth Circuit panel Tuesday, arguing that subjecting a student to a mock arrest and trial because she fell asleep during a field trip was within his jurisdiction.

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Senate Confirms Jay Clayton As National Intelligence Chief

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, two weeks after Clayton, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to answer who he thought won the 2020 election during his confirmation hearing.

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Queens Defenders Head Gets 3.5 Years For Looting The Nonprofit

By Pete Brush

A Brooklyn federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the former director of the Queens Defenders to more than 3.5 years in prison after the longtime attorney admitted to a course of embezzlement that destroyed the group dedicated to legal services for the poor.

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