Antivax Health Workers Fight Uphill At 9th Circ. Over Firings

By Rachel Riley

Two Ninth Circuit panelists cast doubt Wednesday on an attempt by a group of former University of Washington employees to revive claims that they were wrongfully fired after they refused COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds, with one judge remarking that unvaccinated workers "make the risk worse" in a healthcare setting.

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Bad AI Citation Sanction Slashed Amid 7th Circ. Guidance

By Hailey Konnath

An Indiana federal judge Wednesday rejected a magistrate judge's recommendation that an attorney be sanctioned $7,500 for including faulty, artificial intelligence-generated legal citations in a discovery brief, pointing to recent Seventh Circuit guidance and sanctioning him $2,000 instead.

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Analysis

NCAA's Maze Of Eligibility Rules Is Athletes' Latest Target

By David Steele

A deluge of litigation targeting the NCAA's eligibility bylaws for allegedly limiting athletes' compensation has resulted in conflicting rulings from different courts, teeing up the possibility of a U.S. Supreme Court intervention.

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Black SEC Worker Claims Bias Suit Drove Retaliation

By Grace Elletson

A Black U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission employee filed a second employment discrimination suit against the agency, alleging she has been given unrealistic job expectations and placed on a performance improvement plan after claiming in court that her superiors discriminated against her.

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Missouri Budtenders Say Dispensary Group Mishandled Tips

By Mike Curley

A proposed class of budtenders for dispensaries run by GL Partners Inc. is suing in Missouri federal court, alleging the dispensaries are violating federal labor laws by sharing tips with managerial staff and otherwise mishandling them to use as petty cash or to balance cash registers.

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Brief

Home Delivery Co. Denied Full Pay, Breaks, Suit Says

By Benjamin Morse

A home delivery company used a shifting piece-rate and hourly pay system and denied workers required breaks, leaving employees uncompensated for travel time, standby work, overtime and interrupted meal periods, according to a proposed class action filed in Colorado state court.

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Former Judge, NJ Judiciary Settle Pension Denial Fight

By George Woolston

A former New Jersey judge and the state judiciary have reached a settlement in her suit over the denial of her disability pension, according to a letter filed in state court.

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Aerospace Co.'s Bid Revived To Bar Alleged Secrets Use

By Elliot Weld

The Sixth Circuit has disagreed with a lower judge who declined to issue an injunction against an engineer accused of stealing trade secrets just before he left his old company for a rival, saying the facts "clearly weigh in favor of granting injunctive relief."

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Colo. Fence Co. Says Rival Stole Trade Secrets, Customers

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado fencing distributor has alleged in federal court that a private equity-backed competitor, its subsidiary and a former sales manager orchestrated a scheme to steal the distributor's trade secrets rather than pay $7 million to acquire the company.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

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OpenAI Says ChatGPT Misuse Is Users' Responsibility

By Emily Sawicki

OpenAI has asked a federal judge in Chicago to end an insurance company's suit alleging it practices law without a license, arguing the complaint should be directed toward individuals who misuse the company's ChatGPT bot to file faulty motions, and not the generative AI platform itself.

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2nd Circ. Pick Questioned At Hearing On Role As Trump Lawyer

By Courtney Bublé

Matthew Schwartz, a nominee for the Second Circuit, was questioned by Democratic senators Wednesday about whether his current job as the president's personal attorney while his nomination process is underway poses a conflict of interest.

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2 Fla. County Courts Requiring AI Disclosure In Court Filings

By Sarah Martinson

Two Florida circuit courts in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are requiring attorneys and self-represented litigants to disclose when they use generative text tools to prepare their court filings and to certify they checked the generated content for accuracy.

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Hagens Berman Says Apple Smear Job Can't Stop Withdrawal

By Bonnie Eslinger

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP urged a California federal judge to allow one of its named plaintiffs to withdraw from an Apple iCloud antitrust case, saying Apple Inc.'s filed opposition is rife with "misdirection and ad hominem" attacks and not about the merits of the dispute but "smearing opposing counsel."

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Atty Withdrawals Not Limited To Fee Conflicts, ABA Says

By Emily Sawicki

Lawyers whose clients fail to hold up their end of valid engagement agreements are clear to cease their representation, so long as certain criteria are met, according to the American Bar Association's ethics committee's latest guidance, published Wednesday.

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Comey Wants Arraignment Pushed For Dismissal Bid

By Phillip Bantz

Former FBI Director James Comey asked a North Carolina federal court Wednesday to postpone his arraignment on charges alleging he threatened President Donald Trump, telling a judge that he is preparing to seek to have the case thrown out on constitutional grounds.

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Mich. Supreme Court Mulls Remote Court Access Rules

By Susan Smiley

The Michigan Supreme Court held administrative hearings on Wednesday concerning several proposed amendments to Michigan court rules, including adding more specific guidelines for remote hearings, making language services free for civil cases, and allowing law students and recent law graduates to appear on behalf of indigent people in all Michigan courts.

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