McDonald's 'Total Inaction' Contributed To Death, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

McDonald's Corp. is facing a suit in California state court that alleges employees at a California franchise failed to stop a foreseeable attack on a couple by a homeless man that occurred while the couple waited in the drive-thru line, leaving a woman fatally injured.

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US Backs Tarnishment Provision Constitutionality At 9th Circ.

By Rae Ann Varona

Jack Daniel's has urged the Ninth Circuit to affirm a district court's ruling that a company's poop-themed "Bad Spaniels" dog toy tarnished the whiskey maker's trademark, while the federal government separately opposed the toy maker's contention that the Lanham Act's tarnishment provision violates the First Amendment.

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States Fight USDA's Renewed Effort To Cut SNAP Benefits

By Hailey Konnath

A coalition of states has asked a California federal judge to enforce an injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Agriculture from withholding funding from states refusing to share sensitive personal information on food assistance benefit recipients, saying the Trump administration has once again threatened to withhold the funding.

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Yale Asks Judge To Rethink $32M Baby Formula Death Verdict

By Brian Steele

Yale University and the affiliated Yale New Haven Hospital have asked a Connecticut state court judge to reconsider a verdict of nearly $32 million over the death of a premature baby, contending that she failed to grasp battery and informed consent law when issuing her decision after a bench trial.

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Brief

Texas AG Investigating Major Grocery Chains' Pesticide Use

By Emily Field

The Texas attorney general's office on Monday said it has started an investigation into major grocery store chains in Texas that the state accuses of spraying organic produce with pesticides without informing consumers.

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Neb. Bill Would Allow Income Tax Deductions For Tips, OT

By Zak Kostro

Nebraska would allow individual income tax deductions for tips and overtime pay under a bill introduced in the state's unicameral Legislature.

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High Court Won't Hear Challenge To NLRB Toss Of Complaint

By Katherine Smith

The Supreme Court on Monday declined a food distributor's bid for review of a decision tossing a challenge to a National Labor Relations Board ruling that backed the withdrawal of a complaint of unfair labor practices against two Teamsters locals.

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Justices Decline To Hear Alaska's Fishing Regulations Dispute

By Crystal Owens

The U.S. Supreme Court won't step into a dispute between Alaska, the federal government and Indigenous groups over a Ninth Circuit order barring the state from opening part of the Kuskokwim River to all fishers and upheld decades of precedent that began with an Ahtna elder's 1984 litigation.

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High Court Won't Hear Michigan Tribe's Fishing Pact Dispute

By Crystal Owens

The U.S. Supreme Court won't overturn a Sixth Circuit decision to uphold a 2023 decree governing fishery management in the Great Lakes after a Michigan tribe argued that the agreement was negotiated over its objections and that it will micromanage the waters for the next quarter-century.

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DC Circ. Told $100K H-1B Fee Threatens Congress' Tax Power

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the D.C. Circuit to bar the Trump administration from charging employers its new $100,000 H-1B visa fee, arguing it presents a "grave threat" to Congress' exclusive power to levy taxes.

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Business Considerations Amid Hemp Product Policy Change

With the passage of a bill fundamentally narrowing the federal definition of "hemp," there are practical and business considerations that brands, manufacturers and other parties should heed over the next year, including operational strategies, evaluating contract and counterparty risk, and tax implications, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

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Series

Judges On AI: How Courts Can Boost Access To Justice

Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Samuel A. Thumma writes that generative artificial intelligence tools offer a profound opportunity to enhance access to justice and engender public confidence in courts’ use of technology, and judges can seize this opportunity in five key ways.

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No Jury Yet In Goldstein Trial, But Celeb Witnesses Possible

By Jared Foretek

Day two of jury selection in Tom Goldstein's tax and mortgage fraud case wrapped without a jury being seated Tuesday, but did reveal that the government could call celebrities Tobey Maguire and Kevin Hart to the stand.

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Ex-Duane Morris Tax Partner Charged With Murdering Wife

By Hailey Konnath

A former tax partner at Duane Morris LLP's Chicago office has been charged with killing his wife a little more than a year ago, according to an announcement made Tuesday by Illinois prosecutors.

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Beasley Allen Talc Work Sends 'Bad Signal,' J&J Says

By George Woolston

Johnson & Johnson's talc unit told a New Jersey appeals panel on Tuesday that a lower court's ruling permitting Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys to represent plaintiffs in multicounty litigation over its talc-based baby powder "sends a very bad signal" to the state bar.

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Ex-Atty, Others Charged In Staged New Orleans Crash Scheme

By Hope Patti

A disbarred attorney was hit with new charges claiming that he induced a witness to commit perjury and obstructed justice in the federal investigation of an insurance scam involving staged car crashes in the New Orleans area.

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Halligan Blasts Court's 'Inquisition' Over US Atty Status

By Ryan Boysen

Lindsey Halligan said Tuesday that she is still the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia despite a recent ruling to the contrary, dismissing a federal judge's questions about why she's still using the title as an "inquisition" and a "gross abuse of power."

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Approach The Bench: Judge Bough On Ethics

Years of experience as a plaintiff's attorney influenced U.S. District Judge Stephen Bough's disclosure rules for litigators appearing in his court.

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DLA Piper Can't Counsel Hudson Hotel In Ch. 11, Judge Says

By Alex Wittenberg

A Delaware bankruptcy judge Tuesday rejected a bid by two bankrupt entities tied to the former Hudson Hotel to retain DLA Piper LLP as special counsel in their Chapter 11 case, saying the law firm's work for the entities' lender presented a conflict of interest.

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Sen. Whitehouse Presses AG On Boasberg Complaint Results

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., ranking member of the courts panel on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the results of the disciplinary complaint she filed against Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia when the investigation wraps up.

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Jack Smith To Testify Publicly Next Week

By Courtney Bublé

Former special counsel Jack Smith is slated to testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 22 after, according to his attorney, having been "ready and willing" to do so for a while.

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4th Circ. Combines DOJ Appeals Of Comey, James Dismissals

By Jack Karp

The Fourth Circuit has granted the Trump administration's request to combine its previously separate appeals of the dismissals of prosecutions against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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