Mass. Judge Vacates ACA Gender-Affirming Care Restriction

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Massachusetts federal judge handed a coalition of 21 states a win on their claim that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unlawfully issued Affordable Care Act reforms barring marketplace plans from requiring coverage for medical procedures used in gender-affirming care.

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Mangione's NY State Trial Postponed After Federal Guilty Plea

By Frank G. Runyeon

A New York state judge Monday delayed Luigi Mangione's September trial on second-degree murder charges after he pled guilty Friday in federal court to fatally stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

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Mead Johnson Pushed Formula Knowing Risks, Jury Told

By Celeste Bott

Mead Johnson knew its infant formula posed an increased risk of a devastating gut disease to premature babies but "muddied the waters" instead of sounding a clear warning, leaving doctors without crucial information while caring for an infant who ultimately died from the illness, his mother's attorney told an Illinois federal jury Monday.

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AIG Exclusion Doesn't Bar Multiplied Damages, Judge Says

By Danielle Ferguson

A California federal judge in a narrow ruling declared that a portion of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan's insurance policy does not automatically bar coverage for a portion of a $581 million False Claims Act settlement attributable to multiplied damages, but will decide later whether the agreement actually included such damages. 

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Colo. Judge Cuts $15M Punitive Award In Nurse Bias Case

By Benjamin Morse

A Colorado federal judge has slashed a former ICU nurse's $15 million punitive damages verdict against a hospital to $2.5 million, while preserving a $5 million compensatory award and the jury's findings that the hospital racially discriminated and retaliated against her.

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Moderna, Arbutus Clash On Gov't Venue For Vax IP Claims

By Dani Kass

Moderna Inc. has accused Arbutus Biopharma Corp. of turning a government contractor indemnification law "upside down" by arguing the COVID-19 vaccine supplier must face infringement litigation, while Arbutus says the government is wielding that relationship to dodge liability in two separate courts.

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Rising Star: Crowell & Moring's Alex Lucas

By Dan McKay

Alex Lucas of Crowell & Moring LLP launched an innovative legal campaign to combat manipulation of the No Surprises Act arbitration system and secured the influential dismissal of a suit seeking health coverage for GLP-1 weight-loss medications, earning her a spot among the healthcare law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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UnitedHealth Says IRS Seeking Transfer Pricing Adjustments

By Kevin Pinner

The Internal Revenue Service has proposed transfer pricing adjustments for UnitedHealth Group Inc. that the company is disputing, according to a quarterly report.

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Latest Squires Patent Review Order Grants 1, Denies 3

By Theresa Schliep

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires granted one petition for an America Invents Act patent review and rejected three others in his latest order on institution decisions.

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Albertsons Judge Hears $44B Opioid Abatement Plan In Wash.

By Ben Adlin

Addressing harm caused by prescription opioid abuse in Washington would cost nearly $44.4 billion, an expert testified Monday during a bench trial in the state's case accusing Albertsons and its Safeway subsidiary of exacerbating Washington's overdose crisis by failing to curb the flow of controlled substances.

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7th Circ. Reverses Alcoa Union Retirees' Lifetime Benefits Win

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Seventh Circuit reversed an Indiana federal court's decision holding that certain union retirees of aluminum giant Alcoa and their beneficiaries had a vested right to health benefits for life, finding error with the lower court's judicial estoppel analysis that formed the basis for its judgment on liability.

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Biotech Asks 1st Circ. To Undo Red Cross Antitrust Immunity

By Bryan Koenig

A biotech firm asked the First Circuit on Friday to undo a district court decision granting the American Red Cross immunity from antitrust allegations, arguing the blood donation giant was wrongly deemed an "instrumentality" of the U.S. government even though it functions as an independent corporation.

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Doctor Seeks Almost $10M Fees After NJ Copyright Win

By Adrian Cruz

Following a Third Circuit ruling in his favor earlier this year, a Puerto Rican doctor is seeking nearly $10 million in attorney fees from the American Board of Internal Medicine, which first sued him in 2014 in New Jersey federal court over copyright infringement claims.

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Hartford HealthCare Told To Double-Check Privilege Claims

By Aaron Keller

Hartford HealthCare has agreed to re-review 113 documents over which the hospital operator asserted attorney-client privilege in an antitrust lawsuit by a Teamsters health plan and a local Connecticut transit district, following a federal magistrate judge's concerns about a nearly 1,000-page privilege log.

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ComEd Sues Chicago Hospital Over Unpaid $6.2M Electric Bill

By Joyce Hanson

Commonwealth Edison Co. has sued a Chicago hospital in Illinois state court, claiming the medical center located on the city's northwest side is in breach of contract for failure to pay its electric bills totaling more than $6.2 million.

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Hospital Employees Seek Class Cert. In Retirement Funds Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

Employees of a faith-based nonprofit Colorado hospital urged a federal judge to grant class certification in their lawsuit alleging the hospital mismanaged employees' retirement funds and ultimately cost participants tens of millions of dollars.

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Blue States Say FTC Can't Regulate Trans Youth Health

By Spencer Brewer

A group of left-leaning states, including Massachusetts and California, asked a Texas federal court to toss a Federal Trade Commission suit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, saying Monday that the FTC's suit constitutes a "federal attack on state-regulated transgender healthcare."

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COVID Test-Maker Inks $6.5M Investor Deal Over Sales Slump

By Jessica Corso

Co-Diagnostics Inc. has agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle an investor lawsuit accusing it of overstating the demand for its COVID-19 testing kits two years after the pandemic began.

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Home Sauna Kit Burned Consumer, Suit Says

By Emily Field

A New Jersey woman said in a suit filed Friday in Garden State federal court that the water tank in a personal steam sauna suddenly exploded while she was using it, which caused severe and painful burns.

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How Calif. Ruling Defines Drug Cos.' R&D Responsibilities

The California Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Gilead Tenofovir Cases, which held that drugmakers have no duty to bring allegedly safer alternatives to market more quickly, is a win for pharmaceutical companies — but not a grant of blanket immunity for all early-stage drug development decisions, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

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7th Circ. Ruling May Reduce Litigation Risk For Text Marketers

The recent Seventh Circuit holding in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services that unwanted marketing text messages are not telephone calls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act may strengthen companies' responses to presuit demand letters and early-stage litigation claims premised on do-not-call text theories, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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Calif. Justices' Ruling Reshapes Midcase Appeal Strategy

The California Supreme Court's recent decision in Maniago v. Desert Cardiology Consultants holds that voluntary dismissal cannot be used as a shortcut to appellate review of interlocutory orders, resolving a long-running appellate split and pushing litigants to use alternative procedural tools, says Josh Patashnik at Ashurst Perkins Coie.

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Law Firms See Revenue, Demand Grow In First Half Of 2026

By Anna Sanders

Despite rising expenses driven by artificial intelligence and return to office mandates, the legal industry is performing well in 2026, with U.S. law firms recording a double-digit jump in revenue and strong growth in demand so far this year, according to new survey results from Citi Global Wealth at Work's Law Firm Group.

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Morgan & Morgan Sues Fla. Bar Over Celebrity Ad Ban

By Carolina Bolado

Personal injury giant Morgan & Morgan PA has sued the Florida Bar, claiming a bar rule that bans any use of a celebrity's voice or image in lawyer advertising violates the First Amendment.

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3 NY Injury Firms Get Uber's RICO Suit Tossed

By Lauren Berg

A New York federal judge threw out Uber Technologies Inc.'s lawsuit accusing three personal injury law firms of conspiring with physicians and exploiting passengers to pursue fake or exaggerated injury claims in order to strongarm settlement payouts from the ride-hailing giant.

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Nussbaum-Linked Firms' Ch. 11s Tossed For Bad Faith

By Ben Zigterman

A New York bankruptcy judge has dismissed the Chapter 11 cases of two commercial real estate law firms headed by Mark J. Nussbaum, finding their petitions were filed in bad faith and that the cases instead belonged in an assignment for the benefit of creditors process in New York state court.

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Chattah Can't Serve As Acting Nevada US Atty, 9th Circ. Says

By Emma Cueto

The Ninth Circuit on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that Nevada's top prosecutor was not put in place lawfully and was barred from overseeing the criminal cases giving rise to the appeal, the latest state where courts have shut down attempts by the Trump administration to fill U.S. attorney vacancies without Senate confirmation.

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Clifford Chance Pushes To Send Clawback Suit To Arbitration

By Ryan Boysen

Clifford Chance LLP wants a high-profile partner pay dispute sent to arbitration, accusing two ex-partners who claim they're facing a $6 million clawback demand of "gamesmanship" by filing suit in New York federal court.

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NYCBA Cautions Against Recording Nonclient Calls

By Emily Sawicki

New York City attorneys who have been granted permission may ethically use artificial intelligence to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with nonclients, according to the latest ethics guidance by the New York City Bar Association Monday, which added that just because they can doesn't mean they should.

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