FDA Nom Says Vaccines Safe, Won't Call IUDs Birth Control

By Nadia Dreid

President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration faced a Senate committee Thursday morning, where she affirmed the safety of vaccines when pressed but refused to directly contradict the president's false claim that the measles vaccine could be "quite lethal," and declined to affirm that IUDs are birth control and not abortifacients.

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Full 5th Circ. Tough On Aetna's Bid To Arbitrate Aramark Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Fifth Circuit seemed skeptical Thursday of Aetna's bid to force a health plan benefits dispute from food services giant Aramark into arbitration, with judges picking the insurer's arguments apart during an en banc rehearing.

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9th Circ. Reinstates Vax Objector's Religious Bias Case

By Patrick Hoff

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday reopened a nurse's lawsuit alleging an Oregon hospital unlawfully put her on unpaid leave rather than accommodate her religious objection to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, faulting the trial court for overlooking a letter in which she explained why she wanted an exemption.

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Analysis

Calif. Bill Deals Blow, But Not Knockout, To Tracking Suits

By Allison Grande

A California bill awaiting the governor's signature is poised to reduce the swell of litigation under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, but the narrow scope of the pending lawsuit ban leaves open other avenues for plaintiffs to target the widespread use of website tracking technologies.

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Fla. Surgeon Found Guilty Of Killing Atty Who Went Missing

By David Minsky

A Florida state court judge convicted a plastic surgeon for the murder of an attorney who disappeared after walking into the restroom at his law offices and was then killed, although a body was never recovered. 

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Labcorp Inks $2.3M Deal To Resolve Multistate Data Breach

By Carla Baranauckas

Labcorp will pay nearly $2.3 million and adopt data security changes under a multistate settlement resolving investigations into a 2019 breach at its former debt collection vendor, a group of state attorneys general announced Thursday.

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Medical School Application Fee Antitrust Claim Moves Ahead

By Matthew Perlman

A D.C. federal court issued an order on Thursday trimming several claims from a class action accusing the Association of American Medical Colleges of inflating medical school application fees, but allowed one of the antitrust claims to move ahead.

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SC Judge Wants Clarity On Opioid 'Bodily Injury' Coverage

By Danielle Ferguson

A South Carolina federal judge said Thursday she is likely to ask the state supreme court to weigh in on whether certain language in a pharmaceutical company's insurance policies applies only to identified individuals in underlying opioid epidemic-related lawsuits.

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Thriving Rivals Disprove Hillrom Antitrust Suit, 3rd Circ. Told

By Matthew Santoni

Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. told the Third Circuit on Thursday a Pennsylvania hospital had no evidence the equipment supplier illegally sidelined competitors from the hospital bed market, noting its deals tying discounts to exclusivity hadn't put multiple rivals out of business.

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Colo. Seeks Toss Of ICE Contractor's Inspection Law Suit

By Ganesh Setty

The Colorado attorney general and state health officials are defending a new state health inspection law governing an immigration detention center in Aurora, urging a Colorado federal court to toss much of The GEO Group Inc.'s lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality.

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Novartis Beats Patent Listing Suit Over Entresto

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge gave Novartis permanent relief from a proposed class action alleging it monopolistically delayed generic competition for its blockbuster heart failure drug Entresto, concluding that the drugmaker properly used a patent to ensure exclusivity.

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Autism Therapy Provider Fights $1M MassHealth Demand

By Carolyn Muyskens

Massachusetts' Medicaid program conducted a flawed audit of autism therapy providers last year and then demanded recoupment of paid claims without a meaningful way to challenge the audit's findings, a national therapy provider said in a lawsuit. 

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Roundup

ITC Takes On Patents, Trade Secrets In Large Decision Drop

By Dani Kass

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a flood of decisions this week on investigations in which imports are being evaluated to see if they infringe patents or misappropriate secrets, including three cases where it will reconsider holdings from administrative law judges.

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Parents Say Hospital Forced Them To Drive Home Dead Infant

By Rachel Riley

A Washington couple claims staff at Salem Hospital in Oregon left them with no choice but to drive their 8-month-old son's body back home to Seattle after he suddenly died during a medical emergency, according to a $10 million negligence lawsuit the family filed in Oregon state court.

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EPA Cuts Deal To Partially Settle U. Of Calif. Grant Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

University of California researchers urged a California federal judge Wednesday to preliminarily sign off on their proposed deal to resolve claims against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in broader litigation challenging the Trump administration's termination of thousands of UC grants.

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4 Tips On Expert Gatekeeping From J&J Talc Deal

Johnson & Johnson's successful campaign to exclude plaintiff-side oncologist testimony about whether its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, which prompted the recent resolution of 70,000 claims, offers lessons on how product liability defendants can reshape risk calculation by rigorously applying expert admissibility rules, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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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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