9th Circ. Won't Revisit FCA Ruling Over Drug Price Program

By Ganesh Setty

The Ninth Circuit has said it will not disturb its March ruling allowing a hospital chain to pursue a False Claims Act lawsuit against various pharmaceutical companies for allegedly causing the government to overpay for drugs under a discount program.

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Wash. Justices Float AI Hypotheticals In Hospital Pixel Case

By Rachel Riley

As the Washington Supreme Court considered a group of parents' bid to revive their proposed privacy class action over a Seattle hospital's use of the Meta Pixel browser tracking tool on its website, the justices questioned Thursday whether the rise of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots carried implications for the case.

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Trans Patients Say Stanford Can't Give DOJ Medical Records

By Gianna Ferrarin

A group of transgender adolescents who received gender-related care at a Stanford Medicine hospital urged a California federal court to order the hospital not to turn over any of their medical records in response to a criminal subpoena issued by a grand jury in Texas.

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DOJ To Speed Up Review Of Qui Tam Benefits Fraud Claims

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it's speeding up the agency's review of whistleblower complaints accusing contractors of defrauding state-administered benefits programs that are funded by the federal government, in violation of the False Claims Act. 

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Hospital's $11.5M COVID Tax Credit Suit Clears Dismissal Bid

By Ben Adlin

A Washington federal judge refused to throw out a hospital's lawsuit seeking $11.5 million from the federal government under a COVID-19 relief program, ruling on Thursday that Tri-State Memorial Hospital has plausibly alleged that it partially suspended its operations because of a government order.

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Legislative Update: Cannabis And Psychedelics Bill Roundup

By Sam Reisman

Tennessee became the latest state to approve a policy paving the way for more research into ibogaine; Vermont lawmakers brought a bill doubling cannabis potency and possession limits closer to the finish line; and California legislators approved a bill banning the sale of "laughing gas" used for recreational purposes. Here are the major moves in cannabis and psychedelics legislation from the past week.

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Hospital Operator, Execs Ink $32M FCA Settlement With Feds

By Sarah Jarvis

Psychiatric hospital operator Oglethorpe Inc. has agreed to pay $32 million and be excluded from all federal healthcare programs for 10 years to resolve allegations it knowingly failed to return Medicare overpayments in violation of the False Claims Act.

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Calif. AG Sues 23andMe Over Lapses In Genetic Data Security

By Allison Grande

California moved Thursday to sue the genetic testing company formerly known as 23andMe over a 2023 data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 7 million customers, arguing that the company failed to implement even the most basic security measures and misled consumers about the scope of its safeguards and severity of the breach.

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1st Circ. Rejects Bid To Halt Deportation Over Teens' Health

By Elaine Briseño

The First Circuit let stand deportation orders for a Guatemalan man hoping concerns over his daughters' health would earn him a reprieve, finding an immigration judge correctly found his removal would not result in exceptional hardship for the teens.

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Mich. Judge Dismisses Data Breach Class Action

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a data breach class action brought against A-Line Staffing Solutions because the plaintiffs failed to show that any injury that might have occurred was a direct result of the staffing company's actions.

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Texas Panel Tosses Med Mal Suit Over Flawed Expert Report

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas appellate court has dismissed a medical malpractice suit against a physician accused of leaving a catheter wire in a patient's leg, ruling that the plaintiff's expert report failure to properly identify the applicable standard of care didn't pass muster under the state's healthcare liability law.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Freight Brokers, Uber Lose Key Cases

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's green light of negligent hiring claims against freight brokers in highway crash cases and an adverse verdict against Uber in the sexual assault multidistrict litigation lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Ex-Perrigo Workers Say Lax Security Led To Cyberattack

By Gina Kim

Perrigo, a company that manufactures branded and private-label over-the-counter healthcare products, was hit with a proposed class action in Michigan federal court Wednesday following a cyberattack linked to a notorious hacking group that claims to have accessed personal data belonging to current and former employees.

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UConn Escapes Surgeon's ADA Damages Claim In Bias Suit

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut federal judge Thursday dismissed a surgeon's discrimination lawsuit against the University of Connecticut, saying a bid for money damages was barred by sovereign immunity and that a state employment law claim could only be heard in state court, though the doctor is allowed to retool her case.

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J&J Unit Cleared In Blood Pump Patent Suit In Mass.

By Adam Lidgett

A Massachusetts federal jury on Thursday cleared a Johnson & Johnson MedTech subsidiary of allegations that it infringed a blood pump patent owned by a unit of Swedish medical device company Getinge AB.

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Abbott Labs Settles Ill. Genetic Privacy Suit

By Celeste Bott

Abbott Laboratories has inked a settlement with a proposed class of workers alleging the company's onboarding materials asked for employees' medical history in violation of an Illinois law aimed at protecting residents' genetic information, prompting an Illinois federal judge to dismiss the case Thursday.

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Hospital Network Left Bonuses Out Of OT Pay, Suit Says

By MJ Koo

A dietary worker at a Pennsylvania hospital network accused her employer of shortchanging overtime pay by leaving bonuses out of the calculation, according to a proposed collective action filed in federal court.

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Brief

UnitedHealthcare Unit Settles PrEP Coverage Fight

By Kelcey Caulder

A UnitedHealthcare subsidiary and two customers who alleged its failure to approve full coverage for PrEP violated the Affordable Care Act have agreed to settle their dispute, parties told a Minnesota federal court.

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McDermott-Led Ampersand Clinches $1.5B Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Healthcare-focused private equity firm Ampersand Capital Partners, advised by McDermott Will & Schulte, on Thursday revealed that it closed its latest fund with $1.5 billion.

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Husch Blackwell Adds Manatt Healthcare Duo In LA

By Adrian Cruz

Husch Blackwell LLP announced that a pair of Los Angeles-based commercial litigators from Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP have joined the firm as part of its focus on expanding its California healthcare capabilities.

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Opinion

High Court's Abortion Pill Stay Reinforces Appellate Principles

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent order in Danco Laboratories v. Louisiana, staying a Fifth Circuit ruling that reinstated an in-person requirement for dispensing the abortion medicine mifepristone, should be seen not as a definitive ruling on reproductive rights, but as an affirmation of a more disciplined jurisdictional reality, says Daniel Nardo at Nardo & Associates.

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Series

Studying Foreign Languages Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Studying Italian and Japanese has shown me that learning a new language can benefit a legal career in several ways, including by demonstrating the importance of approaching problems from a fresh perspective and the value of practicing patience with colleagues and clients, says Anna King at Genworth Financial.

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Florida High Court Adopts AI Policy For Lawyers

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday amended the state's rules to require those filing court documents to check any artificial intelligence-generated content for accuracy, and allow for sanctions if the content contains errors.

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Goldstein Says Bad Jury Instructions Warrant New Trial

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein said that the prosecutors who convicted him on 12 tax and mortgage fraud charges in February are now contradicting arguments they made at the end of his trial in their attempt to deny him a bench acquittal or new trial.

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King & Spalding Blocked From Exiting $300M Fraud Lawsuit

By Brian Steele

King & Spalding LLP and Lennon Murphy & Phillips LLC can't withdraw from representing clients in consolidated litigation over an alleged $300 million stock swindle, a Connecticut state court judge has ruled, saying the firms' motions ahead of a June trial lack good cause.

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Fla. Court Refers Atty To Bar Over Bogus Case Citations

By Madison Arnold

A Florida state appeals court has referred an appellant's attorney to the state's bar for disciplinary proceedings after filing a petition that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence and "raises frivolous arguments, misstates the law, and cites non-existent case law."

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Parents Demand 'Bad Faith' Sanctions In Camp Mystic Case

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic in Texas' Hill Country should be sanctioned over "bad faith" conduct in litigation over flooding deaths last summer, including purported misrepresentations to courts and regulators and an alleged remark by one of its attorneys to a plaintiffs' lawyer that he would "burn in hell," a state court has been told.

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Trump Considers Tech Entrepreneur For DOJ Grants Post

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump appears poised to nominate a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur for a top U.S. Department of Justice post that oversees grants and criminal justice programs.

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Dem Sens. Ask DOJ To Preserve Trump-IRS Settlement Docs

By Jack McLoone

Two Democratic Senate leaders asked the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve any records related to the settlement of President Donald Trump's suit against the IRS in a letter published Thursday, signaling that further investigations may be coming.

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Ex-Fla. Chief Justice Fred Lewis Dies At 78

By Carolina Bolado

Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, who spent two decades on the bench of the Florida Supreme Court, has died at 78, the court announced Thursday.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Gupta Wessler's Deepak Gupta

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

In the decade and a half since starting his own firm, Deepak Gupta has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has won matters in state high courts from coast to coast, and has become a mainstay in federal appellate courts while building his plaintiff-side litigation boutique into a sought-after juggernaut.

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