'Jersey Boys' Producer Slips $1M Pension Tab At 9th Circ.

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday reversed a win for a stagehands union pension plan in a dispute with a producer for the jukebox musical "Jersey Boys," saying an entertainment industry exemption to federal benefits law shielded the production company from approximately $1 million in withdrawal liability. 

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Section 230 Knocks Down Addiction MDL, Meta Tells 9th Circ.

By Dorothy Atkins

Meta Platforms Inc. urged a Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday to find that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields it from sprawling social-media-addiction multidistrict litigation, arguing that the claims go to "the heart of what the statute intends to protect."

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Meta Downplayed $10B Ad Changes 'Tsunami,' 9th Circ. Told

By Dorothy Atkins

Meta Platforms Inc. investors urged a Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday to revive a proposed securities class action alleging the social media giant hid the financial effects of privacy changes by Apple Inc., arguing that Meta executives publicly assured investors while knowing the company would be hit with a "$10 billion tsunami."

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Ramey Blocked As Atty In Image Patent Fight In NY

By Adam Lidgett

Intellectual property attorney William Ramey was prevented from representing the owner of image processing and modifying patents used in special eyeglasses in an infringement suit in New York federal court, leading the company to abandon the case.

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Fla. Court Won't Rehear Reversal Of $213M 'Maya' Award

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida appeals court said Monday it will not reconsider its decision that reversed a $213 million judgment against a Florida hospital in favor of Maya Kowalski, the subject of the Netflix documentary "Take Care of Maya."

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Authors Demand OpenAI's $1B Disney Deal Details For IP Suit

By Ivan Moreno

Bestselling authors accusing OpenAI of unlawfully using their copyrighted works to train ChatGPT have asked a New York federal judge to order the company to produce details of its $1 billion licensing deal with Disney announced last month, saying the agreement could show the "feasibility" of a licensing market for AI training.

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OpenAI Says Cameo Lacks Name Recognition For TM Claim

By Elliot Weld

Artificial intelligence startup OpenAI has asked a California federal judge to dismiss part of a trademark infringement suit brought by celebrity video service Cameo, saying Cameo hasn't shown its mark is well-known enough to support a dilution claim.

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Top Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice Cases Of 2025

By Y. Peter Kang

A headline-grabbing $329 million wrongful death verdict against Tesla and a landmark $2.5 billion deal between DuPont and New Jersey over PFAS "forever chemicals" are among Law360's top personal injury and medical malpractice cases from 2025.

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Texas Court Reverses Halt On Samsung's TV Data Collection

By Allison Grande

A Texas state judge Tuesday lifted his temporary block on Samsung deploying technology that the state's attorney general has alleged the television maker is using to unlawfully spy on viewers and harvest their data.

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Google Wants One Complaint From Ad Tech Rivals, Not Six

By Bryan Koenig

Google has asked a New York federal judge to tee up a bid to forcibly consolidate half a dozen antitrust lawsuits from rivals accusing Google of hobbling their advertising placement technology businesses, arguing one combined complaint would be more efficient for the lawsuits bearing "substantial similarities."

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Zillow, Redfin Fight FTC's Bid For More Discovery Time

By Isaac Monterose

Zillow Group Inc., Zillow Inc. and Redfin Corp. are urging a Virginia federal court to reject a bid for more discovery time filed by the Federal Trade Commission and multiple states for their combined antitrust suit against the two property listing companies.

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FTC Urges DC Circ. To Unblock Media Matters Probe

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission told the D.C. Circuit the agency's investigation into left-leaning watchdog Media Matters for America is about potential collusion in the advertising industry, not retaliation for reporting on Nazi content, and said a lower court was wrong to block the probe.

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Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

By Christopher Cole

Groups lobbying the Federal Communications Commission stayed busy in December as the agency closed out a year of rapid change, with advocates focused on satellite spectrum sharing, amateur radio rules, network recovery on the U.S. Virgin Islands, and more.

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ISP Asks Feds To Preempt SC City Over Fiber Deployment

By Christopher Cole

A broadband provider has urged the Federal Communications Commission to use its preemption authority to block a South Carolina city's requirements for deployment of new internet services.

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Brief

Markey Slams 'Reckless' Media Onslaught After CPB's End

By Christopher Cole

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., blasted the Trump administration for what he described as a relentless attack on public media after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting shut down following the termination of its federal funding.

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NJ Judge Signals Green Light To Revive J&J Unit's Libel Suit

By Emily Lever

A New Jersey federal judge has indicated she is planning to grant a bankrupt Johnson & Johnson talc subsidiary's bid to revive its trade libel claim over a scientific article linking asbestos in talc to mesothelioma.

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NJ Bill Aims To Earmark $2.5B In Development Tax Credits

By Michael Nunes

New Jersey would earmark $2.5 billion in economic development tax credits, with up to $300 million designated for sports and entertainment projects, as part of a bill introduced in the state Assembly.

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Ireland Offers Europe's First Tax Break For Unscripted Shows

By Kevin Pinner

Ireland is offering a corporate tax credit for unscripted productions that promote Irish and European culture, the Department of Finance said, noting that the initiative is the first of its kind in Europe.

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Reviewing 2025's Artificial Intelligence Disputes Over IP

2025 brought the first major fair use rulings involving generative artificial intelligence, and in 2026 courts will weigh in on more discovery disputes, renewed motions to dismiss, class certification challenges and fair use defenses that could shape the course of future AI litigation, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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'Get Over' Yourself, Ho Says To Judges' Independence Worry

By Lauren Berg

U.S. Circuit Judge James C. Ho snapped back at colleagues on the bench who have raised the alarm over threats to judicial independence, writing in an article that those complaining judges "need to get over themselves" and stop bowing to the "cultural elites" who oppose the Trump administration.

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Trump Announces First Judicial Picks Of 2026

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening his first judicial nominees of 2026, a slate of four district court picks for Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

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Halligan Ordered To Explain Why She's Still Listed As US Atty

By Hailey Konnath

A Virginia federal judge Tuesday ordered Lindsey Halligan to explain why she was still identifying herself as a U.S. attorney despite another judge's order finding that the former insurance lawyer hadn't been properly appointed and was serving illegally on an interim basis.

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Judgeship Nomination Not Renewed Amid Fla. Charity Probe

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of John Guard, senior counselor to the attorney general of Florida, for a Middle District of Florida federal judgeship, has not been renewed for the new session of Congress after he came under scrutiny in a criminal probe regarding a charity connected to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

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Atty Apologizes For ChatGPT-Hallucinated Citations In Briefs

By Elliot Weld

A patent attorney has apologized to a Kansas federal judge for submitting a court filing with case citations hallucinated by ChatGPT, calling the experience "shameful and embarrassing" and saying he was in a poor mental state at the time due to his mother and aunt being hospitalized and dying shortly after.

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Texas Justices Erase ABA Approval In Bar Admissions

By Lynn LaRowe

The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an order ending a longstanding rule requiring graduation from a law school approved by the American Bar Association for admittance to the state bar, with the court giving itself the authority for accreditation.

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WH Says Judge Can't Pursue Immigration Contempt Probe

By Jared Foretek

The Trump administration has once again told the D.C. Circuit that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg lacks the constitutional authority to open a contempt probe into the government's removal of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants against his emergency order in March, calling the investigation an "unprecedented criminal fact-finding inquisition."

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Judiciary Advisers Predict Clashes Over AI, Remote Testimony

By Jeff Overley

The federal judiciary's policy advisers appeared divided Tuesday over efforts to align procedural rules with digital age technology and preferences, and they predicted a torrent of impassioned input if they open up their delicate internal debates to the entire public.

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Girardi Keese CFO Must Use His Own Atty For Chicago Appeal

By Lauraann Wood

Girardi Keese's former financial chief cannot have counsel appointed to help him challenge the Illinois sentence he is serving alongside his 10-year California sentence for helping Tom Girardi steal millions from clients because he isn't pursuing the appeal in good faith, an Illinois federal judge has ruled.

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National Judicial College Names Idaho Law Dean As President

By Jake Maher

The National Judicial College has named a new president and chief executive officer, selecting the dean of the University of Idaho College of Law to become the first woman to hold the position.

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