NC Top Court Scraps Judicial Fix For Public School System

By Abigail Harrison and Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in a divided decision Thursday that a trial court lacked the power to impose constitutional remedies for the state's failure to provide students with a quality education, invalidating nine years of developments in the decades-long case known as Leandro.

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BofA $72.5M Deal With Up To 75 Epstein Victims Clears Hurdle

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge gave preliminary approval Thursday to a settlement in which Bank of America will pay $72.5 million to as many as 75 women to settle allegations that it facilitated what the court called Jeffrey Epstein's "monstrous" sex trafficking and abuse.

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Gibbs Racing Wants Ex-Employee's Alleged Deleted Texts

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Joe Gibbs Racing LLC has asked a federal judge for permission to access cellphone records that would unearth purportedly erased communications between its former competition director and the owner of a rival team that hired him, with the Gibbs team expressing urgency to preserve the messages as crucial evidence in the trade secrets case.

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Uber Fights Common Carrier Tentative Ahead Of NC Bellwether

By Bonnie Eslinger

Uber on Thursday urged a California federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation for alleged passenger sexual assaults to reverse his tentative decision that it's a "common carrier" with a duty to ensure passenger safety, a finding that could hamstring the ride-hailing giant in an upcoming North Carolina bellwether trial.

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AG Urges NC Justices To Keep Jurisdiction Over TikTok Suit

By Matthew Santoni

North Carolina Attorney General Jeffrey Jackson urged the state's Supreme Court to make TikTok's parent company face claims that it's addictive to juvenile users, arguing the social media giant had enough contact with the Tarheel State to be subject to its courts' jurisdiction.

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Convenience Store Chain Denied Quick Appeal In Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Han-Dee Hugo's can't immediately appeal a decision conditionally certifying a collective action of gas and convenience store managers in an overtime pay dispute, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, finding that it failed to show that doing so would speed up the litigation.

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Insurer Distorts Evidence In $50M COVID Row, Court Told

By Gianna Ferrarin

An auto parts manufacturer accused an insurer of distorting evidence of COVID-19 at its plants and contradicting policy language in order to escape its $50 million bid for coverage of pandemic-related losses in North Carolina federal court.

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Nexstar Slams DirecTV's 'Speculative' $6.2B Merger Challenge

By Dorothy Atkins

Broadcast giants Nexstar and Tegna urged a California federal judge on Thursday to allow their $6.2 billion merger to proceed as state attorneys general and DirecTV challenge the tie-up, arguing that their allegations of harm are "generalized and speculative" and that DirecTV is merely trying to maximize its leverage in future negotiations.

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Feds Say Habeas Ruling Could Spur More 'Illegal Orders'

By Jared Foretek

The Trump administration has asked the Fourth Circuit to reverse a district ruling that upheld a standing order from Maryland federal judges barring immediate removal or transfer of immigrant detainees, arguing the ruling sets a dangerous precedent for district court standing orders.

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Justices May Hesitate To Limit Courts' Arbitration Review

Based on Monday's argument in Jules v. Andre Balazs, the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to preserve federal jurisdiction over arbitral award enforcement stemming from actions originated in federal court, a holding that would markedly limit the court's 2022 Walters v. Badgerow decision, says Ashwini Jayaratnam at DarrowEverett.

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Series

Ultramarathons Make Me A Better Lawyer

Completing a 100-mile ultramarathon was tougher, more humbling and more rewarding than I ever imagined, and the experience highlighted how long-distance running has sharpened my ability to adapt to the evolving nature of antitrust law and strengthened my resolve to handle demanding, unforeseen challenges, says Dan Oakes at Axinn.

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Bondi Out As Attorney General After Contentious Time At DOJ

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday Attorney General Pam Bondi will be leaving her post. 

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Goldstein Allowed To Move Out After Marriage Falls Apart

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge on Thursday allowed SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein to relocate for the duration of his home confinement, after Goldstein's attorneys said his marriage had fallen apart and it no longer "makes sense" for Goldstein and his wife to share a residence.

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Raskin Blasts DOJ Bid To Shield Attys From State Bar Probes

By Courtney Bublé

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice's endeavor to preempt state bar investigations of department attorneys is a "get out of jail free" card.

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DLA Piper, Vax Refuser Reach Deal To End Religious Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

DLA Piper has struck a deal to wrap up a Christian former employee's lawsuit claiming he was fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine because of his religious beliefs, an Illinois federal judge said Thursday.

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Schneider Wallace Fights Uphill For Bigger Cut Of $75M Fees

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal magistrate judge appeared skeptical Thursday about Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP's bid to increase its cut of a $75.4 million fee award for representing plaintiffs in a $228.5 million Sutter Health antitrust deal, saying lead counsel Constantine Cannon LLP's allocation of $1.4 million to Schneider Wallace seems fair.

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Puerto Rico Bankruptcy Stymies Paul Weiss, ACLU Fee Bids

By Carolyn Muyskens

American Civil Liberties Union and Paul Weiss attorneys who successfully eased restrictions on voting by mail in Puerto Rico during the COVID-19 pandemic cannot collect fees for their work because they were discharged in Puerto Rico's bankruptcy proceeding, the First Circuit has ruled.

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Process Server ABC Legal Inks $2.5M Deal Over Cyber Breach

By Ben Adlin

Seattle-based ABC Legal Services LLC, which bills itself as the nation's largest network of legal process servers, would pay $2.5 million under a tentative deal to settle workers' putative class action claiming a 2024 cyberattack exposed their personal information, the plaintiffs told a Washington federal court Wednesday.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen data giant Sportrader face action from software company Altenar over alleged market abuse, Mexican billionaire Ricardo Pliego sue a man who allegedly defrauded him out of $415 million, and Warner Bros. bring a copyright claim against a YouTuber who leaked set footage of the upcoming Harry Potter series. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K. 

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