Comey Wants Arraignment Pushed For Dismissal Bid

By Phillip Bantz

Former FBI Director James Comey asked a North Carolina federal court Wednesday to postpone his arraignment on charges alleging he threatened President Donald Trump, telling a judge that he is preparing to seek to have the case thrown out on constitutional grounds.

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Uber Signals Appeal Of NC Bellwether Loss In Assault MDL

By Hayley Fowler

Uber will appeal the verdict in a second bellwether case in which a jury found one of its drivers committed a battery against a North Carolina woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her during a trip in 2019, court records show.

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Feds Want 14 Years For Mogul Who Sought 'Valhalla On Earth'

By Abigail Harrison

Prosecutors have asked a North Carolina federal court to sentence convicted insurance mogul Greg Lindberg to just over 14 years in prison and have him pay hundreds of millions in restitution, stating in a searing 32-page sentencing memorandum that his avarice has destroyed lives.

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NC Co. Filed Veterans' Disability Claims Without Accreditation

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina business violated federal law by preparing veterans' disability claims for a fee without proper accreditation, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, handing a limited victory to a class of veterans by rejecting the company's claim that it acted merely as a consultant.

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Builder Not Covered In Home Construction Fight, Insurer Says

By Hope Patti

A builder accused of causing significant delays and increased costs during the construction of a custom home in North Carolina is not entitled to coverage, the company's insurer told a federal court, saying the underlying suit did not allege bodily injury or property damage.

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NC Tenants Fight For $9.5M Asset Freeze In Landlord Row

By Grace Dixon

A class of tenants at a multifamily property in Durham, North Carolina, urged a state appellate court to uphold an order barring their landlord from transferring proceeds from the possible sale of the property out of state, while they litigate a $9.5 million suit over conditions at the property.

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Lendlease Wants NC Military Housing Suit Tossed

By Isaac Monterose

Lendlease Americas Inc. pushed for dismissal of a suit filed by U.S. military families who accused it and other companies of running uninhabitable homes on North Carolina's Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, arguing in North Carolina federal court that the plaintiffs are mistaken about the company's arguments for dismissal.

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4th Circ. OKs Pipeline Work During Green Groups' Permit Suit

By Abigail Harrison

A Fourth Circuit panel refused to order Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC to halt construction on an interstate pipeline, saying in an order Monday that environmental groups failed to persuade the judges that a recently issued discharge permit was arbitrary and capricious.

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NC Voters To Weigh Income, Property Tax Limits

By Maria Koklanaris

North Carolina voters will decide in November on two proposed constitutional amendments aimed at curbing their income and property taxes after the state General Assembly approved sending the measures to the ballot Wednesday.

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AGs Seek Crackdown On Customized Food Pricing

By Nadia Dreid

Online food delivery platforms are charging people differently based on the personal data they glean from their smartphones, and the Federal Trade Commission ought to force companies to be upfront about it, say 16 state attorneys general.

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Analysis

NCAA's Maze Of Eligibility Rules Is Athletes' Latest Target

By David Steele

A deluge of litigation targeting the NCAA's eligibility bylaws for allegedly limiting athletes' compensation has resulted in conflicting rulings from different courts, teeing up the possibility of a U.S. Supreme Court intervention.

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Roblox, Microsoft, Epic Win Arbitration Bid In Addiction Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday sent to arbitration a suit accusing Roblox Corp., Epic Games Inc. and Microsoft Corp. of causing a minor's video game addiction, saying the claims fall within broad arbitration provisions in the companies' user agreements.

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PE Fund Managers Seek Toss Of $150M Florida Investor Suit

By David Minsky

A group of private equity fund managers and their companies urged a Florida federal court to dismiss a proposed class action brought by investors alleging a conspiracy to steal $150 million through a complex financial scheme, saying the complaint is disorganized and fails to allege wrongdoing.

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States, DC Urge 10th Circ. To OK Colo. Social Media Law

By Mike Curley

A group of 43 states and the District of Columbia are asking the Tenth Circuit to reverse a trial court order blocking enforcement of a new Colorado law requiring warning labels for social media used by minors, saying that even under strict scrutiny, the law is justified to protect minors' mental health.

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Refusing Sandoz Parent Dismissal 'Clear Error,' Court Told

By Bryan Koenig

Sandoz's Swiss parent company wants a Pennsylvania federal judge to rethink her decision forcing it to face generic drug price-fixing claims from major employers like General Motors, arguing the court "conflates" Novartis AG with Sandoz AG, which was spun off in 2023.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

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OpenAI Says ChatGPT Misuse Is Users' Responsibility

By Emily Sawicki

OpenAI has asked a federal judge in Chicago to end an insurance company's suit alleging it practices law without a license, arguing the complaint should be directed toward individuals who misuse the company's ChatGPT bot to file faulty motions, and not the generative AI platform itself.

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2nd Circ. Pick Questioned At Hearing On Role As Trump Lawyer

By Courtney Bublé

Matthew Schwartz, a nominee for the Second Circuit, was questioned by Democratic senators Wednesday about whether his current job as the president's personal attorney while his nomination process is underway poses a conflict of interest.

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Bad AI Citation Sanction Slashed Amid 7th Circ. Guidance

By Hailey Konnath

An Indiana federal judge Wednesday rejected a magistrate judge's recommendation that an attorney be sanctioned $7,500 for including faulty, artificial intelligence-generated legal citations in a discovery brief, pointing to recent Seventh Circuit guidance and sanctioning him $2,000 instead.

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2 Fla. County Courts Requiring AI Disclosure In Court Filings

By Sarah Martinson

Two Florida circuit courts in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are requiring attorneys and self-represented litigants to disclose when they use generative text tools to prepare their court filings and to certify they checked the generated content for accuracy.

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Hagens Berman Says Apple Smear Job Can't Stop Withdrawal

By Bonnie Eslinger

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP urged a California federal judge to allow one of its named plaintiffs to withdraw from an Apple iCloud antitrust case, saying Apple Inc.'s filed opposition is rife with "misdirection and ad hominem" attacks and not about the merits of the dispute but "smearing opposing counsel."

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Atty Withdrawals Not Limited To Fee Conflicts, ABA Says

By Emily Sawicki

Lawyers whose clients fail to hold up their end of valid engagement agreements are clear to cease their representation, so long as certain criteria are met, according to the American Bar Association's ethics committee's latest guidance, published Wednesday.

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Mich. Supreme Court Mulls Remote Court Access Rules

By Susan Smiley

The Michigan Supreme Court held administrative hearings on Wednesday concerning several proposed amendments to Michigan court rules, including adding more specific guidelines for remote hearings, making language services free for civil cases, and allowing law students and recent law graduates to appear on behalf of indigent people in all Michigan courts.

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