North Carolina's highest court found a homeowner isn't barred from suing an insurance agency for negligence over false answers on a property insurance application even though he never read the document, saying context bears on his culpability.
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

NC Justices Say Insured's Failure To Read Doesn't Bar Claim

By Hayley Fowler

North Carolina's highest court found a homeowner isn't barred from suing an insurance agency for negligence over false answers on a property insurance application even though he never read the document, saying context bears on his culpability.

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NC Justices Say Doc Is Employee, Not Official With Immunity

By Mike Curley

The North Carolina Supreme Court has overturned an appeals court decision that a University of North Carolina professor had public-official immunity in a defamation suit over an investigation into a colleague's going-away party, holding he is an employee of a public agency, not a public official entitled to immunity.

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Philips Can't Nix Suit Over Sleep Machine Catching Fire

By Jonathan Capriel

Medical equipment company Philips cannot end a lawsuit claiming its sleep apnea breathing machine caught fire in the middle of the night, burning a woman's face and consuming her home, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, saying the adult daughter of the victim, who died due to an unrelated illness, can remain the plaintiff.

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LITIGATION

NC Inn Skimps On Wages, Ex-Workers Say

By Emmy Freedman

An inn in the Blue Ridge Mountains failed to pay innkeepers minimum and overtime wages despite requiring them to work more than 12 hours a day, according to a suit filed in North Carolina federal court.

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ENFORCEMENT

Unlicensed Adviser Charged With $4M Securities Fraud In NC

By Hayley Fowler

Federal prosecutors in North Carolina have charged an unlicensed California investment adviser with fraud and money laundering after he allegedly lured more than 30 victims into investing more than $4 million in bogus commercial real estate opportunities.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Trump's WilmerHale Order Struck Down In Forceful Decision

By Dorothy Atkins

A D.C. federal judge struck down President Donald Trump's executive order targeting WilmerHale in an impassioned opinion Tuesday, writing that Trump's entire order is unconstitutional, and "to rule otherwise would be unfaithful to the judgment and vision of the Founding Fathers!"

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Feds Ask Justices To Lift Due Process Order For Migrants

By Julie Manganis and Chris Villani

The Trump administration on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a Massachusetts federal judge's order requiring the government to provide due process to deportees sent to countries where they have no ties, arguing that the ruling is "wreaking havoc" on the removal process.

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Atty Avoids Sanctions After Adding AI Hallucinations To Brief

By Lauraann Wood

A California attorney who represented a software company in a trade secret dispute will not be sanctioned for filing a brief that included two ChatGPT-hallucinated case citations under circumstances so unusual they "couldn't have been made up," an Illinois federal judge said Tuesday.

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ArentFox Schiff Says Workers' 'Antics' Should Get Suit Tossed

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge handling age discrimination claims from two longtime former ArentFox Schiff LLP information technology contractors should permanently dismiss their lawsuit as a consequence for routinely destroying case evidence and discarding their mobile phones while the litigation has been pending, the firm says.

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CFTC Member Speaks On Agency Exits: 'Not A Great Situation'

By Jessica Corso

Departing U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Christy Goldsmith Romero said Tuesday that a possible leadership void at the agency could do a "great disservice to regulation" at a time when Congress is thinking of handing the agency the keys to the cryptocurrency industry.

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'I Need To Be Careful': Judge Wades Into Musk-Firm Conflict

By Jessica Corso

A New York federal judge questioned his authority to weigh in on Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP's hiring decisions after it sought permission to employ a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney who Elon Musk claims could disadvantage him in a shareholder lawsuit, asking the firm and Musk to brief him on what may be an issue of first impression.

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Trump, Ex-Copyright Head Duel Over Her Firing

By Adam Lidgett

Former U.S. Copyright Office director Shira Perlmutter on Tuesday said a Washington, D.C., federal judge should ignore the Trump administration's argument that her recent firing was legal, the latest salvo in her lawsuit against the federal government as she seeks to block her removal.

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Trump To Pardon 'Chrisley' Stars Convicted Of Tax Evasion

By Anna Scott Farrell

President Donald Trump is planning to pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, the Georgia duo sentenced to prison after being convicted of running a yearslong bank fraud scheme and dodging federal taxes, according to a post Tuesday on X by Trump's communications adviser.

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Crypto Industry Urges CFTC Action On Perpetual Contracts

By Aislinn Keely

Derivatives marketplaces and cryptocurrency firms told the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that setting rules for so-called perpetual derivatives would bring significant crypto trading activity onshore, but the regulator will have to contend with round-the-clock trading, novel risks and characteristics that don't fit neatly into existing classifications.

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Tort Report: 'High-Low' Deal Nets Plaintiff Extra $10M

By Y. Peter Kang

A last-minute "high-low" agreement that turned out to be a stroke of genius by lawyers for an injured motorcyclist and a $26 million verdict for a crash caused by a postal worker lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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Calif. Bar Seeks More Remedies After Problematic Feb. Exam

By Emily Sawicki

The state bar of California has formally asked the state Supreme Court to approve measures including a limited provisional licensure program and a more direct pathway to admission for out-of-state attorneys, in the state bar's latest attempt to seek equitable remedies amid the fallout from the bungled February 2025 California bar exam.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Slater Slater's Adam Slater

By Jonathan Capriel

Securing multibillion-dollar settlements against major institutions like the Boy Scouts and Catholic dioceses on behalf of thousands of victims who were sexually assaulted as children has become Adam Slater's life work, but at least some of the skills he's used to secure this monetary justice come from his years as a poker player.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

ArentFox Schiff

ArentFox Schiff LLP

Armstrong Law Firm PA

Bernstein Litowitz

Bober & Bober

Brown Rudnick

Cadwalader Wickersham

Clement & Murphy

Covington & Burling

Farrar & Ball

GCA Law Partners

Goldberg Segalla

Hartzog Law Group

Irwin IP

Jackson Lewis PC

Jenner & Block

Kaster Lynch

Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins

McFarlin LLP

Milbank LLP

Munger Tolles

Noble Law Firm PLLC

Panish Shea

Paul & Perkins

Paul Weiss

Perkins Coie

Poulin Willey

Quinn Emanuel

Skadden Arps

Slater Slater

Susman Godfrey

Tolpin & Partners

Willkie Farr

WilmerHale

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Binance Holdings Ltd.

Boy Scouts of America

CME Group Inc.

Citadel Securities LLC

Coinbase Global Inc.

Democracy Forward Foundation

GeoVera Insurance Co. Inc.

Griffith Co.

Human Rights First

Life Fitness Inc.

Lyft Inc.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Signify N.V.

State Bar of California

Twitter Inc.

USA Network

XPO Logistics

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Executive Office of the President

Library of Congress

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina

U.S. Copyright Office

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Postal Service

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court