4th Circ. Won't Rehear Tort Atty's $25M Extortion Conviction

By Y. Peter Kang

The Fourth Circuit has declined to reconsider its affirmance of the conviction of a prominent medical malpractice attorney for attempting to extort the University of Maryland Medical System for $25 million.

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Ill. Jury Awards UN Worker's Family $29M For Boeing Crash

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal jury awarded $29 million Wednesday to the family of a U.N. engineer who died alongside 156 others when a Boeing 737 Max 8 jet carrying Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crashed within minutes of takeoff.

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Injury Firm Fined For Spray Chalk Sidewalk Ads In Hartford

By Christine DeRosa

A Connecticut personal injury law firm has been fined after catching the attention of Hartford's mayor with stenciled chalk advertisements on sidewalks in the city and West Hartford.

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Simon & Simon Seeks Loss Records In Uber, FedEx Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Philadelphia injury firm Simon & Simon PC has asked a federal judge to order Uber and FedEx to submit records showing alleged financial losses in their Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations lawsuit accusing the firm of scheming to falsify medical records to boost injury claims against the companies.

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Baby Food Cos. Near Ax Of Some ADHD, Autism Claims

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated on Thursday that she would grant summary judgment to a significant swath of claims in multidistrict litigation alleging lead and arsenic in baby food from Gerber, Beech-Nut, Walmart and others contributed to children's ADHD and autism, which follows her previous ruling that the plaintiffs' causation evidence was too unreliable.

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State Farm Attys Admit Filing Motions Full Of AI Hallucinations

By Jonathan Capriel

A law firm representing State Farm has admitted that its pretrial motions contained citations to nonexistent cases and legal quotes, errors that were seemingly "hallucinations" generated by AI software designed for lawyers and caught by the plaintiff's attorneys as they prepared for trial in a California state court case about fire damage coverage.

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Albertsons Didn't Flag Suspicious Opioid Orders, Judge Hears

By Ben Adlin

Albertsons failed to report its pharmacies' unusual opioid orders to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration despite explicit instructions from the agency to do so, the retailer's vice president of pharmacy compliance testified Thursday during a bench trial in Washington's lawsuit accusing the chain of exacerbating the state's opioid epidemic.

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NJ Sen. Seeks AG Probe Of Seton Hall After BigLaw Report

By Jake Maher

A New Jersey state senator called on the state attorney general's office this week to launch a new, independent investigation into Seton Hall University after a recent investigation by Ropes & Gray LLP cleared the school's president of wrongdoing regarding sexual abuse allegations within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.

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Feds Can Release More Documents Under Epstein Law

By Andrea Keckley

A New York federal judge granted the federal government's request to unseal documents in a 2015 civil lawsuit filed by the late Virginia Giuffre, a Jeffrey Epstein accuser who sued Ghislaine Maxwell a decade before her death last year.

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Mich. Jail Nurse Must Face Suit Over Inmate's Death

By Melanie Dorsey

A Lenawee County Jail nurse must face a civil rights claim over her failure to give oxygen to an incarcerated man shortly before his fatal heart attack, a Michigan federal judge ruled, finding a jury could conclude she disregarded a serious risk to his health. 

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Walmart Fights Black Atty's Theft Accusation In Bias Suit

By Emily Johnson

Walmart has told a Georgia federal court that its employees didn't accuse a Wisconsin attorney of theft during a self-checkout transaction because she's Black, but that the customer was asked to move to another register because she had incorrectly scanned her items.

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Ohio High Court Reinstates $1.9M Farmworker Injury Verdict

By Mike Curley

The Ohio Supreme Court has revived a $1.9 million verdict in favor of a farmworker over injuries he sustained on the job, finding the appeals court wrongly required that he prove that his employer had deliberately not reattached a safety guard on the tractor that injured him.

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Del. Water Supplier Sues 9 Cos. Over PFAS

By Emily Field

A Delaware water supplier hit nine companies with a suit in state court alleging that they released forever chemicals into the watersheds that supply water to tens of thousands of residents, seeking to recoup at least $34.6 million for the cost of ensuring safe drinking water.

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Kratom Cos. Can't Escape Conn. Court's Reach, Father Says

By Jonathan Capriel

Several companies tied to Whole Herbs-branded kratom products must face a state lawsuit claiming they caused the overdose death of a 33-year-old man, the man's father said, arguing that Connecticut courts have jurisdiction over the companies because they ultimately knew their products would be sold there.

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Brief

Canadian Airplane Co. Settles Flight Student's NC Crash Case

By Hayley Fowler

A Canadian aviation manufacturer has resolved a flight student's lawsuit claiming his instructor was forced to crash-land an allegedly defective airplane on a North Carolina interstate due to engine failure, according to a mediator's report.

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Trump Media Wants Fees For News Orgs. Tossed In $1.5B Suit

By Carolina Bolado

President Donald Trump's social media company asked a Florida state court to reconsider an order awarding several news outlets the costs they incurred defending Trump Media's $1.5 billion defamation lawsuit, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction to issue the order once the claims had been withdrawn.

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Festival Director Must Face Suit Over Drakeo's Killing

By Craig Clough

The festival director of a concert where rapper Drakeo the Ruler was killed backstage cannot escape a consolidated wrongful death suit brought by the artist's family and associates, with a Los Angeles judge ruling Thursday that a triable issue of material fact remains regarding the entity's role at the event.

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Series

Going To Hardcore Shows Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While government contracts law and the hardcore scene may seem entirely unrelated, in my experience, both are about community, focus, being prepared for the unexpected and managing chaos, says Isaac Natter at Fluet.

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Anti-DEI Group Asks FTC To Probe Law Fellowship Program

By Dorothy Atkins

An advocacy organization against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday, accusing Sponsors for Educational Opportunity of engaging in anticompetitive practices by allegedly colluding on DEI metrics and falsely advertising its program.

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Baker Botts Atty Cleared Of Defamation In Inventor's Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Thursday tossed a defamation claim against a Baker Botts LLP patent attorney after agreeing with a magistrate judge's conclusion that an inventor had not shown that the lawyer's comments to a reporter were defamatory.

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NYC Bar Committee Calls For Nationwide AI Rules Framework

By Andrea Keckley

A New York City Bar Association committee concluded in a policy paper published Wednesday that artificial intelligence tools "may assist legal work but cannot substitute for professional legal judgment," calling for a national framework to be built into the Model Rules of Professional Conduct governing its use.

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Trump Picks Ex-Arkansas SG, Walmart Lawyer For 8th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has announced that he's looking to elevate Judge Lee Rudofsky of the Eastern District of Arkansas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

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Brief

DOJ Fraud Division To Reach 500 Staffers This Month

By Courtney Bublé

By the end of the month, there will be about 500 attorneys and staff in the U.S. Department of Justice's new fraud division, with more to come as time goes on.

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JP Ward Attorney Exodus Delays Pa. Labor Trafficking Suit

By Matthew Santoni

A "staffing disruption" at the Pittsburgh law firm J.P. Ward & Associates led the firm to request a stay of a labor-trafficking case against hotels in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, after the firm was reduced to one attorney and two staff members, according to court filings.

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