Tesla Drivers Nab Class Cert. In 'Full Self-Driving' Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge Monday granted class certification in a consolidated lawsuit that accused Tesla Inc. of duping drivers into falsely believing that its cars can fully pilot themselves, but made some modifications to proposed class definitions.

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Boeing Slams Fund's 737 Max 'Zombie' Fraud Claims

By Linda Chiem

Boeing told an Illinois federal judge that an investment fund has lobbed untimely "zombie" claims seeking to hold the American aerospace giant liable for allegedly misrepresenting the overall safety of the 737 Max 8 after two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019. 

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Pa. Court Affirms $7.3M Verdict To Man Hit By SEPTA Train

By Y. Peter Kang

A split Pennsylvania appeals panel on Monday upheld a $7.3 million jury verdict in a suit accusing a construction company of negligently causing a subcontract worker to get hit by a SEPTA train while working, saying the company can't be considered the man's employer for purposes of workers compensation immunity.

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NFI Agrees To $5.75M Deal To End Misclassification Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

National Freight has agreed to pay $5.75 million to end an almost 10-year-long suit in which a class of truckers claimed they were misclassified as independent contractors, the workers said, urging a New Jersey federal court to greenlight the deal.

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Judge Won't Pause Pipeline Suit For Top Court Review

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Michigan judge on Monday said the state attorney general's legal fight over an Enbridge Energy LP pipeline in the Great Lakes can continue, even while the U.S. Supreme Court mulls whether the case belongs in state or federal court.

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$28M ND Pipeline Protest Case Paused Amid Settlement Talks

By Crystal Owens

A federal district court and the Eighth Circuit have paused a $28 million dispute between North Dakota and the United States over failure to control Dakota Access Pipeline protesters after the parties said they were negotiating to settle the case.

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Vt. Says It Has The Authority To Enact Climate Superfund Law

By Keith Goldberg

Vermont has urged a federal judge to dismiss lawsuits challenging its recently enacted climate change Superfund law, saying it's a valid exercise of the state's authority to raise revenue and protect its citizens against environmental harms.

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Farmer Didn't Own Cow Woman Crashed Into, Panel Says

By Y. Peter Kang

An Illinois state appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of a suit seeking to hold a farmer and his farm liable for injuries suffered by a motorist who hit a stray cow, saying the evidence showed that the farmer did not own the cow in question.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Sydney Price and Jeff Montgomery

Executives and board members of Cencora Corp. tentatively settled a stockholder derivative suit for $111.25 million, VectoIQ board members reached a $6.3 million deal on stockholder claims over electric carmaker Nikola's prospects, and class attorneys who secured a $50 million derivative suit settlement saw their proposed 25% attorney fee cut by almost half. Here's the latest from the Delaware Chancery Court.

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10th Circ. Says Mixed Police Motive Permits Drug Evidence

By Elizabeth Daley

A man sentenced to six years in prison for crimes related to drug trafficking crimes couldn't have evidence found in his car suppressed, the Tenth Circuit has affirmed, finding that police had the right to impound his vehicle after stopping him for having a car that was too loud and arresting him for outstanding misdemeanors.

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Respecting Picket Wasn't A Strike, Teamsters Local Tells Court

By Emily Brill

Airgas' collective bargaining agreement with a Teamsters local in Allentown, Pennsylvania, protects its workers' right to respect picket lines, the local told a Pennsylvania federal judge Monday, asking him to toss the gas supplier's claim that the workers' refusal to cross a picket line was a strike that violated the contract.

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Ex-Lovesac Execs Stuck With Bulk Of SEC Fraud Suit

By Katryna Perera

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's suit against two former executives of beanbag chair maker Lovesac will move forward after a Connecticut federal judge ruled that the SEC had adequately pled knowledge of wrongdoing by the defendants and the materiality of alleged misstatements.

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8th Circ. Rulings Show Employer ADA Risks In Fitness Tests

Two recent Eighth Circuit decisions reviving lawsuits brought by former Union Pacific employees offer guidance for navigating compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, serving as a cautionary tale for employers that use broad fitness-for-duty screening programs and highlighting the importance of individualized assessments, says Masood Ali at Segal McCambridge.

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Rebuttal

BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation

A recent Law360 op-ed argued that loosening law firm funding restrictions would make BigLaw firms less inclined to settle with the Trump administration, but deregulating legal financing ethics may well prove to be not merely ineffective, but counterproductive, says Laurel Kilgour at the American Economic Liberties Project.

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Litigation Funder Burford Eyes Investments In US Law Firms

By Ryan Boysen

Burford Capital LLC, the world's largest litigation funder, is eyeing an investment model to put money directly in U.S. law firms after years of investing in U.S. lawsuits, its chief development officer told Law360 Pulse.

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Fired DOJ Antitrust Deputy Warns Of Lobbyist Influence

By Matthew Perlman

The former top deputy for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Roger P. Alford, defended the agency's leadership Monday while calling out a pair of senior officials and warning of the influence that lobbyists are wielding over merger reviews and other issues.

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Fried Frank Escapes Sanctions Over Flawed RICO Patent Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Florida federal court has rejected sanctions motions leveled against Tristar Products Inc. and its counsel at Fried Frank for bringing a doomed anti-racketeering patent fraud lawsuit against Telebrands Corp., finding that the claims were not frivolous despite "myriad" flaws and "sloppy lawyering."

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SDNY Judges OK Trump's Selection Of Jay Clayton As US Atty

By Hailey Konnath

The Southern District of New York on Monday permitted Jay Clayton to continue overseeing the district's prosecutorial office, appointing Clayton as U.S. attorney just a day before his tenure as interim U.S. attorney was set to expire.

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Burr & Forman Must Face Claims From Healthcare Scheme

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge has denied Burr & Forman LLP's bid to escape a lawsuit accusing the firm of being party to a massive healthcare fraud scheme, ruling that it must largely face malpractice and breach of fiduciary claims from a pair of bankruptcy trustees.

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NJ Feds Say Habba's US Atty Role Unusual, But Not Unlawful

By Lauren Berg

Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba on Monday doubled down on her argument that President Donald Trump legally appointed her New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, telling a federal judge that this is simply "an unusual situation" created when the district court last month refused to extend her interim tenure.

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Lawmaker Pans 'Selective' Charges Over ICE Facility Clash

By Carla Baranauckas

U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver has moved to dismiss criminal charges against her from a May confrontation with federal agents at an immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey, arguing she is immune from prosecution under the U.S. Constitution's speech or debate clause and is being selectively targeted by the government.

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Ex-NY AG Immune From Malicious Prosecution Suit

By Cara Salvatore

Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has immunity from a suit by a former New York City Council member claiming wrongful prosecution, a federal judge has ruled.

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Whiteford Taylor Must Face Wire Fraud Malpractice Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Maryland federal judge has declined to toss the majority of a malpractice and gross negligence suit brought by the founder of a construction company who accused his former business partners and their shared counsel of being partially to blame for hackers stealing his $4 million share of proceeds from the sale of their business.

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Treasury Seeks Input On Tech To Combat Crypto Crimes

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday asked the public to share feedback on how novel technologies might be used to detect and thwart illicit crypto activity, fulfilling a directive under a recently signed bill to regulate stable value tokens.

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