Baltimore Bridge Wreck Civil Trial Will Stay The Course

By Linda Chiem

A Maryland federal judge on Wednesday refused an eleventh-hour request from the Dali cargo ship's owner and manager to delay a trial that's starting in less than two weeks to determine the scope of liability and damages over Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster, according to an attorney for certain claimants.

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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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Kia Can't Escape Pa. Oil Ring Defect Suit

By Mike Curley

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday rejected Kia America Inc.'s bid to dismiss a proposed class action alleging that it sold Soul and Seltos vehicles with a defect in their engines' piston oil rings.

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GM, Drivers Spar Over AC Defect Class Certification

By Melanie Dorsey

Automaker General Motors Co. and drivers seeking class certification over alleged air conditioning problems were sharply questioned by a Michigan federal judge Wednesday who pressed both sides on whether the claims can truly generate "common answers" across proposed statewide classes covering thousands of truck and SUV owners. 

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Migrants Seek More Docs In Martha's Vineyard Flights Case

By Carolyn Muyskens

Migrants suing over an alleged scheme to lure them onto flights to Martha's Vineyard asked a Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday to order a private contractor to turn over documents they say will illuminate the broader contours of a plan for migrant relocation trips.

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Bolt Argues Ride-Hailing Apps Qualify For UK VAT Break

By Josh White

The U.K.'s tax authority can't bar ride-hailing companies from claiming a value-added tax exemption for travel agents, Bolt's counsel told a London court Wednesday, because the agency has long recognized in official guidance that taxi firms can receive the tax break.

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Carmaker Beats Suit Over Christmas Data Breach Claims

By Joyce Hanson

An Illinois couple who sued Stellantis North America over the carmaker's allegedly lax data security practices that caused a cyberattack on Christmas Day 2025 have decided to voluntarily drop their lawsuit, according to a Wednesday notice in Michigan federal court.

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Calif. Panel Says Uber Not Liable For College Student's Death

By Gina Kim

A California appeals court declined to reinstate a mother's lawsuit blaming Uber for her daughter's death after she was hit by cars on a freeway that was miles away from where she was dropped off by an Uber driver, ruling Wednesday those intervening events are too attenuated to find the company liable.

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DOT Taps Vornado Team For Penn Station Rebuild

By Grace Dixon

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday selected a master developer team to lead a major renovation of New York City's Penn Station, a team that includes Vornado Realty Trust, which controls a significant commercial footprint across adjacent blocks.

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Brief

Home Delivery Co. Denied Full Pay, Breaks, Suit Says

By Benjamin Morse

A home delivery company used a shifting piece-rate and hourly pay system and denied workers required breaks, leaving employees uncompensated for travel time, standby work, overtime and interrupted meal periods, according to a proposed class action filed in Colorado state court.

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Brief

Pipeline Co. And JB Hunt Settle Easement Fight

By Ganesh Setty

A pipeline company voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against J.B. Hunt in Illinois federal court Wednesday after accusing the shipping giant of planning to build a parking lot over its pipeline's right of way, saying they've reached a settlement.

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Modivcare To Have Evidence Hearing On Firm's Contempt Bid

By Emlyn Cameron

A Texas bankruptcy judge said Wednesday he would call an evidentiary hearing on White & Case's motion to hold Modivcare in contempt connected to a Chapter 11 fee dispute, after the firm accused the reorganized medical transportation group of taking $3.5 million of what should have been escrowed funds out of an account.

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Brief

ITC Clears Way For Duties On Imported Chassis

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. International Trade Commission found chassis imported from Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam and sold at unfair prices to be harming U.S. industry, setting the stage Wednesday for the U.S. Department of Commerce to order duties against the products.

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UK Extends Cut To Fuel Tax As War In Iran Raises Prices

By Kevin Pinner

The U.K. will extend a tax cut of 5 pence (7 cents) per liter of fuel through the rest of the year to address higher prices linked to the war in Iran, the government said Wednesday.

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La. Defends Challenged LNG Project Air Permit At 5th Circ.

By Tom Lotshaw

A Louisiana regulator told the Fifth Circuit environmental groups have no ground to support their challenge of a preconstruction permit approved for a major liquefied natural gas export terminal in Cameron Parish.

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Blank Rome Adds 2 Infrastructure Pros To LA Office

By Isaac Monterose

Blank Rome LLP has hired two attorneys from Norton Rose Fulbright and Nossaman LLP as partners for its real estate team in Los Angeles, the firm announced Tuesday.

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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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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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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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