DOT Finalizes Rollback Of Biden-Era Fuel Economy Rules

By Linda Chiem

The Trump administration on Monday finalized its rollback of Biden-era fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks, easing mandates for manufacturers to improve the miles-per-gallon efficiency of their fleets and decelerating U.S. adoption of electric vehicles.

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Lucid Investors Get Class Cert. In Production Forecast Suit

By Sydney Price

Investors in electric-vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. were granted class certification in their suit alleging they suffered damages when the company disclosed it was not on track to meet its 2022 vehicle output projections.

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DOJ Wants DHS Free To Seek Driver Records Despite Block

By Jared Foretek

The U.S. Department of Justice asked a Virginia federal judge to clarify that an injunction barring the U.S. Department of Transportation from punishing states over withheld commercial driver's license data doesn't stop other agencies like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from seeking the records through subpoenas or criminal investigations.

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Royal Caribbean Settles Suit Over Alcohol-Related Death

By Y. Peter Kang

A Florida federal judge has approved a settlement to resolve a suit accusing Royal Caribbean of negligently serving a cruise ship passenger at least 33 alcoholic drinks and later using excessive force to restrain him, resulting in his death.

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Alito Makes Last-Minute Recusal From Colo. Climate Case

By Lauren Berg

Justice Samuel Alito on Monday recused himself from the city and county of Boulder, Colorado's climate change tort lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy, just a week before the case is set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Jet Broker Accused Of Stealing $815K Through Ponzi Scheme

By Zach Dupont

A Florida couple has told a Colorado federal court a private jet charter company kept over $800,000 of the couple's money in "what amounted to a Ponzi scheme" after the company abruptly ceased operations and refused to provide refunds, leaving an estimated $150 million in customer funds in flux.

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Mavis Discount Tire Settles Pa. AG's Billing Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Auto parts retailer Mavis Tire Supply LLC, commonly known as Mavis Discount Tire, has agreed to pay $215,000 to settle claims brought by the Pennsylvania attorney general's office saying the company billed customers for unnecessary work on their vehicles, the office announced Monday.

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Widow's Suit Against NFL Too Complex To Be Arbitrated

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state judge removed from arbitration a lawsuit by a widow alleging the NFL's filming unit overworked a staffer on the league's docuseries "Hard Knocks" to the point of exhaustion and caused his fatal car accident, finding that the complexity of the case requires it to be resolved in court.

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Titan Can Pursue Argentina Assets To Enforce $391M Award

By Caroline Simson

A Washington, D.C., federal judge gave the green light for an award creditor owed more than $391 million by Argentina to start seizing the country's assets, saying that Buenos Aires has "apparently made no effort" to pay the award in the nearly two years since she enforced it.

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Black Tesla Workers In Calif. Fired At Higher Rates, Judge Told

By Dorothy Atkins

An economics professor testified in a California state bench trial Monday over the California Civil Rights Department's claims Tesla fostered racism at its Fremont factory that he found Tesla's Black workers in California are paid 4.37% less, and involuntarily terminated at a 75% higher rate, than their white counterparts.

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Avangrid Unit Fights Agency Reversal On Power Line Plan

By Brian Steele

An Avangrid Inc. subsidiary has urged a Connecticut court to restore state-mandated regulatory approval of an electric transmission line replacement project on the Metro-North Railroad corridor, arguing a state agency erroneously found the projected harms overcame the potential benefits.

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SEC Says Couple Leaked Info Ahead Of $3.7B Cummins Deal

By Bonnie Eslinger

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced settlements Monday with a former Cummins Inc. manager and her husband charged with disclosing details about the company's $3.7 billion Meritor acquisition to a chain of individuals who reaped over $500,000 from the inside information.

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Brief

ITC Clears Way For Major Duties On Chinese Van Trailers

By Jack McLoone

Van-type trailers and their subassemblies imported to the U.S. from China are harming the domestic industry, the U.S. International Trade Commission said, setting up triple-digit duties.

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Cushman Workers Win Class Cert. On Second Meal Breaks

By Benjamin Morse

A California federal judge certified a class of Cushman & Wakefield workers who alleged that the real estate services company failed to provide required second meal breaks, finding that time records showed missing second meals on nearly 80% of eligible shifts.

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Boston Sues Over DOT Grant Cut Tied To EV Chargers

By Carolyn Muyskens

The city of Boston brought a lawsuit in federal court Monday alleging the Trump administration canceled a $20 million road improvement grant because of electric vehicle infrastructure that was only "a fraction of 1%" of the project.

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Sanction Bids In LKQ, GM Patent Case Are Rejected By Judge

By Adam Lidgett

General Motors and a company that got the Federal Circuit to set more flexible standards for assessing whether a design patent is obvious had their requests to sanction each other shot down on Monday in a patent dispute over two vehicle fender designs.

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US Presses High Court To Skip Tesla Case Over PTAB Review

By Theresa Schliep

The federal government has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to pass on Tesla Inc.'s challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's limits on patent challenges, arguing Friday that the agency is under no obligation to grant requests for patent review.

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Judge Cuts Patent Claims Against Volvo Over Payment Data

By Adam Lidgett

A Delaware federal judge has knocked out claims that a division of Volvo infringed a digital payment hub patent owned by ModoPayments, but kept alive the lawsuit's copyright infringement claims.

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What Opt-In Framework Means For Novel Space Activities

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Space Commerce is advancing a voluntary certification framework for commercial space activities not covered by existing licenses — but it's unclear whether this approach becomes a durable mission authorization regime, and separate legal permissions from agencies may still be necessary, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Reed Smith LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit overturned a $140 million class verdict against CenturyLink, holding that the company had a reasonable interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

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Arkansas Firm 5th To Seal PE Deal With Uplift Investors

By Tracey Read

Arkansas' largest personal injury law firm is the latest legal entity to ink a deal to take private equity investment using Uplift Investors' associated management services organization.

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AI Mishap Has Judge Questioning 'Our Collective Character'

By Julie Manganis

A California attorney was barred from representing the plaintiffs in a Massachusetts insurance coverage dispute and ordered to pay legal costs of up to $10,000 to opposing counsel, after a federal judge found he relied on "inaccurate and fictitious" case cites and holdings in three filings.

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Tarter Krinsky Faces Suit After Disclosing Data Breach

By Andrea Keckley

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP maintained "intentional opacity" about a recently disclosed cybersecurity attack last year that may have compromised protected health information, a proposed class action alleged in New York federal court.

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A2J At The High Court: Gun Bans, Voting And Civil Remedies

By Marco Poggio

From the right to own semiautomatic rifles to the rules governing voter registration, the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term will see the justices tackle a broad swath of constitutional and access to justice issues.

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Domino Foods Fights Paul Weiss DQ Bid In Price-Fixing MDL

By Madison Arnold

Domino Foods is pushing back on an attempt to disqualify its counsel from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP in a sugar price-fixing multidistrict litigation, arguing Hershey, J.M. Smucker and other food makers filed the motion as a "strategic attempt to gain tactical advantage" at a critical point in the dispute.

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Duane Morris To Settle Employee's Tax Withholding Claim

By Asha Glover

Duane Morris LLP has agreed to private mediation to settle a proposed class action by an employee who alleged that the firm failed to withhold taxes for workers who were misclassified as partners, according to a notice.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen Glencore Energy sue a refinery for allegedly defrauding it out of more than $236 million worth of crude oil, the former CEO of ankle-tag maker Big Technologies file a defamation claim against the company, and property investment group Hunter Jones hit by a claim from the Financial Conduct Authority. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Wilson Sonsini topped a list of law firms that have alumni attorneys working at six of the country's most prominent tech companies. And general counsel at most large companies expect to increase their litigation budgets next year.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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