Justices Urged To Probe Post-Mallory Forum-Shopping Flood

By Linda Chiem

Legal advocates said Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Mallory ruling unleashed a wave of forum-shopping by plaintiffs lawyers using states' business-registration laws to sue out-of-state companies, and that the justices should take up the case again to stop litigants from unconstitutionally interfering with interstate commerce.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Freight Brokers, Uber Lose Key Cases

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's green light of negligent hiring claims against freight brokers in highway crash cases and an adverse verdict against Uber in the sexual assault multidistrict litigation lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Feds Want More Info On Union-Pacific, Norfolk Southern Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Federal rail regulators paused their review of Union Pacific's proposed $85 billion purchase of Norfolk Southern, concluding Thursday that the railways need to further supplement their merger notification after going back to the drawing board earlier this year.

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Justices Say 'Last-Mile' Drivers Can Skip Arbitration

By Max Kutner

An exemption to federal arbitration requirements for workers engaged in interstate commerce can extend to what are known as last-mile drivers who locally deliver goods that travel interstate, the U.S. Supreme Court held Thursday, resolving an issue that lingered after previous high court decisions.

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Tesla Must Face Calif. Agency's Race Bias Fight In July Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California state judge has mostly rejected Tesla Inc.'s bid for a summary judgment win in the California Civil Rights Department's lawsuit alleging the electric-auto maker has allowed racism to run rampant at its Fremont factory, sending the high-stakes civil rights dispute to a July 20 jury trial.

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6th Circ. Nixes Aircraft Co.'s $39M Excise Tax

By Kat Lucero

A fractional jet company is not liable for a $39 million air transportation excise tax because the levy applies only to its usage charges for each flight, not the fixed costs for management and operations, the Sixth Circuit ruled.

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Aerospace Co. Must Pay $2M In Network System Contract Trial

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge has entered a final judgment ordering aerospace manufacturer Cabin Management Solutions Inc. to pay nearly $2 million to an audio-video network transmission company that accused it of reneging on a negotiated fee for the use of a signal transmission system.

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Spirit Seeks Bonuses To Keep Top Brass Through Wind-Down

By Ben Zigterman

Spirit Airlines has asked a New York bankruptcy judge to approve an incentive program aimed at keeping its CEO, general counsel and vice president of special projects employed while the carrier winds down.

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Ex-Southwest HR Worker Alleges Race Bias, Retaliatory Firing

By Celeste Bott

A former Southwest Airlines employee has sued the airline in Illinois state court, claiming that her supervisor harassed her because of her race and that she was ultimately fired for reporting that disparate treatment, which included departures from standard discipline and various tasks she was expected to perform that her white colleagues were not.

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Tesla Tumbler Targeted In New MiiR Patent, Trade Dress Suit

By Rachel Riley

Stainless-steel drinkware manufacturer MiiR launched a patent and trade dress infringement lawsuit in Washington federal court on Thursday accusing Tesla of stealing its slim, cylindrical mug and lid design for the electric vehicle maker's "On The Road Tumbler."

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11th Circ. Says Damages Caps Misconstrued In Bias Verdict

By Cara Salvatore

The Eleventh Circuit ruled on Thursday that a discrimination verdict against a Miami car dealership was slashed too far when a judge chose between federal and state damages caps, saying the caps should be added together.

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FCA Seeks High Court Review Of 9th Circ. Arbitration Loss

By Caroline Simson

Fiat Chrysler will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision refusing to send a class action over allegedly defective Jeep and Dodge headrests to arbitration, saying the justices must resolve whether a court or an arbitrator determines if a nonsignatory can enforce an arbitration clause.

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Feds Say Canadian Co.'s Auto Devices Violate Emissions Law

By Ganesh Setty

The federal government has accused a Canadian automotive accessory retailer in Washington federal court of selling certain aftermarket products designed to boost vehicle performance by bypassing existing vehicle systems meant to ensure a vehicle satisfies federal emissions standards.

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5 AI Cos. Sued Over Neural Network Patent In Delaware

By Elliot Weld

Five companies developing various transcription, speech-to-text and customer experience products with artificial intelligence are facing lawsuits brought by an entity alleging they infringed a patent covering neural networks.

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Mackinac Ferry Cos. Seek Sanctions In Deposition Fight

By Melanie Dorsey

Ferry companies suing a northern Michigan resort island say the city is improperly trying to cancel upcoming depositions of its mayor and council members without a court order, accusing it of using a last-minute protective order motion as a delay tactic. 

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Series

Studying Foreign Languages Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Studying Italian and Japanese has shown me that learning a new language can benefit a legal career in several ways, including by demonstrating the importance of approaching problems from a fresh perspective and the value of practicing patience with colleagues and clients, says Anna King at Genworth Financial.

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Florida High Court Adopts AI Policy For Lawyers

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday amended the state's rules to require those filing court documents to check any artificial intelligence-generated content for accuracy, and allow for sanctions if the content contains errors.

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Goldstein Says Bad Jury Instructions Warrant New Trial

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein said that the prosecutors who convicted him on 12 tax and mortgage fraud charges in February are now contradicting arguments they made at the end of his trial in their attempt to deny him a bench acquittal or new trial.

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King & Spalding Blocked From Exiting $300M Fraud Lawsuit

By Brian Steele

King & Spalding LLP and Lennon Murphy & Phillips LLC can't withdraw from representing clients in consolidated litigation over an alleged $300 million stock swindle, a Connecticut state court judge has ruled, saying the firms' motions ahead of a June trial lack good cause.

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Fla. Court Refers Atty To Bar Over Bogus Case Citations

By Madison Arnold

A Florida state appeals court has referred an appellant's attorney to the state's bar for disciplinary proceedings after filing a petition that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence and "raises frivolous arguments, misstates the law, and cites non-existent case law."

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Parents Demand 'Bad Faith' Sanctions In Camp Mystic Case

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic in Texas' Hill Country should be sanctioned over "bad faith" conduct in litigation over flooding deaths last summer, including purported misrepresentations to courts and regulators and an alleged remark by one of its attorneys to a plaintiffs' lawyer that he would "burn in hell," a state court has been told.

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Trump Considers Tech Entrepreneur For DOJ Grants Post

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump appears poised to nominate a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur for a top U.S. Department of Justice post that oversees grants and criminal justice programs.

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Dem Sens. Ask DOJ To Preserve Trump-IRS Settlement Docs

By Jack McLoone

Two Democratic Senate leaders asked the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve any records related to the settlement of President Donald Trump's suit against the IRS in a letter published Thursday, signaling that further investigations may be coming.

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Ex-Fla. Chief Justice Fred Lewis Dies At 78

By Carolina Bolado

Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, who spent two decades on the bench of the Florida Supreme Court, has died at 78, the court announced Thursday.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Gupta Wessler's Deepak Gupta

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

In the decade and a half since starting his own firm, Deepak Gupta has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has won matters in state high courts from coast to coast, and has become a mainstay in federal appellate courts while building his plaintiff-side litigation boutique into a sought-after juggernaut.

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