Lyft To Pay $272.5M To Settle California Misclassification Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Lyft has agreed to pay $272.5 million in what California officials called the largest settlement of its kind in state history, resolving claims that the ride-hailing company misclassified drivers as independent contractors and denied them wages and benefits, the state announced Thursday.

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Pa. Justices Keep But Decry $250K Damages Cap In $7M Case

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has opted to preserve the $250,000 limit on damages claims against state agencies, with the majority of justices rejecting a constitutional challenge to the cap because it doesn't impede a plaintiff's right to a jury trial, only the amount of recovery.

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Amazon Pays $8.25M Over Slowed Delivery In 2 DC ZIP Codes

By Gina Kim

Amazon agreed to pay out $8.25 million to resolve allegations it secretly left out certain ZIP codes in the Washington, D.C., area from Prime Delivery services for years while charging those residents the full Prime membership price, Washington, D.C.'s attorney general announced Thursday.

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Classes Certified In Ford Diesel Fuel Pump Suit

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan federal judge has certified classes of truck owners in five states who allege that defective fuel pumps in Ford Motor Co.'s diesel trucks can suddenly fail and cost more than $10,000 in repairs, and, despite trimming some claims, also denied Ford judgment on the core causation issue in the case. 

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Meta Beats Calif. Drivers' DMV Data Collection Suit

By Mike Curley

A California federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action alleging Meta Platforms Inc. illegally obtained information from the state's Department of Motor Vehicles through its Pixel software, saying the plaintiffs leading the complaint haven't shown that Meta got any personal or embarrassing information.

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Analysis

4 Questions About EU And Canada's Vow To Strengthen Ties

By Dylan Moroses

The European Union's invitation for Canada to become an associate member of the bloc raises questions about the potential practical and political ramifications of such an effort. From technical details on what that membership might look like to political obstacles and how the U.S. fits in, here are four questions facing the endeavor.

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Analysis

4 Key Takeaways From The Senate Permitting Legislation

By Keith Goldberg

Bipartisan permitting legislation unveiled in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday could be a game-changer for how quickly energy infrastructure projects get built, though the bill faces a long, difficult path to becoming law. Here are four takeaways from the proposal.

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Airlines' Fight Over Colo. Sick Leave Law Heads To Trial

By MJ Koo

A Colorado federal court has sent an airline industry group's challenge to the state's paid sick leave law to trial, finding that competing expert testimony about whether the law increases employee absences and disrupts airline services creates factual disputes that a judge cannot resolve before trial.

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Pa. Justices Back Transit Prosecutor Law Challenged By DA

By Matthew Santoni

The Pennsylvania Legislature's creation of a "special prosecutor" to address Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's allegedly unsatisfactory handling of crime in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority does not run afoul of the state constitution because of the city's special status, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

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Fla. Doc Says He Opposed Cruise Co.'s Billing, Got Fired

By David Minsky

A doctor has brought a federal whistleblower lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings Ltd. in Florida federal court, alleging he lost his job after speaking out against what he believed were fraudulent practices to overcharge passengers for medical services that weren't necessary. 

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7th Circ. Won't Rehear Enbridge's Wis. Tribal Trespass Fight

By Joyce Hanson

The Seventh Circuit has refused to rehear Enbridge Energy's petition seeking to overturn a decision that its Line 5 pipeline is trespassing on Wisconsin tribal lands, but also sent back to a lower court a $5.2 million restitution order for a portion of the pipeline's removal.

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Calif. AV Notices Reshape Crash Data Preservation, Discovery

California's new autonomous vehicle noncompliance notice process does not decide fault or establish that an AV is unsafe, but it can create a contemporaneous regulatory record and accelerate decisions about what crash-related data must be preserved, reviewed and potentially disclosed in litigation, says attorney Lem Garcia.

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The Patent Circuit: Marking Duties For Licensed Tech

The Federal Circuit's decision in VDPP v. Volkswagen provides clarity on how the patent statute's marking provision applies to licensed technology, but expressly leaves open the question of how exactly patentees can make reasonable efforts to ensure licensees' marking compliance, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

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Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

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UCLA Law Is Latest DOJ Target Over Race Bias In Admissions

By Dorothy Atkins

The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused the UCLA School of Law of discriminating against white and Asian students in its admissions process in a letter sent to the school's counsel Thursday, following multiple other similar letters that the DOJ sent to other higher-education institutions.

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DOJ Outlines New Corporate Fraud Enforcement Priorities

By Phillip Bantz

Federal prosecutors "must place great weight" on a new list of factors when considering potential charges in corporate fraud cases, including whether the matters involve government programs, threats to national security or immigration offenses, according to a memo released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

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Blackburn Holds Up White House's Tenn. Judge Pick

By Courtney Bublé

The White House is standing by its nominee for a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee amid a holdup from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a White House official confirmed to Law360 on Thursday.

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Richards Layton Atty Confirmed To Join Del. Chancery Bench

By Rose Krebs

Delaware's Senate on Thursday confirmed a Richards Layton & Finger PA director to a 12-year term as a vice chancellor on the Chancery Court.

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FBT Gibbons Beats DQ Bid In Suit Over Cigna Payments

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state court judge has rejected a plastic surgery practice's bid to disqualify FBT Gibbons LLP from representing Cigna and a group of employer-sponsored health plans in its suit over the insurer's alleged underpayments, finding the bid appears more of an effort to gain an advantage rather than one to protect the interests of any client.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of September

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at MSG Sports, Nestle and the Associated Press. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from September.

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Judge Reinstates Rogoff As Seattle US Atty After Trump Firing

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge issued an order from the bench on Thursday reinstating Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, finding that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he fired him in July.

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Trump Says Copyright Chief Can't Stay In Office Amid Appeal

By Adam Lidgett

The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to let it remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision protecting Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook for now does not entitle Perlmutter to remain in office while her firing challenge proceeds.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

State enforcers settled their case challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, while the U.S. Department of Justice probes Fox's planned $22 billion deal for Roku and regulators review massive deals in the energy and railroad sectors.

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