Tesla Wins New Trial Bid After $42.5M Crash Verdict

By Y. Peter Kang

The Indiana Supreme Court has ordered a new trial on whether Tesla can be held vicariously liable for a motorcycle crash caused by an employee driving a company truck, finding a jury should determine whether the worker was acting in the scope of his employment when he struck the motorcyclist.

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Uber Can't Arbitrate Deceptive Pricing Suit, Calif. Panel Says

By Craig Clough

A California appellate panel on Wednesday affirmed a trial court's refusal to send a proposed class action accusing Uber of misleading riders about upfront fares to arbitration, holding that the suit seeks public injunctive relief and therefore falls outside the reach of the company's agreement.

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Taser Maker Hit With Class Action Over License Plate Tracking

By Dorothy Atkins

Two California consumers have hit Axon Enterprise Inc. with a proposed class action in California federal court, alleging the maker of Tasers and body cameras violates privacy statutes by collecting and storing information about millions of Golden State drivers through its "sprawling fleet" of cameras and automated license-plate readers.

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Airlines Hit With Broad Antitrust Suit Over Price Info Exchange

By Rachel Riley

Major airlines including Delta, United, American, Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest have kept airfares high by sharing proprietary dynamic pricing information through a revamped data hub operated by Airline Tariff Publishing Co., two ticket buyers claim in a proposed class action filed in Washington federal court Wednesday.

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Analysis

Blue Wave May Usher In New Era Of State Climate Action

By Gautama Mehta

After the midterm blue wave, environmental advocates are looking to newly flipped statehouses to pass strong climate laws in the face of the federal government's retreat from greenhouse gas regulation.

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Garmin Wants Out Of Lawsuit Over Wash. Plane Crash Deaths

By Rachel Riley

Garmin is seeking to exit a lawsuit blaming faulty aircraft systems for a deadly 2022 Cessna test flight, telling a Washington state judge Wednesday that the victims' families have not shown the court has jurisdiction over their claims against the Kansas-based GPS giant.

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State Farm Gets Vehicle Valuation Dispute Trimmed

By Hope Patti

A North Carolina federal court trimmed a proposed class action accusing State Farm of systematically undervaluing drivers' claims for totaled vehicles, saying the suit plausibly alleged unfair and deceptive trade practices, but not real and imminent future harm to maintain a claim for prospective declaratory relief.

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Toyota Hit With Class Action Over Hybrid Inverter Recall

By Jonathan Capriel

Toyota knowingly sold newer-model Camry and Corolla Cross Hybrids with a defective inverter bolt, causing loss of power or fire, according to a proposed class action that accused the automaker of teetering when it came to a recall.

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Mich. Inmate's Crash Suit Against Prison Officer Can Proceed

By Melanie Dorsey

A prison inmate's negligence lawsuit against a Michigan corrections officer who allegedly drove through a yellow traffic light while distracted by her cellphone can proceed, a Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled, finding that factual disputes remain over whether the officer's conduct caused the crash that injured the handcuffed prisoner.

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Safety Risk Justified Officer's Gun Pat-Down, Fla. Panel Says

By Parker Quinlan

A split Florida appeals court has found that police were justified in patting down a bicyclist they had stopped for not having a light on because they noticed a "bulge" under his shirt, affirming the man's conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm. 

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Chancery Won't Allow Redo Of Fight Over Fund's $9M In Cash

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday declined to revise rulings in a yearslong dispute over a distressed credit fund's records and more than $9 million of withheld cash, disagreeing with arguments that the fund's former managers and controllers had been improperly swept into the orders.

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Brief

Chinese Rubber Chemical Facing 285% US Antidumping Duty

By Jack McLoone

Imports of a chemical from China primarily used in rubber production are facing a possible major antidumping duty after the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday preliminarily found the chemical is being sold at less than fair value.

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Canada, China OK 2-Year Preferential Trade Extension

By Dylan Moroses

Canadian exports of peas, canola, lobsters and crabs will continue to benefit from an extended preferential market access deal with China, Canada's international trade minister has announced.

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Port Workers Urge Court to Keep Union Nepotism Claims Alive

By Katherine Smith

Port of Savannah workers have asked a Georgia federal court to reject an International Longshoremen's Association local's bid for an early win in their class action alleging it divided a hiring list and funneled jobs to union leaders' family and friends, claiming officials lied about the reasons driving the split.

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23 States Look To Defend Pipeline From Tribe's Shutdown Bid

By Taylor Bowie

Attorneys general for 23 states are telling a D.C. federal judge that federal agencies won't adequately represent their economic interests in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's suit seeking to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Alaska Judge Faults Corps' Reversal On Gold Mine Permit

By Corey Rothauser

An Alaska federal judge has found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unlawfully approved a permit for a gold mining project near Nome without explaining why it rejected its own district office's findings about potential harm to an estuary used by Indigenous communities.

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Liberty Seeks To Dismantle Rental Car Coverage Class

By Carolyn Muyskens

Liberty Mutual urged a Massachusetts federal judge Thursday to decertify a nationwide class of policyholders claiming it arbitrarily limited a rental vehicle benefit, saying the class has no path forward after its damages theory was rejected.

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Enviro Marketing Lessons From NY Greenwashing Ruling

A New York state appeals court recently affirmed the dismissal of a New York City suit accusing BP, Exxon and Shell of corporate and product greenwashing, providing practical lessons for framing comparative environmental claims carefully by ensuring that environmental claims are accurate, properly qualified and presented in context, say attorneys at V&E.

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Series

Open-Water Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Swimming long distances in open waters is not necessarily an escape from my intellectual property practice, but a complementary discipline that similarly rewards sustained attention, intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to pursue a distant objective without losing command of the immediate task, says Christina MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.

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Controversial DOJ Civil Rights Division Leader Steps Down

By Alison Knezevich

Harmeet K. Dhillon, a U.S. Department of Justice official who instituted dramatic changes as leader of the Civil Rights Division, has stepped down from her role.

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Sullivan & Cromwell Brings On Weil Capital Markets Leader

By Isaac Monterose

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP has hired the co-leader of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's capital markets team for a capital markets partner role in its New York City office, the firm announced Thursday.

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Analysis

Racing Against Whistleblowers Could Cost Companies

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice's new cash rewards program for tips on criminal fraud threatens to ramp up the pressure on companies to hurry internal investigations and quickly report suspected misconduct to the government before whistleblowers do, which could backfire in some cases, according to experts.

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Judge Albright's Do's And Don'ts For Patent Trials

By Dani Kass

Two months after former ​U.S. District Judge Alan Albright returned to private practice, he regaled a room of attorneys at the University of Texas School of Law on Thursday with lessons from his time on the bench.

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Trump's Hush Money Conviction Examined By Wary NY Panel

By Frank G. Runyeon

A New York State appellate court Thursday quizzed attorneys for President Donald Trump and state prosecutors over his hush-money conviction, exploring defense counsel's claims that the district attorney trespassed into federal jurisdiction by charging election violations and trampled on presidential immunity in a case "infected with multiple fatal errors."

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