Washington

  • January 05, 2026

    Amazon Plaintiff Says 'Buy Movie' Button Fools Shoppers

    A California woman accusing Amazon of lying to consumers about whether they own movies purchased on its Prime Video platform said the e-commerce giant can't avoid the proposed class action by hiding behind fine print, arguing shoppers who bought media weren't sufficiently informed they could lose access at any time.

  • January 05, 2026

    Amazon Can't Beat Pandemic-Era Price-Gouging Suit In Wash.

    A Washington federal judge refused to throw out consumers' proposed class action against Amazon over alleged pandemic-era price-gouging, rejecting on Monday the e-commerce company's argument that the Washington Supreme Court interpreted consumer protection law too broadly when wading into the case.

  • January 05, 2026

    ​'Truly Extreme': 9th Circ. Judges Decry Trump Layoffs Ruling

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday refused to revisit a three-judge panel's decision rejecting the Trump administration's challenge of a lower court's ruling requiring production of its plans for large-scale layoffs and reorganizations at various federal agencies, a decision that was met with fiery dissent from several of the court's Republican-appointed judges.

  • January 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Creates Split On Dormant Commerce And Cannabis

    The Ninth Circuit's decision Friday finding that a constitutional doctrine barring states from enacting protectionist policies does not apply to federally illegal retail marijuana sets up an apparent circuit split and may bring the matter closer to U.S. Supreme Court review.

  • January 05, 2026

    Amazon Sued Over Burns From Erupting Instant Pot

    Amazon and a Chinese manufacturer face a personal injury lawsuit from two New York residents who claim they suffered severe, disfiguring burns when an Instant Pot pressure cooker that was purchased through Amazon malfunctioned and spewed hot soup onto them.

  • January 05, 2026

    Starr, Collection Co. Reach Deal Over $4.4M Bad Faith Dispute

    Starr Indemnity & Liability Co. struck a deal resolving a collections company's bid for $4.4 million in bad faith damages over underlying litigation concerning a real estate development in Washington state.

  • January 05, 2026

    Live Nation Says It's Not On Hook For EDM Festival Deaths

    Live Nation wants a pretrial win in a lawsuit brought by the families of two people killed at the Beyond Wonderland music festival in Washington in 2023, contending the company cannot be liable for the "random, unprovoked mass shooting" by a concertgoer who became psychotic while high on hallucinogenic mushrooms.

  • January 05, 2026

    Bank Fights Sanctions Bid In Jail Debit Card Fee Suit

    Central Bank of Kansas City said it should not face sanctions for failing to produce certain documents in a suit brought by a group of formerly incarcerated people accusing it of charging excessive fees on prepaid debit cards, arguing the suit should take direct action against the bank's contractors instead.

  • January 05, 2026

    More Discovery Needed In Bitcoin Miner Spat, Energy Biz Says

    A U.S. energy company has told a federal judge in Seattle that further discovery is required to determine whether a Canadian cryptocurrency firm adequately complied with the requirements of a termination agreement before the court can entertain a motion for summary judgment.

  • January 05, 2026

    Crypto Miner Host Seeks Reversal Of $1.2M Damages Award

    A cryptocurrency mining facility operator has asked a Seattle federal judge to revisit a decision to award $1.2 million to a bitcoin miner in a breach of contract dispute, saying the damages sum is based on an "unreliable" expert report that erroneously valued the digital asset at nearly twice its trading price during the relevant period.

  • January 02, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Dormant Commerce Clause Doesn't Cover Pot

    A Ninth Circuit panel Friday rejected arguments by a would-be cannabis retail operator that said state and local residency requirements on marijuana business licenses are unconstitutional, ruling that the U.S. Constitution's dormant commerce clause doesn't apply to the cannabis industry because it's still illegal under federal law.

  • January 02, 2026

    Starbucks Beats Investors' Labor Relations Suit On Appeal

    A Washington state appeals court has sided with Starbucks and its corporate leadership in two shareholders' proposed class action claiming union-busting activity hurt the coffee giant's reputation, concluding the district court should throw out the case because the investors failed to show intentional wrongdoing by company directors.

  • January 02, 2026

    9th Circ. Affirms Paramount's Win In 'Top Gun' IP Fight

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday affirmed Paramount's win in a copyright lawsuit alleging the studio's 2022 "Top Gun: Maverick" blockbuster film failed to credit a journalist whose article inspired the original 1986 movie, finding that similarities between the sequel and the article are too abstract to be protected.

  • January 02, 2026

    AGs Get DOJ-HPE Docs, But Not Internal Gov't Comms

    The U.S. Department of Justice and Hewlett Packard Enterprise must produce all the communications between them discussing the settlement resolving a DOJ merger challenge, a California federal judge ruled Wednesday, giving a coalition of Democratic attorneys general an important but not unlimited peek into the controversial deal.

  • January 02, 2026

    Consumer Protection Cases And Trends To Watch In 2026

    State attorneys general will litigate more consumer protection cases in the new year, whether the suits are filed by their own offices or with the help of outside counsel, while the federal government under the Trump administration will drop pending enforcement actions and continue its shift away from broad rulemaking.

  • January 02, 2026

    Approach The Bench: What Judges Had To Say In 2025

    Jurists discussed their strategies for decision-making, the difficulties of case management, and their predictions for the future of litigation in a dozen interviews with Law360 this year.

  • January 02, 2026

    Cases To Watch In Native American Law In 2026

    The new year in Native American law is expected to usher in rulings on the rights of Indigenous nations and their citizens, including disputes over voting, hunting and fishing, and a possible expansion of the Supreme Court's 2020 landmark decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma.

  • January 02, 2026

    Copyright Cases To Watch In 2026

    U.S. federal courts this year will continue to review consequential copyright infringement suits involving artificial intelligence, while appeals court decisions remain pending in a pair of notable fair use cases involving ROSS Intelligence and Microsoft. Here are Law360's picks for copyright cases to watch in 2026.

  • January 02, 2026

    Washington Cases To Watch In 2026

    Evergreen State lawyers will be keeping a close eye on the Washington Supreme Court in 2026 as it wades into lawsuits against Amazon over online sales of a chemical used in suicides, along with battles over Trump administration policies that are making their way from federal district courts to the Ninth Circuit. Here are some of the top cases to watch in Washington in 2026.

  • January 02, 2026

    Food & Beverage Cases To Watch In 2026

    There are several issues food and beverage attorneys will want to keep an eye on in 2026, from litigation challenging the marketing of ultra-processed foods, to false advertising claims over the presence of "forever chemicals" and microplastics, to the federal government's efforts to regulate additives. Here, Law360 has rounded up a number of matters that attorneys should be watching.

  • January 01, 2026

    4 High Court Cases To Watch This Spring

    The U.S. Supreme Court justices will return from the winter holidays to tackle several constitutional disputes that range from who is entitled to birthright citizenship to whether transgender individuals are entitled to heightened levels of protection from discrimination. 

  • January 01, 2026

    Blue Slip Fight Looms Over Trump's 2026 Judicial Outlook

    In 2025, President Donald Trump put 20 district and six circuit judges on the federal bench. In the year ahead, a fight over home state senators' ability to block district court picks could make it more difficult for him to match that record.

  • January 01, 2026

    BigLaw Leaders Tackle Growth, AI, Remote Work In New Year

    Rapid business growth, cultural changes caused by remote work and generative AI are creating challenges and opportunities for law firm leaders going into the New Year. Here, seven top firm leaders share what’s running through their minds as they lie awake at night.

  • December 23, 2025

    Intent Not Needed To Boost ID Theft Sentence, 9th Circ. Says

    Federal prosecutors need not show that a defendant intended to commit fraud with stolen materials that have authentication features, such as driver's licenses, for courts to apply a sentencing enhancement for possessing those materials, the Ninth Circuit has held.

  • December 23, 2025

    Farm To Pay $1M To Settle Claims It Favored Foreign Workers

    Washington state apple and hops producer Cornerstone Ranches and associated companies will pay $1 million to resolve claims by Attorney General Nick Brown that the farm fired local agricultural workers in favor of hiring temporary, foreign employees, according to a consent decree announced by the attorney general's office on Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • Notable Q3 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    The third quarter of 2025 was another eventful quarter for total loss valuation class actions, with a new circuit split developing courtesy of the Sixth Circuit, while insurers continued to see negative results in cost-of-insurance class actions, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

  • Series

    Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

  • AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

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    Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

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    In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

  • How 9th Circ. Ruling Deepens SEC Disgorgement Circuit Split

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sripetch creates opposing disgorgement rules in the two circuits where the SEC brings a large proportion of enforcement actions — the Second and Ninth — and increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

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    Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

  • Justices' LabCorp Punt Leaves Deeper Class Cert. Circuit Split

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    In its ruling in LabCorp v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court left unresolved a standing-related class certification issue that has plagued class action jurisprudence for years — and subsequent conflicting decisions among federal circuit courts have left district courts and litigants struggling with conflicting and uncertain standards, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Lessons From Del. Chancery Court's New Activision Decision

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    The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent decision in AP-Fonden v. Activision Blizzard, declining to dismiss certain fiduciary duty claims at the pleading stage, offers takeaways for boards considering a sale, including the importance of playing an active role in the merger process and documenting key board materials, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • Opinion

    Courts Must Continue Protecting Plaintiffs In Mass Arbitration

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    In recent years, many companies have imposed onerous protocols that function to frustrate plaintiffs' ability to seek justice through mass arbitration, but a series of welcome court decisions in recent months indicate that the pendulum might be swinging back toward plaintiffs, say Raphael Janove and Sasha Jones at Janove Law.

  • Series

    Practicing Stoicism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Practicing Stoicism, by applying reason to ignore my emotions and govern my decisions, has enabled me to approach challenging situations in a structured way, ultimately providing advice singularly devoted to a client's interest, says John Baranello at Moses & Singer.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Texas, One Year In

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    A year after the Texas Business Court's first decision, it's clear that Texas didn't just copy Delaware and instead built something uniquely its own, combining specialization with constitutional accountability and creating a model that looks forward without losing touch with the state's democratic and statutory roots, says Chris Bankler at Jackson Walker.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Educating Your Community

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    Nearly two decades prosecuting scammers and elder fraud taught me that proactively educating the public about the risks they face and the rights they possess is essential to building trust within our communities, empowering otherwise vulnerable citizens and preventing wrongdoers from gaining a foothold, says Roger Handberg at GrayRobinson.

  • How A 9th Circ. False Ad Ruling Could Shift Class Certification

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    The Ninth Circuit's July decision in Noohi v. Johnson & Johnson, holding that unexecuted damages models may suffice for purposes of class certification, has the potential to create judicial inefficiencies and crippling uncertainties for class action defendants, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • 5 Crisis Lawyering Skills For An Age Of Uncertainty

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    As attorneys increasingly face unprecedented and pervasive situations — from prosecutions of law enforcement officials to executive orders targeting law firms — they must develop several essential competencies of effective crisis lawyering, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.

  • Insights From Recent Cases On Navigating Snap Removal

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    Snap removal, which allows defendants to transfer state court cases to federal court before a forum defendant is properly joined and served, is viewed differently across federal circuits — but keys to making it work can be drawn from recent decisions critiquing the practice, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

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