Washington

  • January 06, 2026

    Wash. Atty Impaled By Debris In National Park Can Sue Feds

    A Washington federal judge declined to toss an attorney's lawsuit against the federal government alleging he was impaled by wooden debris in Lake Chelan after jumping from a dock at a National Park Service campground, but said the court needs more information to be sure the case satisfies jurisdictional requirements.

  • January 06, 2026

    Cider-Maker Challenges Federal Ban On Vintage Labeling

    A Washington state maker of alcoholic beverages is challenging a federal government restriction that prevents producers of cider, mead and wines made from any fruit besides grapes from including vintage years on their product labels, arguing that the policy withholds information from consumers and violates the First Amendment.

  • January 06, 2026

    1st Circ. Questions Feds' Mootness Claim In NIH Grant Suits

    The First Circuit appeared to push back Tuesday on assertions by the government that new guidance for terminating medical research grants over supposed links to issues like DEI, gender identity and vaccines — along with a partial settlement last week — moot a pair of lawsuits challenging the directives.

  • January 06, 2026

    Insurer Must Defend Grocery Store Shooting Suit, Man Says

    A Washington man who was criminally charged and convicted in connection with a shooting at a grocery store said his home insurer must defend him in a related civil suit, telling a federal court that his self-defense claim during the criminal trial brings his conduct within coverage.

  • January 06, 2026

    Visa Suit Tossed After DHS Restored Students' Status

    A Washington federal judge agreed Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit a student brought against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after it reinstated his visa status, finding the action is moot because the government indicated it has no plans to re-terminate visas based on criminal database searches.

  • January 06, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Christian Ministry Can Reject Gay Applicants

    The Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a Christian ministry is constitutionally clear to refuse employment to people based on their sexual orientation, explaining that the First Amendment allows religious ministries to prefer candidates who share their beliefs about marriage and sexuality.

  • January 06, 2026

    Crypto Miner Host Can't Get $1.2M Damages Order Reversed

    A Seattle federal judge won't reconsider a decision awarding $1.2 million to a bitcoin miner in its breach of contract dispute with the operator of a facility that hosted its machines, finding the host company rehashed old arguments in its reconsideration bid.

  • January 06, 2026

    'Jersey Boys' Producer Slips $1M Pension Tab At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday reversed a win for a stagehands union pension plan in a dispute with a producer for the jukebox musical "Jersey Boys," saying an entertainment industry exemption to federal benefits law shielded the production company from approximately $1 million in withdrawal liability. 

  • January 06, 2026

    Live Nation Settles Workers' Claims Of Excessive 401(k) Fees

    Live Nation has agreed to a settlement of a proposed class action from former employees who alleged their 401(k) plan was saddled with excessive fees, after a California federal judge said in December he would reconsider his earlier decision requiring arbitration of some claims in the dispute. 

  • January 06, 2026

    Arnold & Porter Adds Amazon, K&L Gates Duo On West Coast

    Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP has grown its real estate offerings on the West Coast with the addition of an in-house lawyer from Amazon and a K&L Gates LLP attorney.

  • January 05, 2026

    1st Circ. Upholds Block On Trump Admin NIH Funding Cuts

    The First Circuit on Monday affirmed a Massachusetts federal judge's order permanently blocking the Trump administration from gutting National Institutes of Health funding for biomedical research, agreeing that the government didn't have the authority to cap indirect costs for research grants.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • SDNY OpenAI Order Clarifies Preservation Standards For AI

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    The Southern District of New York’s recent order in the OpenAI copyright infringement litigation, denying discovery of The New York Times' artificial intelligence technology use, clarifies that traditional preservation benchmarks apply to AI content, relieving organizations from using a “keep everything” approach, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • What 9th Circ.'s Rosenwald Ruling Means For Class Actions

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Rosenwald v. Kimberly-Clark has important implications around the Class Action Fairness Act and traditional diversity jurisdiction — both for plaintiff-side and defense-side class action litigators — and deepens the circuit split concerning the use of judicial notice to establish diversity, says Grace Schmidt at DTO Law.

  • State Paid Leave Laws Are Changing Employer Obligations

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    A wave of new and expanded state laws covering paid family, medical and sick leave will test multistate compliance systems, marking a fundamental operational shift for employers that requires proactive planning, system modernization and policy alignment to manage simultaneous state and federal obligations, says Madjeen Garcon-Bonneau at PrestigePEO.

  • Opinion

    Expert Reports Can't Replace Facts In Securities Fraud Cases

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    The Ninth Circuit's 2023 decision in Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder — and the U.S. Supreme Court's punt on the case in 2024 — could invite the meritless securities litigation the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act was designed to prevent by substituting expert opinions for facts to substantiate complaint assertions, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • Opinion

    High Court, Not A Single Justice, Should Decide On Recusal

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    As public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court continues to decline, the court should adopt a collegial framework in which all justices decide questions of recusal together — a reform that respects both judicial independence and due process for litigants, say Michael Broyde at Emory University and Hayden Hall at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

  • Amazon Ruling Marks New Era Of Personal Liability For Execs

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    A Washington federal court's recent decision in FTC v. Amazon extended personal liability to senior executives for design-driven violations of broad consumer protection statutes, signaling a fundamental shift in how consumer protection laws may be enforced against large public companies, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • 3 New Cyberinsurance Rulings Aid In Policy Interpretation

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    Although the cyberinsurance market has exploded, there is no standardized cyber language or form and only a few court decisions thus far interpreting cyberinsurance policy language, making these three recent rulings key for guiding policyholders, insurers and brokers, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Series

    Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Client Service

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    Law school teaches you how to interpret the law, but it doesn't teach you some of the key ways to keeping clients satisfied, lessons that I've learned in the most unexpected of places: a book on how to be a butler, says Gregory Ramos at Armstrong Teasdale.

  • How The FTC Is Stepping Up Subscription Enforcement

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    Despite the demise of the Federal Trade Commission's click-to-cancel rule in July, the commission has not only maintained its regulatory momentum, but also set new compliance benchmarks through recent high-profile settlements with Match.com, Chegg and Amazon, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Where 4th And 9th Circ. Diverge On Trade Secret Timing

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    Recent Fourth and Ninth Circuit decisions have revealed a deepening circuit split over when plaintiffs must specifically define their alleged trade secrets, turning the early stages of trade secret litigation into a key battleground and elevating the importance of forum selection, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: 3 Tips On Finding The Right Job

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    After 23 years as a state and federal prosecutor, when I contemplated moving to a law firm, practicing solo or going in-house, I found there's a critical first step — deep self-reflection on what you truly want to do and where your strengths lie, says Rachael Jones at McKool Smith.

  • Series

    Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Painting trains me to see both the fine detail and the whole composition at once, enabling me to identify friction points while keeping sight of a client's bigger vision, but the most significant lesson I've brought to my legal work has been the value of originality, says Jana Gouchev at Gouchev Law.

  • 5 Evolving Marketing Risks That Finance Cos. Should Watch

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    Financial services providers should beware several areas where consumer protection regulators are broadening their scrutiny of modern marketing practices, such as the use of influencer testimonials or advertisements touting artificial intelligence-powered products, so they can better adapt to changing expectations for compliance, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

  • What The New Nondomiciled-Trucker Rule Means For Carriers

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    A new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration interim final rule restricting states' issuance of commercial drivers licenses to nondomiciled drivers does not alter motor carriers' obligations to verify drivers' qualifications, but may create disruptions by reducing the number of eligible drivers, say attorneys at Benesch.

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