Washington

  • November 07, 2025

    Supreme Court Temporarily Pauses Full SNAP Payments

    The U.S. Supreme Court Friday evening temporarily paused a Rhode Island federal judge's orders compelling the Trump administration to fully fund November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and transfer roughly $4 billion by the end of the day, hours after the First Circuit denied the administration's emergency request.

  • November 07, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: Mamdani, Immigration, Q3 Debrief

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including real estate reactions to the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, how condo attorneys are bracing for a surge in immigration enforcement and third-quarter takeaways across asset classes.

  • November 07, 2025

    Wash. Justices To Review Cafe Fire Insurance Dispute

    The Washington Supreme Court will review a state appeals court's decision finding that a Liberty Mutual unit owes no coverage over a restaurant kitchen fire because of the building owners' failure to fully comply with protective safeguard requirements in their policy.

  • November 07, 2025

    Seattle Pot Shop Slapped With Site Tracking Pixel Privacy Suit

    A Seattle cannabis dispensary has been hit with a proposed class action in Washington federal court by a customer who claims the retailer shared his private information about medical marijuana appointments and pot purchases with Google and other third parties by using online browser tracking tools on its website.

  • November 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Pushed To Revive Suit Over $3.8B Failed Tech Merger

    A California federal judge erred in finding that investors in semiconductor company MaxLinear Inc. had no standing to sue it over what they say were misrepresentations about a $3.8 billion merger plan with chipmaker Silicon Motion Technology Corp., they told the Ninth Circuit in a bid to revive their suit.

  • November 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Sides With Calif. In Tribal Cigarette Tax Fight

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday backed California in a dispute it brought to enforce cigarette taxes against a tobacco company owned and operated by a federally recognized Native American tribe, holding that the tribal leader defendants can't claim sovereign or qualified immunity exempts them from the federal tax law.

  • November 07, 2025

    Ex-CFO Convicted Of Bilking Startup To Fund Fintech Co.

    A Seattle federal jury convicted a software startup's former executive of wire fraud on Friday, after prosecutors accused him of siphoning $35 million in company funds into his personal fintech project and then losing the money in a cryptocurrency collapse weeks later.

  • November 07, 2025

    Vegas Hotels Say 9th Circ. Shouldn't Rethink Price-Fixing Suit

    Several Las Vegas hotel operators, two software companies and Blackstone all told the Ninth Circuit to reject a rehearing petition for its August decision for a proposed price-fixing class action that accused hotel operators and Blackstone of conspiring to use the software companies' GuestRev software to set prices for Las Vegas hotel rooms.

  • November 07, 2025

    Jury Clears Novo Nordisk Of Medicaid Fraud Over Blood Drug

    A Tacoma federal jury cleared Novo Nordisk on Friday of allegations that it defrauded Washington state's Medicaid and Medicare systems by paying kickbacks and promoting off-label use to illegally boost prescriptions of its hemophilia drug NovoSeven.

  • November 06, 2025

    'Send A Message' To Novo Nordisk Over Kickbacks, Jury Told

    Counsel for a whistleblower claiming Novo Nordisk paid illegal kickbacks to boost off-label prescribing of its hemophilia drug NovoSeven urged jurors during closing arguments Thursday to "send a message" to the drugmaker, saying it defrauded Washington state's Medicaid and Medicare systems out of nearly $100 million.

  • November 06, 2025

    'Restore Coherence': Trump Admin Told To Fully Fund SNAP

    The Trump administration must fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in full this month, a Rhode Island federal judge ruled Thursday while admonishing the government for "entrenching delay" of benefits for the 42 million low-income Americans who rely on food assistance.

  • November 06, 2025

    T-Mobile Fairly Canceled $27M In Phone Orders, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit isn't going to disturb a ruling tossing out a cellphone manufacturer's $27 million lawsuit against T-Mobile accusing it of reneging on purchase orders, after finding that the mobile behemoth had the right to unilaterally end their agreement.

  • November 06, 2025

    Wash. Justices Spurn Alaska Airlines' Worker Illness Stance

    The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday sided with an Alaska Airlines employee who caught COVID-19 while traveling on the job, rejecting the employer's attempt to distinguish an occupational disease covered by state workers' compensation law from any sickness that develops during a work trip.

  • November 06, 2025

    Insurer Says No Defense For Dog Care Co. In Suits, AG Probe

    A dog training and grooming business's insurer told a Washington federal court it should owe no coverage for two cases and a civil investigative demand from the state attorney general's office relating to customers' purchase of service dogs and the business's employment practices, pointing to a raft of exclusions.

  • November 06, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs NLRB Ruling On Nurses' Pandemic Pay Fight

    The Ninth Circuit has affirmed the National Labor Relations Board's order finding a trio of Southern California hospitals violated federal labor law by unilaterally implementing a COVID-19 pandemic pay program without first bargaining with a Service Employees International Union affiliate representing registered nurses and professional workers. 

  • November 06, 2025

    Food Co. Can't Keep Worker's Wage Suit In Federal Court

    A food and beverage company wrongly assumed that all its employees were subject to overtime violations alleged in a worker's proposed class action, a Washington federal court ruled, remanding the case to state court on the grounds that the company overestimated the amount of money at stake.

  • November 06, 2025

    FEMA Says States 'Mistaken' On Disaster Mitigation Program

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday urged a Massachusetts federal judge to throw out a lawsuit by 22 states and the District of Columbia over the future of a program that funds infrastructure-hardening projects to mitigate the effects of natural disasters.

  • November 05, 2025

    Crypto Thief Or 'Scapegoat'? Jury To Decide Ex-CFO's Fate

    Prosecutors urged a Washington federal jury Wednesday to convict a software startup's ex-executive for pumping $35 million from company coffers into his fledgling cryptocurrency project, while defense counsel accused the government of pursuing a baseless case because the company needed someone to "scapegoat" for an investment loss.

  • November 05, 2025

    Helium Financial Says Fired Employees Nabbed Trade Secrets

    Two former employees of Washington-based Helium Financial Group LLC stole trade secrets and used them to start their own wealth management firm after they were fired, allowing them to create "a 'clone' of Helium's business model in startup form," Helium claimed in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Seattle federal court

  • November 05, 2025

    1st Circ. Questions Trump Admin On NIH Indirect Cost Cuts

    A First Circuit panel seemed poised on Wednesday to uphold a district court decision finding that the Trump administration lacks the authority to cap indirect costs for research grants at the National Institutes of Health. 

  • November 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs LA In Shop Destroyed In Police Raid

    Los Angeles won't foot the bill for a retail store damaged by police who fired tear gas into the shop during a standoff with an armed fugitive, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a published opinion, saying "just compensation" isn't necessary because the assault was done to protect the public.

  • November 05, 2025

    Ex-SEC Attys Urge Full 9th Circ. Review of Zillow Decision

    Law professors and two former general counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have voiced support for Zillow Group Inc.'s bid for the Ninth Circuit to take a second look at its high-profile securities case, arguing that the full court should review a September ruling that upheld class certification in an investor suit over the real estate site's now-shuttered home-buying program.

  • November 05, 2025

    Microsoft Wants To Weigh In On Google Search Fixes, Too

    Microsoft is urging a D.C. federal court to make sure that the limits imposed on Google in the U.S. Department of Justice's search monopolization case prevent the search giant from inking multiyear default agreements and that they reach new types of generative artificial intelligence products.

  • November 05, 2025

    Hanes Juiced Sales With False 'Last Day' Email Ads, Suit Says

    Advertising emails sent by Hanes about apparently limited-time deals violated a Washington state law barring commercial emails with false or misleading subject lines, a Thurston County woman claimed in a proposed class action removed to federal court in Spokane on Wednesday.

  • November 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Rehear Biotronik Whistleblower Revival

    The Ninth Circuit has rejected a petition to send its September ruling reviving a whistleblower suit against Biotronik Inc. before the full court, rejecting Biotronik's petition for a rehearing en banc.

Expert Analysis

  • Viral 'Brewers Karen' Incident Teaches Employers To Act Fast

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    An attorney who was terminated after a viral video showed her threatening to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on an opposing team's fan at a Milwaukee Brewers game underscores why employers must take prompt action when learning of viral incidents involving employees, says Joseph Myers at Mesidor.

  • Why Appellees Should Write Their Answering Brief First

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    Though counterintuitive, appellees should consider writing their answering briefs before they’ve ever seen their opponent’s opening brief, as this practice confers numerous benefits related to argument structure, time pressures and workflow, says Joshua Sohn at the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • 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.

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