Appellate

  • February 03, 2025

    Texas Can Help Feds With Noncitizen Arrests, Judge Says

    A Texas federal judge has modified an injunction blocking a controversial Texas immigration law to clarify that law enforcement in the Lone Star State can help federal agencies with initiatives to arrest and detain unauthorized immigrants.

  • February 03, 2025

    CFPB Small Biz Rules Outstrip Authority, 5th Circ. Hears

    The Texas Bankers Association asked a Fifth Circuit panel on Monday to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new small business minority data rule during oral arguments, while the panel questioned what to do with the case given the agency's leadership change.

  • February 03, 2025

    11th Circ. Bias Fight Could Set Bar For Trans Benefits Suits

    The full Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments Tuesday from a Georgia county looking to overturn a trial court's ruling that found its health plan's denial of gender-affirming surgery violated federal anti-discrimination law, in a case that could help clarify how a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision impacts employee benefits.

  • February 03, 2025

    QBE Insurance, Walmart Cite Pending Opioid Appeal In Ark.

    Walmart Corp. and a fleet of insurers notified Delaware's Supreme Court Monday that they are awaiting an Arkansas Court of Appeals hearing on challenges to a lower court's finding that Walmart is entitled to excess coverage for state and local government insurance suits arising from the opioid epidemic.

  • February 03, 2025

    NC Justices Urged To Reject Appeal Over Rate Hike Approvals

    North Carolina's insurance commissioner urged the state's highest court to reject a policyholder's appeal challenging a series of insurer rate hike approvals in court, saying an appeals panel correctly found that the policyholder failed to support his claims that intervening in the preceding approval process was impossible.

  • February 03, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Questions Mitek's Fears Of USAA Check Patent Suit

    A Federal Circuit panel appeared skeptical of banking software company Mitek Systems Inc.'s effort to revive a suit seeking a declaration that it is not infringing check deposit patents United Services Automobile Association has won millions from suing over, suggesting Monday it seems like Mitek won't also be sued.

  • February 03, 2025

    Attys Hope Ballot Case Clarifies Pennsylvania Constitution Clause

    A Pennsylvania Supreme Court case questioning the constitutionality of a rule requiring undated or misdated mail-in ballots to be discarded is likely the last, and best, chance to settle one of the few open issues over voting in Pennsylvania, experts told Law360.

  • February 03, 2025

    PharmacyChecker's Legality Weighed In 9th Circ. Appeal

    Judges on the Ninth Circuit went back and forth with lawyers on both sides of online drug comparison site PharmacyChecker's antitrust suit against LegitScript on Monday, questioning the latter's claims that PharmacyChecker's entire business is illegal because it facilitates the unsanctioned importation of foreign pharmaceuticals.

  • February 03, 2025

    9th Circ. Revives Church's Copyright Feud With Ex-Member

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday gave new life to a copyright dispute between a Washington religious group and a former member who said he had the legal right to use the spiritual teachings of the group's founder, with an opinion noting the case's "strange bedfellow" mix of intellectual property law, estate law and religious writings.

  • February 03, 2025

    USAA Fails To Flip PTAB Loss In $218M EDTX Case

    Federal Circuit judges decided Monday to affirm an administrative board's rulings that wiped out claims in two patents, including one that is tied to a $218.45 million jury verdict leveled against PNC Bank in a patent case in the Eastern District of Texas.

  • February 03, 2025

    Child Porn Victims Urge 9th Circ. To Revive Claims Against X

    Child sex trafficking survivors urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to revive allegations that X Corp. defectively designed its platform and knowingly benefited from sex trafficking when it refused to remove pornographic videos of the 13-year-old boys, arguing that X isn't shielded under Section 230.

  • February 03, 2025

    DC Circ. Rejects Newman's Bid To Unseal Suspension Docs

    The D.C. Circuit on Monday denied U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's request to unseal documents about her suspension for refusing to participate in an investigation into her fitness, saying such documents are confidential unless both the judge under investigation and the chief judge agree to release them.

  • February 03, 2025

    Del. Justices Uphold $10.4B Anaplan Inc.'s Thoma Bravo Sale

    Agreeing that a fully informed "Corwin cleansing" vote washed away stockholder objections to a post-signing $400 million trimming of a $10.7 billion deal, Delaware's Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a challenge to Thoma Bravo's acquisition of software-as-a-service company Anaplan Inc. in June 2022.

  • February 03, 2025

    7th Circ. Says Row Over Pilot Contracts Belongs In Arbitration

    The Seventh Circuit has ruled that the Teamsters' challenge to prehire employment agreements with two airlines providing for incentive payments to newly hired pilots must be resolved in arbitration rather than federal court, saying the airlines did enough to show that the incentives are justified by the collective bargaining agreements.

  • February 03, 2025

    Feds Back Out Of Trans Ga. Deputy's 11th Circ. Rehearing

    The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it was pulling out of supporting a Georgia transgender sheriff's deputy's bid to have gender-affirming surgery covered by her county government, just days before her case is set to be reheard by the full Eleventh Circuit.

  • February 03, 2025

    Sotomayor Clears Path For Retrial In Landmark Graft Case

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor lifted a temporary pause Monday on a public corruption case that resulted in a landmark 2023 decision eliminating the right-to-control theory of fraud, clearing the way for a retrial on a traditional theory of property fraud.

  • February 03, 2025

    Trial Court Won't Pause Google Search Case For Apple Appeal

    A D.C. federal court refused on Sunday to pause the remedies phase of the landmark monopolization case targeting Google's search dominance while Apple appeals a decision refusing to allow it to participate.

  • February 03, 2025

    Texas Appeals Court Wipes Exxon's $2.5M Oil Cleanup Verdict

    A Texas appeals court has wiped a more than $2.5 million verdict for ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., finding that successive owners of its pipeline hadn't agreed to assume the cleanup costs of an oil spill.

  • February 03, 2025

    NC Justice Urges 4th Circ. To Keep Vote Battle In Federal Court

    An incumbent North Carolina justice urged the Fourth Circuit on Monday to keep control of her opponent's challenge to November's election results, rejecting the challenger's claim that developments in state court have rendered the federal case moot.

  • February 03, 2025

    COVID Test Row Hinges On Appeal Notice, 2nd Circ. Hints

    A Second Circuit appellate judge suggested Monday that a union benefit plan may not have been acting fully aboveboard when it did not notify a Connecticut medical practice of an appeal process after it denied reimbursements for COVID-19 testing, but he also met the practice's accusations with skepticism.

  • February 03, 2025

    Panel Backs Sanctions For Frivolous Bid In Malpractice Case

    A New Jersey appeals court said Monday that a New York attorney's motion to vacate an almost $450,000 judgment after a jury found him negligent in a divorce action could only be seen as frivolous, affirming the trial court's award of nearly $8,000 in attorney fees as a sanction.

  • February 03, 2025

    2nd Circ. Affirms Lawyer's Asylum Fraud Conviction

    The Second Circuit on Monday affirmed the convictions of an immigration attorney and the former CEO of an immigration services firm for coaching asylum-seekers to lie about facing persecution in their home countries, rejecting the pair's arguments that there was insufficient evidence and that the jury was given improper instructions.

  • February 03, 2025

    Power Cos., States Ask DC Circ. To Dispose Of Coal Ash Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acted arbitrarily and well beyond its authority when it enacted a new rule to strengthen federal regulations for coal ash, a score of electric utility entities and Republican-led states told the D.C. Circuit.

  • February 03, 2025

    Calif. City On The Hook In Contractor Wage Fight, Panel Says

    The city of Long Beach, California, could be required to foot the bill for arbitration awards rendered against an oil company subcontractor in workers' wage lawsuits, a state appellate panel ruled, saying an arbitration decision holds as much weight as any other court order and can trigger liability for indemnity.

  • January 31, 2025

    Pipeline Inspector Asks Justices To Deem Him An Employee

    A former pipeline inspector for energy industry service provider Killick Group has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fifth Circuit decision classifying him as an independent contractor not eligible for overtime, saying Friday the high court should resolve a circuit split on the factors determining employee status.

Expert Analysis

  • Racing Patents To The Fed. Circ.: Collateral Estoppel Lessons

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    As more and more parties find themselves in two different forums addressing the same issues and then competing in a race to the Federal Circuit, certain strategies can help despite unanswered questions on when Patent Trial and Appeal Board determinations trigger collateral estoppel, say attorneys at Akin.

  • Nvidia Supreme Court Case May Not Make Big Splash

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    The skeptical tenor of the justices' questioning at oral argument in Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder suggests that the case is unlikely to alter the motion to dismiss pleading standard in securities class actions, as some had feared, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Circus Arts Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Performing circus arts has strengthened my ability to be more thoughtful, confident and grounded, all of which has enhanced my legal practice and allowed me to serve clients in a more meaningful way, says Bailey McGowan at Stinson.

  • Purse-Case Scenarios: 'MetaBirkin' Appeal Tests TM Rights

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    A federal court's finding that "MetaBirkin" nonfungible tokens infringed on Hermes' iconic Birkin bag imagery is now on appeal in the Second Circuit, and the order will have a lasting effect on how courts balance trademark rights and the First Amendment, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less

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    Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Prevents Disability Insurer Overreach

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    The Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in McEachin v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance offers disability insurance claimants guidance on how they might challenge misapplications of policy limitations for mental illness when a medical condition accounts for their disability, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • Bid Protest Spotlight: Unclear Criteria, Data Rights, Conflicts

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    Liam Bowers at MoFo examines three recent decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims examining the use of unstated evaluation criteria, an agency's investigation of its own data rights and unequal access to information about an organizational conflict of interest.

  • The Bar Needs More Clarity On The Discovery Objection Rule

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    Almost 10 years after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 was amended, attorneys still seem confused about what they should include in objections to discovery requests, and until the rules committee provides additional clarity, practitioners must beware the steep costs of noncompliance, says Tristan Ellis at Shanies Law Office.

  • Foreclosing Lenders Still Floating In Murky Legal Waters In NY

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    The New York foreclosure landscape remains in disarray after the state's highest court last month declined to weigh in on whether legal changes from 2022 that severely curtailed lenders' ability to bring successive foreclosure cases were retroactive, says Brian Rich at Barclay Damon.

  • In Terror Case, DC Circ. Must Weigh Justices' Twitter Ruling

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    When the D.C. Circuit hears oral argument in AstraZeneca UK v. Atchley, how the court interprets the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Twitter v. Taamneh will have a significant impact on future claims brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, say attorneys at Lewis Baach.

  • Series

    Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.

  • So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?

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    Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • 3 Policyholder Lessons From NY Bad Faith Ruling

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    A New York appellate court's recent decision finding that Rockefeller University alleged viable bad faith claims against its insurers reinforces the principle that insurers may not elevate their own economic interests over those of their insureds, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • In SF Water Case, Justices Signal How Loper May Be Applied

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    Skeptical questions from U.S. Supreme Court justices during oral argument in San Francisco v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offer hints of how the court intends to apply limits on agency regulatory autonomy established last term in Loper Bright, says Karen Cullinane at Goldberg Segalla.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: November Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six federal court decisions that touch on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and when individual inquiries are needed to prove economic loss.

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