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Appellate
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January 23, 2025
11th Circ. Weighs Partisanship Against Race In Ga. Maps Fight
Attorneys representing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Thursday urged the Eleventh Circuit to overturn a ruling that required the state to redraw its congressional and legislative voting district maps based on a federal judge's finding that Georgia's political process was not equally open to Black voters.
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January 23, 2025
Conn. High Court Snapshot: Atty's Bonus, Burn Verdict
In its next term starting Monday, the Connecticut Supreme Court will hear an appeal from an acupuncturist who doesn't want to share liability for a judgment paid to a burn victim, and consider whether to reverse a seven-figure verdict for a private equity management firm's founder, who claims other members improperly cut him out.
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January 23, 2025
Retired Pittsburgh Cops Overpaid For Healthcare, Panel Rules
Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court has ruled that the city of Pittsburgh overcharged retired police officers for healthcare benefits, rejecting the city's argument to overturn an arbitrator's award in favor of the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge as too expansive.
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January 23, 2025
4th Circ. Unwinds Rocket Mortgage Borrowers' Class Cert.
A split Fourth Circuit on Thursday reversed the class certification of borrowers who accused Rocket Mortgage of inflating their home values, finding that not all potential class members could prove they were injured under the U.S. Supreme Court's heightened pleading standard in TransUnion.
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January 23, 2025
GOP AGs, Groups Back 11th Circ. Noncompete Ban Challenge
A group of Republican state attorneys general filed one of a half-dozen amicus briefs Wednesday urging the Eleventh Circuit not to revive the Federal Trade Commission's ban on employment noncompete agreements, arguing the already-endangered rule exceeded FTC authority and threatens legitimate safeguards for corporate secrets.
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January 23, 2025
Ex-Tribal Chair Seeks High Court Review Of Extortion Verdict
A former tribal chair in Massachusetts told the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that the First Circuit was wrong and stands alone in ruling that federal extortion laws apply to Native American officials as it reinstated his convictions tied to the development of a casino project.
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January 23, 2025
Del. Justices Won't Revive Skechers Inc. Aircraft Use Suit
Delaware's top court on Thursday grounded with scant comment a derivative suit appeal filed on behalf of a stockholder of comfort shoemaker Skechers USA Inc. seeking revival of a dismissed lower court case alleging failure to control top executives' use of corporate aircraft for personal travel.
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January 23, 2025
3rd Circ. Backs Tossing USCIS Green Card Wait Time Suit
The Third Circuit ruled in a precedential opinion on Thursday that the courts don't have jurisdiction over an Indian couple's claims that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' policy of postponing adjudication of certain green card applications violates the law, because the agency has the delegated power to set its own systems for handling applications.
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January 23, 2025
7th Circ. Says Ex-Manager's Noncompete Allowed Clawback
The Seventh Circuit reopened an auto parts company's lawsuit seeking to recover proceeds a plant manager got from selling shares he was granted, saying Delaware's top court has made clear that a lower court shouldn't have analyzed whether the forfeiture-for-competition provisions of the stock agreements were reasonable.
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January 23, 2025
Maxell Can't Recharge Battery Patents At Fed. Circ.
Japanese consumer electronics outfit Maxell lost another appeal Thursday over its setbacks at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in its fight with a major Chinese rival in the lithium-ion battery market.
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January 23, 2025
11th Circ. Pauses Ruling Nixing $440M Cruise Line Penalty
The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday cleared the way for a dock company to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after its $440 million judgment against four cruise lines for allegedly "trafficking" in property seized by Cuba was overturned.
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January 23, 2025
Meta Wants Mass. Justices To Intervene In AG's Suit
Meta Platforms has urged Massachusetts' highest court to take up its challenge to a pending lawsuit brought by the state attorney general's office, which accused the social media company of intentionally designing Instagram to be addictive to children and teenagers.
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January 23, 2025
Corporate Transparency Law Remains Flanked By Threats
The Corporate Transparency Act is facing threats across the branches of government despite the U.S. Supreme Court pausing a nationwide injunction on it Thursday, with another universal injunction in place, other court battles underway and some Republican lawmakers targeting the law.
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January 23, 2025
GOP Rep. Revives Bill To Break Up 9th Circ.
Republicans are trying once again to break up the expansive Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which judges appointed by Democratic presidents have long had the majority of.
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January 23, 2025
4th Circ. OKs Limiting Online Docs Access To Attys, Staff
A split Fourth Circuit panel has ruled that limiting a Virginia court's remote access service only to attorneys and their staff does not violate the First Amendment, as claimed by a news outlet that wanted to skip the trip to the courthouse and view records online.
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January 23, 2025
DOJ Says Rule Expanding ACA To Dreamers Is On Solid Ground
The U.S. Department of Justice has urged the Eighth Circuit to undo a North Dakota judge's decision to block a Biden administration rule allowing recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to qualify for Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage.
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January 23, 2025
Okla. High Court Says Gov. Stitt Can Lead Tribal-Gaming Case
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has unanimously confirmed Gov. Kevin Stitt's constitutional authority to represent the state in a lawsuit over the validity of tribal-gaming compacts for casino operations, but it also found that he cannot prevent the state attorney general from appearing in the case.
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January 23, 2025
9th Circ. Nixes Attys' Challenge To Arizona Victim Contact Law
A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected a group of lawyers' constitutional challenge to an Arizona law that requires defense attorneys and their teams to initiate contact with victims through the prosecutor's office.
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January 23, 2025
Colo. Panel Says Atty-Witness Rule Isn't Limited To Jury Trials
A Colorado professional rule banning attorneys from advocating at trials where they are a "necessary witness" isn't limited to jury trials, a state appeals court ruled Thursday, affirming the disqualification of a lawyer who sought to represent a cannabis business that he once co-owned with his wife.
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January 23, 2025
Texas Atty Ethics Commission Drops Suit Against AG Paxton
The Texas bar's Commission for Lawyer Discipline has dropped its ethics complaint against Attorney General Ken Paxton over a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in other states, saying the case should end in light of a recent Texas Supreme Court decision nixing a similar case against his first assistant.
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January 23, 2025
'Not Just A Game': Producers Fight Pause On 'The Deb' Suit
Producers of the musical film "The Deb" urged a Los Angeles judge on Thursday not to pause Rebel Wilson's embezzlement claims while the actress appeals another portion of the case, saying they need a resolution in order to sell the movie and recoup nearly $14 million for investors.
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January 23, 2025
Calif. Appeals Court Backs Apprentice Work Regulations
A California appeals court refused to reinstate a challenge from several employer associations seeking to strike down new regulations governing how apprentices can spend their time working, saying the California Apprenticeship Council was in the clear to promulgate the new rules.
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January 23, 2025
NC Justices Lob GOP Judge's Ballot Challenge To Trial Court
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday kicked Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin's ballot challenge in his contested race for an associate justice seat back to trial court, saying state law necessitates a ruling from the lower court before the state's top court can weigh in.
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January 22, 2025
10th Circ. Affirms Toss Of Surgical Assistants' Antitrust Suit
The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive an antitrust lawsuit against a national surgical certification board accused of monopolizing a surgical assistants and technicians accreditation and certification market, saying in a published opinion that the Association of Surgical Assistants' failure to establish a relevant market doomed its antitrust claims.
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January 22, 2025
Securities Class Actions To Watch In 2025
A showdown in the Ninth Circuit over a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, an expected Sixth Circuit ruling on a bribery scandal and the possible consolidation of lawsuits targeting broker's cash sweeps programs are among the many legal disputes that securities attorneys are keeping a close eye on in 2025.
Expert Analysis
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
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Fla. Insurer-Breach Cases Split On Unrepaired Property Issue
A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Universal v. Qureshi is directly at odds with a 2020 decision from another Florida appellate court, and raises important questions for policyholders and insurers about the proper measure of damages in breach claims involving unrepaired property, say Andrea DeField and Yaniel Abreu at Hunton.
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Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases
Evidence issues in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and classified documents cases involving former President Donald Trump offer an opportunity to restudy elements and implications of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, noting the courts' careful scrutiny of these matters, say Robert Hoff and Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.
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Enviro Policy Trends That Will Continue Beyond The Election
Come October in a presidential election year, the policy world feels like a winner-take-all scenario, with the outcome of the vote determining how or even whether we are regulated — but there are several key ongoing trends that will continue to drive environmental regulation regardless of the election results, say J. Michael Showalter and Samuel Rasche at ArentFox Schiff.
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2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules
In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.
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Opinion
Failure To Use Apportionment Has Distorted Patent Damages
Apportionment is the solution to the problem of inflated patent infringement damages, and courts should return to focusing on the smallest saleable unit as the starting point for apportionment analysis, say William Lee at WilmerHale and Mark Lemley at Stanford Law School.
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Series
Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.
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A Look At Recent Case Law On Expedited Judgment In NY
A number of recent New York state court decisions clarify and refine the contours surrounding Civil Practice Law and Rule 3213, providing landlords, lenders and other payees guidance on how to seek accelerated judgment in certain litigation, says Alexander Lycoyannis at Holland & Knight.
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Opinion
Supreme Court Must Halt For-Profit Climate Tort Proliferation
If the U.S. Supreme Court does not seize the opportunity presented by Honolulu v. Sunoco to reassert federal authority over interstate pollution regulation, the resulting frenzy of profit-driven environmental mass torts against energy companies will stunt American competitiveness and muddle climate policy, says Gale Norton at Liberty Energy.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Allergan Ruling Reinforces Value Of Patent Term Adjustments
The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Allergan v. MSN, which held that patent term adjustment awards for first-filed, first-issued patents cannot be stripped away by later-issuing child patents that expire earlier, means practitioners must consider the potential impact of any action that might reduce the adjustment amount, say attorneys at Cooley.
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Opinion
AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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A Class Action Trend Tests Limit Of Courts' Equity Powers
A troubling trend has developed in federal class action litigation as some counsel and judges attempt to push injunctive relief classes under Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure beyond the traditional limits of federal courts' equitable powers, say attorneys at Jones Day.
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What's In The Cards For CFTC's Election Betting Case
A D.C. federal judge's Sept. 12 ruling, allowing KalshiEx to offer derivative contracts trading on the outcome of the U.S. congressional elections over objections from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, could mark a watershed moment in the permissibility of election betting if upheld on appeal, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from four recent class certification rulings involving denial of Medicare reimbursements, automobile insurance disputes, veterans' rights and automobile defects.