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Appellate
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May 13, 2024
High Court Won't Consider Ex-Tufts Prof's Retaliation Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review a lawsuit brought by a former Tufts University dental professor who said the First Circuit ignored crucial evidence and relied on false information when it shut down claims that she lost a promotion for reporting sexual harassment.
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May 13, 2024
Justices Skip Website's Bid To Review Copyright Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Tenth Circuit decision that revived a copyright complaint accusing controversial web forum Kiwi Farms and its owner of infringing the works of self-published author Russell Greer, who wrote about his court battle with pop star Taylor Swift.
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May 13, 2024
High Court Won't Take Up Wyo. Wildfire Suit
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a suit by survivors of the 2018 Roosevelt wildfire in Wyoming against the U.S. Forest Service over the government's decisions in fighting the fires.
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May 13, 2024
Justices Reject Incarcerated Man's Atty Abandonment Claim
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the case of a Texas man incarcerated on death row who says his court-appointed lawyer deprived him of a fair chance at challenging his conviction in a 2005 double homicide.
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May 13, 2024
Justices Reject COVID App Makers' Last-Ditch Apple Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt the latest blow Monday to app developers who've struck out at every turn on antitrust allegations over Apple's rejection of COVID-19-tracking and bitcoin apps, refusing to look at a Ninth Circuit's refusal to revive the lawsuit.
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May 13, 2024
Justices Won't Review Atty's Discipline For Accusing Judges
The U.S. Supreme Court won't weigh in on whether the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania improperly suspended an attorney based on alleged violations of disciplinary rules that had been seven years old at the time, the court announced Monday.
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May 13, 2024
Justices Won't Review Ch. 11 Stay In Asbestos Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court won't review lower courts' decisions allowing the paper-products company Georgia-Pacific to remain shielded from mass tort litigation by way of a subsidiary's Chapter 11 case.
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May 11, 2024
Alito Warns Freedoms Of Speech, Religion Are In Danger
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito warned Saturday that support for freedom of speech on college campuses is "dangerously" low, and that freedom of religion is in peril nationwide.
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May 10, 2024
Patent Owners Face Risks In Amazon Program After Ruling
The Federal Circuit ruled earlier this month that a company alleging patent infringement through Amazon's patent evaluation program must face a declaratory judgment suit in the accused infringer's home state. The holding creates a risk for patent owners who may rethink using the program, attorneys told Law360.
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May 10, 2024
Mich. Justices Find State Law Bars Firing Friend As Reprisal
The Michigan Supreme Court held Friday that the state's civil rights law prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee by targeting a coworker who is a friend or family member, reviving two former prison workers' lawsuit against the state.
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May 10, 2024
Fed. Circ. Backs ITC Decision Clearing Computer Gear Imports
The Federal Circuit on Friday upheld the U.S. International Trade Commission's holding that CommScope, Hewlett Packard, Netgear and others didn't infringe Q3 Networking's computer gear patents with their imports of things like routers.
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May 10, 2024
Okla. Tells Justices 10th Circ. Wrong On PBM Law
Oklahoma's insurance department Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its petition seeking review of a Tenth Circuit decision overturning portions of a state law regulating pharmacy benefit managers, arguing that high court intervention is needed to resolve disagreement among the circuits on federal preemption.
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May 10, 2024
Pa. Commission Had Right To Deny Grid Project, 3rd Circ. Told
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission called on the Third Circuit on Friday to reinstate its rejection of a transmission power project approved by regional grid operator PJM Interconnection, arguing a federal district court wrongly deemed the decision unconstitutional.
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May 10, 2024
Full 4th Circ. Urged To Settle Key 'Texas Two-Step' Questions
A Fourth Circuit panel left critical issues open when it denied permission to an appeal challenging the so-called Texas two-step Chapter 11 of industrial equipment maker Aldrich Pump, asbestos claimants in two separate bankruptcy cases said, asking the full appeals court to reconsider hearing the case and settle questions that have plagued their own bankruptcies in the Western District of North Carolina.
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May 10, 2024
4th Circ. Judge Suspects 'Abuse' In Land Donor Tax Case
The Fourth Circuit appeared poised Friday to rule that a couple owes taxes and penalties after claiming an inflated $5.1 million valuation on donated land for deductions, with one judge positing he believed the couple had engaged in "abuse" of a conservation donation.
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May 10, 2024
Walmart Must Pay $1M Injury Verdict, Ga. Appeals Court Says
The Georgia Court of Appeals won't give Walmart a way out of a $1 million verdict owed to a woman injured in a store in 2018, dispatching Friday with the retail chain's argument that the verdict was blatantly excessive.
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May 10, 2024
US Bancorp Seeks Quick Appeal In 401(k) Fee Suit
U.S. Bancorp asked Friday for approval to immediately appeal an order allowing a proposed class action over record-keeping fees for the bank's 401(k) plan to move forward, telling a Minnesota federal court that getting the Eighth Circuit's take could provide clarity to other cases nationwide.
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May 10, 2024
Mich. Lawmakers Introduce Judicial Privacy Bill
A group of Michigan state senators has introduced a bill that would allow judges to seal personal information about themselves and their immediate family members in government agency files, including blocking the government from disclosing the information in response to public records requests, with some narrow exceptions.
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May 10, 2024
1st Circ. Fast-Tracks DraftKings Noncompete Feud
The First Circuit on Friday granted a former DraftKings executive's request to expedite his appeal of a Boston federal judge's ruling that blocked him from doing similar work in the U.S. for rival Fanatics.
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May 10, 2024
Michigan Dept. Gets Snowmobile Crash Claims Tossed
A Michigan appeals panel has thrown out a man's claims alleging one of the state's Department of Natural Resources rangers was negligent in a suit over a crash that claimed that ranger's life, saying the lack of evidence renders the plaintiff's theory of negligence hypothetical and speculative.
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May 10, 2024
CFPB's Credit Card Late Fee Rule Halted By Texas Judge
A Texas federal judge on Friday stayed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee standard, granting a preliminary injunction sought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups that are challenging the legality of the agency rule.
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May 10, 2024
UPMC Inks $38M Deal To End Neurosurgery FCA Suit
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has agreed to pay $38 million to put an end to a False Claims Act suit brought by three medical workers from its neurological surgery department who said the medical center fraudulently billed federal healthcare programs.
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May 10, 2024
2nd Circ. Says Subway Texts Don't Trigger Autodial Law
A divided Second Circuit panel upheld the dismissal of a suit claiming that the sandwich chain Subway illegally spammed consumers' phones with automated texts, finding that a Connecticut federal judge was right in ruling that the marketing campaign didn't use an autodialer as defined by federal law.
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May 10, 2024
Conn. Court Upholds Diplomat's $582M Win Against Ex-Wife
Connecticut's ban on lawsuits arising out of adultery does not invalidate a Kuwaiti diplomat's $582 million win in a case against his ex-wife, whom he accused of lying about the paternity of their children as part of a complex fraud, the state's intermediate-level appeals court ruled Friday.
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May 10, 2024
9th Circ. Splits PAGA Claims In Macy's Arbitration Fight
Macy's can't compel arbitration of nonindividual claims in a worker's wage suit brought under California's Private Attorneys General Act, the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday, saying language in an arbitration pact prevents blending together different types of claims.
Expert Analysis
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Employer Trial Tips For Fighting Worker PPE Pay Claims
Courts have struggled for decades to reach consensus on whether employees must be paid for time spent donning and doffing personal protective equipment, but this convoluted legal history points to practical trial strategies to help employers defeat these Fair Labor Standards Act claims, say Michael Mueller and Evangeline Paschal at Hunton.
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Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout
While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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Opinion
Gilead Ruling Signals That Innovating Can Lead To Liability
A California appeals court's ruling last month in Gilead Life Sciences v. Superior Court of San Francisco that a drug manufacturer can be held liable for delaying the introduction of an improved version of its medication raises concerns about the chilling effects that expansive product liability claims may have on innovation, says Gary Myers at the University of Missouri School of Law.
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Grant Compliance Takeaways From Ga. Tech's FCA Settlement
Georgia Tech’s recent False Claims Act settlement over its failure to detect compliance shortcomings in a grant program was unique in that it involved a voluntary repayment of funds prior to the resolution, offering a few key lessons for universities receiving research funding from the government, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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Series
Competing In Dressage Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My lifelong participation in the sport of dressage — often called ballet on horses — has proven that several skills developed through training and competition are transferable to legal work, especially the ability to harness focus, persistence and versatility when negotiating a deal, says Stephanie Coco at V&E.
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High Court Case Could Reshape Local Development Fees
If last month's oral arguments are any indication of how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, it's unlikely the justices will hold that the essential nexus and rough proportionality tests under the cases of Nollan, Dolan and Koontz apply to legislative exactions, but a sweeping decision would still be the natural progression in the line of cases giving property owners takings claims, says Phillip Babich at Reed Smith.
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Employer Lessons From Nixed Calif. Arbitration Agreement
A California state appeals court’s recent decision to throw out an otherwise valid arbitration agreement, where an employee claimed a confusing electronic signature system led her to agree to unfair terms, should alert employers to scrutinize any waivers or signing procedures that may appear to unconscionably favor the company, say Guillermo Tello and Monique Eginli at Clark Hill.
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Ch. 11 Ruling Highlights 'Two-Step' Challenges In 4th Circ.
A North Carolina bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Bestwall’s Chapter 11 case, and the decision's interpretation of Fourth Circuit law, suggests that, compared to other circuits, it may be more difficult to dismiss so-called Texas Two-Step bankruptcy cases within the Fourth Circuit, say Brittany Falabella and Kollin Bender at Hirschler Fleischer.
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EEO-1 Ruling May Affect Other Gov't Agency Disclosures
By tightly construing a rarely litigated but frequently asserted term, a California federal court’s ruling that the Freedom of Information Act does not exempt reports to the U.S. Department of Labor on workplace demographics could expand the range of government contractor information susceptible to public disclosure, says John Zabriskie at Foley & Lardner.
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What Retailers Should Note In Calif. Web Tracking Suits
As retailers face a deluge of class actions alleging the use of conventional web analytic tools violate wiretapping and eavesdropping provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, uncovering the path toward a narrow interpretation of the law will largely depend on how these cases proceed, say Matthew Pearson and Kareem Salem at BakerHostetler.
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Sentencing Shift Might Not Help Most White Collar Defendants
Many have lauded the new zero-point offender adjustment in the U.S. sentencing guidelines, which may provide a pathway for noncustodial sentences for first-time offenders — but given the types of cases federal prosecutors often pursue, it likely won't offer much relief to white collar defendants, says Saurish Appleby-Bhattacharjee at BCLP.
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Del. Ruling Adds Momentum For Caremark Plaintiffs
The Delaware Supreme Court's recent opinion in Lebanon County Employees' Retirement Fund v. Collis could be viewed as expanding plaintiffs' ability to viably plead a Caremark claim against directors, so Delaware companies should be on heightened alert and focus on creating a record of board oversight, say attorneys at V&E.
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What's At Stake In High Court NLRB Injunction Case
William Baker at Wigdor examines the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to hear Starbucks v. McKinney — where it will consider a long-standing circuit split over the standard for evaluating National Labor Relations Board injunction bids — and explains why the justices’ eventual decision, either way, is unlikely to be a significant blow to labor.
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Opinion
High Court's Gifts Problem Taints Public Corruption Cases
A history of U.S. Supreme Court justices failing to disclose luxurious gifts from wealthy donors coincides with a troubling line of court precedent overturning jury convictions in public corruption cases, indicating that perhaps justices aren't presently fit to be making these decisions, says Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
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The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift
As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.