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Appellate
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April 16, 2024
AT&T Unit Urges Justices To Weigh In On FCC E-Rate Saga
An AT&T subsidiary is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on whether reimbursement requests for the Federal Communications Commission's E-rate program for schools and libraries are "claims" under the False Claims Act, part of a whistleblower suit accusing the company of overcharging public schools and libraries.
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April 16, 2024
Impossible Foods Slams 'Radical' TM Fight At High Court
Impossible Foods has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a request by a marketing firm owned by a self-described "digital nomad" to review a split Ninth Circuit decision reviving the veggie burger-maker's trademark lawsuit against it, arguing the petition mischaracterizes personal jurisdiction legal precedent and makes "radical" constitutional arguments.
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April 16, 2024
NJ Hospital GC Emails Doom $24M Verdict For Surgeons
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated a $24.3 million award to a group of neurosurgeons on their claim that a hospital didn't operate in good faith, finding the trial court's admission of emails from the hospital's general counsel and remarks made during closing arguments deprived the hospital of a fair trial.
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April 16, 2024
Ousted Fla. Atty To Seek Reelection Amid DeSantis Fight
Suspended Florida state attorney Andrew Warren announced Tuesday he's running for reelection as the top prosecutor in Hillsborough County, while he pursues an ongoing federal lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis over his suspension.
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April 16, 2024
4th Circ. Slams Brakes On W.Va. Transgender Sports Ban
The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday put the clamps on a West Virginia law barring transgender athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity, finding that the restriction it placed on a trans middle schooler violated Title IX civil rights protections and may also violate the U.S. Constitution.
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April 16, 2024
11th Circ. Asks If Undivided Settlement Can Still Be Covered
An Eleventh Circuit panel seemed torn Tuesday on whether to allow insurance coverage for a $557,000 nonapportioned Georgia federal settlement that potentially included both covered theft and noncovered negligent deconstruction, awarded to a Georgia mill owner who hired the insured.
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April 16, 2024
Ga. Justices Nix Backdated Discipline For Atty In Forgery Case
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously denied an attorney's request for a retroactive suspension for forging a court order for his client, ruling that it would be "inappropriate" if he resumed practicing law while in the process of a pretrial diversion program to have his felony forgery case dismissed.
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April 16, 2024
5th Circ. Won't Disturb County Win In Officers' Retaliation Suit
The Fifth Circuit declined to reinstate constitutional claims from officers who said a constable punished them for not supporting his reelection campaign, upholding a finding that a Texas county can't be held liable for his actions.
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April 16, 2024
Illinois Panel OKs Liability Ruling Against Discovery-Faking Firm
An Illinois trial court was right to slap an attorney with a default judgment in a professional negligence suit brought by a former client after the attorney and his firm repeatedly "fabricated their expert witness disclosures 'from whole cloth,'" an appellate panel has ruled.
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April 16, 2024
High Court Sides With Texas Landowners In Takings Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in favor of landowners in a dispute with Texas, finding the owners can pursue their takings claim pursuant to state law but leaving open a larger Fifth Amendment takings question.
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April 16, 2024
Justices Say Army Vet Owed More Education Benefits
An Army veteran who sought additional education benefits to attend Yale Divinity School is owed more federal assistance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, upending an en banc Federal Circuit ruling that took a narrower view of what he is entitled to based on his multiple tours of duty.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Face Off Over Shadow Docket Procedures
The U.S. Supreme Court's internal disagreements over how to manage its emergency docket were on full display Monday in its decision allowing Idaho to enforce a ban on gender-affirming care for minors — a case the court's liberals said wasn't worthy of their intervention, but its conservatives touted as a win in the fight against universal injunctions.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Allow Idaho To Enforce Gender Care Ban, Sans Plaintiffs
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state of Idaho on Monday to begin enforcing its ban on gender-affirming care for minors, reshaping a preliminary injunction the majority said was far too broad to keep in place as the litigation plays out, perhaps for years.
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April 15, 2024
Trump Tells Justices Impeachment Required For Prosecution
Former President Donald Trump told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that the "inevitably and unavoidably" political nature of prosecuting a former president requires input from Congress, arguing the U.S. Constitution's framers carefully wrote the impeachment clause to act as an initial hurdle for criminal prosecutions.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Wary Of Strict Limit On Malicious Prosecution Cases
Several U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared open Monday to the idea that a charge made without probable cause can be grounds for a malicious prosecution civil suit even if another charge with valid probable cause accompanied it, but without a clear consensus on a precise boundary.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Leave Lower Courts To Parse Corporate 'Half-Truths'
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that corporate silence isn't enough to form the basis of a securities fraud suit pointedly declined to wade into the question of what counts as a "half-truth," leaving it to lower courts to wrestle with which corporate statements are blurry enough to sustain a shareholder class action.
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April 15, 2024
NJ Appeals Court Tosses Suit Over Painful Dental Implants
A New Jersey appeals court on Monday tossed a suit accusing an oral surgeon of botching a woman's dental implant surgery, saying that because the treatment took place in Pennsylvania and the surgeon's clinic had few contacts with New Jersey, the Garden State doesn't have jurisdiction.
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April 15, 2024
Mich. High Court To Hear Siblings' Ski Share Valuation Fight
A sibling feud between the CEO of a family-run ski resort company and his sister, a minority shareholder, will get a hearing in front of the Michigan Supreme Court after the justices agreed to look at whether the company honored an agreement for redemption of shares in the family company.
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April 15, 2024
EPA Asks High Court To Preserve SF Water Pollution Regs
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve its water quality standards for San Francisco, which the city has challenged as vague, generic, and "virtually impossible" to comply with.
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April 15, 2024
4th Circ. Won't Let Borrower Pin Feds' Flub On Pa. Agency
The Fourth Circuit refused Monday to revive a lawsuit brought by a borrower alleging that a state student-loan-servicing agency's misrepresentations thwarted a loan forgiveness opportunity, with a panel reasoning that the organization was immune from the lawsuit.
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April 15, 2024
Hytera Still Not Doing All It Can To Stop Fine, Motorola Says
Hytera Communications has continued to drag its feet as it tries to lift the sanctions against it for participating in Chinese litigation against a court order, Motorola Solutions told the Seventh Circuit, arguing that a district court judge's daily status hearings ensure Hytera is being compelled to comply without being punished.
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April 15, 2024
Years After Args, 7th Circ. Continues Mootness Fee Attack
A Seventh Circuit panel said Monday that a Chicago federal judge improperly barred a class action objector from intervening in a suit involving controversial "mootness fees" the appellate court has long criticized, saying he failed to articulate a valid legal reason for doing so.
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April 15, 2024
Geico Must Arbitrate Fraud Claims Against Chiropractors
The Third Circuit held in a precedential opinion Monday that Geico must arbitrate three lawsuits accusing chiropractic practices of providing unnecessary services totaling $10 million, pointing to documentation indicating that disputes connected to personal injury protection benefits must be resolved out of court.
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April 15, 2024
Coinbase Wants 2nd Circ. To Weigh Crypto's Howey Question
Crypto exchange Coinbase has asked a Manhattan federal judge to send the question of whether digital assets meet the definition of investment contracts to the Second Circuit, challenging a March order that found the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had adequately pled that the platform offered securities.
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April 15, 2024
Enviro Groups Urge 9th Circ. To Uphold Ax Of DOI Land Swap
Environmental groups and the National Congress of American Indians have thrown their support behind the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in calling on the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court ruling that the federal government's land exchange with agribusiness J.R. Simplot Co. was unlawful.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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UK Court Ruling Reinforces CMA's Info-Gathering Powers
An English appeals court's recent decision in the BMW and Volkswagen antitrust cases affirmed that the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority can request information from entities outside the U.K., reinstating an important implement in the CMA's investigative toolkit, say lawyers at White & Case.
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Fed. Circ. In Jan.: One Word Can Affect Claim Construction
The Federal Circuit's recent Pacific Biosciences v. Personal Genomics decision highlights how even construction of a simple term can be dispositive, and thus disputed, in view of the specific context provided by the surrounding claim language, say Jeremiah Helm and Sean Murray at Knobbe.
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5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money
As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.
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1869 Case May Pave Off-Ramp For Justices In Trump DQ Fight
In deciding whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from Colorado's Republican primary ballots, the U.S. Supreme Court could rely on due process principles articulated in a Reconstruction-era case to avert a chaotic or undemocratic outcome, says Gordon Renneisen at Cornerstone Law Group.
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Series
Playing Competitive Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experience playing competitive tennis has highlighted why prioritizing exercise and stress relief, maintaining perspective under pressure, and supporting colleagues in pursuit of a common goal are all key aspects of championing a successful legal career, says Madhumita Datta at Lowenstein Sandler.
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New Strain Of Web Tracking Suits Pose Risks For Retailers
Amid an ongoing surge of California state and federal lawsuits that are using novel theories to allege companies used certain recording technologies to illegally track website users, retailers should take steps to develop a potential argument that customers consented to any alleged uses of these devices, say attorneys at Benesch.
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The Questions Around Prometheum's SEC-Compliant Strategy
While the rest of the crypto industry has been engaged in a long-running battle to escape the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's jurisdiction, a once-obscure startup called Prometheum has instead embraced the SEC's view to become the first crypto special-purpose broker-dealer, but it's unclear whether it can turn its favored status into a workable business, says Keith Blackman at Bracewell.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Djerassi On Super Bowl 52
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Ramy Djerassi discusses how Super Bowl 52, in which the Philadelphia Eagles prevailed over the New England Patriots, provides an apt metaphor for alternative dispute resolution processes in commercial business cases.
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Strict Duty To Indemnify Ruling Bucks Recent Trend
A South Carolina federal court's recent decision that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to decide an insurer's duty to indemnify prior to the finding of insured liability sharply diverges from the more nuanced or multipronged standards established by multiple circuit courts, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.
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AI Takes Transformers Beyond Robots In Disguise
At the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law, the shape-shifting models known as transformers raise the question of whether using copyrighted materials to train such models constitutes a transformative use, says Sean Li at Benesch.