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Appellate
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May 21, 2024
Ga. Court Says No Medical Expert Needed In Patient Fall Suit
A Georgia appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a suit seeking to hold a physician and a medical assistant liable for a patient's injuries suffered in a fall during an appointment, saying because the claim against the assistant is ordinary negligence, the suit was wrongly dismissed for lack of medical expert testimony.
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May 21, 2024
Wash. Justices Seem Split On Funds Getting Biz Tax Breaks
The Washington Supreme Court appeared divided on Tuesday over whether precedent means a group of funds are eligible for a business tax deduction on investment income, with one justice suggesting a previous ruling did not mesh with state tax law.
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May 21, 2024
Texas Court Questions Luxottica On 'Playing Favorites' In Sale
A Texas appellate court on Tuesday asked whether an eyewear conglomerate was "playing favorites by not disclosing" alleged fraud by its franchisees in a sale of two stores to other franchisees, questioning Luxottica's assertion it had to keep its hands off the transaction.
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May 21, 2024
NY High Court Upholds State Abortion Coverage Mandate
New York's highest court on Tuesday upheld a state law requiring employee health plans to cover medically necessary abortions, finding a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision didn't change the state court's determination that an exemption process in the law was constitutional.
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May 21, 2024
6th Circ. Won't Restart GM Engineer's Age Bias Suit
The Sixth Circuit on Tuesday backed General Motors' defeat of an engineer's lawsuit claiming he was harassed and transferred to less lucrative jobs because he's over 50, ruling he failed to show that a supervisor's sporadic comments created a hostile work environment.
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May 21, 2024
FSU Asks NC Justices To Favor Fla. Suit In ACC Fee Fight
The Florida State University board of trustees has asked North Carolina justices to do what the Tar Heel state's Business Court did not and halt the Atlantic Coast Conference's lawsuit over media rights contracts in favor of letting parallel litigation in Florida play out.
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May 21, 2024
AT&T Unit Asks High Court To Take Up E-Rate FCA Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court needs to step in and decide a circuit split over whether FCC reimbursements under the E-rate program count as "claims" under the False Claims Act, said an AT&T subsidiary, urging the justices to ignore a relator who it said is trying to "muddy that clear conflict."
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May 21, 2024
Counties Not 'Persons' In Texas Opioid MDL Appeal
A Texas appeals panel found Tuesday that counties are not considered "persons" under the state's common law and therefore are not subject to the Texas Medical Liability Act's requirement that they serve expert reports to pharmacy defendants in the state's opioid multidistrict litigation.
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May 21, 2024
Circuit Split Could Still Derail FCC Subsidies, High Court Told
Free market groups urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to review their challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's subsidy programs, saying the Fifth Circuit could create a circuit split "at any time" by rejecting the fee-based system.
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May 21, 2024
22 States Tell 11th Circ. Corp. Transparency Act Goes Too Far
The federal Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutionally displaces state authority and its enforcement would economically harm states and their residents, attorneys general from 22 states told the Eleventh Circuit, urging it to uphold a ruling that struck down the law.
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May 21, 2024
High Court Ethics Bill In 'High Consideration,' Schumer Says
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Tuesday that a bill to institute an ethics code for the U.S. Supreme Court was in "high consideration" to come before the full Senate for a vote, following the report last week that an upside-down flag, which has become a symbol for former President Donald Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen, was flown outside Justice Samuel Alito's house after the attack on the U.S. Capitol a month later.
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May 21, 2024
4th Circ. Told Justices' Ruling Dooms Bid To Delay $811M Fine
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision finding the agency's funding structure constitutional to head off a bid by immigrant bond companies accused of abusive bonding practices to delay an $811 million judgment.
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May 21, 2024
9th Circ. Rejects Quick Section 230 Appeal In Casino App MDL
The Ninth Circuit refused to weigh in Tuesday on whether the Communications Decency Act's Section 230 shields Google, Apple and Meta from consolidated multidistrict litigation over allegedly illicit "social casino" game apps on their platforms, finding that deciding the issue on an interlocutory appeal would be a premature, advisory opinion.
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May 21, 2024
DC Circ. Won't Let Fla. Halt Wetlands Permits Decision
The D.C. Circuit on Monday refused Florida's request to pause a lower court's ruling that stripped the state of its federally delegated authority to administer a Clean Water Act permitting program until its appeal is resolved, rejecting its argument that the decision is likely to be reversed.
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May 21, 2024
ND Men Say Justices Should Agree With State In VRA Dispute
Two local Republican Party officials are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision that gave a quick win to North Dakota over newly created voting subdistricts, arguing that Secretary of State Michael Howe's recent change of opinion in the litigation should alone resolve the issue.
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May 21, 2024
Split Fed. Circ. Revives IP Suit Against Nokia Over Standing
A split Federal Circuit on Tuesday threw out a lower court decision that found an inventor's company didn't have standing to sue Nokia, Cisco and ADVA over a fiber optic patent, saying it was unclear if the company had the rights to the patent.
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May 21, 2024
NC Panel Cans Atty's 'Grossly Excessive' Fees In Wage Suit
A North Carolina appeals court rejected a real estate agent's bid to be awarded nearly $500,000 in attorney fees after winning an unpaid wages lawsuit, reasoning Tuesday that state wage law doesn't require that fees be granted to a prevailing party.
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May 21, 2024
Senate Backs Federal Prosecutor For Ariz. District Judgeship
The Senate voted 66-26 on Tuesday to confirm Assistant U.S. Attorney Krissa M. Lanham to the District of Arizona.
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May 21, 2024
DOJ, VW Ask 9th Circ. To Void Jones Day Docs Release Order
The U.S. Department of Justice and Volkswagen have told the Ninth Circuit that forcing them to release confidential Volkswagen documents that were part of a Jones Day investigation into the automaker's 2015 emissions-cheating scandal would have far-reaching, chilling implications for federal criminal prosecutions.
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May 21, 2024
Strategic Hiring Was The New Normal For BigLaw In 2023
The 400 largest law firms by headcount in the U.S. grew more slowly in 2023 than in the previous two years, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP surpassed the 3,000-attorney threshold, according to the latest Law360 ranking.
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May 21, 2024
The Law360 400: Tracking The Largest US Law Firms
The legal market expanded more tentatively in 2023 than in previous years amid a slowdown in demand for legal services, especially in transactions, an area that has been sluggish but is expected to quicken in the near future.
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May 21, 2024
Full Fed. Circ. Throws Out 'Rigid' Tests For Design Patents
The full Federal Circuit on Tuesday overruled long-standing tests for proving that design patents are invalid as obvious, finding that the rules are "improperly rigid" and holding that the obviousness test for utility patents should be used instead.
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May 21, 2024
3rd Circ. Revives American Airlines Pilots' Military Leave Suit
The Third Circuit reopened a class action Tuesday accusing American Airlines of unlawfully denying pilots pay for short military assignments while compensating employees for jury duty and bereavement leave, ruling a trial is needed to determine whether time off for military service is fungible with paid absences.
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May 20, 2024
Law On Indian Country Jurisdiction Still Unsettled, Tulsa Says
Officials of Tulsa, Oklahoma, have asked a federal district court to deny an intervention bid by the United States in a tribal challenge over criminal jurisdiction, saying that as an alternative, the lawsuit should be paused pending the outcome of a state case in which the governor's brother is fighting a speeding ticket.
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May 20, 2024
Justices Turn Away Hospital Construction Feud
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a case that centers on a $180 million project to expand a Mississippi children's hospital, once again declining to resolve whether parties that agree to certain arbitral rules have also agreed to delegate jurisdictional questions to the arbitrator.
Expert Analysis
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5 Employer Actions Now Risky After Justices' Title VII Ruling
Last week in Muldrow v. St. Louis, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that harm didn't have to be significant to be considered discriminatory under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, making five common employer actions vulnerable to litigation, say Kellee Kruse and Briana Scholar at The Employment Law Group.
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Series
Being An Equestrian Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Beyond getting experience thinking on my feet and tackling stressful situations, the skills I've gained from horseback riding have considerable overlap with the skills used to practice law, particularly in terms of team building, continuing education, and making an effort to reset and recharge, says Kerry Irwin at Moore & Van Allen.
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7th Circ. Mootness Fee Case May Curb Frivolous Merger Suits
On April 15, the Seventh Circuit in Jorge Alcarez v. Akorn Inc. mapped out a framework for courts to consider mootness fees paid to individual shareholders after the voluntary dismissal of a challenge to a public company merger, which could encourage objections to mootness fees and reduce the number of frivolous merger challenges filed, say attorneys at Skadden.
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4 Ways To Refresh Your Law Firm's Marketing Strategy
With many BigLaw firms relying on an increasingly obsolete marketing approach that prioritizes stiff professionalism over authentic connection, adopting a few key communications strategies to better connect with today's clients and prospects can make all the difference, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law.
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What 3rd Circ. Trust Ruling Means For Securitization Market
Mercedes Tunstall and Michael Gambro at Cadwalader break down the Third Circuit's March decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust, as well as predict next steps in the litigation and the implications of the decision for servicers and the securitization industry as a whole.
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9th Circ. Ruling Puts Teeth Into Mental Health Parity Claims
In its recent finding that UnitedHealth applied an excessively strict review process for substance use disorder treatment claims, the Ninth Circuit provided guidance on how to plead a Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act violation and took a step toward achieving mental health parity in healthcare, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Using Rule 23(f) To Review Class Certification Orders
Since plaintiffs on average are prevailing in certifying a class more often than not, the best-positioned class action defendants are those prepared to pursue relief under Rule 23(f) well before the district court issues its certification decision, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Perspectives
Justices' Forfeiture Ruling Resolves Nonexistent Split
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McIntosh v. U.S., holding that a trial court’s failure to enter a preliminary criminal forfeiture order prior to sentencing doesn’t bar its entry later, is unusual in that it settles an issue on which the lower courts were not divided — but it may apply in certain forfeiture disputes, says Stefan Cassella at Asset Forfeiture Law.
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Opinion
SC's Courts Have It Wrong On Amazon Marketplace Sales Tax
The South Carolina Supreme Court should step in and correct the misguided change in tax law effectuated by lower court rulings that found Amazon owes state sales tax for marketplace sales made prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Wayfair v. South Dakota decision in 2018, says Hayes Holderness at the University of Richmond.
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What Have We Learned In The Year Since Warhol?
In the almost year since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, which was widely seen as potentially chilling to creative endeavors, seven subsequent decisions — while illuminating to some extent — do not indicate any trend toward a radical departure from prior precedents in fair use cases, says Jose Sariego at Bilzin Sumberg.
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The Practical Effects Of Justices' Arbitration Exemption Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries, that a transportation worker need not work in the transportation industry to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, may negatively affect employers' efforts to mitigate class action risk via arbitration agreement enforcement, say Charles Schoenwetter and Eric Olson at Bowman and Brooke.
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Binance Ruling Spotlights Muddled Post-Morrison Landscape
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Williams v. Binance highlights the judiciary's struggle to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank ruling to digital assets, and illustrates how Morrison's territorial limits on the federal securities laws have become convoluted, say Andrew Rhys Davies and Jessica Lewis at WilmerHale.
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Practical Pointers After Fed. Circ. Double-Patenting Decision
With the Federal Circuit recently denying a full court review of In re: Cellect, a decision regarding obviousness-type double-patenting, affected patent family holders should evaluate their rights through both patent prosecution and future litigation lenses to minimize risks, say Austin Lorch and Jeff Wolfson at Haynes Boone.
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Sorting Circuit Split On Foreign Arbitration Treaty's Authority
A circuit court split over whether the New York Convention supersedes state law barring arbitration in certain disputes — a frequent issue in insurance matters — has left lower courts to rely on conflicting decisions, but the doctrine of self-executing treaties makes it clear that the convention overrules state law, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.
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Corp. Transparency Act Could Survive 11th Circ. Several Ways
If the Eleventh Circuit upholds an Alabama federal court’s injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, the anti-money laundering law could persist as a narrower version that could moot some constitutional challenges, but these remedies would likely generate additional regulatory or statutory ambiguities that would result in further litigation, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.