State Farm Attorney Sanctioned $999.99 For AI Hallucinations

By Jonathan Capriel

An attorney for State Farm who filed several motions citing nonexistent cases and fabricated quotes generated by AI software must pay a $999.99 sanction, a Los Angeles judge ruled, an amount one cent below the threshold that would have triggered a mandatory notice to the State Bar of California under state law.

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Man Cops To Bombing Calif. Courthouse Over Gun Seizure

By Rae Ann Varona

A California man pled guilty on Monday to setting off a bomb at a Santa Barbara County courthouse in 2024 as retaliation for law enforcement officers taking away his firearms.

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Apple Urges High Court To Nix App Store Contempt Order

By Craig Clough

Apple urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to overturn a Ninth Circuit ruling that upheld a civil contempt order stemming from its decision to charge commissions to developers' transactions that steer users to cheaper outside payment methods to make purchases, saying it shouldn't be punished for violating the "spirit" of an injunction.

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Paramount Says Warner Bros. Deal Is Good For Competition

By Matthew Perlman

Paramount has told a California federal court its planned $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery will be good for competition, arguing that challenges of the deal from state enforcers and the Writers Guild of America are misguided.

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9th Circ. Says Hyundai, Kia Parent Cos. Can't Slip Theft MDL

By Craig Clough

The Ninth Circuit on Monday found that a district court wrongly dismissed insurers' claims against the Korea-based parent companies of Kia and Hyundai alleging their vehicles were susceptible to theft, saying the lower court must conduct further analysis to determine if it can exercise personal jurisdiction over them.

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Jackson Lewis Removes Ex-Atty's Bias Suit To Federal Court

By Patrick Hoff

Jackson Lewis PC has moved a former associate's suit accusing the firm of refusing to accommodate her temporary work restrictions following her medical leave to California federal court, saying state court wasn't the right venue for dispute.

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Supreme Court Blocks USPS Mail Ballot Rules For Midterms

By Katie Buehler and Julie Manganis

The U.S. Postal Service cannot enforce new mail-in ballot regulations ahead of this year's midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday, agreeing with an earlier First Circuit order that maintained a prohibition on the purported election integrity measures taking effect.

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NY-Led States, Cities Sue Over Trump Public Charge Rule

By Britain Eakin

A coalition of Democratic-led states and local governments sued the Trump administration on Monday, alleging that its revamped criteria for determining who is likely to become a public charge is arbitrary, will have a chilling effect and could worsen public health outcomes.

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21 States Seek To Halt Corteva's $39B PFAS Liability Spinoff

By Emily Field

The attorney general of California and 20 other states asked the South Carolina federal court managing multidistrict litigation over forever chemicals on Monday to stop Corteva Inc. from spinning off $39 billion in assets into a new company called Vylor Inc. to avoid liabilities from contamination over the substances.

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Intuit Escapes MLA 'Refund Advance' Loans Suit, For Now

By Sydney Price

A California federal judge has dismissed TurboTax distributor Intuit Inc. and several of its partners from a proposed class action alleging their process for distributing tax refund advance loans comes with high costs and arbitration clauses that are prohibited by the Military Lending Act, ruling that the plaintiff must clearly separate his claims against each defendant.

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Facebook Third-Party Apps Took User Data, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

A technology expert testified Monday in New Mexico's data privacy trial against Meta that Facebook third-party app developers "rampantly" farmed user data and that the social media giant closed investigations of dubious developers without action.

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Zumba Video Buyers Seek Initial Nod For $2.7M Privacy Deal

By Allison Grande

A certified class of over 4,500 on-demand video purchasers who allege Zumba illegally divulged their personal information to third parties pressed a Florida federal judge to approve a $2.7 million settlement they claim is "in a league of its own" and outpaces prior deals under federal video privacy law.

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Renaissance Learning Beats Student Data Privacy Suit

By Corey Rothauser

A California federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action accusing education software company Renaissance Learning Inc. of unlawfully collecting and sharing students' personal information, finding that the families' allegations did not support their privacy, wiretapping or unjust enrichment claims.

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Samsung Seeks Toss Of Dua Lipa Copyright, TM Suit In Calif.

By Adam Lidgett

Samsung has argued that pop singer Dua Lipa's suit over the use of an image of her face on boxes containing Samsung televisions should be thrown out, saying her trademark and copyright claims fall short.

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Feds Want Justices To Skip Google 'Settled Expectations' Row

By Adam Lidgett

The federal government is telling the U.S. Supreme Court that Google didn't meet the appropriate standard to get the Federal Circuit to look at the company's challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's policy of using the age of patents as a reason not to review them.

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Ex-Perrigo VP Escapes Some Price-Fixing Claims From AGs

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge has tossed most of the claims against a former Perrigo executive in sprawling generic-drug price-fixing litigation brought by state enforcers, holding there is insufficient evidence he entered into antitrust conspiracies related to more than a dozen dermatological drugs, but teeing up a handful of other claims for trial.

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Brief

Clippers Won't Take NBA To Court Over Salary Cap Sanctions

By Alex Lawson

Nearly two weeks after lawyers for the Los Angeles Clippers vowed to explore "every legal remedy" to challenge the NBA's sanctions against the franchise for violating salary cap rules, the team's owner has changed course and will comply with the league's decision.

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Crypto Bill Faces Wide Criticism Ahead Of Initial Vote

By Aislinn Keely

Senate Republicans on Monday faced obstacles to securing support for their final draft of the Clarity Act ahead of a Tuesday procedural vote to move the crypto bill forward, as Democrats, banking organizations, state law enforcers and even some crypto interests criticized the new version of the legislation as coming up short in key areas.

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Nektar 'Desperate' To Develop Rezpeg, Lilly Exec Tells Jury

By Bonnie Eslinger

An Eli Lilly executive told a California federal jury on Monday in Nektar's $1 billion breach of contract suit against the pharma giant that his handwritten note from a meeting with Eli Lilly's CEO about Nektar being "desperate" was about the struggling company's need for its autoimmune-disease drug Rezpeg to succeed.

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Calif. Panel Vacates Murder Conviction Of Pursuit Passenger

By Parker Quinlan

A California appeals court has vacated the felony murder conviction of a passenger in a fatal police-pursuit crash, saying he was ineligible for the charge after a change in state law.

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9th Circ. Rejects Challenge To Wash. Abortion Coverage Law

By Rachel Riley

Revisiting a church's First Amendment challenge to a Washington law mandating that certain health insurance plans include abortion coverage, a divided Ninth Circuit panel Monday concluded that the Cedar Park Assembly of God failed to point to evidence that Washington's Reproductive Parity Act targets religious conduct.

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Global Wound Care Settles $1.5B FCA Claims For $525M

By Hailey Konnath

Bankrupt specialty medical practice Global Wound Care has agreed to pay up to $525 million to the federal government to resolve False Claims Act claims with a price tag of $1.5 billion, part of a settlement it said "provides the only viable pathway" to resolution and moving forward with a reorganization.

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SF Vacancy Tax Barred By Calif. Law, Appeals Court Affirms

By Maria Koklanaris

San Francisco's voter-approved tax on vacant residential units penalizes property owners for keeping those off the rental market and thus violates California law, a state appeals court panel ruled, upholding a trial court.

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Brief

Thryv Selling White, Yellow Pages Units To PE Firm For $142M

By Al Barbarino

Thryv Holdings Inc. said Monday it has agreed to sell its print directories business to Los Angeles-based investment firm Carolwood LP for $142 million in cash, with Holland & Knight LLP advising Thryv and Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP advising Carolwood.

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9th Circ. Orders Review Of Border Patrol Facebook Records

By Brandon Lowrey

A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday conditionally vacated a man's conviction for illegally entering the U.S., ordering a district court to determine whether the government withheld evidence about the involved Border Patrol agents' activity in a Facebook group that joked about migrant deaths and hurled racist and sexist slurs.

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Judge Blocks Construction At Toxic Calif. ICE Detention Site

By Nate Beck

A California federal judge Monday ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop work on its conversion of a former agricultural research site into a detention facility, finding the agency offered no proof that it examined risks from prior hazardous waste violations at the property before starting construction.

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Tribes, Gaming Group Weigh In On Contested Project

By Corey Rothauser

Four California tribes and a gaming trade group have urged a Washington, D.C., federal judge to reject the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians' attempt to restore a federal determination that a 160-acre site in Vallejo is eligible for gaming, arguing the tribe knowingly invested millions of dollars despite repeated warnings that the determination remained under review.

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K&L Gates Hires 6-Atty Pillsbury Team In California, Texas

By Rose Krebs

K&L Gates LLP announced Monday that it recently added six attorneys from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP to bolster its corporate, intellectual property, litigation, and labor and employment practices.

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Disney Taps Warner Bros. Atty As Corp. Transactions Lead

By Christine DeRosa

Disney has expanded its corporate transactions legal team with the addition of Warner Bros. Discovery's senior vice president of business and legal affairs, according to an internal memo.

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Money Transmission Issue Looms For Prediction Markets

The circuit split recently created by the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Kalshi v. Assad has implications reaching beyond gaming regulation as, depending on the ultimate characterization of prediction market event contracts, platforms may face differing obligations under federal and state money transmission laws, say attorneys at Manatt.

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The Deep Split Over Mandatory Detention, And What's Next

The government’s mandatory detention policy for noncitizens who entered the U.S. without inspection has led to a spate of decisions this year, with nine circuits rejecting the government's reading of the Immigration and Nationality Act against two that have accepted it, making the issue ripe for U.S. Supreme Court review, says attorney Kemal Hepsen.

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How States' 'Perry Mason Moment' Led To $17B Meta Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

A recent landmark $17.1 billion settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. may have never happened if it weren't for a quick-thinking trial attorney and his close-knit team of lawyers representing 29 states, who worked together to swiftly shift strategies midtrial.

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Ashurst Perkins Aided $230M ICap Ponzi Scheme, Suit Claims

By Ben Adlin

Ashurst Perkins Coie pocketed millions of dollars in legal fees by providing services to clients it knew were operating a Ponzi scheme that ultimately swindled investors out of nearly $230 million, plaintiffs claimed in a Washington state lawsuit accusing the firm of aiding and abetting fraud.

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Trump Taps Ex-DOL Official To Serve As EEOC Top Cop

By Anne Cullen

The White House nominated a former Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP attorney who previously led the U.S. Department of Labor's contractor compliance arm to serve as the general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Washington Sen. Murray Vows To Block Trump US Atty Pick

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington is under fire from one of the home state senators who vowed to use every avenue possible to block him.

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Fla. Judge Won't Pause Trump-IRS Settlement Sanctions

By Jack McLoone

The Florida federal judge who barred President Donald Trump and others from citing a settlement resolving what she characterized as a sham $10 billion case against his own Internal Revenue Service won't pause her sanctions order while the president appeals to the Eleventh Circuit.

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4th Circ. Appears Split On Reviving Comey, James Indictments

By Jared Foretek

Partisan splits were apparent Tuesday on the Fourth Circuit panel hearing the Trump administration's challenge to a federal district judge's dismissal of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, with two of the three judges appearing to agree an improper appointment doomed the cases.

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Brief

Calif. Judge Charged Over Fatal Crash With Bicyclist

By Craig Clough

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that his office charged Kings County Superior Court Judge Kendra Weber with a misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter, alleging she struck and killed a bicyclist.

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