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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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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Meta Beats Proposed Privacy Class Action Over 'Voiceprints'

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge tossed on Tuesday a proposed class action claiming Meta's messaging platforms secretly and unlawfully capture Facebook users' "voiceprints" and related biometric information, finding the plaintiff agreed to let Meta use his personal data when he signed up for an account.

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Salesforce Must Face Claims Over Customer Data Breach

By Corey Rothauser

A California federal judge has largely denied Salesforce's bid to dismiss a proposed class action alleging security weaknesses in its cloud platform allowed hackers to steal the personal information of customers and employees of Allianz, Farmers Group and TransUnion.

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Robinhood Engineers Hit With Crypto-Futures Insider Charges

By Pete Brush

Two Robinhood Markets engineers made over $50,000 each by unlawfully trading futures on the decentralized derivative exchange Hyperliquid using confidential information they got while working at the California-based discount online brokerage, federal prosecutors in New York charged on Tuesday.

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Hyundai Must Face Trimmed Claims On Braking System

By Emily Field

A California federal judge on Monday dismissed state unfair competition law claims from a proposed class action brought by Hyundai Tucson drivers who said the company equipped the cars with a defective automatic emergency braking system, but preserved warranty, fraud and unjust enrichment claims.

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Uber Says MDL Bellwether Plaintiff Can't Show Reliance

By Mike Curley

Uber Technologies Inc. is urging a California federal judge to throw out claims in a bellwether suit from multidistrict litigation over sexual assaults of its passengers, saying the plaintiff here cannot show she relied on any of the company's representations or features on the night she was allegedly assaulted.

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Haleon Sued Over 'Zero Sugar' Claim In Emergen-C Gummies

By Gina Kim

Haleon US Holdings was hit with a proposed class action in California federal court Sunday, which accused the consumer healthcare giant of deceptively labeling its Emergen-C immune support gummies as containing "zero sugar," even though they are sweetened with allulose, which is a sugar under federal regulations.

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Disney Wants Kids' Data Privacy Claims Tossed For Good

By Hailey Konnath

Disney on Monday asked a California federal court to once again throw out a proposed class action claiming it allowed advertisers to illegally collect minors' personal information, pressing for the dismissal of a new version of the complaint just days after YouTube said it had reached a settlement in the case.

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SpaceX Sued By Pilot Over Starlink Internet Plan Price Hike

By Gina Kim

SpaceX was hit with a proposed class action in California state court Monday that alleges a "bait-and-switch" scheme in which it abruptly disabled Starlink's cheaper Roam satellite internet subscription plan and directed customers to buy more expensive plans to restore service, even while reducing the available data allowance.

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Meta's Data Collection From DMV Is Invasive, Calif. Drivers Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

Golden State drivers seeking to certify two classes over claims that Meta unlawfully obtained information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles' website told a California federal judge Tuesday that they have standing to sue under the Driver's Privacy Protection Act because the collection was invasive, even if it wasn't embarrassing or sensitive.

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Anthropic, CEO Ask Judge To Narrow Music Publisher IP Suit

By Theresa Schliep

Anthropic and its CEO, Dario Amodei, have urged a California federal court to carve off parts of a $3 billion copyright infringement lawsuit lodged by major music publishers, taking issue with their claims against Amodei and their arguments about chatbot outputs.

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Databricks, Authors Trade Jabs Over Use Of Books To Train AI

By Elliot Weld

Artificial intelligence firm Databricks and a group of authors suing for copyright infringement are trading arguments over why a California federal court should rule their way on the issue of whether using books to train AI can count as fair use.

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9th Circ. Backs Tribe In Casino Fight, Questions Joinder Rule

By Crystal Owens

A Ninth Circuit panel has rejected a group of Anchorage, Alaska, residents' appeal to undo an order finding the Native Village of Eklutna immune from their lawsuit seeking to block a casino development, with two judges expressing some doubt over a tribe's ability to be joined in a lawsuit.

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BlackBerry Settles Former Exec's Retaliation Suit Over Firing

By Patrick Hoff

BlackBerry has resolved a former executive's lawsuit alleging she was fired for reporting that the company's CEO sexually harassed her before assuming the top job, according to a filing in California federal court.

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Charter Can't Escape Ex-Workers' 401(k) Forfeiture Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

A proposed class action against Charter Communications Inc. alleging the company misspent forfeitures from an employee 401(k) plan can partly move ahead, a Missouri federal judge said, holding that retirement plan participants plausibly alleged the company breached its fiduciary duties in violation of federal benefits law.

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Calif. Labor Commissioner Can't Shake Wage-Delay Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A California state judge refused to toss a lawsuit accusing the state Labor Commissioner's Office of routinely taking years to process workers' wage claims, rejecting the agency's arguments that the court should stay out of the dispute and that workers can pursue their unpaid wages elsewhere.

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Workers Look To Lock In Sweeping Workday AI Bias Class

By Patrick Hoff

A group of rejected job applicants asked a California federal court to grant class status to their lawsuit alleging Workday's artificial intelligence tools discriminated against workers because of their age, sex, disability and race, arguing the expense and complexity of the case would make individual litigation unrealistic.

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Molina Escapes Investor Action Over Guidance Cuts, For Now

By Katryna Perera

Health insurance provider Molina Healthcare and two of its executives have, for now, escaped a shareholder suit accusing them of misleading investors about medical costs and internal controls before the company repeatedly slashed its 2025 earnings guidance, with a California federal judge finding that none of the suit's challenged statements are actionable.

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DOJ Says States Could Owe Bond In Paramount Merger Case

By Hailey Konnath

The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that a coalition of state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America could indeed be required to put up a bond as they challenge Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, but only if the order they secured truly constitutes an injunction.

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States Say DOJ Trans Care Crackdown Is Unconstitutional

By Madeline Lyskawa

States suing the Trump administration have urged a Massachusetts federal judge to strike down directives calling for providers of gender-affirming care to be investigated and prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, arguing the directives are arbitrary and capricious and violate the Tenth Amendment.

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Justices Asked To Resolve Cannabis Dormant Commerce Split

By Sam Reisman

A California litigator's campaign of lawsuits alleging that state and local cannabis regulatory regimes violate the U.S. Constitution's dormant commerce clause has culminated in a petition for a writ of certiorari which appeared on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket Tuesday.

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Weedmaps Sex Harassment Suit Stayed Amid Arbitration Bid

By Jonathan Capriel

Weedmaps has gotten paused a pregnancy and sexual harassment lawsuit accusing the company of fostering a hostile work environment where the CEO made "sexually demeaning" comments about women, with a California state judge saying she wants to decide whether the case should go into arbitration.

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Cooley, Latham Prep Electra Therapeutics' $325M IPO Plan

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Biotechnology firm Electra Therapeutics plans to make its public debut this week through an estimated $325 million initial public offering steered by Cooley LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP.

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3 Firms Advise On DoorDash's $300M Campus Dining App Buy

By Al Barbarino

DoorDash said Tuesday it has agreed to purchase food technology platform Wonder Group Inc.'s Grubhub Campus Dining business for $300 million, and it has also made a $125 million investment in Wonder's Series D fundraising round. 

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DC Circ. Queries Feds On Immigrant Truck Driver Restrictions

By Linda Chiem

D.C. Circuit judges on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Department of Transportation reasonably justified the safety rationale for new restrictions on commercial driver's licenses for foreign truckers or whether it disproportionately relied on individuals' immigration status to promulgate an "exclusionary" rule.

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Ogletree Continues West Coast Hires With Jackson Lewis Atty

By Bonnie Eslinger

Labor and employment law firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC has landed a seasoned litigator from Jackson Lewis P.C. with extensive experience in ERISA and employment law matters, the firm announced Monday.

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Responding To State Packaging Law Uncertainty

As states roll out new packaging and recycling mandates, companies face expanding compliance duties and a growing wave of constitutional challenges that offer key lessons for managing regulatory risk, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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CMS Rule, DOJ Probes Deepen Gender Care Compliance Risk

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' final rule restricting Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care is likely to face immediate litigation, but the CMS rulemaking is already working alongside U.S. Department of Justice's enforcement campaign to create operational risk for providers, say attorneys at Arnall Golden.

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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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