Overall
Key cases
Industries
Intellectual Property
Labor & Employment
Corporate
Practice Areas
Southeast
-
September 11, 2012
First Horizon Derivative Suit Time-Barred, 6th Circ. Says
The Sixth Circuit on Friday upheld the dismissal of a shareholder derivative suit against First Horizon National Corp. and a host of its officers over losses from allegedly risky lending practices, ruling the case was time-barred.
-
September 10, 2012
Worker Told To Pay For Stalling FCA Suit Over Faulty Grenades
A Florida federal judge on Monday ordered a former employee of defense contractor DSE Inc. to hand over documents and pay attorneys fees in his False Claims Act suit alleging the company provided defective grenades to the U.S. military.
-
September 10, 2012
Retailer's Severance Pay Not Subject To FICA Tax: 6th Circ.
The Sixth Circuit on Friday ruled that severance payments an agricultural retailer made to its workers after laying them off are in fact supplemental unemployment compensation benefits that are not taxable as wages under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act.
-
September 10, 2012
5th Circ. Lets IP Suit Against Lufkin, Andrews Kurth Proceed
The Fifth Circuit on Friday vacated an injunction blocking two former Lufkin Industries Inc. engineers from litigating claims in Texas state court that the oil company and Andrews Kurth LLP conspired to improperly assign the rights to two patents covering well technology.
-
September 10, 2012
Barnes & Thornburg Grabs L&E Partner From Seyfarth Shaw
Barnes & Thornburg LLP said on Wednesday that it has nabbed labor and employment pro John F. Meyers from Seyfarth Shaw LLP to work as a partner in the firm’s Atlanta office.
-
September 10, 2012
Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn Face IP Suits Over Ad Targeting
Facebook Inc., LinkedIn Corp. and Amazon Digital Services Inc. were slapped with patent infringement lawsuits Friday in Tennessee federal court by a little-known firm that accuses the online giants of stealing a method that enhances personalized Internet advertising.
-
September 10, 2012
SEC Charges Ex-JP Turner Brokers In $3M 'Churning' Fraud
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged three former brokers at Atlanta-based brokerage firm JP Turner & Co. with allegedly defrauding customers of $2.7 million by "churning" their accounts to generate large commissions.
-
September 10, 2012
6th Circ. OKs Class Action Over Insurers' Tax Charges
The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday upheld a class certification order in a lawsuit blaming five insurers for improper premium tax charges, rejecting arguments that the certified subclasses were "fail-safe."
-
September 10, 2012
EPA's Spot On Deepwater Panel Could Speed Up Damages Talks
President Barack Obama on Monday put the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the helm of a panel overseeing Gulf Coast restoration from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a move that could speed up negotiations with BP PLC to assign a dollar figure to natural resource damages.
-
September 10, 2012
6th Circ. Rules For Travel Sites In Ohio Hotel Tax Row
The Sixth Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court's decision that sided with a group of online travel companies led by Hotels.com LP in a suit brought by several Ohio cities claiming they failed to pay local occupancy taxes on the hotel rooms they sold.
-
September 10, 2012
Health Contractor Strikes $30M Deal In Wells Fargo Loan Suit
Health care management provider Medical Development International Ltd. on Friday submitted to the appointment of a receiver over its operations and a $30.1 million judgment in favor of Wells Fargo Bank NA, which had sued the prison contractor over defaulted loans.
-
September 10, 2012
Gordon & Rees Says Marine Theme Park Shirked Legal Fees
Gordon & Rees LLP, attorneys for Ocean Embassy Inc., accused the aquatic theme park development project based in Panama of skipping out on almost $600,000 in legal fees in a breach of contract suit filed Friday in Florida.
-
September 10, 2012
Xanodyne Gets Most State Claims Booted From Darvocet MDL
A Kentucky federal judge on Monday granted Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s bid to oust claims made by plaintiffs from several states in sprawling multidistrict litigation over injuries tied to painkillers Darvocet and Darvon, saying they couldn’t prove Xanodyne had made the drugs they ingested.
-
September 10, 2012
NYMagic Can’t Revive $6M Injury Coverage Row In 5th Circ.
The Fifth Circuit on Friday affirmed National Union Fire Insurance Co.’s quick win in New York Marine & General Insurance Co.’s suit over coverage liability for a steel company’s $6 million settlement with a worker injured in a shipping accident.
-
September 10, 2012
Kimberly-Clark, Cardinal Renew Surgery Scrubs False Ad Fight
Following the collapse of once-promising settlement talks, a Georgia federal judge on Friday reopened a false advertising suit in which Kimberly-Clark Corp. and a Cardinal Health Inc. unit accuse one another of deceptively marketing surgical gowns.
-
September 10, 2012
Stearns Weaver Duo, Ex-Fla. Sen. Form Miami Boutique Firm
Former Florida state Sen. Dan Gelber and two shareholders from Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson PA have formed a Miami-based law firm specializing in complex civil litigation and white collar defense, the firm said Monday.
-
September 10, 2012
Class Members Call $8B BP Deepwater Property Deal Unfair
Class members from BP PLC's $7.8 billion settlement of economic and damage claims over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill told a Louisiana federal judge on Friday that they were dissatisfied with the agreement, arguing the deal arbitrarily discriminates among parcels of land.
-
September 7, 2012
Monsanto’s $9M Seed Patent Win OK’d Without Treble Damages
A Mississippi federal judge on Friday let stand a nearly $9 million jury award in favor of Monsanto Co. in its case over a farmer's alleged unauthorized use of the company's patented Roundup Ready seeds, but said enhancing the damages would be unjust.
-
September 7, 2012
Father, Son Ordered To Pay $61M For Roles In Nadel Ponzi
A Florida federal judge on Friday ordered a father-son duo accused of luring investors into Arthur Nadel’s $162 million Ponzi scheme to disgorge $61 million, but said the court could only collect the assets the pair had already turned over to a court-appointed receiver.
-
September 7, 2012
Home Depot Sued By Former Security Employees Over Wages
Two former security workers launched a proposed collective action against Home Depot USA Inc., accusing the retailer of failing to pay overtime and minimum wages for a nationwide class of security personnel, according to a complaint filed in Alabama federal court on Thursday.
Expert Analysis
-
So. Florida: Latin America's Int'l Arbitration Destination
Parties looking to arbitrate disputes involving Latin America in South Florida will be well-served by a convenient and welcoming environment, a thriving community of world-class practitioners and a favorable legal framework that is supportive of international dispute resolution, says Jose Ferrer of Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP.
-
Differential Diagnosis Can't Establish 'General Causation'
What makes the Fifth Circuit's opinion in Johnson v. Arkema Inc. noteworthy is the takedown of plaintiff's attempt to use differential diagnosis to "rule in" a substance as a cause of pulmonary fibrosis when no scientific study has ever shown the substance to produce the malady in humans, says David Oliver of Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP.
-
Risks And Rewards Of Ga.’s MALP Bank Charter
Georgia's recently passed "merchant acquirer limited purpose bank" charter appears to offer a new avenue to participate in payment card networks without enduring the lengthy and uncertain process of attempting to charter a de novo depository institution and obtain FDIC approval for federal deposit insurance coverage. However, the framework of the new MALP Bank charter raises numerous issues and questions, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
-
Getting To A Rule For Reverse Payments
The Eleventh Circuit's wrestling with the issues in Federal Trade Commission v. Watson Pharmaceuticals illustrates the fundamental difficulties inherent in assessing the competitive effects of reverse-payment settlements, says Ankur Kapoor of Constantine Cannon LLP.
-
No Duty To Warn For 'Nonconventional' Alcohol Beverages
In Cook v. MillerCoors LLC, a Florida district court has found that the well-known dangers of alcohol consumption preclude a duty to warn. By not shifting responsibility from the person who over-consumes a caffeinated alcoholic beverage and then drives impaired, the court has avoided sending the wrong policy message, says Sean Wajert of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP.
-
Expanding Coverage Under CGL Policies In Ga.
In American Empire v. Hathaway, the Georgia Supreme Court has provided clear direction on an issue that had resulted in prior inconsistent decisions by lower Georgia courts. The opinion, which broadens coverage under a CGL policy, was based solely on the definitions of "accident" and "occurrence," says John Hinton of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.
-
Facing Competing Pressures In Hospital Consolidations
Hospital consolidation is a hot topic these days, with the government urging providers to come up with ways to deliver services more effectively and challenging them to avoid combinations that have the potential to raise prices or diminish service. Given three recent Federal Trade Commission actions, it appears that antitrust scrutiny of these combinations is likely to increase, says Mary Marks of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
-
Diminished Value Claims — Impossible Measure Of Damages?
To handle the Georgia Supreme Court’s expansion of the ruling in State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Mabry, insurers should consider amending or refilling insurance policy forms to include exclusions from coverage for diminished value claims. Alternatively, the property industry could petition the Georgia Insurance Department for a regulation providing standards for the determination of the amount of diminished value loss claims, say attorneys with Locke Lord LLP.
-
Sweepstakes Nightmare: You Failed To Register
The nightmare began about three weeks into the five-week term of our client's sweepstakes. The client’s in-house lawyer reviewed the ads for the promotion and discovered that the prize had been increased and the approximate retail value was now above the threshold for registration. There are ways to prevent this, says Dale Joerling of Thompson Coburn LLP.
-
A Causation Theory That's Hard To Swallow
A decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has demonstrated more than that there are successful defenses to claims for violation of the warranty of merchantability — even in a case where a defendant’s logo is found in an unusual place, such as on a piece of plastic found in the plaintiff's lung, says Richard Goldfarb of Stoel Rives LLP.