3 Takeaways As 'Negotiation Class' Idea Jolts Opioid MDL

Top Stories

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  Prenda 'Porn Troll' Attorney Sentenced To 14 Years

  By Bill Donahue

  Paul Hansmeier, a former attorney who filed thousands of copyright suits over pornography in an elaborate scheme...(read more)

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  'Negotiation Class' May Tee Up Sweeping Deal In Opioid MDL

  By Jeff Overley

  Local governments in the multidistrict opioid litigation on Friday launched an unusual effort to create a "negot...(read more)

• Amazon's Arbitration Pact In 'Place Your Order' Link Holds Up

  By Lauren Berg

  An Amazon customer must arbitrate proposed class action claims that the e-commerce giant failed to do enough to prevent the sale of a dangerous diet pill, a New York federal judge ruled Friday, saying the customer had notice of the agreement when he clicked the "Place your order" button.

• Feds Can't Pause SEC's Civil Suit Against Ex-Theranos Exec

  By Hailey Konnath

  A California federal judge on Friday refused the government's request to pause a civil suit against former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, finding that doing so would be "a gamble" that could unduly prejudice the former leader of the failed blood-test company.

• Congress Would Reveal Trump's Tax Returns, DOJ Memo Says

  By Dylan Moroses

  U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin should not comply with a congressional request for President Donald Trump's tax returns because House Democratic lawmakers intend to publicly disclose them, the U.S. Department of Justice suggested in a memorandum opinion released Friday.

• RJ Reynolds Not On Hook For $4M Engle Case Legal Tab

  By Nathan Hale

  R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. won't have to pay an attorney fees award of nearly $4 million after a Florida appeals court found Friday that when weighing the request from a smoker's widower, the trial court improperly included costs related to four expert witnesses who did not testify.

• Pharma Cos. Sue HHS Over Putting Drug Prices In Ads

  By Mike Curley

  Merck & Co. Inc., Eli Lilly & Co. and Amgen Inc. on Friday sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over a new rule requiring drugmakers to put the wholesale price of medications in ads, saying the requirement will mislead consumers about how much they'll actually have to pay.

• LeClairRyan Says Exec Can't Shift Blame For Legal Woes

  By Andrew Strickler

  Lawyers for LeClairRyan and the embattled ex-CEO of defunct blood test company Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. appeared in a Virginia state court Friday to argue the fate of a $603 million advice-of-counsel malpractice suit.

• Pa. Lacrosse Referees Are Contractors, DC Circ. Says

  By Matt Fair

  The D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that lacrosse officials working for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association are independent contractors ineligible to organize under the National Labor Relations Act.

• Treasury Crafts GILTI Exception For High-Taxed Global Income

  By Alex M. Parker

  The U.S. Department of the Treasury released proposed regulations on Friday that would expand an exception to the federal tax overhaul's global minimum tax, applying to global income that has already been taxed by foreign jurisdictions.

• DC Circ. Says Feds Must Let Immigrant Minors Have Abortions

  By Tiffany Hu

  The D.C. Circuit on Friday ruled against the Trump administration's policy of blocking detained immigrant minors from accessing abortion services, finding that the policy violates the immigrants' constitutional rights to terminate a pregnancy before viability.

• DC Circ. Sinks Enviros' Challenge To EPA Clean Air Act Permit

  By Juan Carlos Rodriguez

  The D.C. Circuit on Friday dismissed a Sierra Club lawsuit accusing the EPA of hiding a nationally applicable change to Clean Air Act permit reviews in an order denying the group's petition to review a Utah coal power plant's permit.