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Appellate
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April 25, 2024
Weinstein May Be Retried After NY Court Overturns Conviction
Harvey Weinstein seems poised to go to trial again in New York and testify in his own defense after the state's highest court overturned the movie mogul's rape conviction Thursday in a contentious, split opinion that found his first jury proceeding was unfair.
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April 24, 2024
Whole Foods May Have Retaliated In BLM Case, 1st Circ. Says
Whole Foods hasn't yet proven that its firing of a worker who wore a Black Lives Matter mask to work wasn't retaliatory, the First Circuit said in an opinion unsealed Wednesday, ruling that there is a "genuine dispute" as to whether she was terminated for protected conduct.
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April 24, 2024
High Court's Gender Divide Palpable At Latest Abortion Args
As the U.S. Supreme Court pondered permissible limits on abortion in medical emergencies, justices Wednesday split discernibly along ideological lines yet unmistakably along gender lines, with liberal and conservative women questioning restrictions far more forcefully than their male colleagues.
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April 24, 2024
Muscogee Supreme Court To Decide Descendants' Citizenship
Two descendants of those enslaved by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation are in limbo as they await a decision from the tribe's high court on whether they can apply for citizenship — a ruling that could pave the way for others to be eligible for healthcare and other benefits under federal law.
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April 24, 2024
'Black-ish' Actress Beats Suit Alleging She Stole Spinoff Idea
A California appeals court permanently ended on Monday a suit alleging actress Tracee Ellis Ross and producers of "Mixed-ish" stole a writer's ideas for a sitcom based on a mixed-race character growing up in the suburbs, finding there are no substantial similarities between the two shows.
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April 24, 2024
Pa. Court Revives Malpractice Suit Over Hip Implant Surgeries
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pinnacle Hospitals, an orthopedic surgeon and a physician-owned clinic can't escape a malpractice suit over two hip replacements that left a woman with one leg shorter than the other, a Pennsylvania Superior Court panel has ruled, saying a jury must decide when the clock started on her claims.
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April 24, 2024
Pepsi Can't Use Workers' Comp Immunity In Fla. Shooting Suit
Florida's Third District Court of Appeal on Wednesday ruled that a Pepsi subsidiary can't utilize a workers' compensation immunity defense in a lawsuit brought by a former employee who was shot by a co-worker, saying the company took inconsistent positions on his claim for benefits.
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April 24, 2024
1st Circ. Upholds Feds' Vineyard Wind Project Approval
The First Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court ruling rejecting Massachusetts residents' challenge to the federal government's approval of a wind energy project off the coast of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, saying federal regulators adequately analyzed the projects' effects on right whales.
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April 24, 2024
Meet The Attorneys Arguing Trump's Immunity At High Court
A Missouri solicitor general-turned-law firm founder will square off Thursday against a U.S. solicitor general's office veteran who is a member of an elite group of U.S. Supreme Court bar attorneys in a special oral argument session over former President Donald Trump's bid for immunity from federal criminal charges alleging he interfered in the 2020 presidential election.
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April 24, 2024
9th Circ. Says NLRB Can Enforce Starbucks Bargaining Order
The Ninth Circuit said Wednesday that Starbucks must recognize its Seattle roastery workers' April 2022 vote to unionize, overruling the coffee giant's contention that ballots should have been cast in person and concluding a National Labor Relations Board manager had discretion to call the mail-in election because of COVID-19 case counts at the time.
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April 24, 2024
EU Court Won't Disturb Spanish Tax Break Rulings
A Spanish company on Wednesday lost its attempt to legitimize a tax scheme declared illegal by the European Commission when the European Union's General Court rejected its appeal, refusing to disturb prior decisions in the long-running dispute.
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April 24, 2024
Texas Appeals Panel Partially Reverses Atty's Fee Victory
An Austin, Texas, trial lawyer who defeated a breach of fiduciary duty claim brought after he represented one half of a business partnership that went sour has had part of his victory overturned, with a Texas appellate court Wednesday determining that the trial court overstepped when also throwing out a fee claim against the attorney.
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April 24, 2024
Borrower Asks Full 4th Circ. To Hear Debt Canceling Case
A student loan borrower has asked the full Fourth Circuit to rehear his claims that a Pennsylvania loan servicer thwarted forgiveness of his federal student loans, arguing that the circuit court had overlooked parts of the loan servicing agreement that provided important context to his argument.
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April 24, 2024
FPL Asks Court To Decertify Class Over Irma Power Outages
Florida Power & Light Co. asked an appeals court Wednesday to undo class certification in a multibillion-dollar suit over extended power outages after Hurricane Irma, arguing that a new law enacted last year requires the plaintiffs to bring their claims before the state's Public Service Commission.
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April 24, 2024
Kaiser Wins $6.7M Real Estate Tax Refund Linked To Nonprofit
A split Washington appeals panel said that the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington was entitled to a $6.7 million real estate excise tax refund levied after its acquisition of the nonprofit Group Health Cooperative, reversing a trial court.
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April 24, 2024
Congress Didn't OK FCC's 'Disparate Impact' Ban, Critics Say
Business groups told the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday that the Federal Communications Commission's new rules against discrimination in broadband deployment should be overturned because Congress never intended that the agency use a sweeping "disparate impact" liability standard.
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April 24, 2024
Groups Back Intuit's 5th Circ. Challenge To FTC Over Ads
Business and conservative groups defended tax software giant Intuit Inc. in its Fifth Circuit constitutional challenge to the Federal Trade Commission's findings that the company engaged in deceptive advertising, saying the agency acts as both prosecutor and jury and that its administrative judges have unchecked power.
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April 24, 2024
Hawaii High Court Affirms Timeshare Property Tax Is Legal
Timeshares in Maui County, Hawaii, were properly taxed using a timeshare property classification because the classification is both constitutional and in line with the county's code, the state Supreme Court affirmed.
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April 24, 2024
Pegasystems Cuts $35M Deal To End Investor Suit
Pegasystems Inc. has agreed to pay $35 million to settle a shareholder suit in Massachusetts federal court alleging the software company failed to properly disclose a rival's trade secret litigation that led to a $2 billion verdict.
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April 24, 2024
Justices Spar On Interplay Of EMTALA, Idaho Abortion Ban
The U.S. Supreme Court held a feisty debate Wednesday over whether an Idaho abortion ban is superseded by a federal law requiring doctors at Medicare-funded hospitals to give emergency care, including abortions, to women suffering a medical crisis.
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April 24, 2024
3rd Circ. Won't Let Keystone Coal Escape Black Lung Payout
The Third Circuit on Wednesday denied Keystone Coal Mining Corp.'s request to revoke benefits awarded to a miner with pneumoconiosis under the Black Lung Benefits Act, rejecting its argument that the administrative law judge hearing the case did not properly consider all the evidence.
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April 24, 2024
9th Circ. Backs Limits On Montana Wolf Trapping
A split Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday largely affirmed a lower court's order limiting wolf trapping and snaring in Montana over concerns it could impact grizzly bears, but directed the court to reconsider its "overbroad" geographic scope and limitations on state officials' research.
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April 24, 2024
4th Circ. Revives Worker's Age Bias Suit Against IT Co.
The Fourth Circuit on Wednesday reinstated a former information technology company worker's lawsuit alleging she was unlawfully fired and replaced by someone nearly 30 years her junior, saying a trial court held her to too high a standard when it threw out her case.
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April 24, 2024
11th Circ. Probes High Court Rulings' Effect On DeSantis Case
The Eleventh Circuit wants Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state attorney he suspended to explain how two seemingly conflicting U.S. Supreme Court decisions could influence the appellate court's ability to hear that attorney's challenge to his removal.
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April 24, 2024
Solar Panel Co. Loses Calif. Appeal Over PAGA Arbitration
A California appellate panel sided with a lower court as it ruled in a published opinion that a carveout in a home solar panel company's employment agreement did not require a former worker to arbitrate his individual Private Attorneys General Act claims, keeping his suit in court.
Expert Analysis
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High Court Social Media Speech Ruling Could Implicate AI
In Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether certain state laws can restrict content moderation by social media platforms, but the eventual decision could also provide insight into whether the first amendment protects artificial intelligence speech, say Joseph Meadows and Quyen Dang at GRSM50.
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Justices' Trump Ballot Ruling: Purposivism In Textualist Garb
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. Anderson decision earlier this week, allowing former President Donald Trump to remain on state primary ballots, alleviates uncertainty and minimizes the potential for abuse in future cases, but is difficult to square with the court’s own account of its textualist interpretive methods, says Will Havemann at Hogan Lovells.
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Disney Copyright Expiration Spurs Trademark Questions
While the recent expiration of Disney’s Steamboat Willie copyright is not likely to have an immediate impact, it could provide clarity on the extent to which trademark rights in character names and appearance affect what others can do with characters from works whose copyright has expired, says Bryan Wheelock at Harness IP.
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Texas Insurance Ruling Could Restore Finality To Appraisal
The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Rodriguez v. Safeco, determining that full payment of an appraisal award precludes recovery of attorney fees, indicates a potential return to an era in which timely payment undoubtedly disposes of all possible policyholder claims, says Karl Schulz at Cozen O'Connor.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Zero-Point Offender Eligibility May Hinge On Meaning Of 'And'
Some white collar defendants’ eligibility for the new zero-point offender sentencing adjustment comes down to whether the word “and” really means “and” — a question the U.S. Supreme Court is set to resolve in its upcoming Pulsifer v. U.S. decision, which could affect thousands of incarcerated people, say Brandon McCarthy and Nikita Yogeshwarun at Katten.
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Valeant Ruling May Pave Way For Patent-Based FCA Suits
The Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling in Silbersher v. Valeant marks a significant development in False Claims Act jurisprudence, opens new avenues for litigation and potentially raises the stakes for patent applicants who intend to do business with the government, say Joshua Robbins and Rick Taché at Buchalter.
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A Former Bankruptcy Judge Talks 'Undue Hardship'
Former U.S. bankruptcy judge Robert Gordon reflects on his journey from student borrower to judicial observer, highlighting the challenges faced by modern students burdened with student loan debt and advocating for reform in bankruptcy laws, particularly regarding the "undue hardship" element of discharge.
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Recent Rulings Add Dimension To Justices' Maui Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund established new factual criteria for determining when the Clean Water Act applies to groundwater — and recent decisions from the Ninth and Tenth Circuits have clarified how litigants can make use of the Maui standard, says Steven Hoch at Clark Hill.
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Strategies For Single-Member Special Litigation Committees
The Delaware Supreme Court's recent order in the Baker Hughes derivative litigation allowing testimony from a single-member special litigation committee highlights the fact that, while single-member SLCs are subject to heightened scrutiny, they can also provide unique opportunities, says Josh Bloom at MoloLamken.
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10th Circ. Ruling Means More Okla. Oilfield Pollution Litigation
By applying Oklahoma's statutory definitions of pollution to a private landowner's claim for negligence for the first time, the Tenth Circuit's recent decision in Lazy S Ranch v. Valero will likely make it harder to obtain summary judgment in oilfield contamination cases, and will lead to more litigation, say attorneys at GableGotwals.
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Race Bias Defense Considerations After 11th Circ. Ruling
In Tynes v. Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed that the McDonnell Douglas test for employment discrimination cases is merely an evidentiary framework, so employers relying on it as a substantive standard of liability may need to rethink their litigation strategy, says Helen Jay at Phelps Dunbar.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.
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Fed. Circ. In Feb.: Using Prior Products To Invalidate A Patent
The Federal Circuit's recent Weber v. Provisu ruling, that prior-product operating manuals constituted printed publications that can be used to invalidate patents in an inter partes review proceeding, makes it easier for a petitioner to invalidate a patent, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.
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7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves
As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.