Appellate

  • July 29, 2026

    2nd Circ. Backs Ex-Shkreli Atty's 401(k) Restitution Deal

    A New York trial judge erred in rejecting a retirement-fund garnishment deal that would have protected Martin Shkreli's convicted former lawyer from tax penalties, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

  • July 29, 2026

    Split 10th Circ. Revives Class Bid In 'Safer' Cig False Ad Suit

    A divided Tenth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday that a lower court should not have denied class certification to consumers who claimed Santa Fe Natural Tobacco falsely implied its Natural American Spirit cigarettes were safer than others, saying the court erroneously rejected their damages model as common proof of causation and damages.

  • July 29, 2026

    1st Circ. Mulls Temu's Bid To Reinstate Suit Against IP Atty

    A First Circuit panel seemed torn Wednesday over whether to revive Chinese e-commerce giant Temu's lawsuit accusing an intellectual property attorney of lying to induce the company into settlements with two clients.

  • July 29, 2026

    NJ Justices Clarify New-Evidence Standards In Murder Case

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held that one of its opinions concerning requests for retrial due to newly discovered evidence has a higher threshold than the similar U.S. Supreme Court landmark case Brady v. Maryland.

  • July 29, 2026

    8th Circ Reverses Meth User Gun Case Over New Rulings

    The Eighth Circuit has reversed a Missouri man's gun conviction, finding that a decision earlier this year from the U.S. Supreme Court changes what kind of analysis is needed to decide whether to dismiss firearms-related charges filed against known drug users.

  • July 29, 2026

    10th Circ. Trims $20M Judgment In Wyo. Coal Royalty Row

    A Tenth Circuit panel said a Wyoming federal judge erred when she ordered Bridger Coal Co. to recalculate royalty payments to Wildcat Coal LLC going back to 1986 in a dispute over payments between 2016 and 2020.

  • July 29, 2026

    Calif. Court OKs $11M Verdict In Motorcycle Crash Case

    Los Angeles' publicly owned utility provider can't avoid an $11 million judgment after one of its van drivers caused a crash that left a motorcyclist with lifelong injuries, a California appeals court ruled, saying the city couldn't meet the "almost impossible" burden needed to prove the biker's "excessive speed" substantially caused the collision.

  • July 29, 2026

    Feds Say High Court Ruling Justifies Calif. Pipeline Oversight

    The Trump administration has told the Ninth Circuit that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision clarifying federal arbitration jurisdictional boundaries backs its assertion that it has exclusive jurisdiction over the Santa Ynez pipeline system in California.

  • July 29, 2026

    Securities Class Actions To Watch: Mid-Year Report

    A trio of circuit court appeals tied to the class certification process in shareholder suits and a U.S. Supreme Court appeal that also touches on certification are among the cases that securities litigators are keeping an eye on in the second half of 2026.

  • July 29, 2026

    7th Circ. Flips Order Keeping 5 Baby Formula Suits In Ill. MDL

    The Seventh Circuit has reversed a district court's finding that five out-of-state necrotizing enterocolitis suits should stay in Illinois-based multidistrict litigation involving similar cases over allegedly harmful formula for preterm infants, saying the lower court went "far afield" in its fraudulent joinder analysis.

  • July 29, 2026

    Fla. DOH Worker Wasn't Fired For Blowing Whistle, Court Says

    A Florida appeals court on Wednesday affirmed the state's win against a former Florida Department of Health employee who claimed she was told to fabricate COVID-19 data, finding that she was not fired in retaliation for protected whistleblower activity.

  • July 29, 2026

    Fla. Panel Rules Against Firefighter Over Medical Cannabis

    A Florida appellate court on Wednesday sided with a county for terminating a firefighter-paramedic who tested positive for cannabis in a random drug screen, saying he wasn't entitled to a workplace accommodation for having a medical marijuana card.

  • July 29, 2026

    King & Spalding Told To End 'Shenanigans' In Bid To Exit Case

    The individual defendants in a $300 million fraud lawsuit have accused King & Spalding LLP of appellate "shenanigans" while it seeks to exit the case due to an alleged ethics conflict, claiming the firm has falsely denied representing corporate clients despite an attorney's appearance suggesting otherwise.

  • July 29, 2026

    Madigan Asks Supreme Court To Review His Bribery Verdict

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to review his conviction on bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud charges, arguing that the "novel" theories behind his prosecution "stretch federal bribery law in ways that threaten to criminalize and chill lawful interactions between state and local officials and their constituents."

  • July 29, 2026

    Colo. Hospital Patients In Gender Care Suit Seek Class Cert.

    Transgender adolescents urged a Colorado state judge Wednesday to allow them to proceed as a certified class in their lawsuit seeking to have Children's Hospital Colorado resume providing gender-affirming care for them and other transgender youth patients, arguing the class is "objectively definable."

  • July 29, 2026

    Conn. Panel Says No Mistrial After 'Known Felon' Remark

    The Connecticut Appellate Court has ruled that a man convicted of conspiracy to commit murder was not entitled to a mistrial just because a police detective's testimony that DNA evidence in the case matched a profile for a "known felon."

  • July 29, 2026

    11th Circ. Leery Of Bid To Revive Citibank ATM Fee Bias Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit appeared skeptical Tuesday of customers' push to unwind Citibank's victory in a suit over a program that waives ATM fees at minority-owned banks, pressing the challengers on whether they had standing to bring the lawsuit. 

  • July 29, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Biotech Worker's Pension Plan Suit

    The Ninth Circuit reopened a former Calbiotech Inc. scientist's lawsuit claiming the company unlawfully hid the existence of a pension plan, saying a trial court erred in concluding that a document specifying who was eligible to participate in the plan was legitimate.

  • July 29, 2026

    Manufacturer Can't Recoup Coverage For Gas Leak Losses

    A semiconductor manufacturer is not entitled to additional coverage for losses it incurred after a hydrogen chloride gas leak at one of its facilities, a Texas appellate court ruled, saying the company failed to show it suffered damages that exceeded its policies' deductible and were unrelated to excluded corrosion.

  • July 29, 2026

    Pa. Justices To Review Record $207M UPenn Med Mal Verdict

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will review whether a Philadelphia jury wrongly put a record-setting $207 million medical malpractice judgment entirely on the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, or if jurors needed to have decided the individual liability of the employees involved in an allegedly botched baby delivery.

  • July 29, 2026

    GOP Bill To Curb Judge Shopping May Have Limited Effect

    A Senate Republican has introduced legislation that he says will fix the judge shopping issue, but court observers don't think it will make much of a difference.

  • July 29, 2026

    3rd Circ. Won't Undo Jury Award In Fudge Trade Secret Case

    The ex-wife of a chocolatier lost her challenge to a jury's finding that she misappropriated his secret recipe for "Chocolate Moonshine" fudge, after the majority of a split Third Circuit on Wednesday said there was enough evidence behind the jury's conclusions.

  • July 29, 2026

    Split Pa. Panel Won't Boot Judge From Property Cases

    A Pennsylvania appellate court says an Allegheny County trial judge properly denied a real estate developer's request for her to recuse herself from a property conservatorship case and that the judge's rulings were not affected by alleged bias from family connections to separate cases.

  • July 29, 2026

    Gov. Abbott Reappoints All Judges To Texas Business Court

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has reappointed all 10 judges of the upstart Texas Business Court, preserving the makeup of a court that has handled a number of high-profile disputes and been touted as an incentive for companies to relocate to the Lone Star State.

  • July 30, 2026

    CORRECTED: Tipster's Info Didn't Aid IRS Audit Of Co., DC Circ. Told

    The Internal Revenue Service appropriately denied a whistleblower award to an individual alleging that a company underpaid taxes by not following transfer pricing regulations, the U.S. government told the D.C. Circuit, saying the information did not contribute to an audit of the company.

Expert Analysis

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

    Author Photo

    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • 4th Circ. Ruling Will Rewrite Class Action Litigation Strategies

    Author Photo

    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union is the first from a federal circuit court to hold that motions to strike are inappropriate vehicles for challenging class allegations at the pleading stage, invalidating a tactic that had been used for decades, says Jim Francis at Francis Mailman.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

    Author Photo

    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

    Author Photo

    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Salt-N-Pepa Suit May Shake Up Music Copyright Issue

    Author Photo

    James v. UMG Recordings is a copyright termination rights case that provides an opportunity for the Second Circuit to make concrete choices about grant language, authorship, work-for-hire status and survival of derivative works, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Opinion

    5th Circ.'s Abortion Pill Order Is Shaky On Multiple Grounds

    Author Photo

    The Fifth Circuit's recent order in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion medication mifepristone, seems to turn federalism upside-down, and is also questionable for several other reasons, says Gregory Curtner at Curtner Law.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

    Author Photo

    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • 5 Takeaways From Justices' Subpoena Fight Ruling

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in First Choice v. Davenport fortifies a line of First Amendment associational privacy cases stretching back nearly 70 years, and ensures that organizations subject to government demands for donor information have a meaningful federal forum in which to defend their constitutional rights, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

    Author Photo

    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • Md. Justices' State Climate Tort Ban May Shape National Path

    Author Photo

    The Maryland Supreme Court’s recent ruling that federal law preempted state-level deceptive marketing tort claims brought by several municipalities could offer the U.S. Supreme Court a road map to use in the pending Suncor Energy v. Boulder County case to exclude states from the business of regulating global emissions, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

    Author Photo

    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • What Justices Are Focusing On In 'Skinny Label' Patent Case

    Author Photo

    Though Hikma v. Amarin appears to be a patent dispute that could reshape inducement doctrine in the pharmaceutical context, oral argument suggests the U.S. Supreme Court may treat this as primarily a pleading-stage dispute, with important unresolved questions lurking beneath the surface, says Shashank Upadhye at Upadhye Tang.

  • Employer Tips After 4th Circ. Rejects Trimmed Suit Deadlines

    Author Photo

    The Fourth Circuit's recent holding in Thomas v. EOTech that employers cannot use contractual provisions to shorten statutory filing periods for Title VII or Age Discrimination in Employment Act claims offers a warning for employers to review any such documents and reassess their litigation risk, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • Binance Win Shows Constraints On Anti-Terrorism Act Claims

    Author Photo

    The Southern District of New York's recent ruling in Troell v. Binance illustrates that the Second Circuit's earlier decision in Ashley v. Deutsche Bank is holding weight with courts, and companies facing aiding and abetting risk should thus monitor evolving case law and assess exposure based on nexus allegations, say attorneys at Freshfields.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Appellate archive.