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Appellate
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April 25, 2024
Nursing Agency Urges 4th Circ. To Overturn $9M Wage Ruling
A nurse staffing agency pressed the Fourth Circuit to overturn a lower court's decision ordering the agency to pay workers $9 million in a misclassification suit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor, saying the lower court should have made the government prove the nurses were employees.
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April 25, 2024
Atty Group Asks Justices To Review Judge's Non-Recusal
The Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a D.C. Circuit judge's decision not to recuse himself from a former al-Qaida member's case, saying the judge's refusal undermined ethical standards for judges.
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April 25, 2024
EEOC Urges 3rd Circ. To Revive Fired Worker's Reprisal Suit
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission urged the Third Circuit to reinstate a former manager's lawsuit accusing a glass company of firing him because he refused to fire his plant's only two Black workers, saying a jury should hear the dispute.
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April 25, 2024
Emotional Damages Not Covered In OD Suit, Pa. Justices Rule
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reversed a lower court's ruling that a Nationwide unit had a duty to defend two homeowners in a suit over a man's fatal overdose under their roof, holding Thursday that underlying emotional distress damages don't fall within the policy's definition of bodily injury.
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April 25, 2024
Panel Backs Gas Station's Win In Drunken Driving Death Suit
An Ohio state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit over the deaths of two young men in a drunken driving crash, saying the alcohol seller can't be liable under Ohio's Dram Shop Act because the purchaser wasn't the driver.
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April 25, 2024
Ex-Defender Says Feds Can't Hide Other Harassment Reports
A former assistant federal defender wants to make certain #MeToo evidence public following the trial in a case accusing the judiciary of botching its probe into her own sexual harassment complaint, saying the contents of similar allegations concerning the Federal Defender's Office have already been publicly revealed.
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April 25, 2024
Pa. Justices OK Teacher 'Character' Test For Suspended Atty
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on Thursday upheld a lower court's ruling that an ex-attorney's disciplinary records can be used by the state Department of Education when evaluating whether that attorney has the "good moral character" to get a teaching license.
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April 25, 2024
Justices Skeptical Of Trump's Absolute Immunity Bid
A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared open Thursday to the idea of limited immunity for former presidents related to the office's core constitutional powers, but divisions emerged among the justices over how to determine when acts outside of that narrow category are potentially subject to criminal prosecution.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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After TikTok, Tiptoeing Toward Patent Transfer Alignment
Following the Fifth Circuit's TikTok decision, which aimed to standardize transfer analysis in patent cases, the Federal Circuit and Texas federal courts facing transfer requests have taken small steps to consider the practical realities of patent litigation, reinforcing the intensely factual focus of the analysis, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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Mitigating Whistleblower Risks After High Court UBS Ruling
While it is always good practice for companies to periodically review whistleblower trainings, policies and procedures, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent whistleblower-friendly ruling in Murray v. UBS Securities helps demonstrate their importance in reducing litigation risk, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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What Recent Setbacks In Court Mean For Enviro Justice
Two courts in Louisiana last month limited the federal government's ability to require consideration of Civil Rights Act disparate impacts when evaluating state-issued permits — likely providing a framework for opposition to environmental justice initiatives in other states, say attorneys at King & Spalding.
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Perspectives
Justices' Double Jeopardy Ruling Preserves Acquittal Sanctity
The U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision last week in McElrath v. Georgia, barring the state from retrying a man acquitted of murder after a so-called repugnant verdict, is significant in the tangled web of double jeopardy jurisprudence for its brief and unequivocal protection of an acquittal’s finality, says Lissa Griffin at Pace Law School.
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Setting The Stage For High Court BofA Escrow Interest Case
Dori Bailey and Curtis Johnson at Bond Schoeneck examine relevant legislation and case law dating back 200 years ahead of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in Cantero v. Bank of America, the outcome of which will determine whether state laws governing mortgage escrow accounts can be enforced against national banks.
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High Court Forfeiture Case Again Pits Text Against Purpose
In oral arguments Tuesday in McIntosh v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether a federal court can impose asset forfeiture on a defendant even if it doesn’t comply with timing rules, which may affect the broader interpretation of procedural deadlines — and tees up the latest battle between textualism and purposivism, say Anden Chow and Christian Bale at MoloLamken.
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Using Arbitration And Class Waivers As Privacy Suit Tools
Amid a surge in data breach class actions over the last few years, several federal court decisions indicate that arbitration clauses and class action waiver provisions can be possible alternatives to public court battles and potentially reduce the costs of privacy litigation, say Mark Olthoff and Courtney Klaus at Polsinelli.
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6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media
In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.
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Justices Stay The Course In Maritime Choice-Of-Law Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's narrowly drawn decision in Great Lakes Insurance v. Raiders Retreat Realty, enforcing the underlying insurance contract's choice-of-law provision, carefully distinguishes those provisions from forum selection clauses, and ensures that courts will not apply its precepts outside the maritime context, says John Coyle at the University of North Carolina.
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More Than Drugs At Stake In High Court's 'Blind Mule' Case
The U.S. Supreme Court's eventual decision in Diaz v. U.S., evaluating whether expert witnesses may testify that most defendants caught with drugs at the border know they are transporting drugs, could have implications for prosecuting everything from complex financial crimes to gun and drug cases, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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Why Fla. High Court Adopting Apex Doctrine Is Monumental
The Florida Supreme Court recently solidified the apex doctrine in the Sunshine State, an important development that extends the scope of the doctrine in the state to include both corporate and government officials, and formalizes the requirements for a high-level corporate official to challenge a request for a deposition, says Laura Renstrom at Holland & Knight.
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Why Biz Groups Disagree On Ending Chevron Deference
Two amicus briefs filed in advance of last month's U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo highlight contrasting views on whether the doctrine of Chevron deference promotes or undermines the stable regulatory environment that businesses require, say Wyatt Kendall and Sydney Brogden at Morris Manning.
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Del. Ruling Stands Out In Thorny Noncompete Landscape
In Cantor Fitzgerald v. Ainslie, the Delaware Supreme Court last month upheld the enforceability of forfeiture-for-competition provisions in limited partnership agreements, providing a noteworthy opinion amid a time of increasing disfavor toward noncompetes and following a string of Chancery Court rulings deeming them unreasonable, say Margaret Butler and Steven Goldberg at BakerHostetler.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: February Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five notable circuit court decisions on topics from property taxes to veteran's rights — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including class representative intervention, wage-and-hour dispute evidence and ascertainability requirements.
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Google Patent Case Is A Claim Construction Litigation Lesson
The Federal Circuit's recent precedential decision in Google v. EcoFactor, which held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board erred in the claim construction it had unknowingly adopted, shows that litigators should be alert to claim construction issues that masquerade as something else, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.