Appellate

  • June 25, 2026

    Fla. Panel Affirms Walmart Liability In Contractor Shock Injury

    A Florida appellate court affirmed a final judgment finding Walmart negligent for a service technician's shock-induced injury during the installation of an automatic door, ruling that an exception barred the retailer from asserting an independent contractor defense to avoid a duty owed to the worker.

  • June 25, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Farmworkers' Attys Deserve Higher Fee

    The Ninth Circuit has ordered a Washington federal court to increase an attorney fee award for farmworkers who successfully challenged the federal government's agricultural wage survey methodology, finding the lower court's explanation for slashing the award by 75% was insufficient.

  • June 25, 2026

    Conn. Justices Say Local Rent Board Can Enter Eviction Fight

    The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a municipal fair rent commission to get involved in a landlord-tenant eviction action in state court, finding the local body clearly has an interest in advocating for its statutory right to adjudicate complaints and enforce its own orders.

  • June 25, 2026

    11th Circ. Challenges Exclusion In Arson Death Dispute

    An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared skeptical of a property insurer's argument that an exclusion for a failure to maintain an apartment complex freed it from defending the owner in a wrongful death suit stemming from arson.

  • June 25, 2026

    5th Circ. Backs FDA's Block On Vape Marketing

    The Fifth Circuit affirmed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision to block two vape companies from marketing their menthol-flavored e-cigarette products after finding the benefits to adult smokers didn't outweigh the risk to minors.

  • June 25, 2026

    Mich. Justices Revive BAC Proof In Fatal Crash Prosecution

    The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that a jury should be allowed to hear evidence that a motorcyclist killed in a traffic collision may have been intoxicated at the time of the crash, reversing lower court decisions that excluded the evidence from a criminal prosecution against the driver of the other vehicle.

  • June 25, 2026

    Allstate Not Liable For Contractor's Spam Calls, 7th Circ. Says

    Allstate Insurance Co. can't be held vicariously liable for a subcontractor's spam calls to a man on a do-not-call list because the insurer did not know the company had been hired and could not be directly linked to allowing that extra layer of marketing, the Seventh Circuit said Wednesday.

  • June 25, 2026

    3rd Circ. Vexed By Diabetic Worker's Atty, AI Issues

    A Third Circuit panel questioned Thursday whether a hospital employee's disclosure of her diabetes was "too little, too late" to trigger an accommodation after she was written up for sleeping on the job — and whether her attorneys should be sanctioned for filing a minor motion that appeared to include AI-hallucinated citations.

  • June 25, 2026

    Mich. Panel Says Detroit Schools Can't Use Tax For Bond Debt

    The Detroit Public Schools Community District and its predecessor have lost a bid to continue collecting an operating tax after an emergency loan is paid off, with an appellate court panel finding state law does not allow the tax to be levied to pay off other long-term debts. 

  • June 25, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Supply Co.'s Foreign Member Kills Diversity

    The Fourth Circuit on Thursday declined to reinstate a medical supply company's contract dispute against a U.K. corporation over COVID-19 test kits, after finding that the lack of a U.S. citizen on the supply company's side destroys the court's diversity jurisdiction to hear the case.  

  • June 25, 2026

    8th Circ. Backs Immunity In DAPL Protest Injury Dispute

    A panel of the Eighth Circuit has upheld a decision to dismiss a challenge by an environmentalist who was severely injured by North Dakota law enforcement during a protest over the Dakota Access pipeline, finding the officers are entitled to immunity and her claims of 14th Amendment violations do not meet a "shocks the conscience" threshold.

  • June 25, 2026

    Senate Confirming Judges Faster Than In Trump's 1st Term

    The Senate has confirmed 45 judges in the second Trump term, outpacing the rate of his first administration, Senate Republicans announced on Thursday.

  • June 25, 2026

    7th Circ. Won't Reinstate Trans Bus Driver's Bias Suit

    The Seventh Circuit declined to revive a transgender bus driver's suit claiming the Chicago Transit Authority fired him due to his gender identity, ruling he failed to show the decision was driven by prejudice rather than claims that he took medical leave that wasn't approved.

  • June 25, 2026

    11th Circ. Revives Cheerleading 'Worlds' Trademark Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit has revived U.S. All Star Federation's lawsuit alleging a rival ripped off the competitive cheerleading organizational body's signature event's name, saying there were factual issues over the nature of the trademarks at issue.

  • June 25, 2026

    High Court Strikes Down Hawaii Gun Restrictions

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Hawaii law banning people from bringing firearms onto private property open to the public without express permission from the owner violates the Second and 14th amendments.

  • June 25, 2026

    Justices Let Trump End Temporary Status For Haiti, Syria

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to the Trump administration to move forward with ending temporary protected status for Haitians and Syrians, ruling that courts are barred from reviewing such determinations.

  • June 25, 2026

    Monsanto Wins High Court Fight Over Roundup Cancer Warnings

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed Monsanto a win in its long-running litigation battle over the labeling of alleged cancer risks of its bestselling weedkiller Roundup, clearing the path for a $7.25 billion settlement to end thousands of suits facing the Bayer AG unit by finding that the state law claims underlying a $1.25 million jury verdict are barred.

  • June 25, 2026

    Justices Say Asylum Rights Begin On US Soil

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that federal immigration officials can turn away noncitizens without valid travel documents who haven't physically crossed the southern border when U.S. ports of entry are at capacity.

  • June 24, 2026

    Atty DQ Over Inadvertent Doc Disclosure Overturned

    A California state appeals court has upended the disqualification of defense counsel in a sexual battery suit, saying documents undermining the case that were accidentally produced via a Dropbox link were not privileged.

  • June 24, 2026

    Mich. Tribe Says BCBS Hid Facts Behind ERISA Time Bar

    Counsel for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan told a Sixth Circuit panel Wednesday that claims against Blue Cross Blue Shield that it did not seek lower, Medicare-like rates for the tribe's plan members should not be time-barred because tribe members did not know until 2014 that the insurance company had been overpaying for coverage.

  • June 24, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Cyber Co. Owes Nothing In Licensing Row

    The Fourth Circuit has said a Virginia federal court got it right the second time when dispensing with a long-running dispute between cybersecurity company Vir2us and a cloud-enabled cybersecurity firm that Vir2us says owes it royalties under a patent licensing deal.

  • June 24, 2026

    Mass. SJC Backs DNA Testing In Self-Defense Murder Bid

    A man who was convicted in 2007 of murdering his girlfriend should have been allowed to ask for DNA testing of the handles of knives he said she attacked him with, Massachusetts' highest court said Wednesday.

  • June 24, 2026

    Split 2nd Circ. Denies Bail To NYPD Bribery Case Cooperator

    A split Second Circuit panel has denied bail for a man once described by prosecutors as "one of the single most important" cooperating witnesses in the recent history of the Southern District of New York while he appeals his conviction in a police bribery scheme.

  • June 24, 2026

    Fla. Panel Reverses Multiplied Atty Fee In Irma Coverage Row

    A Florida state appeals court on Wednesday affirmed the award of $389,362 in attorney fees for a firm that represented a homeowner in a Hurricane Irma coverage dispute, but found that a lower court unjustifiably multiplied the award to bring it up to roughly $1 million.

  • June 24, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Nixes Protest Over VA Endoscopy System Contract

    The Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday that a healthcare IT company lacks standing to protest the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' awarding of a contract for a system to manage clinical information for endoscopy procedures, further finding the solicitation patently ambiguous.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Key Questions Attys Should Ask About Statistical Analyses

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    Even attorneys without a background in statistics can effectively vet the general concepts of a statistical analysis by asking targeted questions and can thereby reinforce the credibility and relevance of expert testimony — or expose its weaknesses, say Katrina Schydlower and Christopher Cunio at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: April Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from three recent rulings involving allegations of racial discrimination in mortgage applications, health insurance networks and actual cash value losses.

  • 'Made In America' EO May Not Survive Section 230

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    President Donald Trump's recent executive order to combat fraudulent "Made in America" claims in advertising directs the Federal Trade Commission to deem online marketplaces' failure to verify third-party origin claims as unlawful, but such a rule would likely run into Section 230's publisher immunity doctrine, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • Assessing EcoFactor's Impact On Damages Experts' Opinions

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    Though the Federal Circuit's ruling in EcoFactor v. Google gave rise to concerns that damages experts would be forced to rely on undisputed facts, recent case law suggests that those concerns are unwarranted, says Christopher Loh at Venable.

  • High Court Cert Case Would Test Sovereign Award Immunity

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    The D.C. Circuit's July 2025 Amaplat Mauritius v. Zimbabwe Mining Development decision appears to create a circuit split while elevating form over substance in a manner that, if left unreviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, could bar the courthouse doors for creditors holding arbitration awards against recalcitrant foreign sovereigns, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • CFTC Actions Show Prediction Market Insider Trading Risks

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    It is a myth that insider trading law does not apply in prediction markets, as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement actions illustrate that it has full authority to pursue such cases federally — and intends to, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • 2nd Circ. Clarifies When Prior Good Acts May Be Admissible

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in U.S. v. Cardenas, vacating a drug conspiracy conviction over improperly excluded evidence, indicates that evidence of prior good acts may be admissible to corroborate a defendant's testimony about their understanding of events and intent, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Opinion

    Apple Discovery Fight Could Revive DOJ's Antitrust Appetite

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    Winning discovery disputes in the ongoing federal antitrust litigation over Apple’s app store practices is a huge opportunity for the Justice Department to return to its once-vigorous pursuit of product tying by tech monopolies, catch up with foreign competition regulators and establish clear standards for digital markets, says Ediberto Roman at Florida International University.

  • Lockdown To Ledger: COVID Rulings Inform Crypto Coverage

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    As cryptocurrencies move deeper into mainstream financial markets, courts tasked with determining whether traditional insurance policies respond to digital asset losses have been evaluating coverage through the analytical framework of COVID-19 business interruption litigation, with one key recurring theme, say attorneys at Kennedys.

  • Opinion

    State Bars Need To Get Specific About AI Confidentiality

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    Lawyers need to put actual client information into artificial intelligence tools to get their full value, but they cannot confidently do so until state bars offer clear, formal authority on which plan tiers of the three most popular generative AI tools are safe to use when sharing specific client details, says attorney Nick Berk.

  • The Federal Circuit's Evolving View Of Trade Secrets

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    In recent years, the Federal Circuit's approach to defining "readily ascertainable" information and determining sufficiency of trade secret identification has shifted, trending away from other circuits and potentially presenting a higher bar for trade secrets plaintiffs, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • What Justices' Review Of Guam Case Will Mean For Permitting

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    In U.S. Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan, the U.S. Supreme Court will address whether a federal agency's permit application is a final decision that courts can review — a question whose answer could reshape the timing and strategy of environmental litigation across the federal permitting landscape, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Restraint Anchors Constitutional Order

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    Contrasting opinions in two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Trump v. CASA and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections — demonstrate how the judiciary’s constitutionally entrusted role can easily be preserved or disrupted, and invite renewed attention to the enduring importance of judicial restraint, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

  • Human Authorship Is Still Central To Copyright Eligibility

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    In declining to review the D.C. Circuit's ruling in Thaler v. Perlmutter — holding that a work purely generated by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted — the U.S. Supreme Court has reinforced the human authorship requirement, so it is critical for creators of AI-assisted projects to document their involvement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Resolving The Conflict In 2nd Circ. Foreign Discovery Rulings

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    The Second Circuit recently issued two seemingly inconsistent decisions regarding the federal statute that permits U.S. discovery for purposes of a foreign proceeding, but the unifying feature appears to be the broad scope for district court discretion under Section 1782, say attorneys at Katsky Korins.

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