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Appellate
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June 20, 2024
Trump Says Willis Can't Erase DQ Appeal In Election Case
Former president Donald Trump urged the Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday to keep alive his appeal of a trial court's decision that blocked Trump's bid to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the election interference case against him and co-defendants, arguing that his appeal involves issues of law.
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June 20, 2024
Fla. Calls Abortion Drug Case Irrelevant To Migrant Parole Suit
Florida has rebuffed the Biden administration's efforts to use a high court ruling maintaining access to the abortion drug mifepristone to nix challenges to its migrant parole policies, telling the Eleventh Circuit that the healthcare case is unrelated to the immigration one.
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June 20, 2024
House Dems Ask Chief Justice To Say How He'll Review Ethics
Two top Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday how he's working to address the "glaring episodes" of ethical improprieties on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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June 20, 2024
NC Law Firm Fights Ex-Client's Bid To Ditch Malpractice Deal
A personal injury law firm and one of its former attorneys urged a North Carolina state appeals court to enforce their settlement with a prior client in a legal malpractice suit, as the client asserts that he was sick during mediation and didn't know what he was doing when he signed the agreement.
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June 20, 2024
Casinos Must Fight Hotel Tax In State Court, 5th Circ. Says
Owners of two Louisiana casinos with attached hotels must challenge Baton Rouge in state court, rather than federal court, over taxes the city says they owe on free hotel stays they gave patrons, the Fifth Circuit ruled, saying the state is entitled to deference.
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June 20, 2024
Fla. Judge's 'Conservative' Label No Cause For Reprimand
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to sanction a judge for calling herself a "conservative" during her first campaign for office last year, but the state justices did issue a public reprimand over the jurist's approval of a social media post that misled voters about her fundraising ahead of the election.
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June 20, 2024
Ill. Panel Says Insurer Off Hook For 23 Carbon Monoxide Suits
An insurer doesn't need to defend a design firm against 23 allegations that its negligent work led numerous children and others to suffer injuries from carbon monoxide exposure, an Illinois appeals court panel found, affirming a lower court's ruling.
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June 20, 2024
GOP Sens. Get Tough On 6th Circ. Nominee's History
Republican senators hammered Sixth Circuit nominee Karla M. Campbell, of counsel at Stranch Jennings & Garvey PLLC, during a hearing on Thursday about her political donations, past advisory roles and the process by which she was nominated.
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June 20, 2024
Ga. Panel Says $3M Damages Should Be Cut In Crash Case
The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed and vacated a trial court's $3 million compensatory damages award in a case in which a Southern Oil Refinery LLC truck driver rear-ended another vehicle, killing three people.
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June 20, 2024
ACLU Urges 9th Circ. To Reject Insurer's Trans Health Appeal
The American Civil Liberties Union urged the Ninth Circuit to reject Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois' appeal seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that found denying transgender health plan participants gender-affirming care violated the Affordable Care Act, arguing federal healthcare nondiscrimination laws clearly protected against gender identity bias.
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June 20, 2024
Patent Office Elevates Acting Solicitor To Official Position
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday announced that its longtime litigator Farheena Y. Rasheed has been appointed solicitor and deputy general counsel for the agency.
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June 20, 2024
5th Circ. Misapplied Precedent In Arrest Case, Justices Say
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped a Fifth Circuit decision that a woman who claims she was jailed in retaliation for criticizing local government officials couldn't pursue her retaliatory arrest claim, reviving a five-year dispute between the woman and a Texas city.
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June 20, 2024
Justices Say Experts Can Testify Broadly On Criminal Intent
The U.S. Supreme Court found Thursday that a rule barring expert witnesses from testifying about a defendant's alleged criminal intent does not block testimony about the mental state of people in similar situations.
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June 20, 2024
Top Court Declines To Limit Malicious Prosecution Cases
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a charge made without probable cause can be grounds for a malicious prosecution civil suit even if another charge with valid probable cause accompanied it.
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June 20, 2024
Repatriation Tax Doesn't Violate Constitution, Justices Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 2017 federal tax overhaul's mandatory repatriation levy on Thursday, finding the measure applies to the earnings of foreign corporations with U.S. shareholders and therefore does not raise constitutional questions about taxing unrealized income.
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June 18, 2024
High Court Petition Asks Justices: What's A 'Willful' Kickback?
Does a "willful" act under federal anti-kickback law require a defendant to know that the conduct violates the law? That's the question a whistleblower is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to answer in order to resolve what the petition calls a circuit split on a key question of federal fraud prosecutions.
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June 18, 2024
No Reason To Move Net Neutrality Suits To DC Circ., ISPs Say
Nearly a dozen industry groups are calling on the Sixth Circuit to reject an effort by the Federal Communications Commission to move a raft of lawsuits over the FCC's net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit.
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June 18, 2024
'Reckless' Behavior Centered In Climate Coverage Suit Args
Attorneys for a Sunoco subsidiary and AIG offered sharply differing views to Hawaii's top court Tuesday in oral arguments over whether reckless behavior would trigger the oil company's liability coverage in a novel suit over coverage for underlying climate change claims.
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June 18, 2024
Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Philips Communication Patent Claims
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday sided with Patent Trial and Appeal Board judges who gutted claims in a Philips patent challenged by a Chinese chipmaker that is facing an infringement suit in Delaware.
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June 18, 2024
Fla. Immune To Contract Suit Over COVID Tests, 4th Circ. Says
The Fourth Circuit reversed on Tuesday a district court decision denying a motion to dismiss by a Florida state agency in a breach of contract case involving COVID-19 tests, finding the lower court erred in ruling that the state did not have sovereign immunity and remanding the case for further proceedings.
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June 18, 2024
11th Circ. Orders New Shrimp Secrets Trial Over Judge's Exit
The Eleventh Circuit ordered a new trial in a trade secrets dispute involving breeders of disease-resistant shrimp, saying Tuesday that a magistrate judge who oversaw the trial's conclusion so that a federal judge could catch a flight exceeded his authority by answering jury questions and rejecting a defense counsel's request for clarification on damages awarded.
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June 18, 2024
Nuke Regulator Asks High Court To Review Atomic Waste Rule
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a contentious Fifth Circuit decision that barred it from issuing a license to a temporary nuclear waste storage facility in Texas, saying that the circuit court widened circuit splits and upended decades of agency practice.
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June 18, 2024
6th Circ. Asks Who's A 'Consumer' In Meta Data Sharing Case
Sixth Circuit judges questioned how a decades-old federal privacy law aimed at protecting people's video rental history applies to website users, as one customer argued Tuesday that the court should revive claims that Paramount unlawfully shared his data with Meta, Facebook's parent company.
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June 18, 2024
Colo. Justices Iffy On Cake's Message In Baker's Speech Suit
The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday pressed a Christian cake baker on whether requiring him to make a pink cake with blue frosting to celebrate a customer's gender transition counts as "compelled speech" under a recent high court ruling, with some justices skeptical that such a cake has inherent meaning.
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June 18, 2024
Dems Ask For Update On Justice Thomas Gifts Investigation
A pair of Democratic lawmakers have asked the judiciary's governing body for an update on its review of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' failure to disclose years of luxury gifts and travel he received from conservative billionaires.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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9th Circ. Clarifies ERISA Preemption For Healthcare Industry
The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Bristol SL Holdings v. Cigna notably clarifies the broad scope of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act's preemption of certain state law causes of action, standing to benefit payors and health plan administrators, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Patent Lessons From 7 Federal Circuit Reversals In May
A look at recent cases where the Federal Circuit reversed or vacated decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or a federal district court provide guidance on how to succeed on appeal by clarifying the obviousness analysis of design patents, the finality of a judgment, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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What To Know As CFPB Late Fee Rule Hangs In Limbo
Though the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final credit card late fee rule faces an uncertain future due to litigation involving injunctions, emergency petitions and now a venue dispute, card issuers must understand how to navigate the interim period and what to do if the rule takes effect, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Updated Federal Rules Can Improve Product Liability MDLs
The recent amendment of a federal evidence rule regarding expert testimony and the proposal of a civil rule on managing early discovery in multidistrict legislation hold great promise for promoting the uniform and efficient processes that high-stakes product liability cases particularly need, say Alan Klein and William Heaston at Duane Morris.
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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9th Circ. Ruling Shows Lies Must Go To Nature Of Bargain
The Ninth Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Milheiser decision, vacating six mail fraud convictions, clarifies that the key question in federal fraud cases is not whether lies were told, but what they were told about — thus requiring defense counsel to rethink their strategies, say Charles Kreindler and Krista Landis at Sheppard Mullin.
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What High Court Ruling Means For Sexual Harassment Claims
In its recent Smith v. Spizzirri decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a district court compelling a case to arbitration is obligated to stay the case rather than dismissing it, but this requirement may result in sexual harassment cases not being heard by appellate courts, says Abe Melamed at Signature Resolution.
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Trademark In Artistic Works 1 Year After Jack Daniel's
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court's Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products ruling, courts have applied Jack Daniel's inconsistently to deny First Amendment protection to artistic works, providing guidance for dismissing trademark claims relating to film and TV titles, say Hardy Ehlers and Neema Sahni at Covington.
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9th Circ. Ruling Broadens Sweep Of Securities 'Solicitation'
The Ninth Circuit's recent revival of a putative securities fraud class action against Genius Brands for hiring a stock promoter to write favorable articles about it shows that companies should view "solicitation" broadly in considering whether they may have paid someone to urge an investor to purchase a security, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Why Jurors Balk At 'I Don't Recall' — And How To Respond
Jurors often react negatively to a witness who responds “I don’t remember” because they tend to hold erroneous beliefs about the nature of human memory, but attorneys can adopt a few strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases, say Steve Wood and Ava Hernández at Courtroom Sciences.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits
Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.