California

  • August 26, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs Google Privacy Deal With No Class Payouts

    A split Ninth Circuit panel Wednesday affirmed approval of a location data privacy deal that requires Google to pay $62 million to plaintiffs' counsel and third-party organizations but gives no money to individual class members, agreeing the structure was appropriate because direct distribution to all class members would be "infeasible."

  • August 26, 2026

    Blake Lively's 'Blunderbuss' $8M Atty Fee Bid Nets $407K

    A New York federal judge Wednesday awarded Blake Lively $407,452 in attorney fees and court costs in her defamation dispute with her "It Ends With Us" co-star Justin Baldoni, significantly less than the $8 million she had requested, citing her "blunderbuss approach" and flaws in records she submitted.

  • August 26, 2026

    Iowa, Montana Ask Justices To Stop Paramount Merger Case

    Iowa and Montana are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop California and other state enforcers from challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, calling the effort "a partisan enforcement action" that targets a procompetitive deal.

  • August 26, 2026

    Lowe's Must Face Calif. Privacy Suit Over Web Trackers

    Lowe's must face a twice-amended proposed class action alleging the home improvement retailer secretly collected and shared information about its website users with TikTok and Microsoft, contrary to its own privacy policy, a California federal judge said Wednesday, rejecting Lowe's argument that the data collection wasn't highly offensive.

  • August 26, 2026

    Suit Says Tesla Model Y Ran Into Barrier, Failed To Deploy Airbags

    A Boeing aircraft technician claims defects in his 2022 Tesla Model Y caused the vehicle to crash into a concrete barrier where another defect prevented his air bag from deploying, leaving him with permanent spinal injuries, in a lawsuit in Washington state court.

  • August 26, 2026

    Libertarian Org. Tells 9th Circ. Not To Let Canadian Sue Google

    The Washington Legal Foundation sought Wednesday to back Google against a British Columbia man's efforts to revive "a thematic copycat" of Epic Games' antitrust lawsuit, telling the Ninth Circuit that a California federal judge rightly deemed Google's Play Store policies too disconnected from prices paid by Canadian Android users.

  • August 26, 2026

    Calif. Bill Curbing PE Role In Litigation Heads To Newsom

    A California bill to ban corporate investors from influencing litigation strategy is heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk after passing with bipartisan support from the state Legislature.

  • August 26, 2026

    'A Bad Argument': Southwest's Filing In FMLA Suit Irks Judge

    A California federal judge on Wednesday criticized counsel representing Southwest Airlines in a certified employment class action for filing an untimely and overbroad motion, saying Southwest's attorney was making "a bad argument" and telling counsel, "You guys should not have done that."

  • August 26, 2026

    SEC, AI Startup Settle Action Over $5.3M Offering

    An artificial intelligence startup and its founder have agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over $100,000 to resolve claims that they raised more than $5.3 million from investors through misleading statements about the company's revenue, current valuation and customer demand.

  • August 26, 2026

    Lawmakers Press Commerce To Curb Exports To Adversaries

    A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to block U.S. citizens and businesses from working for foreign civilian intelligence and security agencies in Russia, China and other "countries of concern."

  • August 26, 2026

    Meta Judge Quickly OKs $17B Deal Over Social Media Harms

    A California federal judge overseeing a bellwether trial over claims Meta hid social media's harms to youth on Wednesday approved its $17.1 billion deal with 29 states, after a hearing in which she pressed lawyers on details of the deal and raised concerns about how Meta was handling attorney-client privilege issues.

  • August 26, 2026

    Court Rules DOL's H-2A Farmworker Wage Rule Unlawful

    A California federal court found unlawful a U.S. Department of Labor rule overhauling minimum wage rate calculations for H-2A temporary agricultural workers, ruling four rule components were arbitrary and capricious and the agency bypassed required rulemaking procedures without adequate justification while declining to immediately vacate the rule.

  • August 26, 2026

    Dodgers, Lakers Owner Denies $12.5B Deal Is 'Fire Sale'

    TWG Global, the company that owns the Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers, on Wednesday blasted "attacks" it has faced from "unnamed sources" in the news media over federal probes into its insurance holdings, saying its affiliated transactions are legitimate and a $12.5 billion planned sale of the Lakers is "no fire sale."

  • August 26, 2026

    States Renew Bid To Block New Mail-In Ballot Rule

    A coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia again asked a Massachusetts federal judge on Wednesday to block implementation of the U.S. Postal Service's rule restricting delivery of mail-in ballots, after the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for an earlier injunction to be lifted.

  • August 26, 2026

    Translation Co. Wants Quick Appeal Of PAGA Timing Ruling

    A translation services company asked a California federal judge to let it immediately appeal a ruling that kept alive a former worker's Private Attorneys General Act claim based on an alleged wage-statement violation, saying the dispute presents a novel question over when such claims accrue.

  • August 26, 2026

    Pot Distributor Again Files Counterclaims In Contract Dispute

    A cannabis distributor has filed renewed counterclaims against its former consulting partner and a rival distributor, alleging that the rival deliberately interfered with an exclusivity agreement with the consulting partner.

  • August 26, 2026

    Meta Makes $17B Deal With States Over Child Harms

    Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion and enact reforms to Facebook and Instagram to resolve sprawling social media addiction claims, in the midst of a high-stakes bellwether trial over whether the company hid or downplayed its platforms' allegedly harmful impact on minors, state enforcers say.

  • August 25, 2026

    'News To Me': Instagram CEO Unaware Its Attys Deleted Data

    Instagram's CEO appeared to be taken by surprise Tuesday during a California federal jury trial over claims Meta hid social media's harms, after the states revealed that Instagram's in-house counsel removed data from a teen-safety presentation before presenting it to minimize his "litigation exposure risk," saying "this is all news to me."

  • August 25, 2026

    Calif. Law Requiring Cop ID Can't Apply To Feds, 9th Circ. Told

    The Trump administration urged the Ninth Circuit during oral arguments Tuesday to find that a section of California law requiring law enforcement officers to visibly display identification can't apply to federal officers, saying "nothing has changed" since the court blocked that section under the Supremacy Clause pending this appeal.

  • August 25, 2026

    Applebee's Franchisee Faces Slew Of Data Breach Suits

    The largest franchisee of Applebee's is facing at least eight proposed class actions over an April data breach that exposed the personal information, including health information, of tens of thousands of employees around the country, according to complaints filed in California and Ohio federal court.

  • August 25, 2026

    9th Circ. Panel Largely Upholds Block On Feds' Grant Terms

    A divided Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday mostly upheld an injunction blocking the Trump administration from imposing new grant restrictions on transportation and housing funding for dozens of local governments, concluding federal agencies likely overstepped their authority by barring the money from being used to promote "gender ideology" or "illegal immigration."

  • August 25, 2026

    Meta Should Keep Research Internal, Data Whiz Tells Jury

    A high-ranking Meta data analyst told a Tennessee jury Tuesday that the social media giant shouldn't release its user research publicly because he saw during a famous leak the danger that such research will be "misinterpreted and misrepresented."

  • August 25, 2026

    Calif. Data Broker Tool Sign-Ups Hit 500K As Deletions Begin

    Data brokers in California have deleted "tens of millions" of records since their obligation to comply with requests made through a new consumer data deletion tool kicked in earlier this month, the state's privacy regulator said Tuesday, while announcing that registrations for the first-of-its-kind platform had reached the half-million mark.

  • August 25, 2026

    Snap Pixel Suit Dropped Amid Calif. 'Judge-Shopping' Claims

    A plaintiff suing Snap in the Central District of California over its alleged deployment of website tracking pixels has voluntarily ended his lawsuit, on the heels of the company accusing his counsel of engaging in "forum shopping" to avoid appearing before a judge who's advised against a broad reading of the state's wiretap law.

  • August 25, 2026

    Carl Sagan's Widow Sues Over Luma AI Ad's Use of His Voice

    Carl Sagan's widow sued Luma AI on Tuesday in California federal court for allegedly using audio ‌of the renowned astronomer's voice in an ad without permission, saying the law must stop those who would exploit her husband's reputation and intellectual integrity "for their own crass, self-serving commercial purposes."

Expert Analysis

  • 2 AI Snafus Show Why Attys Can't Outsource Judgment

    Author Photo

    The recent incident involving Sullivan & Cromwell where citations in a filed motion were fabricated by artificial intelligence, as well as a punitive ruling from the Sixth Circuit in U.S. v. Farris, demonstrate that the obligation to supervise AI has belonged and always will belong to lawyers, says John Powell at the Kentucky School Boards Association.

  • Assessing The 9th Circ.'s Recent Stock Drop Dismissal Trend

    Author Photo

    The recent decision in Nova Scotia Health Employees' Pension Plan v. Comerica is an important circuit-level addition to the growing trend of Ninth Circuit securities class action dismissals on loss causation grounds, which have used a contextual analysis premised on stock drops that are modest, typical and short-lived, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Calif. Case Raises Questions For Medical Practice Investors

    Author Photo

    The California attorney general's amicus brief in Art Center v. WCE and the California Medical Association's response highlight how the California appeals court's ruling could significantly affect the structure and enforceability of succession arrangements in medical practice ownership, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Opinion

    Tribal Gaming Law Is Paramount In Prediction Market Cases

    Author Photo

    Whatever the outcome of the preemption question in prediction market litigation involving states and the federal government, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act deals very specifically with gaming on Indian lands and almost certainly trumps the general federal laws at issue, says Kevin Washburn at the University of California, Berkeley.

  • Series

    Playing Magic: The Gathering Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    The competitive card game Magic: The Gathering offers me a training ground for the strategic thinking skills crucial to litigation, challenging me to adapt to oft-updated rules, analyze text as complicated as any statute and anticipate my opponent’s next moves, says Christopher Smith at Lash Goldberg.

  • Why Product-Based Public Nuisance Claims May Be Waning

    Author Photo

    The Maryland Supreme Court's recent decision in Express Scripts v. Anne Arundel County is the latest in a national trend of rulings rejecting product-based public nuisance claims — but other forms of government litigation against companies that allegedly increase the cost of public services are likely to continue, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Improving Well-Being In Law, 10 Years After Landmark Study

    Author Photo

    An important 2016 study revealed significant substance abuse and mental health issues among lawyers, and while the findings helped normalize the conversation around these topics, a decade later, structural change is still needed, says Denise Robinson at PLI.

  • Small And Midsize Business Finance Faces More State Regs

    Author Photo

    Recent developments in state credit disclosure, consumer debt collection, and lender licensing and registration requirements suggest that companies extending financing to small and midsize businesses are likely to encounter a significantly more stringent legal climate moving forward, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Steps To Consider As DOJ Launches Fraud Division

    Author Photo

    The establishment this month of the National Fraud Enforcement Division within the U.S. Department of Justice is a significant reorganization that suggests an increase in enforcement activity involving federally funded programs but leaves a number of important questions unanswered, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Why Justices Seem Skeptical Of Curbing SEC Disgorgement

    Author Photo

    Sripetch v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission presents an opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the disgorgement limits it set six years ago in Liu v. SEC, with recent oral arguments suggesting the court sees disgorgement as an equitable remedy akin to unjust enrichment, say attorneys at Hueston Hennigan.

  • Series

    Officiating Football Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Though they may seem to have little in common, officiating football has sharpened many of the same skills that define effective lawyering in management-side labor and employment: preparation, judgment, composure, credibility and ability to make difficult decisions in real time, says Josh Nadreau at Fisher Phillips.

  • Fresenius Ruling May Shift Anti-Kickback Enforcement

    Author Photo

    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Fresenius v. Bonta suggests that businesses have a First Amendment right to donate to certain charities, even if those donations are motivated by economic self-interest, potentially calling into question years of Anti-Kickback Statute proceedings against pharmaceutical manufacturers for making similar donations, says Jonah Knobler at Patterson Belknap.

  • How College Sports EO Raises Stakes, Casts Uncertainty

    Author Photo

    The effectiveness of President Donald Trump's recent executive order urging national action to "save" college sports depends on NCAA implementation and judicial tolerance, neither of which is certain, so college athletics will remain governed by an unstable balance between executive pressure and judicial authority until Congress acts, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Written Consent Ruling May Signal Change For Telemarketing

    Author Photo

    The Fifth Circuit's ruling in Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control is a takedown of the Federal Communications Commission's prior express written consent regulation, and because Loper Bright empowers courts to disregard agency interpretations, Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigants now have an opportunity to challenge previously settled FCC regulations, orders and interpretations, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Prediction Market Platform Probes Merit Strategic Responses

    Author Photo

    As the battle over the regulation of prediction markets is being waged between states and the federal government, investigations into insider trading allegations are increasingly originating from inside the exchanges themselves, creating obvious risks for market participants — as well as opportunities, say attorneys at Kobre & Kim.

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 California archive.