California

  • March 15, 2024

    9th Circ. Says No Arbitration For Rent-To-Own Class Claims

    The Ninth Circuit on Thursday said a rent-to-own company can't get a putative class action over its furniture rental fees sent to arbitration, saying the contract provision is unenforceable under California law.

  • March 15, 2024

    Roblox's Casino Games Are 'Preying On Children,' Suit Says

    Online game platform Roblox Corp. has been hit with another proposed class action suit in California federal court accusing it and other companies of "preying on children nationwide" through an "illegal gambling ecosystem" that specifically targets minors.

  • March 15, 2024

    Apple Wants 'Convoluted' IPhone App Antitrust Suit Tossed

    Apple Inc. asked a California federal judge Thursday to toss a proposed antitrust class action alleging that Apple Inc. illegally controls which apps are viewed on iPhone web browsers to boost iPhone prices, arguing that the consumers don't have standing to bring their "highly convoluted and speculative" claims.

  • March 15, 2024

    9th Circ. Pauses Benefits Case Awaiting UBH Challenge

    The Ninth Circuit has told a trial court to halt what United Behavioral Health has called an improper revival of a proposed class action alleging the insurance company illegally denied coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatment.

  • March 15, 2024

    Law School Says SF Ignoring Deal On 'Deplorable' Downtown

    A San Francisco law school has accused the city of violating a 2020 federal court settlement that required it to address "deplorable" conditions around the school's downtown campus, saying nothing bars the city from clearing homeless encampments if the occupants refuse an offer of shelter.

  • March 15, 2024

    SEC, VW Reach $48.7M Deal To End 'Clean Diesel' Fraud Suit

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Volkswagen Group of America Finance told a California federal court on Friday that they have reached a $48.7 million settlement to end claims that the automaker defrauded U.S. investors in its scheme to cheat emissions standards in its vehicles.

  • March 15, 2024

    Senate Poised To Vote On Union Atty Berner For 4th Circ.

    The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on Tuesday night on the confirmation of Nicole Berner, general counsel of the Service Employees International Union, for the Fourth Circuit.

  • March 15, 2024

    'Needless Circuit Split' In Tribal COVID Row, 9th Circ. Told

    An AIG unit and other insurers are urging the Ninth Circuit to rethink its decision ordering them to litigate the Suquamish Tribe's COVID-19 business interruption claims in tribal court, arguing that a three-judge appeals panel's unanimous affirmation "creates a needless circuit split on the scope of tribal-court jurisdiction."

  • March 15, 2024

    Attys, Broker Fight For Advice-Of-Counsel Defense In Tax Trial

    Two St. Louis attorneys and a North Carolina insurance agent staring down criminal tax charges in North Carolina federal court said the government can't prevent them from relying on advice-of-counsel defenses at their upcoming trial, arguing they've handed over all the information prosecutors need to prepare.

  • March 15, 2024

    Ex-Autonomy CEO To Face Jury As HP Fraud Trial Boots Up

    Former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch's 2011 sale of the tech company he founded to HP for about $11.7 billion earned him around $804 million and acclaim in tech circles, but the British executive now faces up to 20 years in prison on federal fraud charges that he inflated revenue figures in a monthslong criminal trial slated to kick off Monday in San Francisco.

  • March 15, 2024

    Apple, Investors Cut $490M China Sales Deal Ahead Of Trial

    Apple has made a $490 million deal to resolve a shareholder class action accusing the company and its top brass of misleading investors about iPhone sales in China in a legal fight that was slated for a September jury trial, according to court documents filed Friday in California federal court.

  • March 15, 2024

    CBP Sued For Info On Alleged Outdoor Border Detention Sites

    Two organizations that support asylum-seekers and other migrants have sued U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in California federal court, seeking information about what they say are squalid CBP-controlled open-air migrant detention sites along California's southern desert border.

  • March 15, 2024

    LA Billing Scandal Atty's Estate Can't Revive Fee Dispute

    The estate of an Ohio attorney who was accused of participating in a highly publicized billing settlement scandal involving the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has lost two probate court bids to recoup fees from the late attorney's former colleagues, with an appeals panel determining the court lacked jurisdiction.

  • March 15, 2024

    Feds Say Bankman-Fried Deserves 40 To 50 Years In Prison

    Sam Bankman-Fried should spend 40 to 50 years in prison for engaging in a massive fraud that sank his FTX crypto exchange, Manhattan federal prosecutors argued Friday, pushing back against a request by defense counsel for a sentence of roughly six years.

  • March 15, 2024

    Justices Back Strict View Of Sentencing 'Safety Valve' Relief

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to let a broader class of nonviolent drug offenders qualify for relief from federal mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines, siding against certain recidivists in a ruling that focused on the meaning of the word "and" in a section of the First Step Act.

  • March 15, 2024

    Justices Craft Test To Decide If Social Media Use Is Official

    The U.S. Supreme Court adopted a new test Friday to determine if a public official's social media use constitutes state action subject to liability under the First Amendment, instructing courts to consider whether the official had authority to speak on the government's behalf and whether they purported to do so in the challenged action.

  • March 14, 2024

    Judge Breyer Seeks To Boost Security Outside SF Courthouse

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said at a Thursday hearing that he'll meet with the U.S. Marshals Service to press for increased security around the San Francisco courthouse to ensure court staff and jurors' safety, the same day the city was sued over the neighborhood's open-air drug markets.

  • March 14, 2024

    Phillips, Workers Seek Dueling Wins In $46.5M Wage Fight

    Phillips 66 Co. and certified classes of San Francisco and Los Angeles refinery workers fought before a California federal judge Thursday, with each side seeking a win on the workers' wage claims in a $46.5 million dispute over the energy giant's meal-break and time-rounding policies.

  • March 14, 2024

    Gamers Seek To Block Microsoft From 'Dismantling' Activision

    Gamers who are still challenging Microsoft's now-completed union with gaming titan Activision Blizzard say a California federal court must hand down an order stopping further integration of the two businesses after Microsoft laid off 1,900 people from the gaming company.

  • March 14, 2024

    Ex-LA Official Lied To Feds Immediately In Interview, Jury Told

    An FBI agent told a California federal jury on Thursday in former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan's federal bribery trial that Chan lied to him during a 2018 interview immediately after he was warned that lying to the bureau is a crime.

  • March 14, 2024

    IP Forecast: Internet Archive Fights Vinyl Copyright Case

    A California federal judge will hear arguments next week over whether the Internet Archive can toss accusations from record labels that describe its project for a free, digitized library of 78 rpm records as a "wholesale theft of generations of music." Here's a look at that case, plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.

  • March 14, 2024

    UTA's Clash With MediaLink Founder Lands In Calif. Court

    United Talent Agency's bitter dispute with the founder of management consulting firm MediaLink spilled into Los Angeles County Superior Court this week, with UTA lobbing fraud and other claims at the executive shortly after he brought his own fraud claims against the agency in arbitration.

  • March 14, 2024

    Fired SoCal Edison Workers Drop Blacklist Suit Without Deal

    A group of former Southern California Edison utilities line designers summarily dropped their California federal court lawsuit against the utility, dismissing claims that their new company was hurt by policies declaring certain terminated employees persona non grata on distribution line extension projects in company territory.

  • March 14, 2024

    Whitestone Can't Rep Both Plaintiff, Funder In Netflix IP Case

    Whitestone Law cannot represent both a Finnish inventor in his patent infringement case against Netflix and a nonparty that paid some of the inventor's legal bills, a California federal judge ruled Thursday, saying the two are now at odds following accusations by Netflix against both.

  • March 14, 2024

    Judge Applauds Attys' 'Very Awesome' Use Of Google AI Bot

    A California federal judge told counsel Thursday it's "very awesome" that their recently amended putative class action complaint alleging privacy violations against Google used Google's own AI tool to argue that Google Analytics illegally scoops personal data from healthcare providers' websites, but he doubted the viability of other pleadings.

Expert Analysis

  • Business Litigators Have A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment

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    As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.

  • Opinion

    The Problems In Calif. Draft Behavioral Ad Privacy Regs

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    The California Privacy Protection Agency has an opportunity with its automated decision-making technology and profiling rulemaking to harmonize California's regulation of data-driven advertising, but this will be a failure unless several things are changed in its proposed treatment of behavioral advertising, say Alan Friel and Kyle Fath at Squire Patton.

  • Wildfire Challenges For Utility Investors: Liability Theories

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    The greater frequency and scale of wildfires in the last several years have created operational and fiscal challenges for electric utility companies, including new theories of liability and unique operational and risk management considerations — all of which must be carefully considered by utility investors, say David Botter and Lisa Schweitzer at Cleary.

  • The Challenges Of Measuring Harm In Slack-Fill Cases

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    A recent California federal court partial class certification ruling was a rare victory for plaintiffs in a case over slack-fill empty space in packaged products, indicating that damages arguments may be important at the certification stage, say Sushrut Jain and Valentina Bernasconi at Edgeworth Economics.

  • Series

    Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.

  • Can A DAO Be Sued? SDNY Case May Hold The Answer

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    A case pending in the Southern District of New York will examine whether decentralized crypto co-op MakerDAO is a partnership with the capacity to be sued in federal court, and the decision could shape how legal frameworks will adapt to accommodate blockchain technologies moving forward, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Tips For Counsel Seeking Balance In The ESG Political Divide

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    Corporate counsel tasked with navigating environmental, social and governance factors in the current polarized political environment should not lose sight of best practices, including sticking to what the law requires and always telling the truth, say Jennifer Rubin at Mintz and Mike Rider at ResMed.

  • Disney Copyright Expiration Spurs Trademark Questions

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    While the recent expiration of Disney’s Steamboat Willie copyright is not likely to have an immediate impact, it could provide clarity on the extent to which trademark rights in character names and appearance affect what others can do with characters from works whose copyright has expired, says Bryan Wheelock at Harness IP.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC

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    The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Zero-Point Offender Eligibility May Hinge On Meaning Of 'And'

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    Some white collar defendants’ eligibility for the new zero-point offender sentencing adjustment comes down to whether the word “and” really means “and” — a question the U.S. Supreme Court is set to resolve in its upcoming Pulsifer v. U.S. decision, which could affect thousands of incarcerated people, say Brandon McCarthy and Nikita Yogeshwarun at Katten.

  • Valeant Ruling May Pave Way For Patent-Based FCA Suits

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    The Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling in Silbersher v. Valeant marks a significant development in False Claims Act jurisprudence, opens new avenues for litigation and potentially raises the stakes for patent applicants who intend to do business with the government, say Joshua Robbins and Rick Taché at Buchalter.

  • Recent Rulings Add Dimension To Justices' Maui Decision

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund established new factual criteria for determining when the Clean Water Act applies to groundwater — and recent decisions from the Ninth and Tenth Circuits have clarified how litigants can make use of the Maui standard, says Steven Hoch at Clark Hill.

  • The Pros And Cons Of Protecting AI As Trade Secrets

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    Despite regulatory trends toward greater transparency of artificial intelligence models, federal policy acknowledges, and perhaps endorses, trade secret protection for AI information, but there are still hurdles in keeping AI information a secret, say Jennifer Maisel and Andrew Stewart at Rothwell Figg.

  • Complying With Enforcers' Ephemeral Messaging Guidance

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    Given federal antitrust enforcers’ recently issued guidance on ephemeral messaging applications, organizations must take a proactive approach to preserving short-lived communications — or risk criminal obstruction charges and civil discovery sanctions, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Lessons For D&O Policyholders From Pharma Co. Ruling

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    A California federal court's recent decision in AmTrust v. 180 Life Sciences, requiring insurers to advance defense costs for a potentially covered claim, provides a valuable road map for directors and officers insurance policyholders, rebutting the common presumption that a D&O insurer's duty to advance costs is more limited than under other policies, say attorneys at Pasich.

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