California

  • August 27, 2026

    Importer Duped NJ Distributor To Steal Grocery Biz, Suit Says

    An importer of Korean food products purposefully mischaracterized why it was ending a relationship with its longtime distributor to gain direct access to a popular grocery chain, a New Jersey business told a federal court, asking a judge to rescind the resulting deals.

  • August 27, 2026

    Feds Want Ex-Google Engineer To Get Over 5 Yrs For AI Theft

    Prosecutors have urged a California federal judge to sentence ex-Google software engineer Linwei Ding to nearly 6 years in prison for stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets, while Ding argued that the government's suggestion is based on speculative evidence and he deserves only home confinement since he was acquitted of economic espionage.

  • August 27, 2026

    23andMe Judge Slows Estimation Of Calif. Data Breach Claim

    A Missouri bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday he would split a process for dealing with data breach claims brought by the state of California against 23andMe into two stages, saying he would first decide whether the bankruptcy trust for the DNA testing company should be allowed to estimate the state's claims for damages.

  • August 27, 2026

    Lack Of Reliance Dooms Uponor Leaky Pipes Class Action

    A California federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action alleging Uponor Inc.'s plastic pipes were defective and prone to leaking, saying the homeowner plaintiffs failed to establish that they relied on or could have relied on any misrepresentations allegedly made by the company.

  • August 27, 2026

    Jeanie Buss Says Siblings' Lakers Sale Defies Court Order

    Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss petitioned a California state court to halt efforts by her five siblings to sell the family's 17.8% share of the NBA franchise, saying the purported sale violates a 2017 court order that they take all reasonable steps to ensure she remains as the team's leader.

  • August 27, 2026

    Meta Staves Off 3D Artist's AI Training Suit, For Now

    A California federal judge has dismissed a Los Angeles-based 3D artist's proposed class action alleging Meta Platforms Inc. removed copyright management information from art that was used to train artificial intelligence, but gave the artist a chance to cure the suit's issues.

  • August 27, 2026

    NLRB Seeks To Permanently Block Calif. Fill-In Law

    The National Labor Relations Board urged a California federal court to bar a state law allowing the state labor board to perform certain duties if the national board cannot, arguing that recent decisions in other cases "confirmed" the court should find the law is preempted.

  • August 27, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Hands Losses To Apple On 3 Smart Mobile Patents

    Smart Mobile Technologies LLC came out victorious in a set of Federal Circuit decisions Thursday in a patent fight involving Apple Inc., with the appeals court refusing to revive the tech giant's challenges to certain patent claims and reversing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's invalidation of other claims.

  • August 26, 2026

    Top Takeaways From Meta's $17B Kid Safety Deal

    A $17.1 billion deal with 29 states and Meta Platforms Inc. that includes reforms to Facebook and Instagram to protect children is seen as a benchmark for other settlements with social media companies as litigation and public pressure mounts over mental health harms to youth.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • 7 Tips For Employers On Calif. Decision-Making Tech Rules

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    Over the next eight months, many California employers must prepare to comply with challenging new requirements under the California Consumer Privacy Act that constitute the most comprehensive set of rules in the country on the use of automated decision-making technology, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

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    While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.

  • Series

    Isshin-Ryu Karate Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My involvement in martial arts, specifically Isshin-ryu, which has principles rooted in the eight codes of karate, has been one of the most foundational in the development of my personality, and particularly my approach to challenges — including in my practice of law, says Kaitlyn Stone at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Employer Tips As Calif. Law Rewrites Retention Pay Rules

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    California's recent enactment of A.B. 692 disrupts how employers structure sign-on bonuses, retention payments and other incentives tied to continued employment, but employers that adjust their compensation strategies can attract and retain talent while managing their compliance risks, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • CFTC Chair's Speech Hints At Innovation-Friendly Policies

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    Remarks made by Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig at the Futures Industry Association's conference last month provided the most comprehensive articulation of his regulatory agenda and signaled a shift in the CFTC's regulatory posture, including a rare focus on agency coordination and support for digital asset innovation, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • 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.

  • '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.

  • Gender-Expansive Calif. Equal Pay Laws Widen Employer Risk

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    California's recent amendments to strengthen its Equal Pay Act and Pay Transparency Act aim to shrink the wage gap, not only for women, but also for nonbinary and transgender employees, creating new compliance obligations for employers and increasing their potential exposure, say attorneys at the Jhaveri-Weeks Firm.

  • Insights From OppFi Suit On Building Calif. Bank Partnerships

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    A California state judge’s tentative ruling, walking through business evidence that Utah bank FinWise was not a “rent-a-bank” that fintech firm Opportunity Financial used as a front to dodge interest rate caps on in-state lenders, offers a helpful road map for structuring legally compliant bank-fintech partnerships under California law, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • 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.

  • Rebuttal

    FTC Case Reinforces Established Price Discrimination Rules

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    Far from redefining price discrimination, as contended by a recent Law360 guest article, the Federal Trade Commission's suit against Southern Glazer's falls squarely within the historical interpretation of the Robinson-Patman Act, says retired attorney Irving Scher.

  • Prepping For White House's Proposed AI Framework

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    The artificial intelligence legislative framework issued by the White House last month reframes the policy landscape, creating a number of near-term developments for companies to track as congressional committees attempt to convert the framework into legislative text, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • 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.

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