California

  • November 21, 2025

    Google Calls Rumble's Judge Recusal Bid 'Cynical Maneuver'

    Google argued Friday that a California federal judge need not recuse himself from YouTube rival Rumble's antitrust suit despite his friendship with Google's top in-house litigation chief, saying Rumble's push for the recusal was a "cynical maneuver" for its Ninth Circuit appeal of a summary judgment loss.

  • November 21, 2025

    Lemon Law Attys Urge Court To Kill Ford's 'Chilling' RICO Suit

    Attorneys representing three lemon law firms urged a California federal judge Friday to dismiss a racketeering suit Ford Motor Co. brought against them alleging they engaged in fraudulent billing practices, with one saying the "chilling" litigation could open every lawsuit to similar claims.

  • November 21, 2025

    UI Design Giant Figma Trained AI With User Data, Suit Says

    User interface design software company Figma, which celebrated its stock market debut this year, on Friday was slapped with a proposed class action in California federal court, claiming the company steals customers' intellectual property to train its artificial intelligence tools.

  • November 21, 2025

    DoorDash Hit With Suit Over Breach Of Customer, Dasher Data

    Delivery service DoorDash failed to delete old data and take other necessary steps to protect the personal information of customers, dashers and merchants that was exposed in a recent security breach, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court. 

  • November 21, 2025

    Ex-DOGE Atty Tapped As GC Of Elon Musk's AI Startup

    James Burnham has been named general counsel for Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup company, xAI, after spending six months working as the top legal officer for the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency.

  • November 21, 2025

    Honda Must Face Lawsuit Over Alleged Brake Defects

    A California federal judge on Thursday preserved some claims from a proposed class action alleging that the automatic emergency braking system in some Honda Motor Co. models is unsafe, finding that drivers who leased a vehicle didn't have full access to the manual.

  • November 21, 2025

    IP Notebook: Kahwa Mix-Up, WallStreetBets, Hotel California

    This round of Law360's look at emerging copyright and trademark issues includes a Federal Circuit case over an obscure tea drink and a nod to the Eagles' "Hotel California" in a precedential decision that is a primer on having an actual intent to use a trademark.

  • November 21, 2025

    FCC Revokes Calif.'s Direct Oversight Of Lifeline Program

    California will no longer be allowed to use its own process to verify eligibility for the Lifeline program after the FCC stripped it of the privilege, which has only been extended to two other states, claiming a recently passed California law will make the state's process unreliable.

  • November 21, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: REIT Reporting, Defining Water

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including reactions from real estate attorneys in two areas primed for deregulation.

  • November 21, 2025

    OpenAI Tells 9th Circ. TM Injunction Is 'Based On Guesses'

    OpenAI Inc. urged the Ninth Circuit on Friday to scrap a preliminary injunction won by IYO Inc. which blocks OpenAI from using the trademark associated with acquired competitor IO Products Inc., arguing there is no evidence that IYO faces irreparable harm and the injunction is "based on guesses" about OpenAI's future products.

  • November 21, 2025

    MGA Can Take IP Fight Over Dolls To 9th Circ. Before Retrial

    A California federal judge on Thursday allowed toy giant MGA Entertainment Inc. to ask the Ninth Circuit if a judge or jury should consider whether hip hop moguls Clifford and Tameka Harris are entitled to punitive damages in long-running litigation over the alleged use of their intellectual property in an MGA line of dolls. 

  • November 21, 2025

    Tesla's Runaway Acceleration Led To Fatal Crash, Suit Says

    A Tesla Model 3 accelerated on its own, crashing into a utility pole and exploding into an inferno that killed a Washington woman and left her husband with serious injuries, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court.

  • November 21, 2025

    Kalshi-Type Cos. Flout Laws, Calif. Tribe Org. Tells CFTC Nom

    The California Nations Indian Gaming Association on Friday called on U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission head nominee Michael Selig to shut down sports events contracts on prediction platforms like Kalshi, saying platforms are "exploiting a regulatory vacuum" to violate federal, state and tribal laws and the commission's own regulations.

  • November 21, 2025

    Electric Air Taxi Co. Joby Says Rival Stole Trade Secrets

    Joby Aviation has accused rival electric air-taxi company Archer Aviation Inc. of recruiting one of Joby's senior executives who pilfered Joby's trade secrets, which Archer then used to gain leverage in negotiations with a development partner on a lucrative deal, according to a new California state court complaint.

  • November 21, 2025

    Nextdoor Beats Investor Suit Over Post-SPAC Woes For Good

    A California federal judge has permanently dismissed a shareholder class action alleging hyperlocal social networking service Nextdoor Holdings Inc. misled investors about its projected profitability when combining with a special purpose acquisition company, finding the investors failed to cure issues from a previous complaint.

  • November 21, 2025

    3 Firms Guide American Healthcare REIT's Public Offering

    American Healthcare REIT Inc., guided by Sidley Austin LLP, announced a public offering for 8.1 million of its common stock shares, which are underwritten by Paul Hastings LLP-led RBC Capital Markets in a deal partially guided by Venable LLP, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

  • November 21, 2025

    Writers Accuse Databricks Of Deposition Misconduct In AI Suit

    Writers suing Databricks for allegedly using their copyrighted works for artificial intelligence training have urged a California federal judge to order defense attorneys to stop coaching witnesses during depositions, with defense counsel countering that the court should bar plaintiffs from asking "personally invasive and harassing" questions.

  • November 21, 2025

    Worker Says Morgan & Morgan Fired Her Over Fraud Concern

    Injury law firm Morgan & Morgan PA fired a case manager after she voiced a concern about fraudulent client hospital records she said the firm gave to opposing counsel to snag more favorable settlements and failed to pay overtime, according to a suit in California state court.

  • November 21, 2025

    DOJ Says Calif. Tuition Laws Discriminate Against US Citizens

    The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of California in federal court Thursday over laws that offer in-state tuition, loans, scholarships and other benefits to college students lacking legal U.S. residency, arguing these laws are unconstitutional since they're not available to U.S. citizens who are from out-of-state. 

  • November 21, 2025

    Calif. Parks Dept. Violated ESA, Judge Rules In Bird Case

    The California Department of Parks and Recreation is violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing vehicles on a beach that's home to threatened snowy plovers, resulting in injury and death to the shorebirds and loss of habitat, a federal judge ruled.

  • November 21, 2025

    Trump Admin Says Court Can't Second-Guess Revoked Visas

    The Trump administration on Friday told a California federal judge that he has no authority to review the State Department's decision to revoke the visas of three international students who say they were wrongly targeted after their names showed up in a crime database, saying the authorizing statute bars judicial review.

  • November 21, 2025

    DLA Piper Adds Fenwick Emerging Growth, VC Expert In LA

    DLA Piper is boosting its corporate team, bringing in a Fenwick & West LLP venture capital ace as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

  • November 21, 2025

    Atty Had 6 AI Tools Check Each Other, Yet Fakes Still Cited

    A California federal judge has sanctioned a solo practitioner representing the plaintiffs in a proposed wage and hour class action against clothing brand Vuori Inc. after he admitted to using about a half-dozen artificial intelligence tools to prepare a motion.

  • November 21, 2025

    Red Cross Workers' $3.5M Wage Deal Halted Again

    A $3.5 million deal to end a proposed wage and hour class action against the American Red Cross can't move forward because the worker who lodged the suit did not fix certain issues a California federal judge pointed out, the judge ruled.

  • November 21, 2025

    9th Circ. Shuts Down Northern Mariana Retiree's COLA Claim

    The Ninth Circuit rejected a retiree's claim that a retirement fund for Northern Mariana Islands government employees owed her cost of living adjustments in her benefits, backing a ruling that a law promising COLAs to retirees doesn't extend to her.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Congress Must Resolve PSLRA Issue For Section 11 Litigants

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    By establishing a uniform judgment reduction credit for all defendants in cases involving Section 11 of the Securities Act, Congress could remove unnecessary statutory ambiguity from the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and enable litigants to price potential settlements with greater certainty, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • FTC's Reseller Suit Highlights Larger Ticket Platform Issues

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    Taken together, the recent Federal Trade Commission lawsuit and Ticketmaster's recent antitrust woes demonstrate that federal enforcers are testing the resilience of antitrust and consumer-protection frameworks in an evolving, tech-driven marketplace, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • Agentic AI Puts A New Twist On Attorney Ethics Obligations

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    As lawyers increasingly use autonomous artificial intelligence agents, disciplinary authorities must decide whether attorney responsibility for an AI-caused legal ethics violation is personal or supervisory, and firms must enact strong policies regarding agentic AI use and supervision, says Grace Wynn at HWG.

  • Health Insurance Kickback Cases Signal Greater Gov't Focus

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    A series of recent indictments by federal prosecutors in California suggests that the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act is gaining momentum as an enforcement tool against illegal inducement of patient referrals in the realm of commercial health insurance, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Cos. Face EU, US Regulatory Tension On Many Fronts

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    When the European Union sets stringent standards, companies seeking to operate in the international marketplace must conform to them, or else concede opportunities — but with the current U.S. administration pushing hard to roll back regulations, global companies face an increasing tension over which standards to follow, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Series

    Being A Professional Wrestler Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Pursuing my childhood dream of being a professional wrestler has taught me important legal career lessons about communication, adaptability, oral advocacy and professionalism, says Christopher Freiberg at Midwest Disability.

  • 2 Calif. Cases Could Reshape Future Of Trap-And-Trace Suits

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    A California federal judge's recent dismissal of two California Invasion of Privacy Act cases demonstrates an inherent contradiction in pen register and trap-and-trace claims, teeing up a Ninth Circuit appeal that could either breathe new life into such claims or put an end to them outright, says Matthew Pearson at Womble Bond.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Adapting To The Age Of AI

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    Though law school may not have specifically taught us how to use generative artificial intelligence to help with our daily legal tasks, it did provide us the mental building blocks necessary for adapting to this new technology — and the judgment to discern what shouldn’t be automated, says Pamela Dorian at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Ch. 11 Ruling Voiding $2M Litigation Funding Sends A Warning

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    A recent Texas bankruptcy court decision that a postconfirmation litigation trust has no obligations to repay a completely drawn down $2 million litigation funding agreement serves as a warning for estate administrators and funders to properly disclose the intended financing, say attorneys at Kleinberg Kaplan.

  • Tesla Verdict May Set New Liability Benchmarks For AV Suits

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    The recent jury verdict in Benavides v. Tesla is notable not only for a massive payout — including $200 million in punitive damages — but because it apportions fault between the company's self-driving technology and the driver, inviting more scrutiny of automated vehicle marketing and technology, says Michael Avanesian at Avian Law Group.

  • Demystifying The Civil Procedure Rules Amendment Process

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    Every year, an advisory committee receives dozens of proposals to amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, most of which are never adopted — but a few pointers can help maximize the likelihood that an amendment will be adopted, says Josh Gardner at DLA Piper.

  • RI Menopause Law Brings New Considerations For Employers

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    Rhode Island becoming the first state to provide express antidiscrimination and accommodation protections for employees' menopause-related conditions may be a bellwether for similar protections in other jurisdictions, so employers should consider that while such benefits may improve recruitment and retention, complications may arise from voluntarily adding them, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • FTC, CoStar Cases Against Zillow May Have Broad Impact

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    Zillow's partnerships with Redfin and Realtor.com have recently triggered dual fronts of legal scrutiny — an antitrust inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission and a mass copyright infringement suit from CoStar — raising complex questions that reach beyond real estate, says Shubha Ghosh at Syracuse University College of Law.

  • State Crypto Regs Diverge As Federal Framework Dawns

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    Following the Genius Act's passage, states like California, New York and Wyoming are racing to set new standards for crypto governance, creating both opportunity and risk for digital asset firms as innovation flourishes in some jurisdictions while costly friction emerges in others, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • How 2nd Circ. Cannabis Ruling Upends NY Licensing

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    A recent Second Circuit decision in Variscite NY Four v. New York, holding that New York's extra-priority cannabis licensing preference for applicants with in-state marijuana convictions violates the dormant commerce clause, underscores that state-legal cannabis markets remain subject to the same constitutional constraints as other economic markets, say attorneys at Harris Beach.

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