California

  • July 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Age-Based Groups Are Immutable In Asylum Bid

    The Ninth Circuit Monday revived the asylum bid of a Mexican mother and her children who escaped masked men, saying an immigration appeals panel disobeyed its own precedent when rejecting an age-based social group she based her petition on.

  • July 20, 2026

    Meta Slips Suits Over Pump-And-Dump Scam Ads, For Now

    A California federal judge has tossed two proposed class actions claiming Meta's artificial intelligence tools enabled schemes advertised on Facebook and Instagram that caused nearly $30 million in investor losses, saying the litigation aligns with a recent ruling finding such state claims are barred under federal securities law.

  • July 20, 2026

    Weedmaps $7.5M Investor Deal Gets Preliminary Approval

    A California federal judge on Monday granted preliminary approval to a $7.5 million settlement to end claims that Weedmaps inflated its monthly average users metric after going public, causing its stock to drop when the truth came out.

  • July 20, 2026

    Tilray Beats Suit Over Hemp Product Protein Claim, For Now

    A California federal judge dismissed, for now, a Tilray customer's proposed class action alleging she was misled about the protein content of the company's hemp powders on Amazon product listings, ruling Friday they complied with federal labeling requirements, since the listings feature complete nutrition facts panels and percent daily value.

  • July 20, 2026

    Honda Driver Says Defective Camera Disables Safety Features

    A Honda driver said multiple vehicle models have a defect in their windshield-mounted front-facing sensor camera, which causes safety and driver assistance features to malfunction simultaneously, telling a California federal court that drivers are left with clusters of warning messages and costly repairs.

  • July 20, 2026

    Meta Can't Block States' Damages Expert In Addiction Trial

    A California federal judge has denied Meta Platforms Inc.'s bid to exclude testimony from a damages expert offered by a coalition of 29 states from an upcoming trial in a suit alleging Facebook and Instagram are intentionally addictive.

  • July 20, 2026

    Amazon Says Atty's Defense In TM Suit Still Baseless

    Amazon has asked a Washington federal judge to reject a renewed motion to dismiss from a California attorney being sued for alleged participation in a trademark fraud scheme, claiming she was rehashing arguments from her prior motion, which the company said was riddled with artificial intelligence-generated hallucinations.

  • July 20, 2026

    Lexi Love Can Pull Paramount Into 'Drag Race' TM Suit

    A California federal judge has denied a bid from Paramount and the studio behind RuPaul's Drag Race to escape trademark litigation between actress and former porn star Lexi Love and a drag queen who uses the same name, saying First Amendment protections don't apply to their usage of the moniker.

  • July 20, 2026

    Lathrop GPM To Expand In Calif., NY, UK With IP Firm Combo

    Lathrop GPM LLP announced Monday that it has agreed to combine with intellectual property firm HG Law at the start of January, which would expand its capabilities in the Silicon Valley market and give the firm a presence in New York and London.

  • July 20, 2026

    AGs Say DOJ Suit Would 'Upend' Atty Discipline System

    Attorneys general in 20 states have raised alarms over the U.S. Department of Justice's "unprecedented effort" to halt a disciplinary case in D.C. against former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Clark, warning the Trump administration is trying to "upend a centuries-old system of attorney discipline" and put federal government lawyers beyond the reach of local disciplinary authorities.

  • July 20, 2026

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving intellectual property, corporate control, fiduciary duties, artificial intelligence, trust administration and cryptocurrency litigation.

  • July 20, 2026

    Microchip Co. Will Pay $13M To End Merger Severance Fight

    A microchip-maker will pay more than $13 million to settle a long-running class action alleging it illegally shut down a severance program following a 2016 merger, according to terms of the proposed deal filed in California federal court.

  • July 20, 2026

    Court Pauses Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal Amid Challenge

    A California federal court issued a temporary restraining order on Monday, preventing Paramount Skydance from moving ahead with its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery as state enforcers challenge the deal.

  • July 20, 2026

    Top Gov't Contracting Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

    Federal courts in the latter half of 2026 are expected to decide if the Trump administration overstepped by designating Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security and whether the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions pass constitutional muster, potentially affecting the government's ability to tackle fraud.

  • July 17, 2026

    Wealth Management Co. To Pay $1.85M In SEC's Scam Case

    A California federal judge has ordered a purported wealth management company and its managing member to pay $1.85 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stemming from a pair of fraud schemes, including one involving an elaborate ruse invoking ties to the wealth of the royal family of Qatar.

  • July 17, 2026

    9th Circ. Tosses Child Sex Abuse Conviction Over Bad Search

    A Ninth Circuit panel threw out the conviction of a man who pled guilty to recording himself raping his 7-year-old daughter in Washington, saying Friday that officers discovered the videos on his computer after going beyond the bounds of an unrelated search warrant.

  • July 17, 2026

    Judge Decries 'Extreme' Penalty Bids In Social Media MDL

    A California federal judge overseeing an upcoming trial over states' social media addiction claims against Meta took issue with both sides' "extreme" penalty estimates during a pretrial hearing Friday, saying the states' $1.4 trillion proposal is "unreasonable," but Meta's $4 million estimate "is not even a slap on the hand."

  • July 17, 2026

    Extreme Networks Investors Win Cert. In COVID Sales Dip Suit

    A California federal judge has certified a class of Extreme Networks investors who say they were misled about its financial prospects during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding their out-of-pocket damages are measurable on a classwide basis and that they don't have to prove their case via common evidence.

  • July 17, 2026

    Taylor Farms, Taco Bell Sued Over Cyclospora Outbreak

    Taylor Farms and Taco Bell are facing proposed class litigation in California, Michigan and Ohio federal courts after public health officials linked contaminated lettuce that was supplied to Taco Bell to a parasitic outbreak that's sickened more than 1,600 people in several states.

  • July 17, 2026

    FDIC Says Excessive Risk Dooms SVB's $1.7B Claim

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. argued during closing arguments in a trial in California federal court that Silicon Valley Bank's 2023 failure was due to excessive financial risk and mismanagement, while SVB countered that its losses were sparked by an "unprecedented" bank run.

  • July 17, 2026

    Netflix Wants Judge To Reject DivX's New Patent Trial Bid

    Netflix is urging a California federal judge not to grant compression technology company DivX a new trial over anti-copying and image-quality patents for streaming video after a jury cleared Netflix in March.

  • July 17, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Office-To-Resi Woes, Prefab Housing Wins

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney reactions to the structural issues at the old Pfizer building in New York, a Big Law partner's view of manufactured housing in light of the new federal housing law, and new tactics in data center development as certain states clamp down.

  • July 17, 2026

    Calif. Air District Can Be Sued Under Clean Air Act, Judge Says

    A federal judge ruled Friday that the Clean Air Act allows a coalition of environmental groups to sue an agency that controls air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley even though it is a government regulator.

  • July 17, 2026

    Spokeo Reaches $10M Settlement In Right Of Publicity Row

    Spokeo has reached a $10 million preliminary settlement with a group of plaintiffs from nine states alleging their right to publicity was violated by the company through teaser profiles that used their private information to help sell subscriptions to the platform, according to a motion filed in California federal court.

  • July 17, 2026

    Judge Says OMB Can't Change Grant Terms After Award

    A Massachusetts federal judge said Friday the Trump administration cannot rely on a shift in policy to retroactively change the terms of already awarded grants in order to justify canceling them.

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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