Criminal Practice

  • September 26, 2025

    Star Witness Against NJ Sen. Menendez Asks For Leniency

    The government's key witness in the cases against former New Jersey U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife told a New York federal court that because he pled guilty and cooperated, his sentence for admitted bribery and other crimes should be time served, not the years his seven counts could carry.

  • September 26, 2025

    Men On NYPD Gang List Fight To Keep Alive Racial Bias Suit

    Three anonymous men on the New York Police Department's list of gang members have urged a federal judge to reject the city's bid to dismiss their putative class action, saying their claims are based on ongoing racial discrimination and civil rights violations.

  • September 26, 2025

    The Comey Case Was Hard To Bring. It May Be Harder To Win.

    The government faces steep challenges in proving key elements of its bare-bones indictment of former FBI Director James B. Comey, including his state of mind during 2020 testimony before Congress and the potential lack of a credible star witness, experts say.

  • September 26, 2025

    Oysters Not Covered By Drug Forfeiture Law, Court Rules

    Massachusetts' intermediate appellate court on Friday found that the commonwealth may not apply the same forfeiture laws used for seized drugs to 1,600 wild oysters, though it nonetheless upheld the taking of the allegedly ill-gotten mollusks.

  • September 25, 2025

    Ex-FBI Head Comey Indicted Days After Va. US Atty Replaced

    A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday indicted former FBI Director James B. Comey on making a false statement and obstruction of Congress charges, just days after Donald Trump's former personal attorney took over as interim U.S. attorney in the district.

  • September 25, 2025

    Rap Song Can't Be Used To Prove Rap Sheet, NY Court Says

    A criminal defendant's rap song should not have been allowed as evidence that he enabled a murder, a New York state appeals court ruled, granting a new trial in a case that saw Brooklyn prosecutors put one of their own on the stand on a moment's notice as a slang expert.

  • September 25, 2025

    NY Court Vacates Guilty Plea Over Impossible Plea Agreement

    A New York state appeals court on Thursday vacated a plea agreement after finding it contained a requirement that a defendant complete a substance abuse program despite not being eligible for enrollment.

  • September 25, 2025

    Pa. Justices Say Gov't Must Show Proof Of 'High-Crime Areas'

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that police detention of a person based in part on their presence in a "high-crime area" must be supported by proof that the area is actually high in crime, but declined to create strict rules or tests to make that designation.

  • September 25, 2025

    Mich. High Court To Decide If Four Years Makes A Speedy Trial

    The Michigan Supreme Court will review whether a man sentenced to up to 15 years for domestic violence was denied the right to a speedy trial due to a four-year wait between his arrest and his case going before a jury.

  • September 25, 2025

    Calif. Panel Rejects Prisoner's Racial Bias Discovery Motion

    A California state appeals court has determined that an incarcerated Samoan man did not sufficiently allege he was discriminated against when brokering a plea agreement with state prosecutors, ruling that he should not have been granted limited discovery to prove his claims under a state racial justice law.

  • September 25, 2025

    US Olympic Org Beats Paralympian Abuse Coverage Dispute

    A Colorado federal court tossed an insurer's suit seeking to escape coverage for an underlying sexual abuse case against the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, saying the organization has no state citizenship for purposes of diversity jurisdiction.

  • September 25, 2025

    Bondi Faces Key 'Test' As Trump Orders Prosecutions

    Attorney General Pam Bondi has reached a crossroads less than eight months into her tenure as she faces an extraordinary directive from President Donald Trump to wield the U.S. Department of Justice against his political enemies.

  • September 24, 2025

    Calif. Tribes Fight State Highway Patrol Over Cannabis Raids

    The Round Valley Indian Tribes have opposed the state of California's motion to dismiss their lawsuit over what they claim are illegal cannabis raids, telling a federal judge that the bid to throw out their suit fails to prevail over the latest complaint's factual allegations.

  • September 24, 2025

    Planned Parenthood Shooter Still Not Competent For Trial

    The man accused of killing three people and injuring several more at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood in 2015 may never stand trial after a Colorado federal judge on Wednesday granted a joint motion to find the man incompetent to proceed despite his receiving rehabilitation services.

  • September 24, 2025

    Ga. Prisoner Gets 80 Years For Mailing Bombs To Court, DOJ

    A person incarcerated in a Georgia state prison has been sentenced to 80 years in federal custody after building and mailing bombs to a federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, and the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

  • September 24, 2025

    DOJ Seeks Dismissal Of Pot User's Gun Charge

    The U.S. Department of Justice wants to end its prosecution of a cannabis user charged with possession of a firearm, telling an Oklahoma federal court on Tuesday that the case is old and it's very likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will soon address the gun law at issue.

  • September 24, 2025

    'Star Trek' Jury Instruction Not Fatal To Trial, Fla. Court Says

    A Florida appeals court ruled that a jury was not biased when a trial court drew out an extended metaphor while delivering jury instructions that included references to a Harry Potter invisibility cloak and a transporter on the Starship Enterprise.

  • September 24, 2025

    Pa. Court Will Reconsider Opinion In Probation Violation Case

    A Pennsylvania state appeals court has thrown out its ruling that a man on probation for a bar fight couldn't be found in violation of release conditions for harassing his attorney and judge without being criminally charged and will reconsider the case.

  • September 24, 2025

    Rikers Detainees File Class Action Over Solitary Confinement

    A group of detainees are accusing the New York City Department of Correction of systematically violating the state's landmark law restricting solitary confinement, saying in a state court in a proposed class complaint they have been locked in their cells for up to 24 hours a day at Rikers Island despite the ban, a lawyer told Law360 on Wednesday.

  • September 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Revives Sex Harassment Suit Against Wash. Sheriff

    The Ninth Circuit reopened a lawsuit alleging that a Washington sheriff's department failed to stop a deputy sheriff who coerced a woman he had previously arrested into a seven-year sexual relationship, ruling that each alleged instance of sexual misconduct restarted the statute-of-limitations clock.

  • September 24, 2025

    Sen. Ossoff Pushes Fed. Courts To Uphold Access To Counsel

    Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., has urged the Judicial Conference to take further action to ensure that all defendants, particularly low-income ones, have access to counsel for their initial appearance in federal court.

  • September 24, 2025

    Pa. Man Gets 4 Years In Prison For $72M Fraud

    A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to four years behind bars for scamming two lenders out of $72 million that he said would go toward buying insurance companies, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia.

  • September 23, 2025

    Judiciary Dems Demand Feds Explain 'Border Czar' Probe

    Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Tuesday they are looking into the Trump administration's alleged closure of a U.S. Department of Justice bribery investigation of White House "border czar" Thomas Homan, following recent news reports that he accepted $50,000 from an undercover FBI agent.

  • September 23, 2025

    Feds Defend Search In SC Ex-Legislator's CSAM Case

    Prosecutors on Monday asked a South Carolina federal court to allow the use of evidence collected from the phone of former state legislator R.J. May, a powerful Republican in the Palmetto State who was arrested earlier this year in an investigation of child sexual abuse materials.

  • September 23, 2025

    NC Legislature Passes Bill To Eliminate Cashless Bail

    In the wake of the murder of a Ukrainian refugee on public transit allegedly by a man recently arrested and freed on a promise to appear, North Carolina's General Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to eliminate cashless bail and make it easier to execute people in the state.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    The Legal Education Status Quo Is No Longer Tenable

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    As underscored by the fallout from California’s February bar exam, legal education and licensure are tethered to outdated systems, and the industry must implement several key reforms to remain relevant and responsive to 21st century legal needs, says Matthew Nehmer at The Colleges of Law.

  • 'Pig Butchering' Seizure Is A Milestone In Crypto Crime Fight

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    The U.S.' recent seizure of $225 million in crypto funds in a massive "pig butchering" scheme highlights the transformative impact of blockchain analysis in law enforcement, and the increasing necessity of collaboration between law enforcement agencies, cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin issuers, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions

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    In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How DOJ's New Data Security Rules Leave HIPAA In The Dust

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently effective data security requirements carry profound implications for how healthcare providers collect, store, share and use data — and approach vendor oversight — that go far beyond the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Reel Justice: 'Oh, Hi!' Teaches Attys To Return To The Statute

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    The new dark comedy film “Oh, Hi!” — depicting a romantic vacation that turns into an inadvertent kidnapping — should remind criminal practitioners to always reread the statute to avoid assumptions, meet their ethical duties and finesse their trial strategy, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.

  • DOJ-HHS Collab Crystallizes Focus On Health Enforcement

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    The recently announced partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to combat False Claims Act violations, following a multiyear trend of high-dollar DOJ recoveries, signals a long-term enforcement horizon with major implications for healthcare entities and whistleblowers, say attorneys at RJO.

  • How Courts Are Addressing The Use Of AI In Discovery

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    In recent months, several courts have issued opinions on handling discovery issues involving artificial intelligence, which collectively offer useful insights on integrating AI into discovery and protecting work product in connection with AI prompts and outputs, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • Series

    Playing Baseball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing baseball in college, and now Wiffle ball in a local league, has taught me that teamwork, mental endurance and emotional intelligence are not only important to success in the sport, but also to success as a trial attorney, says Kevan Dorsey at Swift Currie.

  • APA Relief May Blunt Justices' Universal Injunction Ruling

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    The Administrative Procedure Act’s avenue for universal preliminary relief seems to hold the most promise for neutralizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. CASA to limit federal district courts' nationally applicable orders, say attorneys at Crowell.

  • Opinion

    Prosecutors' Duty To Justice Sometimes Demands Mea Culpa

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    Two recent cases — U.S. v. Lucas and U.S. v. Echavarria — demonstrate that prosecutors’ special ethical duty to seek justice can sometimes be in tension with other obligations and incentives, but it nonetheless requires them to concede their mistakes in the interests of justice, say Eastern District of Texas law clerk Ian Stephens and Texas A&M University law professor Jemila Lea.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Skillful Persuasion

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    In many ways, law school teaches us how to argue, but when the ultimate goal is to get your client what they want, being persuasive through preparation and humility is the more likely key to success, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.

  • FCA Working Group Reboot Signals EHR Compliance Risk

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    The revival of the False Claims Act working group is an aggressive expansion of enforcement efforts by the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services targeted toward technology-enabled fraud involving electronic health records and other data, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Litigation Inspiration: How To Respond After A Loss

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    Every litigator loses a case now and then, and the sting of that loss can become a medicine that strengthens or a poison that corrodes, depending on how the attorney responds, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • New Interpol Silver Notice Could Be Tool For Justice Or Abuse

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    Interpol has issued dozens of Silver Notices to trace and recover assets linked to criminal activity since January, and though the tool may disrupt organized crime and terrorist financing, attorneys must protect against the potential for corrupt misuse, say attorneys at Clark Hill and Arktouros.

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