Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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SPAC Settlements Drove Down Chancery Deal Values In 2025

By Jessica Corso

A surge in the number of settlements in the Delaware Chancery Court last year was driven by the end of litigation against special purpose acquisition vehicles, but settling investors received less money than at any point in the past five years, Cornerstone Research has said in a new report.

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Paramount Judge Won't 'Rubber Stamp' States' Merger Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge questioned state enforcers Thursday about the details of their proposed settlement to resolve antitrust litigation challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, telling counsel, "The court isn't a rubber stamp," and "I've got questions, and I'm not the only one."

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TikTok Loses Bid To Trim Kids' Data Privacy Suit In Calif.

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge on Thursday refused TikTok's bid to trim claims from a proposed class action alleging that the platform exploits the private information of users under 13, saying at a hearing that the question of whether previous TikTok settlements bar the plaintiffs' claims should be saved for later.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Mortgage Co. Escapes Ex-Workers' 401(k) Forfeiture Suit

By Grace Elletson

A Michigan federal judge shut down a suit claiming United Wholesale Mortgage cost employees millions in retirement savings by using forfeited 401(k) funds to pay for employer contributions rather than plan expenses, ruling the workers who sued can't ask the court to create a benefit they weren't owed.

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3rd Circ. Eyes 'Compromise' Instruction In Equal Pay Case

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Third Circuit panel on Thursday appeared to take issue with a district judge's suggestion that a jury "compromise" in reaching a verdict in favor of female teachers who alleged Central Bucks School District paid them less than a male colleague.

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Kellogg Seeks High Court Review Of 6th Circ. Pension Ruling

By Emily Brill

The U.S. Supreme Court should resolve a circuit split on whether actuaries must use up-to-date life expectancies when converting pension benefits from one form to another, Kellogg argued, asking the justices to scrap the Sixth Circuit's answer to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act query.

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Hain Investors Seek Final OK For $35M 'Channel-Stuffing' Deal

By Katryna Perera

Food and personal care company Hain Celestial and a class of investors have reached a $35 million deal to resolve channel-stuffing claims roughly a year after the Second Circuit revived the suit. 

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Maryland Judge Sends CarMax Investor's Tariff Suit to Virginia

By Katryna Perera

An investor suit accusing CarMax Inc. of mischaracterizing a sales bump prior to the Trump administration's tariffs as a sign of sustainable growth has been transferred to Virginia by a Maryland federal judge.

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Mining Co. Investor Says Sprott Got Control Without Premium

By Jarek Rutz

A Hycroft Mining shareholder has alleged in Delaware Chancery Court the company's board handed control of the business to Canadian billionaire Eric Sprott through a series of stock issuances without demanding a control premium, even as it was sitting on favorable information about a major discovery of silver.

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Medical School Application Fee Antitrust Claim Moves Ahead

By Matthew Perlman

A D.C. federal court issued an order on Thursday trimming several claims from a class action accusing the Association of American Medical Colleges of inflating medical school application fees, but allowed one of the antitrust claims to move ahead.

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Novartis Beats Patent Listing Suit Over Entresto

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge gave Novartis permanent relief from a proposed class action alleging it monopolistically delayed generic competition for its blockbuster heart failure drug Entresto, concluding that the drugmaker properly used a patent to ensure exclusivity.

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GM Accused Of Defective Oil Cooling System In Trucks

By Susan Smiley

Certain models of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra vehicles have a defective oil cooling system that can cause complete engine failure, a group of truck owners alleged Thursday in a proposed class action claiming General Motors knew about the problem, never issued a recall and refused to honor warranties when engines failed.

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Pot Co. Planet 13 Sued Over Alleged ID Scan Data Breach

By Sam Reisman

Nevada-based cannabis retailer Planet 13 scanned thousands of photo IDs belonging to customers entering its Las Vegas store, and the images were subsequently leaked onto the dark web, a proposed class action filed Wednesday in federal court alleges.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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Analysis

Calif. Bill Deals Blow, But Not Knockout, To Tracking Suits

By Allison Grande

A California bill awaiting the governor's signature is poised to reduce the swell of litigation under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, but the narrow scope of the pending lawsuit ban leaves open other avenues for plaintiffs to target the widespread use of website tracking technologies.

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Ritz, Other Hotels Can't Avoid All Sex Trafficking Claims

By Mike Curley

A Georgia federal judge won't let Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and other hotel companies escape a woman's allegations that they aided a human trafficking scheme, saying she's alleged enough for her Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act claims to survive.

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Borrowers Sue Ed. Dept. Over 'Plain Wrong' Credit Reporting

By Jon Hill

Student loan borrowers Thursday sued the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging it has tarnished hundreds of thousands of consumer credit histories by falsely reporting billions of dollars in discharged loans as still outstanding.

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Capital One, Influencers Get Final OK In Alleged Fee Theft Suit

By Sydney Price

A Virginia federal judge has granted final approval to a settlement under which Capital One will pay influencers commissions and nearly $4 million in attorney fees and costs to settle claims that it siphoned commissions away from participants in its affiliate marketing program.

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Bid For Conn. High Court Help Turned Down By PFAS Judge

By Jonathan Capriel

A Connecticut federal judge has, for now, declined a request seeking to ask the state's high court to determine whether state law allows for a medical monitoring remedy for firefighters who suffered forever-chemicals exposure from their protective gear that was manufactured with chemicals provided by 3M, DuPont and others.

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EPA Cuts Deal To Partially Settle U. Of Calif. Grant Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

University of California researchers urged a California federal judge Wednesday to preliminarily sign off on their proposed deal to resolve claims against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in broader litigation challenging the Trump administration's termination of thousands of UC grants.

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Trump Admin Asks Justices To Allow 3rd-Country Removals

By Rae Ann Varona

The Trump administration Thursday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to let it continue deporting migrants to countries other than their native country, saying a district court's order that found the government's policy on third-country removals unlawful is "fundamentally flawed."

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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4 Tips On Expert Gatekeeping From J&J Talc Deal

Johnson & Johnson's successful campaign to exclude plaintiff-side oncologist testimony about whether its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, which prompted the recent resolution of 70,000 claims, offers lessons on how product liability defendants can reshape risk calculation by rigorously applying expert admissibility rules, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

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What Greek Tragedy Teaches About Mediating AI Disputes

While ancient Greek writers could not have anticipated modern arbitration, their tragic plays illustrate new and familiar questions for mediators dealing with artificial intelligence disputes, including the functional differences between adjudication and resolution, says Giuseppe De Palo at JAMS.

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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