Target, Campbell's End Chicken-Price Fix Suit With Mar-Jac

By Gina Kim

Target Corp. and The Campbell's Co. are the latest broiler chicken purchasers to permanently end their price-fixing claims Monday against poultry processor giant Mar-Jac Inc. in a decade-old sprawling antitrust litigation claiming broiler chicken producers acted in concert to limit chicken production to raise prices and exchange sales volume information with each other.

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Judge Warns Attys Over Candor In Grubhub-Kroger TM Row

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge on Monday admonished defense counsel in ongoing trademark litigation between Grubhub Inc. and The Kroger Co. after finding discrepancies in the Kroger attorney's representations of information Grubhub provided in a discovery response, reminding all lawyers involved of their duty of candor and adherence to professional conduct rules.

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Class Decertified In Hill's Prescription Pet Food Suit

By Mike Curley

An Illinois federal judge has decertified a class of pet food buyers alleging that Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. misled them into thinking its "prescription" pet food was necessary medicine, saying a recent summary judgment renders the plaintiffs' damages model inadequate for certification.

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Deere & Co. Must Face FTC Suit Over Repair Restrictions

By Jared Foretek

An Illinois federal judge compared John Deere's second attempt at beating a right-to-repair suit to Steve Martin's Pink Panther II reboot, calling it "predictable" and "derivative" as he again rejected the farm equipment giant's motion for judgment on the pleadings and allowed the Federal Trade Commission's case against it to proceed.

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Amazon Can't Duck Suit Over Non-FDA Approved Supplements

By Gina Kim

Amazon must face a proposed class action alleging it sells non-FDA approved supplements touting health-related claims without mandatory disclaimers, after a Washington federal judge rejected the company's argument the plaintiffs lack standing to pursue claims over supplements they never bought, finding the plaintiffs allege a uniform, systematic marketing practice.

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No Sanctions For Cicis Pizza Investor, Judge Rules

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas state court judge drew short of sanctioning one of the companies that helped bring Cicis Pizza out of bankruptcy, but said Tuesday the company needs to turn over its complete ledger as it pursues a suit challenging allegedly excessive management fees totaling at least $25 million.

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Campbell's Hit With Wage-Hour Suit Over Donning Time

By Irene Spezzamonte

Renowned soup producer Campbell's failed to pay production workers for the time they spent putting on personal protective equipment before their shifts, a former company's filler operator said in a proposed collective action in New Jersey federal court.

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9th Circ. Weighs Bids To Revive 3 Website Wiretapping Suits

By Allison Grande

A Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday appeared skeptical of a trio of consumers' bids to resurrect separate proposed class actions accusing Papa John's, Converse and Bloomingdale's of unlawfully tracking website visitors, questioning whether the plaintiffs' claims fit within the scope of California's wiretapping and eavesdropping protections.

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Samsung, Home Depot Liable For Home Fire, Insurer Says

By Hope Patti

Samsung and Home Depot owe an insurer more than $330,000 for payments made to a policyholder for fire damage, the insurer said in a suit removed to Pennsylvania federal court, alleging that an electric range manufactured by Samsung and sold by Home Depot caused the blaze.

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Chancery Sends Protein Co. Suit Toward Trial With Caution

By Jeff Montgomery

A suit accusing company insiders and investors of exploiting their position to sell plant protein venture Nutriati Inc. to a major investor for an unfair price easily survived a Delaware Court of Chancery dismissal bid Tuesday, but with a court caution that litigation costs could outweigh the stakes.

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Clerk's Role Means Antitrust Judge Must Recuse, Court Told

By Madison Arnold

Pork producer defendants involved in a major pork price-fixing case continue to push for the recusal of a Minnesota federal judge because of his clerk's connections to plaintiff-side firms, arguing the plaintiffs are running from "indisputable facts."

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Mo. Verdict Winner Urges Justices To Deny Roundup Appeal

By Tom Lotshaw

A Missouri man awarded $1.2 million for a failure-to-warn claim alleging Roundup weed killer caused his cancer urged the U.S. Supreme Court to deny Monsanto's petition for review, saying the company is only trying to avoid liability.

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Brief

Atlanta Drag Bar Agrees To $50K Deal In Wage Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

An Atlanta bar that provides drag show entertainment has agreed to pay $50,000 to end a performer's proposed collective action alleging it failed to pay minimum wage and overtime, and both parties urged a Georgia federal court to greenlight the deal.

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Appellate Guidance Needed On California Chatbot Litigation

There is wide variation in how courts are applying the California Invasion of Privacy Act against website owners that allegedly help third parties spy on visitors via chatbots — and the lack of appellate rulings creates uncertainty, especially as these cases move toward the summary judgment stage, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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Calif. Bar Exam Fiasco Shows Why Attys Must Disclose AI Use

The recent revelation that a handful of questions from the controversial California bar exam administered in February were drafted using generative artificial intelligence demonstrates the continued importance of disclosure for attorneys who use AI tools, say attorneys at Troutman.

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Ex-Copyright Leader Says Firing Risks 'Inoperable' Agency

By Ivan Moreno

The fired leader of the U.S. Copyright Office has asked a D.C. federal judge to block the Trump administration's action while she challenges her termination, arguing that significant functions of the government agency could be rendered "inoperable" without judicial intervention.

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Trump Presses 2nd Circ. To Federalize Hush Money Appeal

By Stewart Bishop

Counsel for President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged the Second Circuit to take over the appeal of his New York state hush money conviction post-trial, saying a federal judge in Manhattan wrongly denied removal, and the landscape has now changed in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark presidential immunity decision.

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JC Penney Blasts Jackson Walker Bid To Escape Fee Dispute

By Lynn LaRowe

J.C. Penney has called on a Texas bankruptcy court to knock down Jackson Walker LLP's bid to escape a fee suit prompted by a yearslong secret romance between a former firm partner and a onetime bankruptcy judge, saying the firm's dismissal bid is "riddled with implausibility, excuse and contradiction."

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Atty Wants 6th Circ. To Vacate Tenn. 'Gag Order' Rule Decision

By Jack Karp

If the Sixth Circuit does not undo a decision that a Nashville attorney didn't have standing to challenge a since-rescinded Middle District of Tennessee rule concerning lawyers' "extrajudicial statements," it could "be all but impossible" for lawyers to challenge similar court rules in the future, the attorney said Wednesday.

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Attys For Disney Streaming Customers Vie To Lead Settlement

By Jared Foretek

Days after announcing that they've reached a settlement with Disney, live TV streaming customers are looking to appoint Yavar Bathaee from Bathaee Dunne LLP to serve as the lead counsel in their proposed antitrust class action against the company over ESPN carriage agreement fees.

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Brief

Mass. Gov. Nominates Probate Court Justice To Appeals Court

By Julie Manganis

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday nominated Probate and Family Court Justice Jennifer M. Allen to the state's intermediate appellate court.

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Queens Defenders Ex-Director Charged With Embezzling

By Gina Kim

A former executive director of Queens Defenders and her husband are charged with embezzling $60,000 from the organization and spending it on personal expenses including rent for a penthouse apartment, luxury goods, vacations and teeth-whitening procedures, prosecutors say in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York federal court.

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DOJ Legal Policy Chief, Adviser On Judge Selections, Resigns

By Courtney Bublé

Aaron Reitz, a top U.S. Department of Justice official who works on judicial nominations, announced Wednesday he's resigning after being confirmed for the role on March 26.

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DOJ Says Newsom Can't Ask Court To Halt Guard Deployment

By Jared Foretek

The Trump administration is telling a California federal judge its decision to federalize the National Guard is unreviewable in court, calling California Gov. Gavin Newsom's effort to stop the takeover "a crass political stunt" in a new filing Wednesday.

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