Analysis

DOJ's In-House Detention Legal Aid Plan Is MIA

By Courtney Bublé

A year ago, U.S. Department of Justice officials said the government would be taking over a program historically run by nonprofits to provide legal orientations and referrals for pro bono representation for adults in immigration detention facilities. But those involved in the program say the Trump administration hasn't taken any steps to run the program.

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Bondi Spurs Ethics Doubts By Using DOJ Official As Counsel

By Courtney Bublé

Harmeet Dhillon, an official with the U.S. Department of Justice, is representing former Attorney General Pam Bondi in proceedings before the House oversight committee, which Democrats on the panel say raises ethical quandaries.

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Wells Fargo, Lloyd's Beat $900B Fraud Suit Over Wire Error

By Katryna Perera

A Maryland federal judge has permanently tossed a lawsuit brought by Alliance Global Capital Fund and a cheese shop that sought $900 billion in damages alleging Wells Fargo refused to redirect funds it knew were credited to the wrong account, finding a majority of the case's claims were brought too late.

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Lewis Brisbois Gets Ex-Paralegal's Claims Sent To Arbitration

By Adrian Cruz

A Florida state judge determined that a former Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP paralegal has to arbitrate her claims accusing the firm of defamation and costing her a job at another firm.

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Maduro Gets June Court Date After US Relents On Atty Fees

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge on Monday directed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to return to court in June, after he and his wife, Cilia Flores, reached an apparent agreement with the Trump administration to access Venezuela government funds for their legal fees.

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Military Atty Can Prosecute Minn. Civilian Despite Regulations

By Jack Karp

A Minnesota federal judge won't stop a military attorney from being appointed to prosecute a civilian accused of assaulting federal immigration officers, despite finding that the appointment violates binding U.S. Department of Defense regulations.

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Fla. Judge Urges Rethink Of Refusal To Toss Ethics Charges

By Madison Arnold

A Florida appellate judge is pushing a judicial panel to reconsider its denial of her motion to dismiss ethics charges that she attempted to influence lower-court proceedings for an incarcerated man formerly on death row, arguing that the panel's chair does have the ability to consider her constitutional issues.

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Mass. Justices Uneasy Over Judge's Handling Of ICE Incident

By Julie Manganis

Massachusetts' top court on Monday appeared concerned that a state district court judge in 2018 offered to detain a defendant sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, as the justices considered a public reprimand.

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Texas Bar Says Atty, Now Judge, Took $15K But Ignored Client

By José Luis Martínez

The State Bar of Texas' disciplinary arm said Monday that a Harris County lawyer who later became a criminal judge accepted $15,000 to handle a DWI case while in private practice, then stopped handling the case and ignored a refund request.

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2nd Circ. Raises Concern Over Challenge To NY US Atty's DQ

By Stewart Bishop

A Second Circuit panel on Monday voiced concern over the U.S. Department of Justice's argument that a now-former acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York was serving lawfully when he subpoenaed the New York Attorney General's office over a pair of cases disfavored by President Donald Trump.

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AI Hallucinations Kill Montreal Arbitrator's Decision

By Joyce Hanson

A Canadian court annulled a Montreal arbitrator's award in a healthcare dispute, saying that in writing his decision, he wrongly relied on numerous "hallucinated" legal authorities provided to him by a generative artificial intelligence tool.

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Atty Seeks Docs To Back Ogletree DQ Bid In Bias Suit

By Adrian Cruz

A Georgia attorney on Monday asked a federal judge to allow discovery related to her bid to have Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC disqualified from defending ADT LLC against discrimination claims while concurrently defending Microsoft Corp. in the attorney's own pregnancy bias suit.

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Vrdolyak Firm Loses Bid To End Ex-Staff's Wiretapping Claims

By Matt Perez

A Chicago federal judge on Friday said former Vrdolyak Law Group LLC employees can keep pursuing most of their claims that the firm secretly recorded workers' phone calls.

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Calif. Firm Accused Of Withholding Fees From Dying Partner

By Hailey Konnath

The wife of a late Carpenter & Zuckerman LLP partner says the firm withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from her husband before he died of cancer, claiming he spent his final months "pleading for funds" and living in "constant fear" that he would die without securing financial security for his family.

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Sinema Pans 'Gross Distortion' By Ex-Guard's Wife In Tryst Suit

By Abigail Harrison

Former Arizona U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Friday doubled down on her contention that a North Carolina federal court lacks jurisdiction over a lawsuit alleging she destroyed a marriage by sending lascivious texts to her ex-security guard.

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Split 7th Circ. Refuses To Revive Kohl's Consumer Arbitration

By Caroline Simson

The Seventh Circuit has declined to revive arbitration claims against Kohl's over alleged false discounts that were nixed by the American Arbitration Association after the department store chain refused to register its arbitration agreement, a prerequisite for the claims to proceed.

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Gas Stations Bound To Visa Swipe Fee Deal, 2nd Circ. Says

By Bryan Koenig

A Second Circuit panel refused Monday to let a group of gas stations separately sue Visa and Mastercard over their swipe fees, holding the would-be plaintiffs cannot get out of a $5.6 billion antitrust settlement the credit card giants inked with merchants.

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Lee & Hayes Wins Liability Ruling In Fee Fight With Ex-Client

By Ben Adlin

An Idaho-based 3D printing firm broke a fee contract with its former legal counsel at Lee & Hayes PC, a Washington federal judge ruled Monday, rejecting the company's contention that the firm had agreed to reduce its $7.2 million contingency fee to a $3 million fixed rate.

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Apple Asks High Court To Pause Epic Games App Store Order

By Hailey Konnath

Apple on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a mandate directing a lower court to move forward with determining exactly what Apple can charge developers on in-app purchases, arguing there are important questions that need to be resolved by the justices first.

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2 AI Snafus Show Why Attys Can't Outsource Judgment

The recent incident involving Sullivan & Cromwell where citations in a filed motion were fabricated by artificial intelligence, as well as a punitive ruling from the Sixth Circuit in U.S. v. Farris, demonstrate that the obligation to supervise AI has belonged and always will belong to lawyers, says John Powell at the Kentucky School Boards Association.

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Attys Defend $85M Fee Bid Blasted By Judge In Google Deal

By Bonnie Eslinger

Consumers who pursued an antitrust class action against Google urged the California federal judge who criticized their 98,000 hours billed as "grotesquely bloated" to approve their $85 million fee request, emphasizing Friday that they filed suit a year before state attorneys general joined the case and maintained a leading role in the litigation.

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DOJ Apology For Hidden Warrant Not Satisfying For Judge

By Tom Lotshaw

A Rhode Island federal judge, whom the U.S. Department of Homeland Security criticized for releasing a noncitizen with an alleged overseas warrant for homicide, was dissatisfied with an assistant U.S. attorney's apology for not disclosing the warrant to the court beforehand.

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Wash. Bar Task Force Spotlights Atty Mental Health Issues

By Rachel Riley

A Washington State Bar Association wellness survey of roughly 900 members found that nearly 10% said they experienced suicidal thoughts or self-harm in the past year, and about 20% expressed concerns about their alcohol consumption, a task force reported to bar leadership on Saturday.

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Longtime South Fla. Federal Judge James King Dies At 98

By Carolina Bolado

U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King, a Nixon appointee who spent more than half a century on the federal bench and helped shape the Southern District of Florida, died Saturday at the age of 98.

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Calif. District OKs Civil Court Audio Feeds Including Musk Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

The Northern District of California modified local court rules late Friday to allow judges to stream audio for civil jury trials in the district, accompanying its announcement with a separate notice that the high-profile Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial over OpenAI's for-profit conversion is available to access via audio stream.

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