OpenAI Hit With Wave Of Suits Over 'Suicide Coach' ChatGPT

By Dorothy Atkins

ChatGPT users and suicide victims' families hit OpenAI Inc. and its CEO Sam Altman with a wave of lawsuits in California state court Friday, alleging OpenAI knowingly released a dangerously designed sycophantic, psychologically manipulative, addictive version of ChatGPT that at times became a "suicide coach" to vulnerable users who killed themselves.

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Texas AG: Roblox Not Protecting Kids From 'Pixel Pedophiles'

By Rae Ann Varona

Texas has sued Roblox Corp. in state court, accusing the multibillion-dollar company of deceiving parents about the safety of its popular online gaming platform and allowing children to wander in what the state called an "unregulated universe" shared with predators.

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Firm Accused Of Abusive Fee Bid In Texas Mass Shooting Suit

By Lynn LaRowe

A law firm's request for $1.7 million in legal fees related to a 2017 mass shooting in a Texas church has been slammed as "morally wrong and abusive" in a sanctions motion alleging another court has already decided the firm is only entitled to a fraction of that amount.

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Illinois Jury Awards $27.5M To Motorcycle Crash Victim

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois jury on Thursday awarded $27.5 million in damages to a man who was severely injured in a motorcycle crash and who had to have four surgeries to repair the fractures in his leg.

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Georgia Court Won't Rethink Tossing $13.7M Atty Fee Award

By Madison Arnold

The Georgia Court of Appeals has refused to reconsider a split panel decision tossing a $13.7 million attorney fee award in a medical malpractice case, rejecting an assertion that the majority was wrong to conclude that postjudgment legal work was improperly considered in setting that amount.

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BNP Wants Plaintiffs Attys At Sudan Suit Misconduct Hearing

By Sarah Jarvis

BNP Paribas has asked a New York federal judge to compel several plaintiffs' lawyers, including the eponymous founder of Hausfeld LLP, to testify at an upcoming hearing on alleged misconduct by their former co-counsel, following a $20 million jury verdict against BNP in a suit brought by refugees accusing the bank of helping finance atrocities in Sudan.

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Can States Prosecute ICE Agents? It Depends

By Brandon Lowrey

Video showed a masked federal agent walking out of the gates of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Durango, Colorado. He stepped around a small line of protesters seated on the street and lumbered past a petite, gray-haired woman as she recorded him on her smartphone last month.

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Wells Fargo Beats Booze Claims Over Employee's Crash

By Chart Riggall

Wells Fargo cannot be held liable for a former employee's fatal car crash that killed a Georgia man over six years ago, the Eleventh Circuit said Friday, holding that the man's widow failed to produce any evidence that the driver got himself drunk at a company function just before the incident.

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Penn State Hit With Defamation Suit By Ousted Trustee

By Matthew Santoni

A former member of the Pennsylvania State University Board of Trustees said board executives defamed him and retaliated against him for his efforts to review matters they claimed were outside his purview as a board member, according to a lawsuit recently removed to federal court.

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Brief

Conn. Pedestrian Hit By USPS Vehicle Sues Feds For $2M

By Brian Steele

A woman who said she suffered back and neck injuries when she was hit by a U.S. Postal Service vehicle in Connecticut has filed a lawsuit demanding more than $2 million from the federal government.

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Fla. Hospital Blamed For Child Bone Marrow Transplant Death

By David Minsky

The parents of a child who died following a bone marrow transplant have sued Nicklaus Children's Hospital for alleged negligence, saying in a Florida complaint that doctors performed an unnecessary, risky procedure without their consent. 

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Analysis

4th Circ. Opioid Case Brings Public Nuisance Back To The Fore

By Emily Field

The Fourth Circuit's ruling that upturned a lower court win for drug distributors in a battle with the West Virginia county at the epicenter of the opioid epidemic was a blast from the past from the fever pitch of courtroom battles over the national crisis just a few years ago.

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Couple Says Pilot's Reckless Flying Caused Helicopter Crash

By Hayley Fowler

An operator of air ambulance helicopters allowed one of its pilots to make "dangerous, careless, and reckless" flight decisions that resulted in a 2023 crash in the mountains of North Carolina during a patient transport, a couple has alleged in a new lawsuit.

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Insurer Freed From Covering $3.4M Lost Evidence Settlement

By Ganesh Setty

A real estate company's insurer owes no coverage for a $3.4 million settlement resolving an employee's claim that it negligently failed to preserve video evidence of his fall into a sewer pit, an Illinois federal court ruled, rejecting the company's argument that the insurer prejudiced it while providing a defense.

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Insurer Escapes Gas Station Row Over Shooting By Employee

By Abraham Gross

A gas company's insurer owed no coverage for a suit brought by a customer who was attacked and shot by an employee, an Indiana federal court ruled, saying the suit was not an occurrence under the policy.

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Insurer Aims To Recoup Costs In Amazon Battery Fire Case

By Eli Flesch

Penn National Insurance is aiming to recoup costs from Amazon over a North Carolina house fire blamed on a defective, rechargeable vacuum battery the retail giant sold, according to a complaint removed to federal court Thursday from state court.  

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Bojangles Not Covered In NC Sex Abuse Suit, Insurer Says

By Hayley Fowler

Fried chicken fast-food chain Bojangles and one of its largest franchisees are not entitled to defense coverage in an underlying civil suit alleging a restaurant manager sexually groomed and abused two minor employees in North Carolina, their insurance company said Friday.

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Katt Williams Scores Victory In Atlanta Assault Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia federal judge has freed Katt Williams from a suit brought by four women who alleged they were jumped and threatened at gunpoint by the comedian and his entourage outside an Atlanta nightclub, ruling Friday that the claims are time-barred.

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Why Appellees Should Write Their Answering Brief First

Though counterintuitive, appellees should consider writing their answering briefs before they’ve ever seen their opponent’s opening brief, as this practice confers numerous benefits related to argument structure, time pressures and workflow, says Joshua Sohn at the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Senate Committee To Investigate Impeachment Of Judges

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate Judiciary Committee will have a hearing next week to consider impeachment of "rogue" federal judges, according to an announcement on Monday.

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After Exit, Judge Cites White House 'Assault On Rule Of Law'

By Emily Sawicki

A Boston federal judge who recently announced his resignation has penned a public letter describing why he stepped down after four decades on the federal bench, saying he could no longer "bear to be restrained" from speaking out against the Trump administration.

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Shutdown Deal Funds Justices' Security, Public Defender Pay

By Courtney Bublé

The government funding agreement reached in the Senate on Sunday includes funding for public defenders, some of whom haven't been paid since July, and security for U.S. Supreme Court justices.

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Judge To Review Grand Jury Materials In Comey Indictment

By Jared Foretek

A Virginia federal judge said he would review grand jury materials in camera to see if any privileged information was used to secure the indictment of ex-FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying to Congress.

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Ex-Judges, US Attys Urge Axing 'Political' Indictment Of NY AG

By Lauren Berg

A bipartisan group of former federal judges and U.S. attorneys on Monday threw their weight behind New York Attorney General Letitia James' bid to dismiss the indictment accusing her of mortgage fraud, rebuking the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan and slamming the prosecution's apparent political motivations.

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Fitch Even, Ex-Client Settle $1.2M Fee Fight

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge suspended all briefing deadlines Monday in Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery LLP's $1.2 million fee dispute with a former client and a litigation funder's CEO, following the parties' signal that they've resolved their legal issues in principle.

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Trump Pardons Giuliani, Others Accused Of Election Crimes

By Emily Sawicki

President Donald Trump has reportedly pardoned scores of lawyers accused of attempting to interfere in the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell, according to a social media post created by the president's pardon attorney, Ed Martin.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's top court issued a flurry of rulings last week and heard arguments on recently passed legislation that expanded liability shields for some corporate acts while the Court of Chancery passed on another round of arguments over control of Caribbean broadcaster Caribevision.

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