UPS Can't Escape $75M Crash Award To Brain-Damaged Baby

By Y. Peter Kang

A Missouri appellate panel on Tuesday affirmed a jury's $65 million verdict plus about $10 million in interest in a suit accusing United Parcel Service of negligently causing a car crash resulting in a baby's brain damage, saying evidence regarding the driver's history of drug abuse was properly allowed.

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5 Ohio Cities Say Hyundai, Kia Negligence Claims Still In Play

By Linda Chiem

Five Ohio cities have told a California federal judge that Hyundai and Kia cannot try to circumvent the Ninth Circuit and scuttle negligence claims in consolidated litigation alleging the automakers knowingly sold vehicles with design flaws that spawned a car-theft crime wave.

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4th Circ. Says Suit Over Copter Pilot's Death Must Go To Jury

By Jonathan Capriel

The Fourth Circuit has reinstated a lawsuit by the widow of a crop-dusting pilot who crashed after his helicopter became tangled in a steel cable stretched over the property, ruling in a published opinion issued Monday that a jury must be the one to decide whether the landlord should have known that the wire posed a danger to the pilot.

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GOP Lawmakers Defend Stricter Independent Contractor Bill

By Irene Spezzamonte

Republicans on a U.S. House subcommittee Tuesday pushed for passing a recently introduced bill that would tighten standards for classifying workers as independent contractors, while Democrats feared moving in that direction would significantly hurt workers.

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Analysis

Tax Credit Repeal Would Deflate US Hydrogen Development

By Keith Goldberg

The Republicans' proposal to eliminate tax credits for producing clean hydrogen in the budget reconciliation bill threatens to kneecap the nascent alternative fuel industry in the U.S. while pushing investments overseas to friendlier markets.

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Chinese EV Battery Giant Generates $4.6B IPO Amid Tensions

By Tom Zanki

Electric-car battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. began trading in Hong Kong after raising a $4.6 billion initial public offering, completing the year's largest equity offering globally despite tension between Washington and Beijing, guided by four law firms.

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Analysis

Assessing The Design Patent Impact Of LKQ, One Year Later

By Ryan Davis

It's been one year since the full Federal Circuit's LKQ v. GM decision threw out longstanding tests for determining if design patents are invalid as obvious, and attorneys say it's too soon to tell if the ruling will change invalidity results, but it has reshaped legal strategies.

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FWS' New 'Harm' Proposal Draws Praise, Concern For Species

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Fossil fuel, construction and other industry groups say they support the Trump administration's plan to weaken regulatory protections under the Endangered Species Act, while blue state attorneys general and environmental groups urged the government to back off its proposal.

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GOP Will Push Calif. Waiver Vote, Dems Will Jam EPA Noms

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Senate Republicans vowed Tuesday to forge ahead with Congressional Review Act resolutions that would repeal clean-vehicle waivers for California that were approved by the Biden administration, while Democrats said they'll throw roadblocks in front of presidential nominees in retaliation.

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UAW Local Agrees To DOL Oversight Of Next Officers' Election

By Emily Brill

A United Auto Workers local in Warren, Michigan, has agreed to let the U.S. Department of Labor supervise its next officers election, a few months after the U.S. secretary of labor claimed the union's election committee mishandled recordkeeping and ballot oversight during a vote a year ago.

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Brief

Unions Eye Nix Of NJ Transit Suit Over Picket Line

By George Woolston

Two unions sued by NJ Transit over their refusal to cross the picket line in the now-resolved rail strike told a New Jersey federal court that since their members have returned to work, the case is now moot.

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Veterinarian, Manager Ask To Exit $6M Horse Semen Suit

By Elaine Briseño

Two employees of a veterinary firm have asked a Washington federal court to toss a lawsuit accusing them and others of malpractice and negligence stemming from the destruction of about $6.4 million worth of purebred Arabian stallion semen during transport, arguing the complaint improperly lumps all the defendants and allegations together.

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Cozen O'Connor's Insurance Team Hires Former Deputy AG

By Elizabeth Daley

Veteran insurer-side litigator Frank Toddre II has joined Cozen O'Connor in Las Vegas from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, the business law firm announced, touting his experience as a former senior deputy attorney general in Nevada and a seasoned Ninth Circuit appellate and civil rights attorney.

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The Alien Enemies Act Cases: A Roundup

By Britain Eakin

Litigation over President Donald Trump’s March 14 proclamation invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act has moved at breakneck speed, spurring two U.S. Supreme Court decisions already while at least five different districts weigh his authority to invoke the wartime law. Here, Law360 catches you up on major developments in the litigation.

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Injunction On Trump Order Limited To Perkins, Judge Clarifies

By Dorothy Atkins

A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday clarified the scope of her injunction blocking President Donald Trump's executive order targeting Perkins Coie LLP, explaining that her ruling prohibits the president from directing government agencies to investigate only Perkins Coie's employment practices and not the other BigLaw firms.

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'Not A Denny's': 5th Circ. Judge Chides High Court Stopwatch

By Lauren Berg

The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday expedited a case brought by Venezuelans who are accused of being gang members and who are challenging the use of a 1798 wartime law to deport them to an El Salvador prison, with one judge chastising the U.S. Supreme Court's majority for allowing the appeal to move forward.

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SEC Chair Says Staff Exits Have Left Holes In Agency

By Jessica Corso

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins told Congress Tuesday that the agency has lost hundreds of employees in recent months due to voluntary buyouts and early retirement incentives, and that some now-missing expertise will need to be replaced. 

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Trump Case May Bolster Wis. Judge's Pitch For Immunity

By Jack Karp

The Wisconsin judge accused of obstructing federal immigration authorities' arrest of an unauthorized migrant in her courtroom has a strong argument that judicial immunity protects her after the U.S. Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling, some experts say, while others say judicial immunity does not extend to criminal prosecutions.

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Analysis

CFPB's Guidance Purge May Have Limited Impact For Industry

By Jon Hill

The Trump administration's recent culling of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidance may help advance the agency's pivot to lighter-touch regulation, but consumer advocates and even some financial services attorneys say the rescinded policies could still shape litigation and leave companies guessing about the agency's current views.

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Attys For Alleged Fox Hacker 'Deeply Regret' Fake AI Citations

By Matt Perez

Two attorneys apologized to a Florida federal judge on Monday for filing a motion to dismiss charges against their client — alleged Fox News video hacker Timothy Burke — that contained fake legal citations generated by artificial intelligence.

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Insurers Say Legal Malpractice Costs Keep Outpacing Inflation

By Emily Sawicki

The frequency at which major law firms faced malpractice claims held relatively steady in 2024, but payouts on claims continued to boom at a rate outpacing general inflation, according to this year's legal professional liability insurance survey, with nearly half of insurers surveyed reporting having paid at least one claim over $150 million.

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Amazon, Apple Get Atty Fees Over Dropped Antitrust Plaintiff

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Washington federal judge on Tuesday ordered an ousted lead plaintiff's counsel in a proposed antitrust class action against Amazon and Apple to pay a combined $223,000 in attorney fees to the defendants after finding last month that the lawyers had failed to tell the court that their client had abandoned the case.

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GSA Official Gives Mea Culpa On 'Non-Core' Federal Property

By Courtney Bublé

A top official of the federal government's real estate overseer testified on Tuesday that the administration was a bit rash in publishing a list two months ago with more than 400 "non-core" government properties, including federal courthouses, that it was considering disposing of.

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DOJ Watchdog Asked To Probe AG's Trump Media Stock Sales

By Craig Clough

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday urged the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general to investigate Attorney General Pam Bondi's sale of millions of dollars' worth of shares in Trump Media just ahead of the stock market plunging.

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Dem Lawmakers Reintroduce Supreme Court Ethics Bill

By Lauren Berg

Two Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday reintroduced bills in the House and Senate that would require the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a binding ethics code and create new recusal and disclosure standards for the nine justices.

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State AGs Back NJ Judicial Privacy Law At 3rd Circ.

By Jack Karp

Most states' attorneys general, along with law enforcement organizations and a data privacy group, have encouraged the Third Circuit to uphold a New Jersey judicial privacy measure, saying states have sovereignty to enact such laws in a time of increased threats against judges.

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