John Deere Inks $99M Deal In Farmers' Right-To-Repair Suit

By Celeste Bott

John Deere has agreed to pay $99 million to a putative class of farmers to resolve claims that it limits competition for farm equipment repairs by preventing unaffiliated shops from acquiring the necessary tools, and will also provide injunctive relief that would allow those independent repair providers to be able to diagnose and fix John Deere-brand agricultural equipment.

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Ohio Derailment Class Attys Fight Morgan & Morgan Fee Probe

By Matthew Santoni

Co-counsel for plaintiffs in litigation over a Norfolk Southern train derailment urged a federal court to reject Morgan & Morgan's bid to investigate the allocation of attorney fees stemming from a $600 million class settlement, arguing that it was unnecessary to revisit the issue and that the firm may have even gotten more than it deserved.

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Uber Says Atty Ads To Rider Admissible In NC Bellwether Trial

By Hayley Fowler

Uber wants to introduce evidence at an upcoming bellwether trial in multidistrict litigation for alleged passenger sexual assaults that a North Carolina plaintiff was exposed to advertisements from attorneys before she sued, saying the evidence goes to her credibility.

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Law Profs Back Boeing In 7th Circ. Bid To Void 737 Max Class

By Linda Chiem

Law professors have told the Seventh Circuit that an Illinois district court improperly certified a class of investors alleging Boeing misrepresented the 737 Max 8 jets' safety after two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, saying there's been a "troubling" pattern of courts blessing classwide damages theories backed by zero evidence.

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DOJ Backs Wrong View Of Accounting Error, 11th Circ. Told

By Anna Scott Farrell

A hedge fund manager challenging the denial of a $1.9 million tax refund related to his private jet told the Eleventh Circuit that the federal government is wrongly parroting a lower court's unreasonable approach to the accounting error underlying the dispute.

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Delta Passengers Say They Were Injured In Fire Evacuation

By Kelcey Caulder

Two passengers of a Delta Air Lines flight were injured when an electrical fire forced them to be evacuated from the plane after it landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to a suit filed in Washington state court.

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Brief

$1.4M Chicago Tow Notice Settlement To Receive Initial OK

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge signaled Tuesday he'll greenlight a $1.4 million settlement to end litigation over claims the city of Chicago tows vehicles it deems abandoned without properly notifying their owners.

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Mercedes Says Shatter-Prone Sunroof Claims Lack Evidence

By Kelcey Caulder

Mercedes-Benz customers offered no evidence that vehicles were sold with defects that caused sunroofs to spontaneously shatter, the automaker told a Georgia federal court, arguing it should be granted an early win in the customers' suit.

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First Brands IP Sale Decision Paused For Possible New Bidder

By Emlyn Cameron

A Texas bankruptcy judge on Tuesday put off a final decision on auto parts maker First Brands' move to speedily sell several of its filter and windshield wiper brands for $25 million, saying he wanted to know whether the buyer is dead set on purchasing a bundle.

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Colo. Justices Say Disputed Costs OK In Public Works Claim

By Benjamin Morse

Disputed or unliquidated costs, including delay and disruption damages, can be included in claims under Colorado's Public Works Act, the state's highest court has ruled, reviving a subcontractor's bid to recover a roughly $13 million claim tied to a Denver-area rail project.

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CSX Shortchanged Workers On Meal Allowances, Union Says

By Katherine Smith

CSX Transportation shortchanged employees on meal allowances that were guaranteed under an arbitration award involving the company and a labor union, according to a complaint filed in D.C. federal court Tuesday.

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11th Circ. Faults Job Seeker's Atty But Upholds $3.4M Win

By Grace Elletson

The Eleventh Circuit declined Tuesday to grant a trucking company a new trial on a $3.4 million verdict handed to an applicant who claimed the business walked back a job offer after learning that he is Black, ruling his attorney's "improper" arguments didn't taint the trial's outcome.

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Squires Rejects 2 PTAB Petitions, Grants 2 In Merits Orders

By Adam Lidgett

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has shot down a pair of requests from automakers Kia and Toyota challenging vehicle technology patents, while granting a separate duo of challenges Amazon had asked for.

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Fishermen, Seafood Sellers Sue LOOP Over La. Oil Spill

By Mike Curley

A group of fishermen and seafood companies is suing the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP LLC, over a February oil spill that saw 31,500 gallons of heavy Venezuelan crude oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico, saying LOOP's slow-walking of cleanup puts their livelihoods and the local ecosystem in danger.

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Auto Insurance Co. Escapes Retirement Fund Suit

By Patrick Hoff

An auto insurance company defeated a proposed class action claiming its employee retirement plan was unlawfully overinvested in a conservative default investment option, with a Michigan federal judge saying Tuesday that the suit lacked information about participants who voluntarily put money in the fund.

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1-Year Biofuel Exemptions Eligibility Upheld For 2 Refineries

By Gautama Mehta

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated its own regulations by denying exemptions from biofuel blending requirements to two oil refineries in Louisiana and Wyoming, the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday.

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What Voluntary Calif. Carbon Reports Show About Compliance

While the enforcement of California's S.B. 261 is currently paused due to a Ninth Circuit injunction, more than 130 companies have nonetheless chosen to voluntarily publish climate-related financial risk disclosures, providing a useful snapshot of how the market is interpreting the law's requirements in practice, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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Pregnant DLA Piper Atty Recounts Firing: 'This Feels Wrong'

By Pete Brush

A former associate who claims DLA Piper unlawfully fired her after she announced she was pregnant told a Manhattan federal jury Tuesday that she got positive feedback as she worked with large corporate clients and was "shocked" when she was terminated.

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Blanche Says Only Trump Knows Why Bondi's Leaving DOJ

By Courtney Bublé

Todd Blanche said on Tuesday he is now acting attorney general and no one, beyond the president, knows why Pam Bondi is out and he is in.

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Calif. Lawmakers Advance Bill To Curtail PE Role In Litigation

By Emily Sawicki

A California bill to ban corporate investors from influencing litigation strategy is heading to the state Senate, backed by bipartisan support from the Assembly.

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Top DOJ Immigration Atty Faces Ethics Complaint

By Jack Karp

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's immigration litigation office has lied to judges, disobeyed court orders and failed to stop attorneys he supervises from engaging in misconduct in high-profile immigration cases, according to an ethics complaint filed Tuesday.

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Analysis

Habeas Orders Sharpen As Due Process Concerns Mount

By Britain Eakin

Federal judges are issuing increasingly detailed, critical and decisive orders for habeas relief in immigration cases, stepping in as what immigration experts say is a last resort check on a system viewed as having crumbling due process safeguards.

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DOJ Pushes To End Former Immigration Judge's Bias Suit

By Jake Maher

The U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss a former Ohio immigration judge's discrimination suit in D.C. federal court this week, calling the complaint "heavy on conclusory statements and speculation and light on allegations of fact."

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Calif. Atty Apologizes, Blames OpenCase For False Citations

By Matt Perez

A California attorney has filed a response to an order for potential sanctions over his alleged use of artificial intelligence, which resulted in false citations, saying the hallucinations appeared in a later draft after using OpenCase to perform a cite check.

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Audio

Approach The Bench: Judge Robinson On Community Court

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

Judge Devin Robinson's courtroom at the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn looks and feels very different from the courthouse archetype.

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States, DC Back NY AG James In DOJ Probe Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

Backed by amici including the attorneys general of 20 states and the District of Columbia, New York Attorney General Letitia James is fighting the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to reopen an investigation into her office launched by a federal prosecutor found to have been serving unlawfully.

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