A Pennsylvania administrative law judge on Thursday delivered a blow to a Buckeye Partners unit’s bid to reverse the flow of a section of its pipeline in the state, advising the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission that the move could have boosted costs for Pennsylvania consumers.
Consumers who allege that roofing supplier Owens Corning misled them about the quality of its shingles have asked the full Third Circuit for a rehearing, telling the appellate court in a filing Thursday that it mistakenly denied them class certification before any evidence was presented.
A suburban Philadelphia jury has awarded $20 million to the estate of an Ohio woman over claims she died of adverse drug interactions after being prematurely discharged two hours after a procedure at the Laser Spine Institute to treat her chronic back pain.
A Pennsylvania businessman who paid thousands of dollars in bribes to the former Philadelphia district attorney and committed tax evasion was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 18 months in prison.
A Pennsylvania appellate panel affirmed Thursday the mid-trial dismissal of a suit in which a man accused the operator of a vehicle of negligently driving away while he was on the car's back leading to his fall and brain injury, saying a photo reenactment of the incident was properly denied as inadmissible trial evidence.
A Pennsylvania state appeals court on Thursday nixed a nursing home’s attempt to bind a woman suing for negligence to an arbitration-only agreement her daughter signed, finding that the mother never authorized the daughter to arbitrate a matter on her behalf.
An energy industry group on Thursday urged the Delaware River Basin Commission to rethink plans to impose a permanent ban on fracking in the river’s watershed, arguing in public comments that the proposal oversteps the group’s authority and violates the U.S. Constitution.
As part of a case over a failed liver transplant, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider whether a seven-year time bar on certain medical malpractice claims under state law violates constitutionally protected guarantees on the public’s access to the courts.
FirstEnergy Corp. on Thursday urged U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to use emergency authority to force regional grid operator PJM Interconnection to prop up struggling coal and nuclear power plants, which critics call an attempted end-run around the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s rejection of a similar plan by Perry.
Former NFL players who opted out of a concussion settlement with the league hit back at Riddell Inc.’s bid to escape their lawsuit in Pennsylvania federal court, saying on Wednesday the helmet maker cannot use collective bargaining agreements between the league and the players to justify an exemption from claims against it.
A Philadelphia-area attorney who is currently fighting a verdict over a purportedly frivolous lawsuit against a former Cozen O'Connor partner was slapped with a complaint in state court on Wednesday alleging that he pursued an abusive case aimed at recouping personal loans for a client.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected arguments from environmental regulators that the continued movement of pollutants through waterways constitutes a serial violation of the state’s Clean Stream Law, triggering ongoing penalties and costs.
Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP has added an attorney from Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP with years of complex litigation experience as a partner in the firm’s Philadelphia office, where he will contribute to its life science and food and beverage practices, the firm said Wednesday.
Willig Williams & Davidson on Wednesday urged a Pennsylvania court to toss claims against it by a client's husband who says a firm attorney assaulted him amid a divorce proceeding, allegedly resulting in permanent head injury, saying the suit doesn't allege enough facts against the firm to keep it in the case.
A Pennsylvania federal judge Wednesday knocked down an African-American former Wells Fargo Bank NA employee’s proposed class action claims accusing the banking giant of perpetuating a discriminatory culture in retail branches across the country.
The Third Circuit handed down a precedential opinion Thursday that saddled three Citgo units with the lion's share of liability for a $100 million-plus oil spill judgment and said the refiner must fully repay the federal government for its role in the cleanup, reversing a lower court's finding that Citgo only had to pick up half the government's bill.
A Pennsylvania-based attorney who was disbarred in that state for failing to provide promised services to mortgage debt relief clients received a suspension in New Jersey after local ethics authorities determined the conduct didn’t merit disbarment in the Garden State, according to a Wednesday order by the state Supreme Court.
An insurer can’t escape a dispute over whether it owes an air-blasting equipment manufacturer a defense against multiple personal injury suits just because it is in rehabilitation proceedings in Nebraska, a Pennsylvania federal judge has determined.
A Philadelphia jury has rejected claims from the family of a Delaware man seeking damages after he was stricken with fatal mesothelioma as a result of his exposure to asbestos-laden pipes manufactured by Ameron International Corp.
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday tossed a putative class action accusing JPMorgan Chase Bank NA of taking kickbacks for insurance referrals, finding borrowers jumped the gun by failing to wait for a proposed class in a similar suit to be denied certification before filing their own.
Series
As someone who spent half her days last year on the bench presiding over trials, I often find the alarmist calls to revamp the jury trial system a tad puzzling — why is making trial lawyers better rarely discussed? Then along comes a refreshing little manual called "On the Jury Trial: Principles and Practices for Effective Advocacy," by Thomas Melsheimer and Judge Craig Smith, says U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall of the Northe... (continued)
Lawyers in data breach litigation can learn from their contemporaries in more established fields such as product liability, where the law has developed well-established approaches to many of the same issues that will arise in the merits stage of data breach cases, says Michael Ruttinger of Tucker Ellis LLP.
Initial selection of defense counsel is usually made at the outset of litigation, long before it is known whether the case may actually proceed to trial. Attorneys with McDermott Will & Emery discuss questions in-house lawyers should consider when deciding whether their litigation counsel should remain lead trial counsel in a case proceeding to trial.
With challenges to the president’s pick for acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the federal courts, opposing contingents of state attorneys general have weighed in with filings as amici curiae. The controversies have centered largely on whether the Consumer Financial Protection Act or the Federal Vacancies Reform Act controls the appointment, say Stephen Piepgrass and Robert Claiborne Jr. of Troutman Sanders LLP.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced 12 new judicial nominations. We will soon discover whether these candidates learned from the mistakes of the three nominees forced to withdraw in December after bipartisan concerns arose over their qualifications, says Arun Rao, executive VP of Investigative Group International.
The Third Circuit's recent decision in Philadelphia Entertainment & Development Partners limited the reach of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine as a defense to bankruptcy avoidance actions. The court’s reasoning, however, has implications that go beyond bankruptcy, say Steven Wilamowsky and Sara Ghadiri of Chapman and Cutler LLP.
While technology is making certain aspects of e-discovery faster and easier, it is also creating new challenges as quickly as we can provide solutions. The good news is that there are concrete steps businesses can take to address those challenges, says Peter Ostrega of Consilio LLC.
Pending cases involving biosimilar competition, the Noerr-Pennington doctrine and claims brought by state attorneys general highlight the need for pharmaceutical companies to assess the antitrust implications of their strategies, say Chad Peterman and Carl Minniti of Paul Hastings LLP.
As expected, the U.S. Supreme Court's Escobar decision triggered a spate of litigation over how to apply the materiality standard in False Claims Act cases. Throughout 2017, the lower courts built upon the standard, but we expect courts to continue to grapple with the issue through 2018, say Laurence Freedman and Jordan Cohen of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
In a long-anticipated move, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced that it will allow states to implement Medicaid work requirements, representing a major shift in the agency's policy. However, the move will only impact a small percentage of the Medicaid population, say Caroline Brown and Philip Peisch of Covington & Burling LLP.