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Pennsylvania
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April 10, 2024
DA Says SEPTA Prosecutor Law Unfairly Singles Out Philly
An attorney for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told a Pennsylvania appellate court Wednesday that a law mandating a "special prosecutor" within the Attorney General's Office to handle crimes within the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority had unfairly and unconstitutionally singled out Philadelphia and his office.
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April 10, 2024
Chase, Zelle Can Arbitrate Stolen-Funds Reimbursement Case
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Tuesday granted Chase Bank and Zelle's request to arbitrate customer claims they acted negligently and violated consumer protection laws by refusing to refund stolen funds, with the judge saying that relevant virtual terms of service required by Chase are valid, and that Zelle may enforce the agreement as a third-party beneficiary.
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April 09, 2024
Philips, Feds Enter Consent Decree Over Sleep Apnea Devices
Philips Respironics can't make sleep apnea breathing machines until it hires an independent monitor, undergoes inspections and meets its obligations under a plan to remediate patients affected by a 2021 recall of such devices, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday.
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April 09, 2024
What's In The Norfolk Southern $600M Derailment Deal
Last year's fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, reached a litigation milestone Tuesday with the disaster's first major settlement, a proposed $600 million deal with nearby residents and businesses, but the rail giant must still contend with a federal investigation and other lawsuits.
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April 09, 2024
Insurers Can Expect Scrutiny Over AI Use, Pa. Agency Says
Pennsylvania insurers can expect to receive scrutiny over their use of artificial intelligence tools, the state's insurance department said in guidance that urges companies to take measures to minimize discrimination, inaccuracies and potential harms to consumers.
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April 09, 2024
Equitrans Hit With $1.1M Pollution Penalties In Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection unveiled more than $1.1 million in civil penalties against Equitrans Midstream Partners LP on Tuesday for violations related to the company's uncontrolled gas release from its Rager Mountain natural gas storage field in Cambria County.
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April 09, 2024
Pa. Panel Won't Undo Town Election Due To Missed Deadline
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court said supporters of a candidate for the Towamencin Township Board of Supervisors missed their deadline to challenge Montgomery County's decision to count contested mail-in ballots, which had turned the incumbent's narrow win last November into a tie that his opponent won in the tiebreaker.
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April 09, 2024
Gun Shield Law Constitutional, Arms Co. Tells Pa. High Court
Springfield Armory Inc. has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to undo a ruling that it was not immune from product defect claims filed by the family of a boy who was shot by a friend thinking one of the company's guns was unloaded, arguing that Congress intended to prevent such lawsuits with the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
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April 09, 2024
Spirit Flies Away From Wiretap Suit Over Site User Tracking
Spirit Airlines has beaten, for now, a consolidated proposed class action alleging that it flouted privacy and wiretapping laws by gathering its website users' communications after a Pennsylvania federal judge said the plaintiffs haven't responded to Spirit's argument that its software doesn't gather personal information and accordingly suffered no injury and lack standing.
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April 09, 2024
Pittsburgh Schools Sue To Force Countywide Reassessment
The school district serving the city of Pittsburgh has filed a lawsuit in state court to compel Allegheny County to conduct a countywide reassessment of real estate values, arguing that taxation starting from a 12-year-old base level is putting homeowners in some neighborhoods at an unfair and unconstitutional disadvantage.
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April 09, 2024
'Education Lawyers' Challenge Isn't Over At TTAB, Firm Says
Jacobson & John LLP's claim that its use of the marketing phrase "The Education Lawyers" has gone unchallenged for five years blatantly misled a Pennsylvania federal court about the phrase's incontestability as a trademark, according to a rival firm's bid to keep its trademark challenge alive there.
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April 09, 2024
NJ Justices To Hear If Philly Archdiocese Subject To NJ Court
The New Jersey Supreme Court will determine whether the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is subject to Garden State courts in a lawsuit alleging a former priest sexually abused a teenager at the former priest's Jersey Shore house decades ago.
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April 09, 2024
16 States Seek To Defend EPA Particulate Matter Rule
A coalition of 16 states, New York City and Washington, D.C., has pushed to intervene before the D.C. Circuit in defense of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent final rule tightening federal standards for fine particulate matter pollution, as it faces challenges from industry groups and Republican-led states.
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April 09, 2024
California Can Set Own Emissions Standards, DC Circ. Says
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Act waiver that allows California to set its own greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles and run a zero-emission vehicles program, rejecting challenges filed by red states and industry groups.
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April 08, 2024
Feds Say Philly Clinics Billed For 'Impossible' No. Of Visits
The head psychiatrist at a group of Philadelphia mental health clinics allegedly billed Medicaid for enough "med check" patient visits that he would have exceeded the hours in a day if he had taken the state-mandated minimum of 15 minutes per patient, according to a federal False Claims Act suit filed Monday.
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April 08, 2024
Drexel Didn't Accommodate Exec's Disability, Suit Claims
Drexel University was accused Monday of discrimination by an administrator, who claimed its chief operating officer refused her request to meet one-on-one ahead of a group meeting with a subordinate and that the group meeting be held via telephone instead of video.
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April 08, 2024
GOP Candidates Jump Into NJ Ballot Design Fray
Four Republicans running for Congress in New Jersey filed a state lawsuit Monday seeking to compel the state's 21 county clerks to discard the "county line" ballot and use the "office block" ballot that a federal judge has mandated for Democrats in the June 4 primary.
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April 08, 2024
Insurer Fights 3rd Circ. Bid To Revive Crash Coverage Suit
An insurer has urged the Third Circuit to affirm that a Pennsylvania couple couldn't claim it had acted in bad faith by failing to immediately cover the husband's brain injuries from a crash with an underinsured motorist.
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April 08, 2024
Hotel Co. Comes Out On Top In Passover Fiasco Row
A bench trial over a "Passover celebration gone wrong" at a Pennsylvania hotel ended Friday largely in favor of the hotel operator, with $1,447.60 in contract damages for the caterer plaintiff offset by a $5,164.28 judgment in the hotel's favor for damages allegedly caused by guests who created plumbing issues.
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April 08, 2024
Taxi Hailing Cos. Settle Hidden Fees RICO Claims
Three taxi hailing companies have settled a proposed class action accusing them of conspiring to hit users who call for cabs using their tech products with hidden fees, according to a new order from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissing the suit.
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April 05, 2024
Target, Major Employers Raise New Drug Price-Fixing Claims
Target Corp., Lowe's Cos. Inc. and American Airlines Inc. are among major employers that lodged new price-fixing claims in Pennsylvania federal court against dozens of pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of orchestrating illegal agreements to allocate customers and markets and fix the prices of hundreds of generic drugs for more than a decade.
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April 05, 2024
PNC Must Face Customer's Suit, Judge Says After Fixing Error
A federal judge in Philadelphia reissued an opinion Friday requiring PNC Bank NA to face a customer's breach of contract suit after an earlier decision mischaracterized parties involved in an alleged check-forging scheme as PNC employees.
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April 05, 2024
DC Circ. Says Gov't Changing Its Defense In Chinese Visa Row
A D.C. Circuit judge said Friday the federal government seemed to be changing its tune late in its defense of a district court judge's dismissal of a suit filed by three Chinese investors who'd tried to move ahead in the queue for EB-5 visas reserved for investors in infrastructure projects.
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April 05, 2024
Gunmakers Denied Stay In Mexico Lawsuit
Gunmakers hoping to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take up their effort to end a lawsuit by the Mexican government seeking to hold them liable for arming drug cartels can't make an end run around the First Circuit to pause the case while they wait, a Massachusetts district judge said on Friday.
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April 05, 2024
Families Fight To Keep Military Chopper Crash Suit In US
The families of six Canadian military personnel killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of Greece are urging a Pennsylvania federal judge to keep their liability claims against the aircraft's maker in the United States, arguing that the company's bid to transfer the case to Canada is a stalling tactic.
Expert Analysis
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Perspectives
More States Should Join Effort To Close Legal Services Gap
Colorado is the most recent state to allow other types of legal providers, not just attorneys, to offer specific services in certain circumstances — and more states should rethink the century-old assumptions that shape our current regulatory rules, say Natalie Anne Knowlton and Janet Drobinske at the University of Denver.
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Identifying Trends And Tips In Litigation Financing Disclosure
Growing interest and controversy in litigation financing raise several salient concerns, but exploring recent compelled disclosure trends from courts around the country can help practitioners further their clients' interests, say Sean Callagy and Samuel Sokolsky at Arnold & Porter.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'
Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.
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Aviation Watch: Osprey Aircraft May Face Tort Claims
A recent U.S. Marine Corps Command report found that the cause of a 2022 Osprey crash was a problem known to the manufacturer and the military for over 10 years — and the aircraft may now be on its way to a day of reckoning in the tort liability arena, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
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Upcoming High Court ADA Cases May Signal Return To Basics
Recent cases, including Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, which will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in October, raise a fundamental question of whether Americans with Disabilities Act litigation has spiraled out of control without any real corresponding benefits to the intended beneficiaries: individuals with true disabilities, says Norman Dupont at Ring Bender.
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4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Introverted lawyers can build client bases to rival their extroverted peers’ by adapting time-tested strategies for business development that can work for any personality — such as claiming a niche, networking for maximum impact, drawing on existing contacts and more, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.
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Opinion
3 Ways Justices' Disclosure Defenses Miss The Ethical Point
The rule-bound interpretation of financial disclosures preferred by U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — demonstrated in their respective statements defending their failure to disclose gifts from billionaires — show that they do not understand the ethical aspects of the public's concern, says Jim Moliterno at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.
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What Courts' Deference Preference Can Mean For Sentencing
The Fifth Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Vargas decision deepens the split among federal appeals courts on the level of deference afforded to commentary in the U.S. sentencing guidelines — an issue that has major real-life ramifications for defendants, and is likely bound for the U.S. Supreme Court, say Jennifer Freel and Michael Murtha at Jackson Walker.
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Caregiver Flexibility Is Crucial For Atty Engagement, Retention
As the battle for top talent continues post-pandemic, many firms are attempting to attract employees with progressive hybrid working environments — and supporting caregivers before, during and after an extended leave is a critically important way to retain top talent, says Manar Morales at The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance.
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What To Watch As Justices Take Up Title VII Job Transfer Case
With its recent decision to hear Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether an involuntary job transfer can count as employment discrimination under Title VII — an eventual ruling that has potential to reshape workplace bias claims nationwide, says Adam Grogan at Bell Law Group.
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How Judicial Privilege Shields Attys Facing Wiretap Violations
A recent ruling from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, as well as past rulings across the country, indicates that the judicial privilege is applicable to alleged violations of wiretapping laws, so attorneys presented with audio evidence beneficial to their case should not fear being sued, says David Scott at Kang Haggerty.
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Nursing Homes Must Prepare For Ownership Scrutiny
Due to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' designation of nursing home ownership changes as a high risk category, and increased transparency and notice obligations for changes in skilled nursing facility ownership set to take effect in Pennsylvania in October, owners should anticipate a heightened level of review and delays, say Mark Mattioli and Paula Sanders at Post & Schell.
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In-Office Engagement Is Essential To Associate Development
As law firms develop return-to-office policies that allow hybrid work arrangements, they should incorporate the specific types of in-person engagement likely to help associates develop attributes common among successful firm leaders, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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Pointers For Tackling Antitrust Class Action Set-Aside Orders
As federal district courts have increasingly been willing to enter set-aside orders for the benefit of class counsel, varying rulings have made the propriety of such orders in antitrust class actions a thorny issue — so attorneys should time their filings strategically and explore opportunities for cost-sharing, say William Reiss and Laura Song at Robins Kaplan.
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Perspectives
A Judge's Pitch To Revive The Jury Trial
Ohio state Judge Pierre Bergeron explains how the decline of the jury trial threatens public confidence in the judiciary and even democracy as a whole, and he offers ideas to restore this sacred right.