Trials

  • February 27, 2024

    UFC, Fighters In Mediation Ahead Of Wage Suppression Trial

    Ultimate Fighting Championship has entered private mediation with a group of fighters suing the promotion in Nevada federal court for suppressing their wages by up to $1.6 billion, adding a new wrinkle to the case just weeks ahead of trial.

  • February 27, 2024

    Ex-Ohio Speaker Urges 6th Circ. To Ax His 20-Year Sentence

    Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder told the Sixth Circuit that it must vacate his 20-year prison sentence for allegedly taking $60 million in bribes from FirstEnergy Corp., in part, because the presiding judge had a potential bias against him for opposing the judge's campaign to join the state's highest court.

  • February 27, 2024

    Blank Rome Adds White Collar Team From Akerman

    Blank Rome LLP has added a four-attorney team from Akerman LLP to its white collar defense and investigations group, continuing the practice group's recent expansion.

  • February 26, 2024

    Convicted Nikola Founder Must Forfeit Ranch, Judge Says

    A New York federal judge on Monday ruled Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton, who received a 4-year prison sentence for fraudulently inflating the truck-maker's value on Wall Street, must forfeit his 4,700-acre Utah property, citing the seriousness of Milton's crime and that he bought the ranch using inflated stock options.

  • February 26, 2024

    'This Isn't A Game': Pro Se Ex-Law Student Schooled At Trial

    A California federal judge overseeing a disability discrimination trial brought by a former student at John F. Kennedy College of Law scolded the pro se litigant Monday after he protested not being able to cross-examine witnesses in writing, saying court rules had to be followed and "this isn't a game."

  • February 26, 2024

    Intel Calls VLSI 'Desperate' In Fight Over License Defense

    Intel and VLSI are continuing to escalate their multivenue dispute over how to decide whether Intel already has a license to VLSI's patents, with the tech company telling the Federal Circuit the patent owner is "desperate to avoid" a California trial, and VLSI saying that trial "would be an enormous waste of party and judicial resources."

  • February 26, 2024

    Apple Antitrust Class Action Gets Early 2026 Trial Date

    A California federal judge on Monday set trial in a high-stakes consumer class action antitrust fight over Apple's App Store policies for February 2026, but refused to weigh in on Apple's request to pause certain discovery while the tech giant appeals the judge's recent class certification decision.

  • February 26, 2024

    MetaBirkins NFT Maker Tells 2nd Circ. 'Artwork' Is Protected

    The creator of the MetaBirkins non-fungible token collection has told the Second Circuit that his use of the iconic Hermès bag's name and likeness was relevant to his artwork but said the New York court misapplied the test of whether it was protected speech when it found that the digital assets infringed on the fashion house's trademarks.

  • February 26, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Freshub Didn't Lie To Revive Patent App

    The Federal Circuit on Monday upheld a Texas federal court's ruling that Amazon's Alexa voice assistant didn't infringe voice-processing system patents owned by Freshub and that Freshub didn't use nefarious means to obtain those patents.

  • February 26, 2024

    Ohio Jury Shuts Down Door Co.'s Patent Defense

    Federal jurors in Ohio found that the details in some drawings of "door skins" covered by a trio of design patents were somewhat inconsistent, but they were unpersuaded by a major door manufacturer to invalidate those patents just yet.

  • February 26, 2024

    Pastor And Ally Of NYC Mayor Was A Con Man, Jury Hears

    A well-known Brooklyn pastor with close ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a con man, a Manhattan federal prosecutor told jurors Monday, one who lied to lenders, stole from an elderly parishioner and claimed his connections to City Hall could result in millions of dollars in profits from a real estate deal.

  • February 26, 2024

    Proud Boys' Attys Can't Escape IP Suit In DC

    A D.C. federal judge has denied a bid to throw out a copyright suit from a group of criminal defense attorneys who represented members of the Proud Boys involved in the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

  • February 26, 2024

    Dry Cleaning Magazine In NJ Must Pay $8.2M For Defamation

    A dry-cleaning industry publication was hit with an $8.2 million verdict by a New Jersey federal jury on Friday on claims that it ran a yearslong defamation campaign in its magazines against a dry-cleaning supply business and its competing trade publication.

  • February 26, 2024

    Fla. Official Can't Save Home From Verdict, Businessmen Say

    Two Miami businessmen have urged a federal judge to block a city commissioner's attempt to prevent the forced sale of his house to satisfy a $63.5 million judgment, saying he voted to unconstitutionally gerrymander the city's districts to include the property and also improperly claimed a last-minute homestead protection.

  • February 26, 2024

    JetBlue, Spirit Tell 1st Circ. $3.8B Deal Is Good For Most Fliers

    JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines told the First Circuit on Monday that a $3.8 billion merger should not have been blocked because the judge who stopped the sale sought to protect a small, hypothetical subset of travelers to the detriment of the vast majority who stand to benefit from the deal.

  • February 26, 2024

    Teva Tells 1st Circ. Feds Must Clear High Bar In FCA Case

    Teva Pharmaceuticals told the First Circuit on Monday that the federal government should be held to — and cannot meet — a strict causation standard in a False Claims Act kickback case, asking the court to settle a matter of first impression in the circuit.

  • February 26, 2024

    Stimwave Prosecutors Accused Of Brady Violation Mid-Trial

    The former CEO of Stimwave Technologies has alleged in the middle of her criminal fraud trial that the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office withheld key evidence about proffer meetings, teeing up a potential Brady fight before a skeptical judge.

  • February 26, 2024

    Caterpillar Owes $12.9M In Wirtgen IP Case, Jury Says

    A federal jury in Delaware has found that Caterpillar owes machinery manufacturer Wirtgen about $12.9 million for infringing five road-milling machine patents, counsel for Wirtgen said.

  • February 26, 2024

    Miffed NC Biz Court Mulls Sanctions After Missed Deadlines

    A North Carolina Business Court judge on Monday chided counsel on both sides of an employment dispute for missing important deadlines on the eve of a jury trial, causing him to postpone the trial indefinitely and contemplate dismissing the case entirely.

  • February 26, 2024

    Manhattan DA Seeks Trump Gag Order For Hush Money Trial

    The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has asked a New York state judge to limit what Donald Trump can say publicly about the upcoming hush money trial against him, referencing Trump's history of intimidating and harassing witnesses, jurors, attorneys and court staff.

  • February 26, 2024

    Feds Say Fla. Atty Can't Undo COVID Relief Fraud Conviction

    A U.S. attorney's office has pushed back on a Florida lawyer's bid to vacate her conviction in Georgia federal court of conspiring to defraud a coronavirus pandemic relief program, saying the government doesn't have to prove she was "behind the keyboard" when the applications were submitted to be convicted of the charges.

  • February 26, 2024

    Jury Awards Woodworking Co. $158K Over 'Lemon' Machine

    A Georgia federal jury has found that the manufacturer of a high-tech woodworking machine breached warranty duties to the device's buyer, awarding nearly $160,000 to a Massachusetts business that alleged it was sold a "lemon" of a machine.

  • February 26, 2024

    Trump Fights With State Over Cell Data Use In Willis DQ Bid

    District Attorney Fani T. Willis of Fulton County, Georgia, and former President Donald Trump are once again facing off in court, this time over whether cellphone data purporting to show late night visits between Willis and a special prosecutor can be used in a bid to disqualify Willis and her office from prosecuting the Georgia election interference case.

  • February 26, 2024

    1st Circ. Rejects Crypto Founder's Hollow Fraud Appeal

    A cryptocurrency founder convicted of fraud hitched his appeal to "inapplicable precedent" and failed to muster an argument why a judge's blocking of testimony from government witnesses deprived his defense of material and favorable evidence, the First Circuit said in upholding the guilty verdict.

  • February 24, 2024

    Up Next At High Court: Social Media Laws & Bump Stocks

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments related to three big-ticket cases this week in a pair of First Amendment challenges to Florida and Texas laws prohibiting social media platforms from removing content or users based on their viewpoints and a dispute over the federal government's authority to ban bump stocks.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Calif. Ruling Got It Wrong On Trial Courts' Gatekeeping Role

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    Ten years after the California Supreme Court reshaped trial judges’ role in admitting expert opinion testimony, a state appeals court's Bader v. Johnson & Johnson ruling appears to undermine this precedent and will likely create confusion about the scope of trial courts’ gatekeeping responsibility, say Robert Wright and Nicole Hood at Horvitz & Levy.

  • How Jan. 6 Riot Cases Could Affect White Collar Defendants

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    Though the prosecutions of individuals involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol deal with fact patterns markedly different from white collar offenses, the emerging case law on what it means to act “corruptly” will likely pose risks and opportunities for white collar defendants and their attorneys, says Ben Jernigan at Zuckerman Spaeder.

  • How To Protect Atty-Client Privilege While Using Generative AI

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    When using generative artificial intelligence tools, attorneys should consider several safeguards to avoid breaches or complications in attorney-client privilege, say Antonious Sadek and Christopher Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • How New Lawyers Can Leverage Feedback For Growth

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    Embracing constructive criticism as a tool for success can help new lawyers accelerate their professional growth and law firms build a culture of continuous improvement, says Katie Aldrich at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Developers Are Testing Defenses In Generative AI Litigation

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    In the rapidly growing field of generative artificial intelligence law in the U.S., there are a few possible defenses that have already been effectively asserted by defendants in litigation, including lack of standing, reliance on the fair use doctrine, and the legality of so-called data scraping, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Corporate Compliance Lessons From FirstEnergy Scandal

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    Fallout from a massive bribery scheme involving Ohio electric utility FirstEnergy and state officeholders — including the recent sentencing of two defendants — has critical corporate governance takeaways for companies and individuals seeking to influence government policymaking, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.

  • Minn. Product Case Highlights Challenges Of Misuse Defense

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    The recent decision by a Minnesota federal court in McDougall v. CRC Industries illustrates that even where a product that is clearly being misused results in personal injuries, manufacturers cannot necessarily rely on the misuse defense to absolve them of liability exposure, says Timothy Freeman at Tanenbaum Keale.

  • Twitter Legal Fees Suit Offers Crash Course In Billing Ethics

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    X Corp.'s suit alleging that Wachtell grossly inflated its fees in the final days of Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition provides a case study in how firms should protect their reputations by hewing to ethical billing practices and the high standards for professional conduct that govern attorney-client relationships, says Lourdes Fuentes at Karta Legal.

  • A Higher Bar For Surviving Summary Judgment In SC Courts

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    The South Carolina Supreme Court's recent decision in Kitchen Planners v. Friedman, rejecting a lower court's usage of the mere scintilla standard for allowing cases to proceed, suggests that the mere existence of an alleged factual dispute between parties will no longer be sufficient to thwart a well-supported motion for summary judgment, says Denver Smith at Butler Snow.

  • 3rd Circ. Ruling Fine-Tunes The 'But It's Hemp' Defense

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    The Third Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Rivera decision, upholding the appellant’s conviction for marijuana possession, clarifies that defendants charged with trafficking marijuana have the burden of proving that the cannabis is actually federally legal hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill, say attorneys at McGlinchey Stafford.

  • ABA's Money-Laundering Resolution Is A Balancing Act

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    While the American Bar Association’s recently passed resolution recognizes a lawyer's duty to discontinue representation that could facilitate money laundering and other fraudulent activity, it preserves, at least for now, the delicate balance of judicial, state-based regulation of the legal profession and the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • Tapping The Full Potential Of The Juror Questionnaire

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    Most litigators know that questionnaires can reveal biases that potential jurors would never reveal in voir dire, but to maximize this tool’s utility, attorneys must choose the right questions, interpret responses effectively and weigh several other considerations, say George Speckart and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Law Firm Professional Development Steps To Thrive In AI Era

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools rapidly evolve, professional development leaders are instrumental in preparing law firms for the paradigm shifts ahead, and should consider three strategies to help empower legal talent with the skills required to succeed in an increasingly complex technological landscape, say Steve Gluckman and Anusia Gillespie at SkillBurst Interactive.

  • Lessons From High-Profile Witness Tampering Allegations

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    As demonstrated by recent developments in the cases against former President Donald Trump and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, allegations of witness tampering can carry serious consequences — but attorneys can employ certain strategies to mitigate the risk that accusations arise, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • Opinion

    A New Strategy For Defending Spine Injury Claims

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    With spinal injury claims proliferating — often with verdicts in the seven-figure range — defense counsel can expand their current trial playbook by retaining experts to prepare and publish peer-reviewed scientific studies that can then be used in the courtroom to help juries understand the issues, says Nicholas Hurzeler at Lewis Brisbois.

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