Washington

  • September 25, 2026

    Aramark Faces Wash. Class Claims Over Noncompete Terms

    Aramark has been hit with a proposed class action in Washington state court accusing the food service giant of failing to provide advanced notice to Evergreen State workers of its noncompete terms and restricting them from taking second jobs, in violation of state law.

  • September 25, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Overlook Of Bond Receipt Was 'Legal Error'

    A split Ninth Circuit panel ruled in a published opinion Friday that an immigration appeals board committed "legal error" by overlooking proof of receipt of a Mexican citizen's voluntary departure bond payment, which was required to reinstate his voluntary departure period.

  • September 25, 2026

    PTAB Invalidates Challenged Claims In Breast Pump Patent

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Friday ruled that all claims Shenzhen Root Technology Co. Ltd. challenged in a Willow Blossom wearable breast pump patent are invalid on numerous grounds.

  • September 25, 2026

    9th Circ. OKs Class Cert. In Classmates.com Name Use Case

    The Ninth Circuit has approved a lower court's certification of a class of Californians suing over their names appearing in the yearbooks platform Classmates.com, rejecting a number of challenges from the website's operator, including that the lead plaintiff couldn't adequately represent the class.

  • September 25, 2026

    Detractors Tell Court Paramount Deal Fails To Fix Concerns

    Civil rights and public interest groups have told a California federal court the settlement ending a challenge of Paramount Skydance's purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery fails to address the concerns state enforcers raised in the first place.

  • September 25, 2026

    Telecom Says 2023 Discovery Bars Wash. Tribe's Burial Claims

    A telecommunications company has argued the clock ran out last year on the Lummi Nation's claims of Washington Indian Graves and Records Act violations, and asked a Washington federal judge to dismiss the tribe's suit.

  • September 25, 2026

    Apple Hit With Garnishment Order For $1.69M Wage Judgment

    Apple was ordered Friday by a North Carolina federal judge to cease contract payments to an affiliated repair company that has allegedly failed to pony up a $1.69 million judgment in a wage and hour class action.

  • September 25, 2026

    UDR Settles Wash. AG's Claims Of Illegal Rent Hikes

    Multifamily real estate investment trust UDR Inc. will pay more than $1.6 million in order to settle a suit filed by the Washington State Office of the Attorney General, which accused the REIT in state court of illegally hiking rents on its tenants.

  • September 24, 2026

    Expedia Hit With Smoke Detector Suit Over Deadly VRBO Fire

    A Massachusetts family has accused Expedia of negligently listing VRBO vacation rental properties without smoke detectors after an apartment they booked in the Dominican Republic caught fire, leading to the deaths of four family members, according to a Washington state court lawsuit.

  • September 24, 2026

    Game Publishers Eye Doc Request In Valve Antitrust Case

    Video-game publishers accusing Valve Corp. in a federal antitrust lawsuit of manipulating arbitration pacts with gaming customers have questioned the gamers' bid for access to the publishers' purportedly protected materials as the gamers fight a separate case against the digital content company.

  • September 24, 2026

    Google, Ex-Engineer End Suit Over Pregnancy-Loss Firing

    Google LLC and a former software engineer who sued the company over allegations that she was wrongfully fired for taking time off following the unexpected loss of a pregnancy agreed to dismiss the worker's lawsuit with prejudice, according to a Western District of Washington filing in the case Wednesday.

  • September 24, 2026

    Paramount Judge Won't 'Rubber Stamp' States' Merger Deal

    A California federal judge questioned state enforcers Thursday about the details of their proposed settlement to resolve antitrust litigation challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, telling counsel, "The court isn't a rubber stamp," and "I've got questions, and I'm not the only one."

  • September 24, 2026

    Full 9th Circ. Asked To Revisit $2B Devas Arbitral Award

    An Indian state-owned aerospace company has urged the full Ninth Circuit to review a three-judge panel's unanimous decision to enforce a $2 billion arbitral award issued to a Bangalore-based satellite communications company, saying the decision raises important questions about the constitutional limits on jurisdiction of foreign disputes with no connection to the U.S.

  • September 24, 2026

    Grammarly Owner Sued Over 'Last Chance' Discount Emails

    The company behind Grammarly has been hit with a proposed class action in Washington state court alleging it sent marketing emails that falsely warned customers discounts were about to expire, then extended the sales or offered similar deals soon afterward.

  • September 24, 2026

    Nintendo Wins $4.5M Default Against Reddit Moderator Archbox

    An Arizona resident and Reddit moderator known as archbox must pay $4.5 million to Nintendo of America Inc. for allegedly making and distributing illegal copies of Nintendo Switch video games, according to a default judgment handed down Wednesday by a Washington federal judge.

  • September 24, 2026

    Parents Say Hospital Forced Them To Drive Home Dead Infant

    A Washington couple claims staff at Salem Hospital in Oregon left them with no choice but to drive their 8-month-old son's body back home to Seattle after he suddenly died during a medical emergency, according to a $10 million negligence lawsuit the family filed in Oregon state court.

  • September 24, 2026

    Labcorp Inks $2.3M Deal To Resolve Multistate Data Breach

    Labcorp will pay nearly $2.3 million and adopt data security changes under a multistate settlement resolving investigations into a 2019 breach at its former debt collection vendor, a group of state attorneys general announced Thursday.

  • September 24, 2026

    AGs Push Congress To Regulate AI But Not Preempt State Laws

    Nearly half the attorneys general in the United States implored Congress in a letter Thursday to "immediately" regulate the artificial intelligence industry and prohibit federal action from preempting state laws, telling U.S. House and Senate leaders that national security is at stake.

  • September 24, 2026

    YMCA Gets No Coverage In Child Sex Abuse Suit, Insurer Says

    Great American Insurance sued YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties in Washington federal court Wednesday, arguing it has no duty to defend it in an underlying child sexual abuse lawsuit and that the defendant exhausted one of the applicable policy limits for payment of other abuse claims against it.

  • September 24, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs Dual Deals Over Inaccessible LA Housing

    The Ninth Circuit found a whistleblower is not entitled to a portion of a $200 million settlement Los Angeles reached with federal officials to correct years of noncompliance with accessibility requirements in public housing after the plaintiff struck a separate deal in a fraud complaint over the city's conduct. 

  • September 24, 2026

    5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

    The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

  • September 24, 2026

    Wash. Winemaker's Spoilage Coverage Claim Capped At $40K

    A Washington winemaker cannot recover more than $40,000 in coverage for its loss of nearly 18,000 bottles of wine due to a faulty air conditioner, a federal court ruled, saying the winemaker's commercial property coverage limits recovery for spoilage caused by mechanical breakdown and temperature fluctuations.

  • September 24, 2026

    Insurer Ends Coverage Suit Over $20M Cable Damage Case

    Great American Insurance Co. has agreed to drop its lawsuit seeking a declaration that it does not have a duty to defend a Washington-based buoy installation company against claims over damages to an underwater electric cable that could cost more than $20 million to replace.

  • September 24, 2026

    9th Circ. Reinstates Vax Objector's Religious Bias Case

    The Ninth Circuit on Sept. 24 reopened a nurse's lawsuit alleging an Oregon hospital unlawfully put her on unpaid leave rather than accommodate her religious objection to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, faulting the trial court for overlooking a letter in which she explained why she wanted an exemption.

  • September 23, 2026

    Liquor Distributor's Insurer Fights Coverage Of Worker's Suit

    Employers Mutual Casualty Co. filed suit in Washington federal court Wednesday seeking an order declaring that the insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify policyholder American Northwest Distributors Inc. against an ex-worker's proposed wage-and-hour class action.

Expert Analysis

  • 2 AI Washing Rulings Apply Familiar Securities Fraud Rules

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    Two recent federal court decisions to allow AI washing complaints to proceed begin to clarify the line between nonactionable optimism and actionable misstatements by framing the core issue as not overstating the promise of artificial intelligence, but misrepresenting the current state of a company's products, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • Justices Stand On Statutory Specifics In Cisco And Landor

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    With its June 23 decisions in Cisco Systems Inc. v. Doe and Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on the critical point that the statute invoked in a federal claim must authorize a private lawsuit and the remedy sought, says Patrick Judd at Phelps Dunbar.

  • How Maine's Expanded Health Deal Reviews Complicate M&A

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    A pair of recently approved Maine competition laws establish notice and approval requirements for certain healthcare transactions and expand state antitrust oversight, creating new hurdles for dealmakers as states take a more aggressive role in policing healthcare consolidation, especially involving private equity, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Series

    Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

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    As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

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    Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

  • Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

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    An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

  • Google Antitrust Case Puts Spotlight On De Facto Exclusivity

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    Mozilla's recent amicus filing in U.S. v. Google arguing that its agreement to make Google the default search engine did not amount to de facto exclusivity highlights the growing debate over traditional indicators of exclusivity, with implications for any business that uses rebates, preferred contracts or volume incentives, says Chris Gowen at WilmU Farnan School of Law.

  • 3rd Circ. Decision Sheds Light On BIPA Bank Exemption

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    The Third Circuit's recent decision in McGoveran v. Amazon illuminates how courts are extending the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act's financial institution carveout beyond banks and insurers to technology vendors and other businesses handling biometric data, a defendant-friendly shift that still casts uncertainty around BIPA's enforcement, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • Opinion

    State Courts Must Be Gatekeepers Of Expert Testimony

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    Based on my experience in the state judiciary, emulating federal courts' role as gatekeepers of expert witness testimony would help state court judges maintain the appearance of impartiality and assist juries, thus enhancing the overall confidence people have in their justice system, says Lorie Gildea at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Series

    Moshing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Entering a mosh pit is much like entering the practice of law — it is difficult, you have to know both the written and unwritten rules, and conduct yourself according to the expectations of each community, says Christopher Deubert at Constangy Brooks.

  • Tracking The Rare 'Quick Look' Win In FTC's Zillow-Redfin Suit

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    The Federal Trade Commission’s suit claiming that Zillow illegally paid Redfin to exit the apartment rental market is one to watch because its early success under the less rigorous “quick look” standard of antitrust review could turn into a rare case won under the doctrine, say attorneys at Axinn.

  • Why Highly Specialized Experts May Risk Exclusion At Trial

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    Expert witnesses with highly specific areas of focus may be vulnerable to exclusion in court, making it important for attorneys to check how potential witnesses' qualifications can be bolstered by their publications and other professional activities, say Evan Weisberg and Christopher Cunio at Hunton, and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

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