Appellate

  • October 28, 2024

    Union Pacific Told To Face Injury Retrial With Reinstated Expert

    Railroad giant Union Pacific must face retrial against an injured worker after a California appeals court ruled that an expert with decades of rail experience but no formal accident-analysis training was wrongly blocked from telling a jury how a freight train behaves when starting up.

  • October 28, 2024

    CFPB Asks DC Circ. To Topple PayPal's Wallet Disclosure Win

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has urged the D.C. Circuit to reverse PayPal's latest win against an agency rule that subjected Venmo-style digital wallets to some of the same fee disclosure requirements as reloadable prepaid cards, defending its basis for regulating the two products similarly.

  • October 28, 2024

    DC Circ. Won't Revisit Quinn Emanuel's $486M Award Fight

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP lost its bid to get the D.C. Circuit to reconsider its decision in a dispute over the firm's authority to represent a port operating in a long-running legal spat with the Republic of Djibouti, according to an order issued Monday by a divided panel of judges.

  • October 28, 2024

    7th Circ. Signals Its Rulings Govern Citizens BIPA Policy Spat

    The Seventh Circuit seemed uninterested Monday in shifting focus from its own precedent to either newly certified questions or a state appellate decision to determine whether a district court correctly cleared Citizens Insurance Company of America of covering a biometric privacy suit.

  • October 28, 2024

    Handbag Cos. Turn To 2nd Circ. Over Pause On $8.5B Merger

    The owners of Michael Kors and Coach plan to ask the Second Circuit to review a New York federal judge's order granting the Federal Trade Commission's bid to halt an $8.5 billion merger between the companies while the agency conducts an in-house merger challenge, according to a notice filed Monday.

  • October 28, 2024

    Calif. High Court Says Judicial DQ Bids Must Be Timely

    The California Supreme Court on Monday held that an appellate court got it wrong by determining a timeliness requirement doesn't apply when a party alleges that a judge is disqualified due to bias, in a case that resulted in a $43.5 million judgment for hundreds of title company employees.

  • October 28, 2024

    9th Circ. Nixes Arbitration In Live Nation Ticket Sale Suit

    The Ninth Circuit affirmed Monday that Live Nation and Ticketmaster can't force consumer litigation over allegedly exorbitant ticket prices into arbitration, ruling in a published opinion that the underlying arbitration agreement linking to "borderline unintelligible" arbitral rules is unenforceable.

  • October 28, 2024

    Consciousness Not A Factor In $15M Pain And Suffering Verdict

    A urological surgeon can't trim a $15 million jury verdict awarded to the wife of an octogenarian patient who died due to the doctor's alleged negligence, a Georgia state appeals court has ruled, rejecting arguments that a patient can't get pain and suffering damages because he was mostly unconscious.

  • October 28, 2024

    Judge Leaves Patent Case After Fed. Circ. Undoes Ruling

    A Minnesota federal judge has recused himself from a patent dispute between Teleflex and Medtronic he has handled since 2019, saying he was "at a loss" on how to proceed after the Federal Circuit faulted his interpretation of terms in Teleflex's catheter patents.

  • October 28, 2024

    Colo. Will Decide How Judges Are Judged

    The Colorado Supreme Court could soon lose some of its control over judicial discipline, from the rules governing the process to who doles out punishment, as voters decide whether to adopt constitutional reforms following a scandal over hush-money allegations that ensnared a former chief justice and other top judiciary officials.

  • October 28, 2024

    'Mutual Combat' Halts Revival Of Ga. Eatery Shooting Claims

    The mutual combat doctrine dooms a premises liability claim a Georgia man filed against a property owner after he was shot outside an Atlanta-area Ethiopian restaurant by a convicted felon working security, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

  • October 28, 2024

    Surge In Nicotine Fee Suits Shows Wellness Program Risks

    A recent crop of suits accusing large employers of violating nondiscrimination provisions in federal benefits law by making workers who use nicotine pay more for health insurance underscore the risk of using fees to offset healthcare costs, attorneys say. Here are five nicotine surcharge suits to keep an eye on.

  • October 28, 2024

    FTC, DOJ Tell 9th Circ. Google Wrong On Play Store Fixes

    Federal antitrust enforcers told the Ninth Circuit there should be consequences after a jury found Google monopolized the Android app distribution market, as Google pushes to keep a court order paused in the antitrust case being brought by Epic Games.

  • October 28, 2024

    2nd Circ. Enforces NLRB Order Against Theater Co.

    The Second Circuit has enforced a National Labor Relations Board order compelling a theatrical production company to hand over certain documents to the Actors' Equity Association, saying Monday the company can't cite a concern that the union might publicize the information as a reason to withhold it.

  • October 28, 2024

    Supreme Court Keeps 5th Circuit Horse Racing Ruling On Ice

    A Fifth Circuit ruling that declared the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's oversight of federal horse safety regulation to be unconstitutional was put on hold by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday while it decides whether to hear the authority's appeal.

  • October 28, 2024

    Law Prof Calls Out Atty Fees, Workarounds In NAR Deal

    A University at Buffalo Law School professor on Monday urged a federal judge to reject the National Association of Realtors' $1 billion settlement in an antitrust class action, arguing the deal only serves to enrich lawyers in the case while allowing an anticompetitive system to continue.

  • October 28, 2024

    Conn. Justices Eye Lesson For Attys In Deathbed Will Case

    Connecticut's highest court on Monday seemed skeptical of an attorney's bid to avoid negligence and contract law claims by three people who did not receive portions of a combined $845,368 gift from a TD Ameritrade account because bank beneficiary forms stymied a testator's deathbed will.

  • October 28, 2024

    Transgender Inmate's Suit Meets Skeptical 2nd Circ. Judge

    A Second Circuit judge pressed counsel for a transgender inmate Monday to explain how prison officials in Connecticut were supposed to know that their failure to refer the inmate to specific gender dysphoria treatment would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, noting that relevant case law may not have put them on notice.

  • October 28, 2024

    5th Circ. Balks At Ballots Received After Election Day

    The Fifth Circuit has ruled against Mississippi being able to count ballots received after Election Day, but it is unlikely to have an effect on the upcoming election.

  • October 28, 2024

    Mass. Court's Wiretap Ruling May Be Bad Omen For Plaintiffs

    A ruling by the Massachusetts high court rejecting wiretap claims over website operators' use of tracking software like Meta Pixel and Google Analytics shows the steep climb plaintiffs may continue to face as they try to apply older laws to modern technologies, experts told Law360.

  • October 28, 2024

    DC Circ. Told Carbon Tech Doesn't Back EPA Power Plant Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can't show that carbon capture and sequestration technology can be used now to meet its new emissions requirements for power plants, necessitating vacatur, Republican-led states and industry challengers told the D.C. Circuit.

  • October 28, 2024

    9th Circ. Says Amazon Auto-Renewal Suit Is Too Late

    The Ninth Circuit said Monday that a proposed class action accusing Amazon of duping Prime subscribers into paying for memberships in its audiobook seller, Audible, was filed after a three-year statute of limitations under New York law had expired.

  • October 28, 2024

    Hotel Guests Ask 3rd Circ. To Look At Algorithm Price-Fix Suit

    Three Atlantic City guests are taking their beef with hotel-casinos to the Third Circuit after a New Jersey federal court threw out their lawsuit that accused hotel owners in the town of using an algorithm to inflate the price of rooms.

  • October 28, 2024

    RNC Asks High Court To Stop Pa. Provisional Ballot Rule

    The Republican Party urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to freeze a ruling from Pennsylvania's top court allowing voters whose mail-in ballots are rejected as defective to submit provisional ballots as replacements, claiming the late change to voting rules in a key battleground state could "taint" the 2024 election.

  • October 28, 2024

    New Jury Ordered In 'Cop City' Trial Over Court Closure

    A defendant in the sprawling, 61-person racketeering indictment of protesters against Atlanta's controversial "Cop City" police training center will get another shot at jury selection after the Georgia Court of Appeals said Monday that a Fulton County trial judge unjustifiably closed her courtroom to the public and the press.

Expert Analysis

  • What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings

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    Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Perspectives

    Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright

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    The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • 6th Circ. Preemption Ruling Adds Uncertainty For Car Cos.

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    Automakers and their suppliers need uniformity under the law to create sufficient scale and viable markets — but the Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Fenner v. General Motors creates more uncertainty around the question of when state law consumer claims related to violations of federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards are preempted, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Can SEC's Consolidated Audit Trail Survive Post-Chevron?

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently in a showdown at the Eleventh Circuit over its authority to maintain a national market system and require that the industry spend billions to maintain its consolidated audit trail, a case that is further complicated by the Loper Bright decision, says Daniel Hawke at Arnold & Porter.

  • 'Minimum Contacts' Issues At Stake In High Court FSIA Case

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    In CC/Devas v. Antrix, the U.S. Supreme Court must decide whether a "minimum contacts" requirement should be implied in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, with the potential to dramatically change the legislative landscape through the establishment of a new and significant barrier to U.S. suits against foreign states, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • 2nd Circ. American Girl Ruling Alters Test Purchase Norms

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in American Girl v. Zembrka overturns years of precedent that required completed test purchase shipments to establish jurisdiction in infringement cases, but litigators shouldn't abandon the strategy entirely, say Robert Wasnofski and Sara Gates at Dentons.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • Cos. Face Increasing Risk From Environmental Citizen Suits

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    Environmental citizen suits stepping in to fill the regulatory vacuum concerning consumer goods waste may soon become more common, and the evolving procedural landscape and changes to environmental law may contribute to companies' increased exposure, say J. Michael Showalter and Bradley Rochlen at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 11th Circ. Kickback Ruling May Widen Hearsay Exception

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    In a $400 million fraud case, U.S. v. Holland, the Eleventh Circuit recently held that a conspiracy need not have an unlawful object to introduce co-conspirator statements under federal evidence rules, potentially broadening the application of the so-called co-conspirator hearsay exception, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • 2 Rulings Show How Courts Assess Health Benefit Denials

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    Two recent decisions from federal appeals courts offer important insights into how courts are assessing denials of health benefit claims brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, including guidance on how plan administrators should evaluate claims and what documents must be disclosed, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • 2nd Circ. Provides NY Pathway For Fighting Foreign Infringers

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    A recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit provides a road map for expeditiously obtaining personal jurisdiction in New York against foreign trademark infringers based on a single purchase of counterfeit goods, meaning the Second Circuit could now be the preferred venue for combating foreign infringement, says Jeffrey Ratinoff at Spencer Fane.

  • Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures

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    Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.

  • Sublimit And Policy Interpretation Lessons From Amtrak Case

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    The recently settled dispute between Amtrak and its insurers over sublimit coverage illustrates that parties with unclear manuscript policies may wish to avoid litigation in favor of settlement — as the New York federal court declined to decide the case by applying prior term interpretations, says Laura Maletta at Chartwell Law.

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