Appellate

  • November 21, 2024

    DOJ Fights High Court Review Of Kickback Law, Jury's Role

    The U.S. Supreme Court need not review a Fifth Circuit decision upholding the convictions of three healthcare professionals accused of taking part in a $40 million kickback scheme, the federal government has told the justices in a brief.

  • November 21, 2024

    9th Circ. Told $500K To Huizar Not Intended As Bribe

    A real estate developer convicted of bribing former Los Angeles City Councilor José Huizar with $500,000 for help overcoming challenges to a downtown project asked the Ninth Circuit for a new trial, arguing Thursday the lower court erroneously excluded evidence showing the developer didn't know the money would be used as a bribe.

  • November 21, 2024

    FirstEnergy Investors Slam Ex-Execs' Info 'Bogeyman' Story

    FirstEnergy shareholders have accused two former executives of the energy company of exploiting confidentiality rules by seeking to shield documents relevant to their suit over a stock plummet that followed a massive bribery scheme, telling an Ohio federal judge he should reject the executives' "informational bogeyman" story.

  • November 21, 2024

    Wash. Justices Unsure CARES Act Protects Violent Tenants

    Two Washington Supreme Court justices on Thursday seemed to doubt whether the CARES Act blocked landlords from quickly evicting violent tenants, as opposed to just those behind on rent, a question that resulted in opposing opinions from two lower appellate panels.

  • November 21, 2024

    Feds Coined 'Catchphrase' To Convict LA Pol, 9th Circ. Told

    Mark Ridley-Thomas' attorney on Thursday urged the Ninth Circuit to overturn the former California politician's bribery conviction for scheming to indirectly donate $100,000 to his son's nonprofit and secure him a university position, saying prosecutors coined the "catchphrase" "funneling" to obfuscate that no bribe actually occurred.

  • November 21, 2024

    No New Trial In Suit Over Fatal Nissan Truck Fire In Texas

    A Texas appeals court on Thursday vacated an order for a new trial in a suit against Nissan North America Inc. over a fatal truck fire, saying the trial court abused its discretion when it found that juror misconduct and other cumulative errors prejudiced the plaintiff.

  • November 21, 2024

    Judge Suggests 1st Circ. Should Hear Lobster Tracking Case

    A federal judge in Maine on Thursday tossed a case by lobster fishermen suing to keep their fishing routes secret from state observation, but the judge encouraged the lobstermen to appeal the ruling so that a federal appeals court can wade into this "significant" Fourth Amendment dispute.

  • November 21, 2024

    Fuel Economy Regs Are Unlawful Path To EVs, 6th Circ. Told

    Republican-led states and fuel industry groups have told the Sixth Circuit that the U.S. Department of Transportation overstepped with new vehicle fuel-economy standards that amount to an unlawful electric vehicles mandate, while environmental groups say the standards don't go far enough to meaningfully combat climate change.

  • November 21, 2024

    DC Circ. Judges Disagree On Standing In Drilling Permit Suit

    The judges of the D.C. Circuit stepped on each other's toes Thursday during oral arguments over a challenge to the approvals of thousands of drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming, appearing to be at odds over whether the environmental groups' stance on standing had legs.

  • November 21, 2024

    Ill. High Court Won't Shield Sun-Times In Trump Tax Case

    The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Chicago Sun-Times can't use an anti-SLAPP law to duck a defamation suit over the paper's coverage of an investigation into a $1 million property tax reduction granted to Trump Tower during the president-elect's first term.

  • November 21, 2024

    Oklahoma Tribe Asks DC Circ. To Revive Creek Land Lawsuit

    An Oklahoma tribe is asking the D.C. Court of Appeals to revive its challenge to a U.S. Department of the Interior decision that rejected the tribe's proposed liquor ordinance in a dispute over shared jurisdiction with the Muscogee Creek Nation, arguing federally recognized Indigenous nations should stand on equal footing.

  • November 21, 2024

    Ill. Justices Overturn Jussie Smollett's Conviction

    Illinois' high court ruled Thursday that prosecutors violated Jussie Smollett's constitutional rights by trying the actor after earlier dismissing his charges for falsely reporting a hate crime, saying the "fundamentally unfair" conviction must be voided.

  • November 21, 2024

    Trump Selects Ex-Fla. AG Pam Bondi As New AG Pick

    President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has selected Pam Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida, as his new pick for U.S. attorney general, just hours after former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration amid allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.

  • November 21, 2024

    IP Atty Fights To Revive Allergan FCA Suit At 9th Circ.

    A patent attorney urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to revive False Claims Act allegations against Allergan over dementia drug patents, arguing his client used his expertise to discover the patents were fraudulently issued to block generics and that these are the kinds of FCA cases the government welcomes from experts.

  • November 21, 2024

    Immigration Group Seeks Say In 10th Circ. To Fight Okla. Law

    A Tulsa, Oklahoma-based nonprofit that advocates for immigrants has told the Tenth Circuit the state offered no good reason to lock the organization out from intervening in the federal government's lawsuit challenging an Oklahoma law barring unauthorized immigrants from residing in the state.

  • November 21, 2024

    Ex-Yale Student Can Submit Acquittal Files To DHS, Judge Says

    A Connecticut federal judge on Thursday allowed an expelled Yale student to send his sexual assault accuser's name to immigration officials, approving the submission of a mostly unredacted state criminal trial transcript under a narrow exception to a magistrate judge's ban on naming the woman.

  • November 21, 2024

    Ill. Justices Give Marathon Chance To Avoid $15M Fuel Tax

    Marathon Petroleum presented enough evidence to rebut claims by officials of an Illinois county that it owed about $15 million in fuel taxes on transactions stemming from cash settlements for delivery contracts, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday, reversing an appellate court.

  • November 21, 2024

    Howmet Accuses Wash. DOL Of Muscling Into Worker's Suit

    Howmet Aerospace slammed the Washington state labor department on Thursday for "interjecting" into a dispute with a former smelter employee who claims he developed cancer from asbestos exposure, urging the state's highest court not to relax the standard for workers to sue over job-related illnesses.

  • November 21, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Agrees Tomofun's Pet Camera Didn't Infringe Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's finding that pet technology company Tomofun's Furbo pet camera didn't infringe a pet communication patent, agreeing that the product at issue didn't cover key patent language.

  • November 21, 2024

    Justices Urged To Take Up Fed. Circ.'s 1-Word PTAB Orders

    Groups representing patent owners and inventors want the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the Federal Circuit's practice of affirming decisions from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board with one-word orders.

  • November 21, 2024

    Justices Urged To Uphold Alaska Beachfront Boundary Ruling

    Alaska and an Alaskan property owner told the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold an Alaska Supreme Court ruling that determined that the boundary between two beachfront properties owned by feuding neighbors is set by where a shoreline ended up in 1938.

  • November 21, 2024

    NASCAR Rule Change Results In Dropped Injunction Appeal

    A pair of NASCAR teams, one of which is owned by Michael Jordan, that sued the stock car racing company over allegedly anticompetitive practices have dropped their expedited appeal of a denied injunction after NASCAR removed a controversial antitrust release clause from its contracts.

  • November 21, 2024

    Pa. Enviro Hearing Board Can Sanction Atty, Court Affirms

    Pennsylvania's Environmental Hearing Board was within its power to issue its first-ever sanctions against an attorney for trying to delay an appeal with false claims that the state Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were looking to talk to Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. over her case, a state appellate court ruled Thursday.

  • November 21, 2024

    Senate Deal Halts 4 Circuit Court Nominations

    Democrats and Republicans cut a deal Wednesday night to advance district court nominees before the year ends, while dropping four circuit court picks from confirmation efforts, Law360 has confirmed.

  • November 21, 2024

    11th Circ. Says Fla. Law Bars Workers' Comp Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit backed the dismissal of a worker's suit claiming a chemical company didn't do enough to shield him from particles that caused a lung condition, ruling that a Florida workers' compensation law blocks him from pursuing the company in court for negligence.

Expert Analysis

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • Newly Acquired Information Can Be Key In Drug Label Cases

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    The question of whether federal law preempts state law claims is often central in pharmaceutical labeling cases, like the Fosamax litigation now before the Third Circuit — but parties must also consider whether there is newly acquired information to justify submitting a proposed labeling change in the first place, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Tips For Employers As Courts Shift On Paid Leave Bias Suits

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    After several federal courts recently cited the U.S. Supreme Court's Muldrow decision — which held that job transfers could be discriminatory — in ruling that paid administrative leave may also constitute an adverse employment action, employers should carefully consider several points before suspending workers, says Tucker Camp at Foley & Lardner.

  • NC Ruling Takes Practical Approach To Duty-To-Defend Costs

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    In Murphy-Brown v. Ace American Insurance, a case of first impression, the North Carolina Business Court adopted the commonsense rationale of many state courts in holding that policyholders' defense costs should be deemed presumtively reasonable when a insurer breaches its duty to defend, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • Calif. Ruling Offers Hope For Mitigated Negative Declarations

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    In Upland Community First v. City of Upland, a California appeals court upheld a warehouse development's mitigated negative declaration over its greenhouse gas emissions thresholds — a rare victory against this type of challenge providing reassurance that such declarations can be upheld, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • False Patent Marking Claims Find New Home In Lanham Act

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    While the Patent Act may have closed the courthouse doors for many false patent marking claims, the Federal Circuit, in its recent decision in Crocs v. Effervescent, may be opening a window to these types of claims under the Lanham Act, says John Cordani at Robinson & Cole.

  • 3rd. Circ. Ruling Shows Employers Where To Put ADA Focus

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    A recent Third Circuit decision in Morgan v. Allison Crane & Rigging, confirming that the Americans with Disabilities Act protects some temporarily impaired employees, reminds employers to pursue compliance through uniform policies that head off discriminatory decisions, not after-the-fact debates over an individual's disability status, says Joseph McGuire at Freeman Mathis.

  • Nvidia Case's Potential Impact On Securities Class Actions

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    In Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder, the U.S. Supreme Court could strip lower courts of their long-standing ability and obligation to holistically weigh all relevant facts supporting plaintiffs' allegations of securities fraud, which would have a wide-ranging impact on securities fraud class actions in the U.S., say attorneys at Labaton Keller.

  • Justices Face Tough Question On HHS Hospital Pay Formula

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    In Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Becerra, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine whether the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services properly applied certain Medicare reimbursement adjustments to hospitals — a decision that could significantly affect hospitals' ability to seek higher Medicare reimbursement for low-income patients, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Where Can Privacy Plaintiffs Sue When Injury Is Online?

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    Website owners need to understand wiretapping laws to understand whether they may be sued for activity tracking in California or Pennsylvania courts, where the statutory damages for violations of half-century-old laws can be substantial — and a recent Third Circuit decision suggests establishing specific jurisdiction is not as easy as 1-2-3, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Short-Seller Implications Of 10th Circ.'s Overstock Decision

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    The Tenth Circuit's Oct. 15 decision in Overstock Securities Litigation provides clarity on the pleading standard for a market manipulation claim under the Exchange Act, and suggests that short sellers might not be able to rely on the fraud-on-the-market presumption typically invoked by securities plaintiffs, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Patent Lessons From 4 Federal Circuit Reversals In September

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    Cases that were reversed or vacated by the Federal Circuit last month provide helpful clarity on collateral estoppel, patent eligibility, construction of claim terms that have different boundaries across different claims, and the role of courts as neutral arbiter, say attorneys at Bunsow De Mory.

  • 11th Circ. Ruling Offers Refresher On 'Sex-Plus' Bias Claims

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    While the Eleventh Circuit’s recent ruling in McCreight v. AuburnBank dismissed former employees’ sex-plus-age discrimination claims, the opinion reminds employers to ensure that workplace policies and practices do not treat a subgroup of employees of one sex differently than the same subgroup of another sex, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

  • Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.

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