Appellate

  • December 19, 2024

    Teradata Antitrust, IP Suit Revived Against German Co.

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday revived data analytics company Teradata Corp.'s antitrust and trade secret suit against German software company SAP, saying a lower court rejected the case despite there being factual disputes over key issues concerning market effects and confidential information. 

  • December 19, 2024

    5th Circ. Finds No 230 Immunity In Salesforce Trafficking Suit

    The Fifth Circuit on Thursday shut down Salesforce Inc.'s arguments that it was immune under the Communications Decency Act to claims that it benefited from sex trafficking that took place on Backpage.com, saying the plaintiffs' claims do not treat Salesforce as a publisher or speaker of third-party content.

  • December 19, 2024

    Fed. Circ. OKs $95M Altria Vape Patent Win Against Reynolds

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld a $95.2 million jury verdict against R.J. Reynolds for infringing Altria vape patents, rejecting Reynolds' arguments that the finding was not supported by the evidence and was based on expert damages testimony that was unreliable.

  • December 19, 2024

    3rd Circ. Says Loan Shark, Robbery Not Enough For Asylum

    The Third Circuit ruled against a Brazilian family seeking asylum following threats from a loan shark and a home invasion, saying that their status as crime victims and debtors does not constitute a particular social group eligible for asylum.

  • December 19, 2024

    McKesson Urges Justices To Keep Hobbs Act's 'Exclusivity'

    McKesson Corp. is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve circuit courts' "exclusive" jurisdiction for Federal Communications Commission orders, warning that regulatory consistency nationwide could be undermined if lower courts are allowed to step in.

  • December 19, 2024

    The Spiciest Quotes Heard In Mass. Courts In 2024

    Another year of hard-fought litigation was replete with quips, barbs, and both attorneys and defendants put on blast — plus one litigant who simply wished for the return of a nine-foot bedazzled grand piano.

  • December 19, 2024

    DOJ Wants Time In Fubo-ESPN Streaming JV Arguments

    The U.S. Department of Justice has got something to say to the Second Circuit about an attempt from ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery to overturn a preliminary injunction stopping them from going forward with a joint sports streaming venture that a rival says will run it out of business.

  • December 19, 2024

    2nd Circ. Mulls Dormant Commerce Applicability To Marijuana

    A Second Circuit panel appeared conflicted Thursday on whether the dormant commerce clause applies to federally illegal marijuana and, if so, whether New York cannabis regulators still had an interest in ensuring that some cannabis licenses went to locals.

  • December 19, 2024

    $18M TransUnion Loss 'Riddled With Defects,' 6th Circ. Says

    The Sixth Circuit said Wednesday that a jury's $18.3 million award in a dustup over intellectual property related to an online insurance quote marketplace was based on damages evidence that was sorely lacking, affirming that TransUnion is off the hook.

  • December 19, 2024

    Full 6th Circ. Will Rehear GM Transmission Defect Case

    The Sixth Circuit on Thursday granted General Motors LLC's request for a full bench rehearing of a panel's decision from earlier this year upholding class certification for a group of drivers who allege the automaker knowingly sold vehicles with defective transmissions.

  • December 19, 2024

    Amazon Gets 'Wide Berth' Of Discovery In Drivers' Wage Suit

    A Washington federal judge largely granted Amazon's discovery request in an 8-year-old lawsuit brought by delivery drivers accusing the company of misclassifying them as independent contractors, saying the data it seeks is reasonable for its forthcoming challenge to the workers' class certification bid.

  • December 19, 2024

    3rd Circ. Backs $22M Win For Battery Co. Workers In Pay Suit

    The Third Circuit held Thursday that a Pennsylvania battery manufacturer flouted federal labor law when it failed to pay workers $22 million for time they spent changing in and out of protective gear, rejecting the company's assertion it was only obligated to pay workers what was "reasonable."

  • December 19, 2024

    The Top 5 Immigration Cases Of 2024: Year In Review

    The Biden administration settled several lawsuits over family separations that happened under the Trump-era zero tolerance policy and persuaded courts that three state immigration laws infringe on federal authority over immigration enforcement. Here, Law360 looks back at five significant litigation developments in 2024 that bear on immigration policy.

  • December 19, 2024

    Biz Owners Ask 11th Circ. To Revive Tax Penalty Challenge

    Owners of an electronic parts company whose reprieve from a $345,000 tax penalty was revoked by the U.S. Tax Court in light of an Eleventh Circuit ruling have asked the appeals court to reconsider its stance and to determine that Tax Court judges have unconstitutional job protections.

  • December 19, 2024

    Casinos Say DOJ Has No 'Starting Point' For Room Rates

    Las Vegas casino hotels urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday not to revive the first algorithmic price-fixing case to reach an appeals court, in a brief that took direct aim at the Justice Department's amicus intervention in the room rate lawsuit.

  • December 19, 2024

    The Top Patent Damages Awards Of 2024

    The largest patent damages verdicts of 2024 all amounted to nine figures, largely in line with recent years, with the largest award of $847 million being set aside by a judge weeks after the verdict, reflecting the scrutiny given to sizable damages, attorneys say.

  • December 19, 2024

    Michigan's Biggest Decisions Of 2024

    This year, the Michigan Supreme Court instituted sweeping changes to the state's wage and paid leave laws, took some damages off the table for wrongful death plaintiffs, and recognized third-party retaliation claims.

  • December 19, 2024

    Tornado Cash Founder Says 5th Circ. Order Merits Dismissal

    The founder of cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash renewed his bid to dismiss his money laundering and sanctions violation charges, saying a recent Fifth Circuit decision that found the company's smart contracts were not sanctionable property is fatal to the case.

  • December 19, 2024

    GOP Candidate For NC Top Court Wants 'Unlawful' Votes Axed

    A Republican jurist trailing his Democratic opponent in the North Carolina Supreme Court race wants to stop the state Board of Elections from counting what he characterized as "unlawful ballots" after officials last week refused to throw out more than 60,000 votes at his behest.

  • December 19, 2024

    5th Circ. Urged To Deny Tax Break For Doc's Captive Insurance

    A physician who owns a network of urgent care clinics was correctly denied tax deductions along with his wife for over $1 million in premiums they paid to insurance companies they owned, the government told the Fifth Circuit, saying the captive arrangements didn't qualify as insurance for tax purposes.

  • December 19, 2024

    Cos. Press Justices To Review Contractors Min. Wage Dispute

    Opposite opinions over the scope of the president's authority "cry out" for the U.S. Supreme Court intervention in a case challenging President Joe Biden's increase of the federal contractors' hourly minimum wage, two outdoor groups said, pointing to a Ninth Circuit's decision axing the wage hike.

  • December 19, 2024

    Fani Willis DQ'd From Trump's Georgia Prosecution

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified Thursday from the prosecution of Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case, as a split state appellate court found that "no other remedy" was enough to scrub away what a trial court had previously called an "odor of mendacity" about the prosecution.

  • December 19, 2024

    Del. Justices Affirm Toss Of Co.'s Suit Against Gusrae Kaplan

    Delaware's Supreme Court has affirmed a trial court's dismissal of an Applied Energetics Inc. suit accusing Gusrae Kaplan Nusbaum PLLC and a former partner of launching a frivolous securities fraud suit in order to hobble other litigation against the laser weapons maker's former CEO.

  • December 18, 2024

    Ex-US Rep. Urges 2nd Circ. To Nix Insider Trading Conviction

    Former Indiana Rep. Stephen Buyer on Wednesday urged the Second Circuit to reverse his insider trading conviction or grant him a new trial, saying federal prosecutors violated his Sixth Amendment rights and failed to prove Manhattan was the right place to be tried, which led a pair of circuit judges to voice doubt about the court's standard for establishing venue.

  • December 18, 2024

    Split 9th Circ. Backs 46-Month Prison Term For Stock Pumper

    A divided Ninth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a 46-month sentence for a Canadian man convicted of securities fraud in a pump-and-dump scheme involving a cannabis and gaming company, rejecting his argument that the lower court erred by calculating "intended loss" to enhance his sentence, since circuit precedent recognizes both actual and intended losses.

Expert Analysis

  • Conn. Court Split May Lead To Vertical Forum Shopping

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    As shown by a recent ruling in State v. Exxon Mobil, Connecticut state and federal courts are split on personal jurisdiction, and until the Connecticut Supreme Court steps in, parties may be incentivized to forum shop, causing foreign entities to endure costly litigation and uncertain liability, says Matthew Gibbons at Shipman & Goodwin.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Fla. Insurer-Breach Cases Split On Unrepaired Property Issue

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    A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Universal v. Qureshi is directly at odds with a 2020 decision from another Florida appellate court, and raises important questions for policyholders and insurers about the proper measure of damages in breach claims involving unrepaired property, say Andrea DeField and Yaniel Abreu at Hunton.

  • Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases

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    Evidence issues in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and classified documents cases involving former President Donald Trump offer an opportunity to restudy elements and implications of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, noting the courts' careful scrutiny of these matters, say Robert Hoff and Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

  • Enviro Policy Trends That Will Continue Beyond The Election

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    Come October in a presidential election year, the policy world feels like a winner-take-all scenario, with the outcome of the vote determining how or even whether we are regulated — but there are several key ongoing trends that will continue to drive environmental regulation regardless of the election results, say J. Michael Showalter and Samuel Rasche at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules

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    In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.

  • Opinion

    Failure To Use Apportionment Has Distorted Patent Damages

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    Apportionment is the solution to the problem of inflated patent infringement damages, and courts should return to focusing on the smallest saleable unit as the starting point for apportionment analysis, say William Lee at WilmerHale and Mark Lemley at Stanford Law School.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • A Look At Recent Case Law On Expedited Judgment In NY

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    A number of recent New York state court decisions clarify and refine the contours surrounding Civil Practice Law and Rule 3213, providing landlords, lenders and other payees guidance on how to seek accelerated judgment in certain litigation, says Alexander Lycoyannis at Holland & Knight.

  • Opinion

    Supreme Court Must Halt For-Profit Climate Tort Proliferation

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    If the U.S. Supreme Court does not seize the opportunity presented by Honolulu v. Sunoco to reassert federal authority over interstate pollution regulation, the resulting frenzy of profit-driven environmental mass torts against energy companies will stunt American competitiveness and muddle climate policy, says Gale Norton at Liberty Energy.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Allergan Ruling Reinforces Value Of Patent Term Adjustments

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Allergan v. MSN, which held that patent term adjustment awards for first-filed, first-issued patents cannot be stripped away by later-issuing child patents that expire earlier, means practitioners must consider the potential impact of any action that might reduce the adjustment amount, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • A Class Action Trend Tests Limit Of Courts' Equity Powers

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    A troubling trend has developed in federal class action litigation as some counsel and judges attempt to push injunctive relief classes under Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure beyond the traditional limits of federal courts' equitable powers, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • What's In The Cards For CFTC's Election Betting Case

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    A D.C. federal judge's Sept. 12 ruling, allowing KalshiEx to offer derivative contracts trading on the outcome of the U.S. congressional elections over objections from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, could mark a watershed moment in the permissibility of election betting if upheld on appeal, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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