Appellate

  • January 02, 2025

    Colo. Justices To Mull Whether Hertz Qualifies As An Insurer

    The Colorado Supreme Court will consider whether a rental car company offering insurance coverage to customers qualifies as an insurer under the state's insurance statutes, thereby potentially exposing it to additional liability for claims that it denied coverage in bad faith.

  • January 02, 2025

    DC US Atty Matthew Graves Stepping Down Jan. 16

    Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for D.C. who led the federal investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said he'll be stepping down as the capital's top federal prosecutor four days before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.

  • January 02, 2025

    Cruise Cos. Say Justices Unlikely To Consider $440M Cuba Case

    Four cruise lines have urged the Eleventh Circuit not to pause sending a yearslong dispute back to a lower court after the circuit court overturned a $440 million judgment against them for "trafficking" in property seized by Cuba, saying the U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to take up the case.

  • January 02, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Reverses Telecom Patent Owner's PTAB Win

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday threw out a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that refused to invalidate claims in a mobile communications patent owned by a unit of European patent-licensing company Sisvel, with a panel majority saying the PTAB made numerous errors.

  • January 02, 2025

    Bankrupt Pa. City Must Remit Casino Revenue, County Argues

    Pennsylvania's Delaware County has asked the Third Circuit to undo a bankruptcy court's ruling that the financially ailing city of Chester is excused from paying the county revenue from gambling taxes because of the city's Chapter 9 proceedings, despite an ordinance mandating that the county get a cut of the money.

  • January 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Nonprofit's Union Dues Deduction Fight

    The Ninth Circuit refused to reinstate a conservative nonprofit's suit accusing Teamsters unions representing Washington state employees of committing constitutional violations by allegedly ignoring the nonprofit's mail containing dues revocation cards, concluding that refusal to accept such mail isn't a state action, and the unions aren't state actors.

  • January 02, 2025

    Toyota Can't Be Sanctioned For Not Translating Discovery Docs

    A North Carolina state appeals court ruled that Toyota Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp. cannot be ordered to create English translations of Japanese documents to fulfill discovery requests in a wrongful death suit alleging that a driver died because of a purportedly faulty car design on which the companies collaborated, vacating some of the discovery sanctions entered against the automakers.

  • January 02, 2025

    Biden Lauds Bipartisanship In Confirming Record No. Of Judges

    With less than three weeks left in office, President Joe Biden on Thursday celebrated putting 235 lifetime judges on the federal bench.

  • January 02, 2025

    Hikma Wants Extension At High Court In Skinny Label Case

    Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. wants an extra month to file its petition challenging the Federal Circuit's revival of a suit claiming the company induced physicians to infringe patents covering Amarin Pharma Inc.'s blockbuster cardiovascular drug Vascepa, citing the case's importance and the busy schedules of attorneys.

  • January 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Religious Carveout Sinks Kosher Worker's Suit

    A religious exception shielding religious entities from certain claims applies to jobs at an Orthodox Jewish organization ensuring that food is kept kosher, the Ninth Circuit ruled, upholding the dismissal of a worker's lawsuit claiming he missed out on thousands of dollars in overtime pay.

  • January 02, 2025

    Fla. Court Affirms Wrongful Death Suit Win For Uber

    A Florida appeals court on Thursday affirmed a win for Uber in a wrongful death suit over an accident that killed an Uber driver's ex-girlfriend, finding the trial court correctly concluded the ride-sharing app can't be held liable since the driver wasn't logged into the app at the time of the accident.

  • January 02, 2025

    Conn. High Court Slams Insurer's 'Conflicting' Policy Letters

    An insurance company violated basic contract law by mailing four "conflicting" letters to a roofing contractor purporting to end worker's compensation coverage while also explaining how to keep it, Connecticut's highest court has ruled.

  • January 02, 2025

    NJ Panel Tosses Honda CR-V Product Defect Suit

    A 2016 Honda CR-V was not defectively designed because it lacked some available driver-assistance technologies, which were not mandated by state or federal law, a New Jersey appellate panel said Thursday in dismissing with prejudice a plaintiff's product liability and negligence claims arising from a fatal crash.

  • January 02, 2025

    Feds Ask High Court To Unpause Corporate Transparency Law

    The federal government is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a Texas judge's injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, telling the justices in a new application that the 2021 anti-money laundering law's compliance deadlines should take effect while the Fifth Circuit hears the full case.

  • January 02, 2025

    Del. Courts Gavel Out 2024 With Fox, Opioid Case Rulings

    2024 went out with a flurry of rulings in Delaware's corporate and commercial law courts, while the new year saw a Chancery veteran become that court's first senior magistrate. Here's a quick roundup of the latest news in First State courts.

  • January 02, 2025

    Mich. Justices OK Atty Fees As Legal Malpractice Damages

    The Michigan Supreme Court has held that clients can recover legal fees incurred as a result of an attorney's malpractice, finding that such fees are not barred by the American rule, under which parties to litigation must generally bear their own legal costs.

  • January 02, 2025

    Mich. Justices Say Detroit Fire Fee Is Legal, Not A Tax

    The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled a Detroit fee for a fire service program was not an unlawful tax but clarified that a regulatory program's main benefit cannot be the mere permission for a property owner to operate its business in the city.

  • January 02, 2025

    'Crush-Resistant' OxyContin Patents Fail At Fed. Circ.

    In one of its last major moves in 2024, the Federal Circuit decided to reject an appeal from the bankrupt maker of OxyContin, which is trying to use patent laws to block the release of a competing "crush-resistant" generic painkiller.

  • January 02, 2025

    Texas High Court Tosses Ethics Case Against Paxton Deputy

    A split Texas Supreme Court this week ended an ethics case against state Attorney General Ken Paxton's first assistant over a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in other states, finding that such discipline would violate the Lone Star State's separation of powers doctrine.

  • January 02, 2025

    3 Things To Know About 9th Circ. Ruling In $56M Beer Battle

    The Ninth Circuit has affirmed a $56 million trial verdict for Stone Brewing Co. in a long-running trademark battle involving Molson Coors, saying the evidence supported the jury's conclusion that the Canadian-American beer company's repackaging of its Keystone Light brand infringed its competitors' "Stone" mark.

  • January 02, 2025

    Ex-Defender Asks 4th Circ. To Force Back Harvard Profs, Attys

    A former assistant public defender in North Carolina who lost her case accusing the judiciary of violating her equal protection and due process rights has doubled down on an attempt to reinstate her legal team of Harvard Law School professors and litigators who abruptly abandoned the case just before trial.

  • January 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Dismisses LegalForce Trademark Appeal

    The Lanham Act, the primary federal statute dictating trademark law, does not apply to the advertising and selling of equity, the Ninth Circuit stated in an appeals case between intellectual property firm LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC and a Japanese company that fundraised off the brand "LegalForce."

  • January 02, 2025

    Jenner & Block Adds DOJ Atty As Agency Exodus Continues

    Jenner & Block LLP has rehired an attorney who had spent most of his legal career with the firm until recently becoming a deputy assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, as lawyers continue leaving the agency for private practice.

  • January 02, 2025

    7th Circ. Won't Review $3.4M Faulty Work Coverage Ruling

    The Seventh Circuit declined to review a ruling requiring an insurer to defend an architectural design firm and its owner against faulty work claims seeking more than $3.4 million in damages.

  • January 02, 2025

    NASCAR Takes Attempt To Block Jordan Team To 4th Circ.

    NASCAR is asking the Fourth Circuit to hear its appeals of the injunctions a North Carolina federal judge granted to two racing teams, which allowed them to compete in the upcoming season and stopped the organization from enforcing its contractual ban on antitrust claims.

Expert Analysis

  • Nvidia Supreme Court Case May Not Make Big Splash

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    The skeptical tenor of the justices' questioning at oral argument in Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder suggests that the case is unlikely to alter the motion to dismiss pleading standard in securities class actions, as some had feared, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Circus Arts Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Performing circus arts has strengthened my ability to be more thoughtful, confident and grounded, all of which has enhanced my legal practice and allowed me to serve clients in a more meaningful way, says Bailey McGowan at Stinson.

  • Purse-Case Scenarios: 'MetaBirkin' Appeal Tests TM Rights

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    A federal court's finding that "MetaBirkin" nonfungible tokens infringed on Hermes' iconic Birkin bag imagery is now on appeal in the Second Circuit, and the order will have a lasting effect on how courts balance trademark rights and the First Amendment, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less

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    Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Prevents Disability Insurer Overreach

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    The Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in McEachin v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance offers disability insurance claimants guidance on how they might challenge misapplications of policy limitations for mental illness when a medical condition accounts for their disability, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • Bid Protest Spotlight: Unclear Criteria, Data Rights, Conflicts

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    Liam Bowers at MoFo examines three recent decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims examining the use of unstated evaluation criteria, an agency's investigation of its own data rights and unequal access to information about an organizational conflict of interest.

  • The Bar Needs More Clarity On The Discovery Objection Rule

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    Almost 10 years after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 was amended, attorneys still seem confused about what they should include in objections to discovery requests, and until the rules committee provides additional clarity, practitioners must beware the steep costs of noncompliance, says Tristan Ellis at Shanies Law Office.

  • Foreclosing Lenders Still Floating In Murky Legal Waters In NY

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    The New York foreclosure landscape remains in disarray after the state's highest court last month declined to weigh in on whether legal changes from 2022 that severely curtailed lenders' ability to bring successive foreclosure cases were retroactive, says Brian Rich at Barclay Damon.

  • In Terror Case, DC Circ. Must Weigh Justices' Twitter Ruling

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    When the D.C. Circuit hears oral argument in AstraZeneca UK v. Atchley, how the court interprets the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Twitter v. Taamneh will have a significant impact on future claims brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, say attorneys at Lewis Baach.

  • Series

    Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.

  • So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?

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    Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • 3 Policyholder Lessons From NY Bad Faith Ruling

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    A New York appellate court's recent decision finding that Rockefeller University alleged viable bad faith claims against its insurers reinforces the principle that insurers may not elevate their own economic interests over those of their insureds, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • In SF Water Case, Justices Signal How Loper May Be Applied

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    Skeptical questions from U.S. Supreme Court justices during oral argument in San Francisco v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offer hints of how the court intends to apply limits on agency regulatory autonomy established last term in Loper Bright, says Karen Cullinane at Goldberg Segalla.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: November Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six federal court decisions that touch on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and when individual inquiries are needed to prove economic loss.

  • Notable Q3 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Total loss valuation cases and labor depreciation cases dominated the past quarter of insurance class actions, with courts continuing to reject challenges to condition adjustments in the former, and a pro-insured trend persisting in the latter, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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