California

  • March 06, 2025

    Insurer's 9th Circ. Procedural Win Highlights Appraisal Rules

    A Ninth Circuit panel affirmed that a property owner could not litigate its insurer's failure to pay for losses before a required appraisal to resolve disagreements, highlighting the importance of appraisal provisions and how they could limit potential policyholder challenges. Here, Law360 speaks to Colin Kemp, an insurance recovery attorney for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, about Mount Vernon Specialty Insurance Co.'s procedural victory and its implications for coverage challenges.

  • March 06, 2025

    Dems Tell DOJ Musk May Be Strong-Arming X Advertisers

    Democratic lawmakers led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have warned the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission that billionaire Elon Musk might be using his position in the Trump administration to bully companies that advertise on his social media platform, X.

  • March 06, 2025

    Hunter Biden Seeks To Drop Data Hack Suit Over Money Woes

    Hunter Biden on Wednesday requested that a California federal court let him dismiss his lawsuit accusing a former Trump White House aide of hacking his data as part of a campaign targeting the Biden family, saying "significant debt in the millions of dollars range" has left him unable to continue litigation.

  • March 06, 2025

    Insurers Seek Toss Of Meta's Social Media MDL Coverage Suit

    A group of insurers urged a California federal court to either toss or stay Meta's suit seeking to pause all coverage litigation regarding underlying claims that the company deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive to adolescents, saying the first-to-file rule applies to the carriers' Delaware state court suit.

  • March 06, 2025

    Music Streaming Lyrics Co. Hits Rival With $1B Antitrust Suit

    LyricFind Inc. slapped Musixmatch SpA with a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit in California federal court, calling the rival a monopolist in the market for providing lyrics to digital services companies like Spotify and saying Musixmatch inked a deal with Warner Chappell Music Inc. that essentially pushes LyricFind and others out of the market.

  • March 06, 2025

    E.L.F. Beauty Hit With Investor Suit After Muddy Waters Report

    Cosmetics giant e.l.f. Beauty's shareholders filed a proposed class action in California federal court on Thursday, accusing the company of overstating its revenue while hiding growing inventory issues due to inadequate sales — troubles that investment research firm Muddy Waters revealed in a November report that caused share prices to plunge.

  • March 06, 2025

    9th Circ. Nixes Challenge To Wash. Abortion Coverage Law

    A split Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected a Christian church's challenge to a Washington state law requiring employer health plans to cover abortion services, saying the church could invoke its religious beliefs to skirt the challenged obligations.

  • March 06, 2025

    Reuters Won't Have To Turn Over Meta AI Deal To Authors

    A California federal judge has sided with Reuters News & Media Inc. that it doesn't have to turn over its multi-year licensing agreement with Meta Platforms Inc. to use its news content in Meta's AI chatbot to authors suing OpenAI Inc. for allegedly using their books to train OpenAI's large language models.

  • March 06, 2025

    States Say Teacher Training Grants Are Caught In DEI Dragnet

    A group of eight states sued the U.S. Department of Education in Massachusetts federal court Thursday, seeking reinstatement of $600 million in teacher training and placement grants they say were unlawfully targeted by the Trump administration as diversity initiatives.

  • March 06, 2025

    The Antitrust Litigation Surrounding NAR's Industry Rules

    A year and a half after a Missouri federal jury found that the National Association of Realtors inflated fees for home sellers, the Eighth Circuit is evaluating a series of settlements in wake of the decision while the Justice Department pursues its own antitrust investigation with a court's blessing.

  • March 06, 2025

    Dems Intro Their Own Version Of The JUDGES Act

    Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee reintroduced a version of the JUDGES Act on Thursday that would not take effect until after the next president is elected, unlike a version from their Republican counterparts that would take effect this year.

  • March 06, 2025

    Trump Administration Ordered To Release Funds To States

    A Rhode Island judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding funds from states, saying an executive order freezing federal grants, loans and other payments approved by Congress "fundamentally undermines" the separation of powers and is causing irreparable harm.

  • March 06, 2025

    O'Melveny Antitrust Pro Jumps To Paul Hastings In LA

    Paul Hastings LLP is expanding its West Coast team, announcing Thursday it is bringing in an O'Melveny & Myers LLP antitrust litigator as a partner in a Los Angeles office.

  • March 05, 2025

    Rival Cos. Called 'Empower' Agree To End TM Fight, For Now

    Empower Annuity Insurance Co. of America and Empower Finance Inc. agreed to end, for now, their trademark infringement dispute over the "Empower" mark, over a year after a Colorado federal judge found customer confusion was "unlikely" in the financial services sector and refused to order Empower Finance to change its name.

  • March 05, 2025

    Jury Mulling Judge's Murder Trial Hears More Arguments

    With jury deliberations in the murder trial of a California judge who fatally shot his wife stretching into their sixth day Wednesday, the presiding judge allowed the prosecution and defense to make additional arguments addressing the jury's question about the willfulness requirement for second-degree murder.

  • March 05, 2025

    PTAB Bar Urges Congress, Lutnick To Protect USPTO Workers

    The PTAB Bar Association is calling on intellectual property leaders in Congress, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to spare the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from Trump administration initiatives to freeze hiring and require in-person work.

  • March 05, 2025

    Starbucks Let Hot Drink Spill On Driver, Jury Hears

    Starbucks went to trial Wednesday over a delivery window drink pickup gone wrong, as lawyers for a driver who had scalding water spill in his lap told a Los Angeles jury the coffee giant's employee left one of three cups "not safely secured" in a cardboard drink holder.

  • March 05, 2025

    Coinbase Investor Drops Direct Listing Suit After Slack Ruling

    A Coinbase investor Wednesday dropped a proposed class action accusing the cryptocurrency platform and its top brass of offering false and misleading materials that caused its stock price to plummet following the company's debut with an $86 billion valuation, after the Ninth Circuit tossed a similar case against Slack Technologies.

  • March 05, 2025

    Los Angeles County Sues SoCal Edison Over Eaton Fire

    Los Angeles County joined the many dozens suing Southern California Edison over the devastating Eaton Fire on Wednesday, as the most populous county in the United States alleges in its lawsuit that the utility's faulty equipment caused the destructive blaze.

  • March 05, 2025

    US Looks For Pause In PetroSaudi $380M Seizure Suit

    The United States has asked a California federal court to stay its suit to seize part of a $380 million arbitral award issued to a PetroSaudi unit, saying the civil case is up in the air because the oil producer's sole owner was convicted in August in Swiss criminal court.

  • March 05, 2025

    BCBS Hit With New Antitrust Suits By $2.8B Deal Opt-Outs

    Dozens of hospitals and healthcare systems that opted out of a landmark $2.8 billion Blue Cross Blue Shield antitrust settlement filed fresh Sherman Act lawsuits against the insurance entities in Pennsylvania, California and Illinois federal courts Tuesday, accusing them of colluding to restrict competition for the purchase of healthcare services.

  • March 05, 2025

    Justices Asked To Recuse Fitbit Judge Over Google Ties

    A Silicon Valley-based patent-holding company that lost its infringement case against Fitbit is telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a California federal judge and her husband's financial ties to Fitbit parent Google are so strong that "if these circumstances do not warrant recusal ... then nothing does."

  • March 05, 2025

    Igloo Must Pay For Finger-Chopping Coolers, Consumer Says

    A California man is suing beverage storage company Igloo over its popular coolers and ice chests that he says have pinched, broken and even amputated fingertips, saying in a federal suit that the company's remedial efforts haven't been enough.

  • March 05, 2025

    Disney Doesn't Allow IP Theft, 'Moana' Co-Creator Testifies

    One of the creators of "Moana" testified in a California federal copyright trial Wednesday that he "would never" use another writer's idea without permission, noting that one of his projects was killed after The Walt Disney Co. was unable to buy source material.

  • March 05, 2025

    Ex-USF Ballplayers Denied Class Cert. In Sex Harassment Suit

    A group of former University of San Francisco baseball players on Wednesday lost a bid to have their lawsuit alleging that ex-coaches for the Jesuit university created a sexually abusive environment go forward as a class action.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025

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    Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • 4 Property Insurance Action Steps For LA Policyholders

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    Property insurance will play a vital role in rebuilding the areas affected by the Los Angeles wildfires, and policyholders should be aware of key aspects of that coverage in order to maximize their insurance recovery, say attorneys at Cohen Ziffer.

  • Predicting Where State AGs Will Direct Their Attention In 2025

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    In 2025, we expect state attorneys general will navigate a new presidential administration while continuing to further regulate and police financial services, artificial intelligence, junk fees and antitrust, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • A Look At Sweepstakes Casinos' Legal Issues In Fla., Beyond

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    Scheduled for trial in Florida federal court this fall, the VGW sweepstakes case underscores the growing urgency for gambling states to clarify and enforce their laws in response to emerging online gaming models, as the expansion of sweepstakes casinos challenges traditional interpretations of gambling regulations, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • FTC Privacy Enforcement Takeaways From 2024

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    In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission distinguished three prominent trends in its privacy-related enforcement actions: geolocation data protections, data minimization practices, and artificial intelligence use and marketing, say Cobun Zweifel-Keegan at IAPP and James Smith at Dechert.

  • The Fed. Circ. In 2024: 5 Major Rulings To Know

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    In 2024, the Federal Circuit provided a number of important clarifications to distinct areas of patent law – including design patent obviousness, expert testimony admissions and patent term adjustments – all of which are poised to have an influence going forward, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win

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    Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.

  • Mass Arbitration Procedures After Faulty Live Nation Ruling

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    Despite the Ninth Circuit's flawed reasoning in Heckman v. Live Nation, the exceptional allegations of collusive conduct shouldn't be read to restrict arbitration providers that have adopted good faith procedures to ensure that consumer mass arbitrations can be efficiently resolved on the merits, says Collin Vierra at Eimer Stahl.

  • Public Corruption Enforcement In 2024 Has Clues For 2025

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    If 2024 activity is any indication, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely continue to rein in expansive prosecutorial theories of fraud in the year to come, but it’s harder to predict what the new administration will mean for public corruption prosecutions in 2025, says Cathy Fleming at Offit Kurman.

  • Roundup

    Banking Brief: State Law Recaps From Each Quarter Of 2024

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    In this Expert Analysis series, throughout 2024 attorneys provided quarterly recaps discussing the biggest developments in banking regulation, litigation and policymaking in various states, including New York, California and Illinois.

  • Calif. Justices' Options In Insurance Exhaustion Case

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    Fox Paine v. Twin City Fire Insurance may serve as the California Supreme Court's opportunity to firmly establish precedent with respect to a strict adherence to excess insurance policies' exhaustion provisions when the language is clear and explicit, says Aiden Spencer at Langsam Stevens.

  • Considering The Status Of The US Doctrine Of Patent Misuse

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    A recent Ninth Circuit decision and a U.K. Court of Appeal decision demonstrate the impact that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment has had on the principle that post-patent-expiration royalty payments amount to patent misuse, not only in the U.S. but in English courts as well, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Series

    Playing Rugby Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My experience playing rugby, including a near-fatal accident, has influenced my legal practice on a professional, organizational and personal level by showing me the importance of maintaining empathy, fostering team empowerment and embracing the art of preparation, says James Gillenwater at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Looking Back At 2024's Noteworthy State AG Litigation

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    State attorneys general across the U.S. took bold steps in 2024 to address unlawful activities by corporations in several areas, including privacy and data security, financial transparency, children's internet safety, and other overall consumer protection claims, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Opinion

    A Federal Insurance Mandate For Private Aviation Is Overdue

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    A recent private plane crash in California that killed two people and injured 19 others spotlights the dangers of such occurrences — and serves as a reminder that because there is no federal requirement for general aviation pilots to carry insurance, the victims of these accidents are often unable to obtain fair compensation, says Timothy Loranger at Wisner Baum.

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