Florida

  • December 18, 2024

    Florida Bar Selects Trial Ace As Next President-Elect

    The Florida Bar will be led by a Jacksonville high-profile litigation and appeals attorney who has a long history of bar participation after he was tapped as president-elect designate, the organization announced Wednesday.

  • December 18, 2024

    11th Circ. Considers Reviving Developer's I-20 Truck Stop Suit

    A Georgia property owner and his company urged the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to revive their suit challenging a Rockdale County ordinance that thwarted plans for a new QuikTrip truck stop near Interstate 20.

  • December 17, 2024

    11th Circ. Urged To Block Abortion Clinic Buffer Zone Law

    A Florida anti-abortion group urged the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday to give it another shot at an injunction preventing the city of Clearwater from enforcing a buffer zone ordinance that blocks the group from getting within five feet of the driveway to the city's only abortion clinic. 

  • December 17, 2024

    Fla. Judge Trims Suit Over Misrepresented Pickleball Paddles

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday declined to completely toss a proposed class action brought by a pickleball player accusing a paddle manufacturer of deceptively marketing its products as certified by the sport's governing body, dismissing the suit's breach of warranty counts but saying its primary consumer protection claims would remain intact.

  • December 17, 2024

    Miss America-Tied Ch. 11 Tossed Amid Ownership Spat

    A Florida bankruptcy judge on Tuesday dismissed the Chapter 11 case of an entity connected to the Miss America pageant, after the debtor noted it realized it owns none of the operations or debt associated with the competition, punting questions over who owns pageant-related assets to a state court.

  • December 17, 2024

    The Biggest Copyright Decisions Of 2024

    The U.S. Supreme Court made it possible for copyright plaintiffs to pursue damages for periods longer than three years — while leaving lawyers speculating about how long the ruling will stand — and the Second Circuit put an end to a free digital library. Here are Law360's picks for the top copyright decisions of 2024.

  • December 17, 2024

    Asset Manager Gets 2½ Years For Role In $1.2B PDVSA Scheme

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday sentenced an asset manager who pled guilty to participating in a $1.2 billion scheme to embezzle money from Venezuela's state-owned oil company to 2½ years in prison.

  • December 17, 2024

    Heartland Payment Settles Florida School Lunch Card Suit

    Parents from Florida and elsewhere have settled a proposed federal class action with a payment processor over alleged unfair surcharges collected after depositing lunch money onto school-sponsored reloadable cards used by their kids.

  • December 17, 2024

    Fla. Bar Eyes Rule Change On Limits For Non-Atty Roles

    The Florida Bar Board of Governors is considering a rule change to spell out that nonlawyers at a law firm cannot supervise the work of attorneys or perform policymaking duties that affect the practice of law, among other prohibited tasks, a spokeswoman for the bar confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Monday.

  • December 17, 2024

    11th Circ. Affirms NLRB Bargain Order Against Chemical Co.

    A chemical manufacturer must comply with a National Labor Relations Board decision ordering it to negotiate with a United Food and Commercial Workers affiliate, the Eleventh Circuit found, rejecting the company's claim that two ballots that could have swayed the vote outcome should have counted.

  • December 16, 2024

    Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments

    One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.

  • December 16, 2024

    11th Circ. Says Citrus Grower's Coverage Row Was Ripe

    A citrus grower's bid for damages from its insurer in connection with environmental remediation costs was ripe, the Eleventh Circuit said, reviving the case after finding that a Florida district court wrongly dismissed it by conflating the issue of ripeness with the merits of the grower's claims.

  • December 16, 2024

    Judge OKs Par Funding Receiver's Plan To Distribute $110M

    A Florida federal judge on Monday approved a distribution plan by the receiver for Par Funding and authorized the first distribution of more than $110 million that the receiver has collected for the investors who were defrauded in a Ponzi scheme that raised nearly a half-billion dollars.

  • December 16, 2024

    Congress Sends Biden Another Bill To Help Federal Courts

    The House voted 390-0 Monday evening in favor of a bipartisan bill to make permanent 10 judgeships across the country, including in Texas, Florida and California, and the bill now goes to the president's desk.

  • December 16, 2024

    Contractor, Insurer Seek Early Win In $2.85M Bridge Dispute

    A construction company and an excess insurer each sought a pretrial win in Florida federal court over coverage for a demolition subcontractor's faulty work that the construction company said cost more than $2.85 million, after a primary insurer already paid $1 million toward an underlying settlement.

  • December 16, 2024

    Tax Court Wrongly Cut Easement Deduction, 11th Circ. Told

    The U.S. Tax Court erred in drastically reducing a partnership's claimed $23 million deduction for donating a conservation easement in Georgia, the partnership told the Eleventh Circuit, saying the court improperly relied on a real estate expert's opinion to establish whether the land had mining value.

  • December 16, 2024

    11th Circ. Appears Wary Of Doc's New Trial Bid In $27.5M Case

    The Eleventh Circuit on Monday questioned whether a Georgia doctor and his medical practice should get a new trial in a $27.5 million False Claims Act case on the basis that he and an expert who wasn't allowed to testify at trial believed the thousands of treatments he billed for were medically necessary and could be covered by Medicare, saying that contention seems to contradict the doctor's prior statements. 

  • December 16, 2024

    Ecuador Banana Co. Prez Ordered To Jail Over $6.9M Award

    A Miami federal judge issued an arrest order for the president of an Ecuadorian banana company that ignored court orders to turn over financial information at the request of Chiquita Brands International, which is trying to enforce a $6.9 million arbitration award.

  • December 16, 2024

    Blindsided Developer Says $112K Legal Bill Should Be $25K

    A real estate developer fighting a $112,000 legal bill from Conrad & Scherer LLP testified in a Florida state court Monday that he hired the firm for its banking regulation expertise but not for trial work in a lawsuit over a luxury house in Colorado.

  • December 16, 2024

    Honeywell Pollution Suit Belongs In Ga. Court, 11th Circ. Told

    A Georgia city suing Honeywell International Inc. over the company's alleged pollution of coastal waterways told the Eleventh Circuit Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency's supervision of remediation efforts can't transform Honeywell into a federal officer, thus denying the company the jurisdiction it needs to move the case into federal court.

  • December 16, 2024

    Honeywell May Split Aerospace Biz Amid Activist Pressure

    Honeywell International Inc. on Monday said it is mulling a separation of its aerospace business, after activist investment firm Elliott Investment Management LP in November pushed for the industrial conglomerate to separate itself into two independent companies.

  • December 16, 2024

    11th Circ. Won't Kick Starbucks Benefits Case To Arbitration

    The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Monday that Starbucks can't force a former employee's husband to arbitrate a proposed class action claiming the coffee giant unlawfully failed to tell him about continuing health benefit options after his wife was fired, saying he wasn't bound by the terms of his spouse's employment agreement.

  • December 14, 2024

    ABC News Agrees To Pay $16M To End Trump Defamation Suit

    ABC News has agreed to pay $16 million to end Donald Trump's defamation suit over George Stephanopoulos' on-air description of rulings in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll in her sexual abuse and defamation suits against Trump, according to a settlement filed Saturday in Florida.

  • December 13, 2024

    Real Estate Recap: New Mapping, Terrorism, What We Learned

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including a new state-by-state mapping tool for real estate practitioners, one BigLaw attorney's view of terrorism liability safeguards for commercial real estate, and takeaways from the multifamily and life sciences sectors in 2024.

  • December 13, 2024

    Cardi B Tries To Sink Ch. 11 Of YouTuber Who Owes Her $3.8M

    Cardi B has asked a Florida bankruptcy court to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of YouTuber Tasha K, saying she deliberately hid her assets to frustrate the rapper's efforts at collecting on a $3.8 million defamation verdict.

Expert Analysis

  • What The Justices' Copyright Damages Ruling Didn't Address

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Warner Chappell v. Nealy clarified when a copyright owner may recover damages in jurisdictions that apply the so-called discovery rule, it did not settle the overriding question of whether the Copyright Act even permits applying the rule, say Ivy Estoesta and William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • Bankruptcy Courts Have Contempt Power, Del. Case Reminds

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    A Delaware bankruptcy court recently held Camshaft Capital and its principal in contempt, serving as a reminder to bankruptcy practitioners and anyone else that appears before a bankruptcy judge that there are serious consequences for failing to comply with court orders, say Daniel Lowenthal and Kimberly Black at Patterson Belknap.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • 8 Fla. Statutes That Construction Cos. Should Prepare For

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    In this article, Jason Lambert at Hill Ward discusses a number of recent bills out of the Florida Legislature targeting construction companies in the Sunshine State that have been sent to the governor for signature, at least some of which will have broad impacts that affected companies should prepare for ahead of the July 1 effective date.

  • Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler discuss notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year ranging from salvage vehicle titling to rate discrimination based on premium-setting software.

  • Opinion

    Viral Deepfakes Of Taylor Swift Highlight Need For Regulation

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    As the nation grapples with addressing risk from artificial intelligence use, the recent circulation of AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift on the social platform X highlights the need for federal legislation to protect nonconsenting subjects of deepfake pornography, say Nicole Brenner and Susie Ruiz-Lichter at Squire Patton.

  • As Arbitrator Bias Claims Rise, Disclosure Standards Evolve

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    The growth in post-award challenges based on arbitrators' alleged conflicts of interest has led to the release of new guidance and new case law on the topic — both supporting the view that professional familiarity alone does not translate to a lack of impartiality, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Social Media Free Speech Issues Are Trending At High Court

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision examining what constitutes state action on social media can be viewed in conjunction with oral arguments in two other cases to indicate that the court sees a need for more clarity regarding how social media usage implicates the First Amendment, say attorneys at Kean Miller.

  • Navigating Harassment Complaints From Trans Employees

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in Copeland v. Georgia Department of Corrections, concerning the harassment of a transgender employee, should serve as a cautionary tale for employers, but there are steps that companies can take to create a more inclusive workplace and mitigate the risks of claims from transgender and nonbinary employees, say Patricia Konopka and Ann Thomas at Stinson.

  • Don't Use The Same Template For Every Client Alert

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    As the old marketing adage goes, consistency is key, but law firm style guides need consistency that contemplates variety when it comes to client alert formats, allowing attorneys to tailor alerts to best fit the audience and subject matter, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.

  • Do Not Overstate Fla. Condo Termination Ruling's Impact

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    A close look at the unique language at issue in Avila v. Biscayne, in which a Florida appellate court deemed a condo termination to be invalid, shows that the case is unlikely to significantly affect other potential terminations, say Barry Lapides and Edward Baker at Berger Singerman.

  • Series

    Walking With My Dog Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Thanks to my dog Birdie, I've learned that carving out an activity different from the practice of law — like daily outdoor walks that allow you to interact with new people — can contribute to professional success by boosting creativity and mental acuity, as well as expanding your social network, says Sarah Petrie at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

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