New York's insurance regulator announced Monday the agency has concluded a multiyear investigation into auto insurers' failure to report vehicle information to the state Department of Motor Vehicles in a timely manner, resulting in $20.4 million in fines across 37 separate consent orders.
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

NY Regulator Imposes $20.4M In Fines Against Auto Insurers

By Ganesh Setty

New York's insurance regulator announced Monday the agency has concluded a multiyear investigation into auto insurers' failure to report vehicle information to the state Department of Motor Vehicles in a timely manner, resulting in $20.4 million in fines across 37 separate consent orders.

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Insurer Needn't Cover Hospital's $2.5M Virus Vax Probe Costs

By Hope Patti

A Chubb unit has no obligation to pay an Illinois hospital for $2.5 million in legal costs associated with responding to federal and state probes into its COVID-19 vaccine distribution program, a federal court ruled, finding that the policy's $1 million regulatory claims sublimit applies.

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Insurer Won't Have To Cover Sports CEO's Child Sex Suits

By Greg Lamm

An insurance company doesn't have to defend the former leader of a sports equipment company against allegations of sexual assault against minors, a Washington federal court said Monday, making final an earlier ruling that said the policies offered no conceivable coverage.

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Elizabeth Holmes Loses 9th Circ. Appeal Over Theranos Fraud

By Dorothy Atkins

A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday affirmed the criminal fraud convictions of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani along with their respective 11-year and nearly 13-year prison sentences, rejecting arguments that the lower court made multiple evidentiary errors that unfairly swayed jurors.

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Supreme Court Skips Fee-Shifting, IP Web Scraping Questions

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected petitions involving fee-shifting in copyright cases, whether judges or juries should decide what can be copyrighted, and if scraping public information online should be considered hacking under the Defend Trade Secrets Act when it is done by a computer.

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LITIGATION

Penn National Settles NC Hurricanes Coverage Suit

By Isaac Monterose

Penn National Mutual Casualty Insurance Co. settled a property owner's insurance payout suit filed in North Carolina federal court just before the suit headed to trial.

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Lloyd's Says Cadwalader's Suit Claims Nonexistent Tort

By Ryan Harroff

A Lloyd's of London syndicate has urged a North Carolina judge to toss part of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP's coverage lawsuit stemming from a data breach, saying there's no tort remedy for the allegation that the insurer exposed the firm's confidential information in a court filing.

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Insurer Sues Valve Co. To Recoup Payout To Ohio School

By Jonathan Capriel

The "catastrophic" flooding of a Cincinnati school was due to a faulty water stop valve, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday by an insurance provider that seeks to hold building products manufacturer Masco Corp. and its plumbing subsidiary liable for the nearly $225,000 in damages.

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Brief

Gaudreau Brothers' Widows Settle Civil Suits Over Fatal Crash

By Corey Rothauser

The widows of professional hockey players Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau have reached settlements in their wrongful death lawsuits against Sean Higgins, the driver accused of fatally striking the brothers while they were bicycling in Oldmans Township, New Jersey, in August.

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Wellpath Delays Chapter 11 Exit To Buy Time For Creditor Deal

By Clara Geoghegan

Wellpath will delay confirmation of its Chapter 11 plan by two weeks to buy time to work through objections to the reorganization of its prison healthcare business, attorneys told a Texas bankruptcy judge Monday.

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UK Reinsurer Can't Challenge Tyson's Fire Coverage Ruling

By Hope Patti

A British reinsurer cannot challenge a decision barring it from pursuing arbitration in New York against the captive insurer for Tyson Foods in a coverage dispute stemming from a fire at an Alabama plant owned by the food giant, a London court ruled.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Tools For Witness Control That Go Beyond Leading Questions

Though leading questions can be efficient and effective for constraining a witness’s testimony, this strategy isn’t appropriate for every trial and pretrial scenario, so techniques like headlining and looping can be deployed during direct examination, depositions and even witness interviews, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.

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How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Judge Who Ordered Pages Restored Put On Impeachment List

By Courtney Bublé

A Republican U.S. congressman announced Monday he has introduced articles of impeachment against a Washington, D.C., federal judge, following the judge's ruling ordering public health agencies temporarily to restore the web pages they took down in response to a Trump administration order to scrub pages of "gender ideology."

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Injury Attys Sanctioned Over AI-Hallucinated Case Citations

By Lauren Berg

A Wyoming federal judge overseeing a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart sanctioned the plaintiffs' attorneys from Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group after they filed pretrial motions containing case law hallucinated by artificial intelligence, but acknowledged Monday their "remedial steps, transparency and apologetic sentiments."

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Texas Atty Dinged For AI-Generated Fake Citations In Briefs

By Emily Sawicki

A Texas lawyer could face a $15,000 personal sanction and other potential discipline for filing three separate briefs using generative artificial intelligence that included fake citations in an Indiana ERISA case, according to a report and recommendation by a federal judge in the Hoosier State.

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ABA Suspends Law School DEI Standards Until Summer

By Tracey Read

The American Bar Association has announced that it is holding off on enforcing its diversity and inclusion standards for law schools in light of recent executive orders by the new presidential administration.

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'It Was An Accident': Judge Denies Shooting Wife On Purpose

By Gina Kim

A California judge who shot his wife to death in their living room following an argument took the stand in his murder trial Monday, fighting hard to maintain his composure while explaining to jurors that his Glock discharged accidentally when he tried to set it down on the coffee table.

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Reed Smith Adds 16 Laterals To Launch Denver Office

By Aebra Coe

Reed Smith LLP is bringing on more than a dozen lateral attorney hires from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, Foley Hoag LLP, Dentons, Akerman LLP, Greenberg Traurig LLP and Cooley LLP to launch its new Denver office, the firm announced Monday.

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Freshfields Launches In Boston, Led By Ex-Latham Partner

By Tracey Read

London-founded Freshfields LLP announced Monday that it has opened its fourth U.S. office in Boston, and that it has added a former Latham & Watkins LLP partner to lead the Beantown build-out.

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McDermott Expands To Nashville With 4 Hires From K&L Gates

By Xiumei Dong

McDermott Will & Emery LLP has opened a new office in Nashville, Tennessee, bringing on four healthcare-focused partners from K&L Gates LLP to lead the expansion, the firm announced Monday.

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Gunnercooke Opens In Chicago With Ex-FisherBroyles Team

By Matt Perez

U.K.-based law firm Gunnercooke LLP announced the launch of a Chicago office, marking the second state it has entered since launching in New York in 2022.

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Trump Media Co. Wants TRO Against Brazilian Justice

By Carolina Bolado

President Donald Trump's media company and online video sharing platform Rumble Inc. have asked a Florida federal court for a temporary restraining order blocking a Brazilian Supreme Federal Court justice's gag orders, arguing they illegally suppress political speech in the United States.

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Feature

'We Need Go No Further': 10 Notable Judge Bruce Selya Lines

By Chris Villani

Senior First Circuit Judge Bruce Selya, who died Saturday at age 90, will be remembered not only for the opinions he wrote but for the flowery language he used to write them. Here are 10 of the judge's notable "Selyanisms" from recent years.

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Moves To Change Del. Corporate Law Spark Pushback

By Jeff Montgomery

A public opposition campaign complete with website and street signs has surfaced to oppose corporation and bar-backed legislation that would overhaul Delaware stockholder litigation rights and fee awards, intensifying an already unprecedented political fight that broke out last year over corporate governance concessions.

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Brief

DC Circ. To Hear Judge Newman's Appeal In April

By Andrew Karpan

The D.C. Circuit has set a date in April to hear an appeal from Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, who is fighting her suspension from the bench for refusing to undergo medical tests.

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Feds Fight Reinstatement Of Ousted Inspectors General

By Ali Sullivan

The Trump administration fired back at a lawsuit brought by eight inspectors general who were fired last month, telling a D.C. federal judge that federal law does not require the president to hold off on the terminations for 30 days after notifying Congress.

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DA Willis Says 'Makes No Sense' To DQ Her From Trump Case

By Emily Johnson

Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis is arguing to the Georgia Supreme Court that her disqualification from prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others was unprecedented, asserting that her ousting over the appearance of impropriety creates a dangerous precedent.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

7 King's Bench Walk

Akerman LLP

Akin Gump

Bailey & Dixon

Baker McKenzie

Boies Schiller

Brownstein Hyatt

Bryan Cave

Cadwalader Wickersham

Clyde & Co

Cochran Douglas

Cooley LLP

Corr Cronin

Crowley Fleck

DLA Piper

Day Pitney

Dentons

Diaz Reus

Faegre Drinker

FisherBroyles

Flanagan Partners

Foley Hoag

Foran Glennon

Freeman Mathis

Freshfields

Goldberg Segalla

Goody Law Group

Greenberg Traurig

Hunton Andrews

Hutchens Law Firm

K&L Gates

Kirkland & Ellis

Klineburger & Nussey

Latham & Watkins

Law Office of John D. Cline

Lether Law Group

Marshall Dennehey

Mattingly Burke

McCoy Leavitt

McDermott Will & Emery

McHale Slavin

Morgan & Morgan

Nelson Mullins

Orrick Herrington

Perkins Coie

Proskauer Rose

Rainier Legal Advocates

Reed Smith

Richards Layton

Robinson Bradshaw

SRIPLAW

Stinson LLP

Thompson Coe

Vinson & Elkins

Wachtell Lipton

Weil Gotshal

White and Williams

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

gunnercooke LLP

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Activision Blizzard Inc.

American Bar Association

American Medical Association Inc.

American Psychiatric Association

American Psychological Association

American Strategic Insurance Corp.

Cvent Inc.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc.

Delaware State Bar Association

Eventbrite Inc.

Fullbridge Inc.

Google LLC

Harvard University

Investments Ltd.

Jetson Electric Bikes LLC

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

Liberty Mutual Insurance Group

Masco Corp.

Massachusetts General Hospital

Match Group LLC

Match.com Inc.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Moelis & Co.

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Inc.

National Institute for Trial Advocacy

New Civil Liberties Alliance

RELX PLC

Tesla Inc.

Twitter Inc.

Tyson Foods Inc.

United Services Automobile Association

Villanova University

Walmart Inc.

Wellpath

Zurich Insurance Group AG

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Railroad Administration

Food and Drug Administration

Georgia Court of Appeals

Georgia Supreme Court

National Labor Relations Board

New Jersey Court

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court

United States District Court for the District of Wyoming

United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana

United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio