Appellate

  • July 29, 2024

    Insurer Must Cover Driver's PIP Claim, Split Mich. Panel Says

    An auto insurer must provide personal injury protection benefits to a policyholder's son who was injured in an out-of-state tractor-trailer crash, a split Michigan state appeals court ruled, finding that the man was not an owner or registrant of the tractor for purposes of the state's no-fault law.

  • July 29, 2024

    Commonwealth Financial Attacks SEC's 'Staggering' $93M Win

    Commonwealth Financial Network has asked the First Circuit to overturn what it called a "staggering" $93 million penalty it was ordered to pay to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing that its alleged failure to disclose conflicts of interest to investor clients was harmless.

  • July 29, 2024

    Utilities Seek 8th Circ. Freeze Of Power Plant Effluent Rule

    Utility companies, trade groups and nearly two dozen states are urging the Eighth Circuit to pause a challenged rule setting new wastewater limitations for coal-fired power plants, arguing that it will otherwise force utilities to commit to unreasonable investments or plant retirements.

  • July 29, 2024

    Mich. Justices Uphold Power To Pause Pandemic Deadlines

    The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed Monday that it had the power to suspend case filing deadlines for three months at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, ruling the temporary measure was not an overreach of the judiciary's authority.

  • July 29, 2024

    9th Circ. Rules Pretrial Inmates Aren't Entitled To Min. Wage

    The California Supreme Court made clear that state law doesn't cover pretrial detainees' wage claims, the Ninth Circuit ruled, flipping a lower court's decision denying a California county and a correctional services company's bid to toss a wage suit.

  • July 29, 2024

    Firm, Ex-Client Brief Conn. High Court In Punitive Award Case

    McCarter & English LLP and ex-client Jarrow Formulas Inc. are weighing in as the Connecticut Supreme Court decides whether a federal court can award law firms punitive damages in suits for breach of contract, as the firm seeks a punitive payout after winning multimillion-dollar judgments in a contract dispute.

  • July 29, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Litigation linked to Elon Musk sparked several filings in Delaware's Court of Chancery last week, including a call for sanctions and hand-wringing about a proposed multibillion-dollar attorney fee. Here, Law360 looks at this and other highlights from last week in Delaware's Chancery Court.

  • July 29, 2024

    $13.4M Death Verdict Appeal Voids Insurer Suit, Hanover Says

    An 81-year-old woman who won a $13.4 million judgment against a group home where her son died in 2016 is asking the full Connecticut Appellate Court to overturn a panel's decision that allowed the defendant to appeal, while Hanover Insurance Co. said that a related lawsuit seeking to collect the judgment should be thrown out.

  • July 29, 2024

    Biden Support Adds Heat To Calls For Supreme Court Reform

    President Joe Biden endorsed significant U.S. Supreme Court reform on Monday, calling on Congress to pass legislation that would impose term limits and an enforceable code of conduct on the justices and to adopt a constitutional amendment that would reverse the court's decision granting former presidents broad immunity for crimes committed in office.

  • July 29, 2024

    3rd Circ. Says Jury Must Weigh Ex-Philly ADA's Vax Bias Case

    A jury will have to determine whether the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office was following a neutral, general policy when it denied an employee's religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccination mandate, or whether D.A. Larry Krasner harbored anti-religious bias in the decision, the Third Circuit ruled Monday.

  • July 29, 2024

    Mich. Justices Say Subbed Atty Can't Be Sanctioned

    Michigan's Supreme Court has ruled state statute doesn't require all attorneys representing a sanctioned party "be held jointly responsible for frivolous conduct," reversing a decision that imposed sanctions on an attorney who joined a real estate contract dispute after sanctionable conduct occurred.

  • July 29, 2024

    DC Taxes Due From Property Transfer Prior To Sale

    A business that sold a commercial property in Washington, D.C., was properly assessed back taxes for a 2007 merger with a subsidiary, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled.

  • July 29, 2024

    6th Circ. Revives Challenge Of Clean Water Rule

    Just 11 days after oral arguments, the Sixth Circuit on Monday revived Kentucky and industry groups' challenges to a federal government rule defining the scope of the Clean Water Act, finding a district court judge had improperly dismissed the case.

  • July 26, 2024

    Off The Bench: NBA Signs Mega Deals, Jerry Jones Settles

    In this week's Off The Bench, the NBA signed $77 billion worth of telecast and streaming deals while longtime league broadcaster TNT challenged the decision, Jerry Jones' suit against his alleged daughter settled while jurors were at lunch, and Pennsylvania's high court agreed to hear an appeal relating to Pittsburgh's jock tax, a fee applied to nonresident professional athletes.

  • July 26, 2024

    Fla. Top Court Petitioned To Review 'Misleading' Abortion Info

    A Florida coalition petitioned the state's high court to review a proposed financial impact statement that officials attached to an upcoming ballot measure legalizing abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, saying the language is misleading and shouldn't be used to manipulate voters one way or the other.

  • July 26, 2024

    Colorado's New Chief Justice Sworn In

    Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez started her three-year term leading the Colorado Supreme Court on Friday after being sworn in during a closed-door ceremony.

  • July 26, 2024

    Mich. High Court Tossing Too Many Convictions, Justice Says

    A Michigan Supreme Court justice criticized his colleagues Thursday for what he described as a "campaign" of unraveling convictions and undermining prosecutors, in an impassioned dissent from the court's decision to grant a new trial to a parent convicted of killing her infant daughter.

  • July 26, 2024

    Copyright Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2024

    The first copyright trial arising from an artificial intelligence platform could provide intellectual property attorneys with insight into dozens of pending suits against AI companies, while the Tenth Circuit is reconsidering whether Netflix made fair use of a funeral clip in its "Tiger King" docuseries.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Axes Agriculture Department's $1M Fine On Amazon

    E-commerce giant Amazon doesn't owe $1 million to the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the D.C. Circuit on Friday undid an order concluding Amazon facilitated unlawful plant and animal product importation, finding that the online retailer didn't knowingly assist the purported infractions.

  • July 26, 2024

    Live Nation Tells 9th Circ. Arbitration Supported By Calif. Ruling

    Live Nation told the Ninth Circuit that recent precedent from California's top court backs its argument that consumer litigation over allegedly exorbitant ticket prices should go to arbitration, despite arbitral rules criticized by the panel as "cockamamie" during oral arguments last month.

  • July 26, 2024

    Ohio Jury Must Consider Brain Injury Patient's Mental State

    An Ohio appeals court has reinstated a suit accusing doctors of causing a man's catastrophic brain injury due to medical negligence, saying it should be up to a jury to decide whether the applicable filing deadlines can be tolled due to the man's purported mental incompetence.

  • July 26, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Upholds PTAB Estoppel Rule, But Limits Its Reach

    The Federal Circuit on Friday upheld a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rule that can lead to Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions rendering patent claims invalid in later office proceedings, but found in a case involving Apple and Motorola that the rule doesn't apply to issued claims.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Vacates FERC Oil Pipeline Index Revision

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday vacated a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that lowered the five-year index level governing oil pipeline transportation rates, ruling that the agency ran afoul of federal law when it failed to gather public input on the revision.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Denies Entergy Challenge To MISO Changes

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday affirmed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approvals for various capacity market changes proposed by MISO, the central U.S. grid operator for 15 states, rejecting challenges raised by several Entergy Corp. units.

  • July 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Vacates EPA's Biofuel Exemptions Denial

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday largely sided with dozens of small petroleum refiners challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's denial of their exemptions to federal renewable fuel blending requirements while keeping its reasoning for doing so under seal.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • 1st Gender Care Ban Provides Context For High Court Case

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    The history of Arkansas' ban on gender-affirming medical care — the first such legislation in the U.S. — provides important insight into the far-reaching ramifications that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti next term will have on transgender healthcare, says Tyler Saenz at Baker Donelson.

  • Series

    After Chevron: FCC And Industry Must Prepare For Change

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    The Chevron doctrine was especially significant in the communications sector because of the indeterminacy of federal communications statutes, so the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the doctrine could have big implications for those regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, bringing both opportunities and risks for companies, say Thomas Johnson and Michael Showalter at Wiley.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Uniform Tax Law Interpretation Not Guaranteed

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    The loss of Chevron deference will significantly alter the relationship between the IRS, courts and Congress when it comes to tax law, potentially precipitating more transparent rulemaking, but also provoking greater uncertainty due to variability in judicial interpretation, say Michelle Levin and Carneil Wilson at Dentons.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Environmental Law May Face Hurdles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning Chevron deference could prove to be as influential as the original 1984 decision, with far-reaching implications for U.S. environmental laws, including rendering recently promulgated regulations more vulnerable to challenges, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    'Trump Too Small' Ruling Overlooks TM Registration Issues

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Vidal v. Elster, which concluded that “Trump Too Small” cannot be a registered trademark as it violates a federal prohibition, fails to consider modern-day, real-world implications for trademark owners who are denied access to federal registration, say Tiffany Gehrke and Alexa Spitz at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Colo. Ruling Adopts 'Actual Discharge' Test For The First Time

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    After a Colorado court’s recent decision in Potts v. Gaia Children, adopting for the first time a test for evaluating an actual discharge claim, employers must diligently document the circumstances surrounding termination of employment, and exercise particular caution when texting employees, says Michael Laszlo at Clark Hill.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Why High Court Social Media Ruling Will Be Hotly Debated

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    In deciding the NetChoice cases that challenged Florida and Texas content moderation laws, what the U.S. Supreme Court justices said about social media platforms — and the First Amendment — will have implications and raise questions for nearly all online operators, say Jacob Canter and Joanna Rosen Forster at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Good News For Gov't Contractors In Litigation

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    The net result of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Chevron deference is that individuals, contractors and companies bringing procurement-related cases against the government will have new pathways toward success, say Joseph Berger and Andrés Vera at Thompson Hine.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Scale Tips Favor Away From HHS Agencies

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    The loss of Chevron deference may indirectly aid parties in challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' interpretations of regulations and could immediately influence several pending cases challenging HHS on technical questions and agency authority, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Series

    After Chevron: FDA Regulations In The Crosshairs

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine is likely to unleash an array of challenges against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, focusing on areas of potential overreach such as the FDA's authority under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 2 Options For Sackler Family After High Court Purdue Ruling

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked Purdue Pharma's plan to shield the family that owns the company from bankruptcy lawsuits, the Sacklers face the choice to either continue litigation, or return to the bargaining table for a settlement that doesn't eliminate creditor claims, says Gregory Germain at Syracuse University.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Limited Changes In USPTO Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference will have limited consequences for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office given the USPTO's unique statutory features, but it is still an important decision for matters of statutory interpretation, especially those involving provisions of the America Invents Act, say Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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