Appellate

  • July 16, 2024

    Praying Coach's School Faces Skeptical Judge In Fee Fight

    A Washington state appellate judge struggled Tuesday to follow a school district's argument that its insurer should cover a nearly $1.8 million legal bill for a praying football coach's U.S. Supreme Court win, pointing to a policy exclusion for certain adverse judgments.

  • July 16, 2024

    6th Circ. Says Credit Union Can't Sue T-Mobile Over Cell Scam

    The Sixth Circuit on Tuesday ruled that a lower court was correct in tossing a lawsuit in which Michigan First Credit Union sued T-Mobile to recover the reimbursement fees the credit union paid to customers after they suffered unauthorized electronic transfers of money from their accounts due to cellphone scams.

  • July 16, 2024

    Enbridge Seeks 6th Circ. Rehearing In Venue Dispute

    Enbridge Energy LP has asked the full Sixth Circuit to rehear an appellate panel's decision to send the company's pipeline dispute with Michigan's attorney general back to state court, arguing that the opinion creates a conflict within the circuit over when the removal clock starts running.

  • July 16, 2024

    Judge's Emails To Prosecutor Unethical But Didn't Taint Trial

    A judge should have recused herself after emailing the elected prosecutor during trial to complain that an officer "didn't do a very good investigation," but the ethical lapse didn't warrant a new trial, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

  • July 16, 2024

    DC Circ. Says Iraq Immune To $120M Contract Row

    A D.C. Circuit panel on Tuesday threw out a $120 million judgment levied against Iraq for its refusal to pay a Pennsylvania defense contractor for rebuilding the country's military equipment, ruling after more than a decade of litigation that Iraq is immune from the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts.

  • July 16, 2024

    Feds Contest Texas DA's Immunity In Migrant Arrest Law Fight

    Nonprofits challenging Texas' migrant arrest law have urged the Fifth Circuit to reject Texas District Attorney Bill Hicks' claim of immunity, saying his argument that the Fifth Circuit's ruling in a separate case over changes to the state's election code is meritless.

  • July 16, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Rejects APA Challenge To PTAB Panel Makeups

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's invalidation of Arbor Global Strategies' processor module patent claims, shooting down the company's position that the board violated the Administrative Procedure Act when making its decision.

  • July 16, 2024

    FCC's Media Ownership Rules Are 'Relics,' 8th Circ. Told

    Broadcasters are pressing the Eighth Circuit to unravel the Federal Communications Commission's latest local media ownership rules, saying they are based on views of the industry that are long outdated.

  • July 16, 2024

    Ga. Panel Limits Insurer Pool's Collections For Workers' Comp

    The Georgia Court of Appeals on Tuesday limited the power of a state-sponsored insurance pool to recoup its expenses when filling in for an insolvent insurer, ruling that companies can't be forced to accept liability for an injured worker when they were placed into the position by a staffing agency.

  • July 16, 2024

    Influencer's Forest Pics Not 'Work Activity,' 10th Circ. Rules

    A Tenth Circuit panel on Tuesday reversed a social media influencer's conviction for unauthorized work on National Forest Service property after he posted Instagram photos of himself snowmobiling on closed NFS land, finding that the influencer didn't have fair warning that what he was doing might be considered a federal crime.

  • July 16, 2024

    NC Panel Affirms Property Tax Valuation For Ashley Furniture

    About 300 acres of property belonging to Ashley Furniture in North Carolina were properly valued at about $60 million for tax years 2018 and 2019, a state appeals court panel ruled Tuesday in favor of the state property tax commission.

  • July 16, 2024

    Judges Press Amazon On Its Duty To Guard Against Suicide

    Washington appellate judges on Tuesday challenged Amazon's argument that the e-commerce giant should be free from liability for selling sodium nitrite that buyers used to kill themselves, with one judge asking what other use a "small bottle" of nearly pure poison would have.

  • July 16, 2024

    7th Circ. Says Foreign Retirement Not Shielded In Bankruptcy

    A professor who filed for bankruptcy in Illinois can't protect his Canadian retirement account from creditors because the account is ineligible under a state law shielding accounts that qualify as retirement plans under the Internal Revenue Code, the Seventh Circuit ruled Tuesday.

  • July 16, 2024

    No Immunity For Philadelphia Transit In Bus-Stop Injury

    The Philadelphia-area transit system can't escape a lawsuit accusing one of its bus drivers of refusing to lower a handicap accessible ramp, resulting in a passenger twisting her leg while exiting the vehicle, a state appeals court ruled, saying the claims fall squarely with the motor-vehicle exception to sovereign immunity.

  • July 16, 2024

    7th Circ. Backs Manufacturer Win In Worker's Retaliation Suit

    The Seventh Circuit declined Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit from a Black worker accusing a manufacturing company of firing him in retaliation for complaining about race discrimination with his union, saying there's no error in the lower court's decision despite it relying on his former plant manager's flubbed testimony.

  • July 16, 2024

    Full 4th Circ. Won't Hear Student Loan Biz's Sealed Docs Case

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday declined to grant a full court rehearing to a student loan provider that wanted to shield court filings from a filmmaker after a panel found he had a First Amendment right to the information.

  • July 16, 2024

    5th Circ. Preserves Class Cert. In Fringe Benefits Fee Fight

    The Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court's decision to certify a mega class of more than 290,000 workers in a suit against several benefits administration companies alleging mismanagement of their non-union fringe benefits, but found the action should proceed as opt-out and not mandatory class action.

  • July 16, 2024

    Pa. Court Upholds $23M Value Of Vacant Hospital's Parking

    A vacant hospital's parking area in Pennsylvania was properly valued at $23.2 million, the state Commonwealth Court ruled, finding that a trial court had the discretion to apply the sales comparison approach to the valuation.

  • July 16, 2024

    Cannabis Patients And DOJ Offer Dueling Reads On Rahimi

    A group of Floridians and the U.S. Department of Justice have advanced dueling interpretations of whether a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gun laws justifies stripping medical cannabis patients of their right to bear arms.

  • July 16, 2024

    Columbia U. Aims To Keep $600M Patent Win Over Norton

    Columbia University has urged the Federal Circuit to preserve its $600 million willful patent infringement judgment against NortonLifeLock Inc., telling the court that Norton's "kitchen-sink" appeal "raises a slew of issues, hoping something will stick" and challenging Quinn Emanuel's appeal of a civil contempt ruling as "baseless and, ultimately, academic."

  • July 16, 2024

    4th Circ. Rejects 'Untimely' Redo Request In Coverage Fight

    The Fourth Circuit has flatly rejected a request to reconsider whether an insurer must cover the maker of a wood treatment product in a suit over a man's cancer diagnosis following decades of exposure to the chemical, calling the motion "untimely."

  • July 16, 2024

    Cohen Asks Justices To Hear Claim Trump Put Him In Prison

    Donald Trump's former attorney-turned-critic Michael Cohen has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take another look at his suit claiming the former president had him imprisoned in retaliation for his plans to portray Trump negatively in his book.

  • July 16, 2024

    States, Legal Orgs. Urge Justices To Halt Biden's Debt Relief

    A U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the Biden administration's latest student debt relief program received backing from seven Republican-led states and a trio of legal groups that assert the estimated $475 billion plan exceeds the executive branch's authority.

  • July 16, 2024

    Ex-Trump Counsel Has Advice For GOP On Judicial Noms

    A former Trump White House official who worked on judicial nominations has advised a potential future Republican administration to be aggressive, proactive and not to compromise on circuit court picks.

  • July 16, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Denies US Cos. Interest From Late Duty Payments

    Domestic companies that are entitled to antidumping and countervailing duty payments under the now-defunct Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act aren't entitled to the interest that accrues when the tariff is paid late, the Federal Circuit ruled.

Expert Analysis

  • Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March

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    A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

  • NC Rulings Show Bankruptcy Isn't Only For Insolvent Debtors

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    Two recent rulings from a North Carolina bankruptcy court show that lack of financial distress is not a requirement for bankruptcy protection, particularly in the Fourth Circuit, but these types of cases can still be dismissed for other reasons, say Stuart Gordon and Alexandria Vath at Rivkin Radler.

  • A Look At Ex Parte Seizures 8 Years Post-DTSA

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    In the eight years since the Defend Trade Secrets Act was enacted, not much has changed for jurisprudence on ex parte seizures, but a few seminal rulings show that there still isn’t a bright line on what qualifies as extraordinary circumstances warranting a seizure, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Series

    Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.

  • 10 Years After Alice, Predictability Debate Lingers

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    A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling, critics continue to argue that the subject matter eligibility framework it established yields inconsistent results, but that contention is disproved by affirmance data from the Federal Circuit, district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Dennis Abdelnour and David Thomas at Honigman.

  • Cannabis Ruling Lights Path For Bankruptcy Protection

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    A recent Massachusetts bankruptcy appellate court ruling in Blumsack v. Harrington leaves the door open for those employed in the cannabis industry to seek bankruptcy relief where certain conditions are met, but rescheduling marijuana as a Schedule III drug may complicate matters, say Jane Haviland and Kathryn Droumbakis at Mintz.

  • This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener

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    As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • Questions Persist After Ruling Skirts $925M TCPA Award Issue

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    After an Oregon federal court's recent Wakefield v. ViSalus ruling that the doctrine of constitutional avoidance precluded it from deciding whether a $925 million Telephone Consumer Protection Act damages award was constitutionally sound, further guidance is needed on when statutory damages violate due process, says Michael Klotz at O'Melveny.

  • Discord Stock Case Toss Means Little For Fraud Defendants

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    A Texas federal court’s recent dismissal of fraud charges related to a "pump and dump" scheme on Discord is an outlier after the U.S. Supreme Court scrapped the right-to-control theory of fraud last year, and ultimately won't deter the government from pursuing routine securities prosecutions, says William Johnston at Bird Marella.

  • Clarifying Legal Elements To Support A Genocide Claim At ICJ

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    Reporting on South Africa’s dispute against Israel in the International Court of Justice largely fails to clearly articulate what a case for genocide alleged in the context of war requires — a technical analysis that will evaluate several key factors, from the scale of the devastation to statements by officials, say Solomon Shinerock and Alex Bedrosyan at Lewis Baach.

  • Policy Misrepresentations Carry Insurance Rescission Risks

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Medical Mutual v. Gnik, finding that material misrepresentation in a clinic's insurance applications warranted policy rescission, is a clear example of the far-reaching effects that misrepresentations can have and provides a reminder that policyholders should employ relatively straightforward steps to decrease risks, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Back Labels In False Ad Cases Get Some Clarity In 9th Circ.

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    Courts in the Ninth Circuit have recently delivered a series of wins to advertisers, making clear that any ambiguity on the front of a product's package can be resolved by reference to the back label — which guarantees defendants a powerful tool to combat deceptive labeling claims, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.

  • What Bankruptcy Deadline Appeal May Mean For Claimants

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    If the Third Circuit reverses a recent appeal made in In re: Promise Healthcare, litigation claimants within the circuit will not be able to rely on the proof of claim process to preserve the claim — but if the court affirms, the U.S. Supreme Court may need to step in to resolve the circuit split on this issue, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Why Fed. Circ. Should Resolve District Split On Patent Statute

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    A split exists among district courts in their analysis of when marking cannot be done on a patented article due to its character, and the Federal Circuit should consider clarifying the analysis of Section 287(a), a consequential statute with important implications for patent damages, say Nicholas Nowak and Jamie Dohopolski at Sterne Kessler.

  • Employers Beware Of NLRB Changes On Bad Faith Bargaining

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    Recent National Labor Relations Board decisions show a trend of the agency imposing harsher remedies on employers for bad faith bargaining over union contracts, a position upheld in the Ninth Circuit's recent NLRB v. Grill Concepts Services decision, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

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