Appellate

  • June 24, 2024

    Mars Beats Dove Chocolate False Ad Suit At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal Monday of a proposed class action claiming that a Mars subsidiary falsely advertised its Dove dark chocolate products as being made without using child slave labor or contributing to rainforest deforestation, finding that the candy packages' "Rainforest Alliance Certified farms" labeling isn't misleading.

  • June 24, 2024

    Mich. Justices Take Up Young Adults' Life Sentence Challenge

    Michigan's top court will weigh whether the state's mandatory life sentence for murder is unconstitutional when applied to young adults, after 19- and 20-year-olds argued that a 2022 precedent banning the punishment for 18-year-olds should extend to them.

  • June 24, 2024

    8th Circ. Sides With Minn. DOT In Injured Worker's ADA Suit

    The Eighth Circuit on Monday backed the Minnesota Department of Transportation in a suit by a former mechanic who alleged the agency discriminated against him after an on-the-job injury, finding MNDOT reasonably showed that he could not do the work of his prior position.

  • June 24, 2024

    Pipe Co. Seeks Full Fed. Circ. Redo Of Thai Pipe Duty Review

    A pipe company asked the full Federal Circuit to unwind a panel ruling broadening a decades-old anti-dumping duty order on Thai pipe, saying the panel mistakenly expanded the levy to cover more imports than allowed under federal trade law.

  • June 24, 2024

    9th Circ. Asks Wash. Justices If Uber Had Duty To Slain Driver

    The Ninth Circuit urged Washington's highest court Monday to determine whether Uber had a duty to use reasonable care to protect one of its drivers who was murdered in a carjacking, in an order that paused an appeal brought by the driver's family.

  • June 24, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Uber Driver's Bias Suit

    An Asian man who previously drove for Uber didn't provide enough information in his proposed class action to support his claim that the ride-hailing platform's use of customer ratings when making decisions to drop drivers had a "significant disparate impact" on non-white drivers, the Ninth Circuit said Monday.

  • June 24, 2024

    Wage Law Doesn't Apply To $32M In PPE Sales, NJ Panel Says

    An employee who sold more than $32 million in personal protective equipment during three months of the COVID-19 pandemic is not entitled to $1.3 million in commissions under the New Jersey Wage Payment Law, because the sales did not fall under her normal role and are instead "supplementary incentives," a state appeals panel ruled Monday.

  • June 24, 2024

    DC Circ. Backs Gov't Contractor Win In Fight With Ex-Worker

    The D.C. Circuit has backed a ruling that a former senior technical manager for government contractor Apprio Inc. breached a proprietary information agreement giving the rights of certain software he created over to the company.

  • June 24, 2024

    Ex-NJ Corrections Official Can't Revive Demotion Bias Suit

    A New Jersey state appellate court on Monday refused to reinstate a lawsuit against the state's Department of Corrections alleging it demoted a former deputy commissioner because she was in her 60s and underwent a hip replacement, saying the agency's commissioner was free to make personnel decisions.

  • June 24, 2024

    Julie Chrisley To Be Resentenced, But Convictions Stand

    The Eleventh Circuit on Friday upheld the tax evasion and fraud convictions of former reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, but ordered a Georgia federal judge to resentence Julie Chrisley after finding that the judge failed to fully explore her discrete role in the $36 million scheme.

  • June 24, 2024

    NC Justice's Politician Dad Doesn't Merit DQ, Lawmakers Say

    North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. should not recuse himself from a constitutional challenge concerning the governor's appointment powers merely because his father is president pro tem of the state Senate, top lawmakers argue.

  • June 24, 2024

    Suit Over Medical Screws Filed Too Late, Texas Panel Finds

    A Texas appeals court won't revive a woman's suit against BioPro Inc. alleging that surgical screws used in her feet were defective, saying the evidence establishes that she filed her suit after the two-year statute of limitations had expired.

  • June 24, 2024

    NJ Atty Suspended 3 Years For Unauthorized Practice Of Law

    A New Jersey attorney has been suspended from practicing law for three years after she continued to represent clients and mishandle sensitive matters while she was suspended for similar conduct in 2019, according to a New Jersey Supreme Court order.

  • June 24, 2024

    Mich. High Court Denies Officers' Judge-Shopping Appeals

    A divided Michigan Supreme Court has rejected the appeals of three police officers facing charges related to a traffic-stop assault who complained that their cases should not have been handed to a new judge mid-prosecution.

  • June 24, 2024

    High Court Won't Take Up Michigan Tribal Tag Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a petition by a Native American man seeking to overturn a Michigan Supreme Court order that denied him the chance to appeal his traffic stop convictions stemming from a dispute over tribal-licensed tags.

  • June 24, 2024

    Pa. Court OKs $3.65M Deal On Student Loan 'Pay-To-Pay' Fees

    A Pennsylvania federal judge said Monday that she would give her final approval to a $3.65 million settlement of claims that loan servicer Educational Computer Systems Inc. had improperly charged payment fees on hundreds of thousands of federally-backed student loans.

  • June 24, 2024

    No Coverage For $3M Logging Injury Verdict, 4th Circ. Affirms

    The Fourth Circuit has affirmed that an insurer doesn't have to cover a $3 million jury verdict over a man's logging injuries, finding that a North Carolina federal court correctly decided that a broad worker injury exclusion was applicable.

  • June 24, 2024

    Justices' Removal Notice Decision Unwinds 3 Migrants' Wins

    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent endorsement of multipart removal notices resulted in the Monday vacatur of three circuit court decisions offering migrants another chance at fighting deportation after receiving notices that initially omitted important information about their removal hearings.

  • June 24, 2024

    High Court Passes On Religious Webcasters' Royalty Hike Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the federal Copyright Royalty Board's latest hike in royalty rates webcasters must pay to play audio recordings, turning away a radio trade group's appeal challenging one of the increases on religious freedom and administrative procedure grounds.

  • June 24, 2024

    Justices Pass On Conn. School Vaccine Mandate Fight

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Second Circuit decision that largely upheld the dismissal of a suit challenging a Connecticut law passed during the COVID-19 pandemic that revoked religious exemptions to student vaccine mandates.

  • June 24, 2024

    6th Circ. Won't Rethink Partial Revival Of Sanofi Pollution Suit

    The full Sixth Circuit has declined to review a split panel's decision reviving parts of a Sanofi unit's lawsuit against a Tennessee landfill owner it accused of improperly shuttering the dump, which then led to the contamination of water at its property.

  • June 24, 2024

    3rd Circ. Seems Ready To Send Experian Row To Arbitration

    A Third Circuit panel on Monday appeared poised to send a Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuit against Experian to arbitration, questioning whether a plaintiff's dispute over applying an arbitration agreement with an Experian-related credit-monitoring service fell under the "scope" disputes that would also get decided by an arbitrator.

  • June 24, 2024

    Justices Won't Hear Atty's Appeal Of DQ From Product Case

    An attorney who allegedly made false statements about a magistrate judge that subsequently got him booted as plaintiff's counsel in a suit against a handheld torch manufacturer can't appeal his disqualification after the Supreme Court declined to review his bid Monday.

  • June 24, 2024

    2nd Circ. Reopens Insider Trading Suit Against Hedge Fund

    The Second Circuit on Monday revived a lawsuit accusing hedge fund Raging Capital Management LLC of profiting off its position as a corporate insider of 1-800-Flowers, rejecting arguments that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturned circuit precedent allowing shareholders to sue beneficial owners who partake in short-swing trading.

  • June 24, 2024

    Justices Affirm 6th Circ. Decision Allowing Bump Stocks

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected the government's appeal of a Sixth Circuit decision blocking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' ban on so-called bump stocks, after finding in a separate case that the ATF rule went beyond the agency's authority.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Playing Hockey Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Nearly a lifetime of playing hockey taught me the importance of avoiding burnout in all aspects of life, and the game ultimately ended up providing me with the balance I needed to maintain success in my legal career, says John Riccione at Taft.

  • ESG Challenges In Focus After Sierra Club Opposes SEC Rule

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    The Sierra Club's recent objection to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosures for investors presents an unusual — pro-disclosure — legal challenge and an opportunity to take a close look at the varying critiques of ESG regulations, say Colin Pohlman, and Jane Luxton and Paul Kisslinger at Lewis Brisbois.

  • Opinion

    High Court Should Settle Circuit Split On Risk Disclosures

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    The U.S. Supreme Court should grant the petition for writ of certiorari in the Facebook case to resolve a growing circuit split concerning when risk disclosures can be misleading under federal securities laws, and its decision should align with the intent of Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, says Richard Zelichov at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand

    If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • High Court's Jan. 6 Rioter Case May Have Wide Ripple Effects

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in Fischer v. United States, a case that will determine whether a law enacted after the Enron scandal can be used to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters, and could affect the government’s ability to charge those who impede a range of official proceedings, say Brook Dooley and Sara Fitzpatrick at Keker Van Nest.

  • 5th Circ. Clarifies What Is And Isn't A 'New Use' Of PFAS

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    The Fifth Circuit's March 21 decision in Inhance Technologies v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, preventing the EPA from regulating existing uses of PFAS under "significant new use" provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act, provides industry with much-needed clarity, say Joseph Schaeffer and Sloane Wildman at Babst Calland.

  • CORRECTED: Endoscope Patent Case Offers Guidance On Right To Repair

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    An Alabama federal court's decision in Karl Storz v. IMS reaffirmed that product owners have broad rights to repair or modify their property as they see fit, highlighting the parameters of the right to repair in the context of patent infringement, say Dustin Weeks and Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper. Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article and headline attributed the Karl Storz ruling to the wrong court. The error has been corrected.

  • Trump's NY Civil Fraud Trial Spotlights Long-Criticized Law

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    A New York court’s recent decision holding former President Donald Trump liable for fraud brought old criticisms of the state law used against him back into the limelight — including its strikingly broad scope and its major departures from the traditional elements of common law fraud, say Mark Kelley and Lois Ahn at MoloLamken.

  • How A Motion Before Justices May Help Trump Beyond Court

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    Even if Donald Trump loses his presidential immunity claim before the U.S. Supreme Court, the delay created by the motion may mean a trial can't be completed before the November election, says Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

  • Opinion

    $175M Bond Refiled By Trump Is Still Substantively Flawed

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    The corrected $175 million bond posted by former President Donald Trump on Thursday to stave off enforcement of the New York attorney general's fraud judgment against him remains substantively and procedurally flawed, as well as inadequately secured, says Adam Pollock of Pollock Cohen.

  • Opinion

    Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea

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    A proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure that would require parties to get court permission before filing federal amicus briefs would eliminate the long-standing practice of consent filing and thereby make the process less open and democratic, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation and DRI Center.

  • NJ Ruling Offers Road Map To Fight Dishonored Check Claims

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    As ATM and mobile check deposits become more common, a New Jersey state appellate court’s recent ruling in Triffin v. Neptune shows that issuers can rely on copies of checks to defend against claims that checks were wrongfully dishonored after being electronically deposited, say attorneys at Sherman Atlas.

  • 4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best

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    As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.

  • A Look At Recent Challenges To SEC's Settlement 'Gag Rule'

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    Though they have been unsuccessful so far, opponents of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's so-called gag rule, which prevents defendants from denying allegations when settling with the SEC, are becoming increasingly vocal and filing more challenges in recent years, say Mike Blankenship and Regina Maze at Winston & Strawn.

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