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Appellate
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August 21, 2024
Conn. Justices Back Insurer's Out-Of-Network Patient Bills
The Connecticut Supreme Court on Wednesday limited an emergency physician group's attempt to require a medical insurer to shoulder patient costs under the state's surprise medical billing law, holding that insurers can charge patients for shared costs, such as deductibles and copayments, at lower levels without violating consumer protection laws.
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August 21, 2024
9th Circ. Upholds Toss Of Suit Over Car Insurer's Data Breach
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive a proposed class action accusing auto insurance provider Noblr Reciprocal Exchange of failing to safeguard driver's license numbers exposed in a 2021 data breach, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to credibly allege that their data had actually been stolen.
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August 21, 2024
Legal, Policy Orgs Urge Justices To Toss FCA Interpretation
Two groups are defending AT&T subsidiary Wisconsin Bell Inc. in its challenge to the use of the False Claims Act for E-Rate program reimbursement fraud, telling the Supreme Court in amicus briefs Tuesday that the Seventh Circuit's ruling in the case would make the FCA's qui tam powers too expansive.
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August 21, 2024
8th Circ. Reboots Fed Swipe Fee Suit After High Court Ruling
An Eighth Circuit panel on Wednesday remanded a suit challenging Federal Reserve debit card swipe fee rules, ordering new proceedings in the case after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was not untimely after all.
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August 21, 2024
Student Loan Trusts Rip 'Aggressive' CFPB In High Court Bid
Fifteen Delaware student loan trusts have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to rescue them from a long-running Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement lawsuit, asking to appeal a Third Circuit decision that said the securitization vehicles were subject to the agency's authority.
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August 21, 2024
USPTO Argues Not All New Rules Call For Public Comments
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told the U.S. Supreme Court that forcing the agency to solicit public comments before instituting a new home address requirement for registering trademarks would be too much work.
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August 21, 2024
Mich. High Court Asked To Redo Wrongful Death Ruling
The family of a deceased teen asked the Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday for another chance to show that future earnings awards should be allowed in wrongful death cases, arguing the court's recent ruling restricting those awards ignored important state law.
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August 21, 2024
10th Circ. Says Ex-Prosecutor Still Hasn't Proven Immunity
A Tenth Circuit panel on Wednesday said a former Denver deputy district attorney had not yet proven that she was entitled to qualified immunity in a malicious-prosecution case dating back more than a decade, the second time the appeals court has reversed a procedural win for the prosecutor.
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August 21, 2024
Full 3rd Circ. Won't Hear Distillery Investor's RICO Case
An investor in a Pennsylvania craft distillery who accused his former business partner and a bevy of associates of racketeering, fraud and trade secret violations has failed to persuade a Third Circuit panel or the full court to take another look at his arguments about reviving the dismissed case.
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August 21, 2024
11th Circ. Affirms Toss Of Banana Wall Art Copyright Suit
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed an Italian artist's win over a pro-se copyright lawsuit from California-based artist Joe Morford concerning art pieces the two made that both incorporate duct-taped fruits, holding they were not "strikingly similar."
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August 21, 2024
Texas Law Firm Cleared Of Overcharging Criminal Client
A Texas appellate court cleared Austin law firm Minton Bassett Flores & Carsey PC of breaching its fiduciary duties and delaying a trial date to rake in more legal fees from a criminal defendant, upholding the trial court's decision to dismiss the case in a Wednesday opinion.
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August 21, 2024
Ex-Patriots Football Player Can't Sue Over Alumni Group Boot
A Massachusetts appellate court panel declined on Wednesday to undo a lower court's decision to toss a lawsuit from an elderly former New England Patriots player who claims he was wrongly ejected from the alumni club.
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August 21, 2024
VA Tells High Court Veterans' PTSD Claims Correctly Rejected
The federal government urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to overturn decisions denying two veterans' claims for post-traumatic stress disorder benefits, saying lower courts properly refused to reconsider evidence whether the vets deserved the benefit of the doubt.
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August 21, 2024
9th Circ. Lets Atty Fight Against $8M Malicious Prosecution
A Nevada attorney may take to the federal court to challenge an Arizona state court's civil judgment finding him liable for malicious prosecution, the Ninth Circuit determined Wednesday, finding the federal district court was wrong to toss his claims on the grounds they were barred by jurisdictional precedent established in the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
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August 21, 2024
Split 6th Circ. Partly Revives GM Drivers' Truck Emissions Suits
A divided Sixth Circuit panel on Wednesday revived drivers' state-law claims in consolidated litigation alleging General Motors deceptively marketed Chevrolet Silverado and Sierra vehicles as being more environmentally friendly than they actually were, rejecting a district court's finding that the claims conflicted with federal law.
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August 21, 2024
Insurers Escape Calif. Starbucks Drive-Thru Easement Row
A California appeals court affirmed a lower court decision, finding commercial property insurers didn't have to defend an owner who allegedly tricked one tenant into signing an easement agreement for a parking lot, neglecting to mention it would be used by a Starbucks drive-thru.
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August 21, 2024
High Court Told Nvidia Case Could Damage Crypto Industry
The Digital Chamber is warning that a U.S. Supreme Court dispute between chipmaker Nvidia Corp. and some of its investors poses a "grave risk" to the entire cryptocurrency industry by threatening to expose it to costly litigation should the justices uphold a lower court ruling allowing the lawsuit to move forward.
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August 21, 2024
Ga. City Asks Full 11th Circ. To Review Race Bias Suit Revival
A southern Georgia city is urging the full Eleventh Circuit to reconsider a panel decision that revived a white city manager's lawsuit claiming it unlawfully fired him to hire a Black woman, arguing the panel improperly extended the alleged discriminatory intent of one Black city commissioner onto other Black commissioners.
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August 21, 2024
2nd Circ. OKs Argentine Bondholders' $310M Collateral Win
The Second Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a finding that Argentina must turn over to its onetime bondholders reversionary interests worth over $310 million in collateral backing so-called Brady Plan bonds from the 1990s that recently matured, rejecting the country's arguments that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act shields its interests in the collateral.
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August 21, 2024
6th Circ. Says Fired Worker's Asthma Not Covered By ADA
A split Sixth Circuit panel on Wednesday backed the dismissal of an asthmatic worker's suit claiming an entertainer management firm unlawfully fired her for requesting to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying she hadn't shown that her condition triggered the federal disability bias law's protection.
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August 21, 2024
Hedge Fund Priest Sues SEC Over Proposed Industry Ban
A Greek Orthodox priest and hedge fund founder who beat most civil claims brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at a 2021 trial sued the agency Wednesday, claiming it is unconstitutionally trying to implement a lifetime ban from the securities industry through an administrative case.
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August 21, 2024
Fla. High Court Rejects Petition Against Abortion Measure Info
Florida's high court Wednesday rejected a petition from a group challenging the financial impact statement attached to a measure legalizing abortion up to 24 weeks that's slated to appear on the state's ballot in November, saying they never initially challenged a committee's authority to revise a statement they considered flawed.
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August 21, 2024
Ga. Strip Clubs Push High Court For Tax-Free Dances
A coalition of Georgia strip clubs labored to convince the state's highest court Wednesday that a nearly decade-old tax on their businesses, used by the state to fund child trafficking prevention efforts, is unconstitutional by infringing upon their First Amendment rights to put on nude dances.
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August 21, 2024
Daughter Keeps $9.2M Win In Father's Med Mal Death Suit
A Georgia appeals court affirmed a $9.2 million wrongful death verdict in favor of a woman whose father died of complications following surgery, rejecting the medical center's argument that the evidence couldn't support the verdict.
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August 21, 2024
Feds Chide Iowa's 'Implausible' Immigration Law Defense
The Biden administration is urging the Eighth Circuit to reject Iowa's defense of a state law criminalizing the presence of previously deported noncitizens in the state, suggesting Iowa is mischaracterizing the law in an effort to skirt U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
Expert Analysis
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Series
After Chevron: 7 FERC Takeaways From Loper Bright
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine, it's likely that the majority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's orders will not be affected, but the commission has nonetheless lost an important fallback argument and will have to approach rulemaking more cautiously, says Norman Bay at Willkie Farr.
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Series
After Chevron: USDA Rules May Be Up In The Air
The Supreme Court's end of Chevron deference may cause more lawsuits against U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations, like the one redefining "unfair trade practices" under the Packers and Stockyards Act, or a new policy classifying salmonella as an adulterant in certain poultry products, says Bob Hibbert at Wiley.
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7th Circ Joins Trend Of No CGL Coverage For Structural Flaws
The Seventh Circuit, which recently held potential structural instability did not count as property damage under a construction company's commercial general liability policy, joins a growing consensus that faulty work does not implicate coverage without tangible and present damage to the project, say Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty, and Elan Kandel and James Talbert at Bailey Cavalieri.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Making Good On Bold Promises
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure in the second quarter cleared the way for the bureau to resume a number of high-priority initiatives, and it appears poised to charge ahead in working toward its aggressive preelection agenda, say Andrew Arculin and Paula Vigo Marqués at Blank Rome.
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Series
After Chevron: Creating New Hurdles For ESG Rulemaking
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, limiting court deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, could have significant impacts on the future of ESG regulation, creating new hurdles for agency rulemaking around these emerging issues, and calling into question current administrative actions, says Leah Malone at Simpson Thacher.
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Accidental Death Ruling Shows ERISA Review Standard's Pull
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent accidental death insurance ruling in Goldfarb v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance illustrates how an arbitrary and capricious standard of review in Employee Retirement Income Security Act denial-of-benefits cases creates a steep uphill battle for benefit claimants, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Critical Questions Remain After High Court's Abortion Rulings
The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in two major abortion-related cases this term largely preserve the status quo for now, but leave federal preemption, the Comstock Act and in vitro fertilization in limbo, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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California Adds A Novel Twist To State Suits Against Big Oil
California’s suit against Exxon Mobil Corp., one of several state suits that seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate-related harms, is unique both in the magnitude of the alleged claims and its use of a consumer protection statute to seek disgorgement of industry profits, says Julia Stein at UCLA School of Law.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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Why Justices Should Rule On FAA's Commerce Exception
The U.S. Supreme Court should review the Ninth Circuit's Ortiz v. Randstad decision, to clarify whether involvement in interstate commerce exempts workers from the Federal Arbitration Act, a crucial question given employers' and employees' strong competing interests in arbitration and litigation, says Collin Williams at New Era.
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Series
After Chevron: Rethinking Agency Deference In IP Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Chevron deference could make it simpler to challenge the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s proposed rule on terminal disclaimers and U.S. International Trade Commission interpretations, says William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.
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FLSA Conditional Certification Is Alive And Well In 4th Circ.
A North Carolina federal court's recent decision in Johnson v. PHP emphasized continued preference by courts in the Fourth Circuit for a two-step conditional certification process for Fair Labor Standards Act collective actions, rejecting views from other circuits and affording plaintiffs a less burdensome path, say Joshua Adams and Damón Gray at Jackson Lewis.
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7th Circ. Exclusion Ruling Will Narrow BIPA Coverage
The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Thermoflex Waukegan v. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, holding that the access or disclosure exclusion applies to insurance claims brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, departs from the majority rule and opens the door to insurers more firmly denying coverage under general liability policies, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Tricky Venue Issues Persist In Fortenberry Prosecution Redo
Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry was recently indicted for a second time after the Ninth Circuit tossed his previous conviction for improper venue, but the case, now pending in the District of Columbia, continues to illustrate the complexities of proper venue in "false statement scheme" prosecutions, says Kevin Coleman at Covington.