Appellate

  • August 22, 2024

    HVAC Co. Can't Upend $3.4M Verdict In Tire Crash Suit

    A New Jersey appeals court on Thursday upheld a $3.4 million verdict for a driver who was injured when a tire came loose from an HVAC company's truck and struck his car, saying the trial court wasn't wrong to instruct the jury that the company had the burden of showing the driver's injuries stemmed from another, later accident.

  • August 22, 2024

    USPTO Tells High Court To Skip Double-Patenting Fight

    The U.S. patent office told the U.S. Supreme Court that fears stoked by a patent licensing outfit complaining about current Federal Circuit jurisprudence surrounding "obviousness-type double patenting" has already been resolved by a different ruling by the same court earlier this month.

  • August 22, 2024

    Farmers Seek Rehearing For Mich. Justices' Permit Ruling

    Farm groups are asking the Michigan Supreme Court to reconsider a split opinion upholding general permit conditions state regulators enacted for concentrated animal feeding operations, arguing the majority's opinion is built upon "crucial factual and legal errors."

  • August 22, 2024

    Appeals Court Revives DC AG's Amazon Antitrust Suit

    A Washington, D.C., appeals court ruled Thursday that the D.C. attorney general can pursue an antitrust suit against Amazon, overturning a lower court order that tossed district enforcers' complaint against the e-commerce giant.

  • August 22, 2024

    NJ Panel Rejects Dispensary's Bid To Revive Application Suit

    A would-be cannabis entrepreneur can't upend a New Jersey township's decision to decline her application for a retail license in favor of others, a state appeals court ruled, saying that she needed to name her competitors as defendants to keep the case viable.

  • August 22, 2024

    California Fires Back At Red State Attacks On Climate Torts

    California and a contingent of blue states told the U.S. Supreme Court that their climate change torts against fossil fuel companies are on solid legal ground and that an effort by Alabama and other red states to undercut them must be rejected.

  • August 22, 2024

    Apache Carry Petition To High Court With A Prayer Journey

    Members of an Apache nonprofit fighting to save an Indigenous worship site from destruction are making stops to visit other tribes throughout the country for prayers and support as they deliver a petition to the Supreme Court that seeks to undo a Ninth Circuit ruling and block a mining project.

  • August 22, 2024

    Auburn Wants Out Of 11th Circ. Arguments Over Burial Ground

    Auburn University has asked the Eleventh Circuit to be excused from oral arguments next month in a dispute between two Native American groups over a burial ground where centuries-old human remains were exhumed to make way for construction of a multimillion-dollar casino.

  • August 22, 2024

    2nd Circ. Says Feds Can't Forcibly Drug Man Facing Removal

    The Second Circuit ruled Thursday that the Bureau of Prisons can't yet forcibly administer antipsychotic medication to render a Sierra Leone native competent to stand trial on charges of assaulting officers at a prison where he was being detained pending deportation.

  • August 22, 2024

    Calif. Atty Can't Beat Sanctions In Geragos Malpractice Suit

    A California state appeals court on Wednesday affirmed $23,000 in sanctions for discovery violations on the part of a lawyer representing clients in a malpractice case against Hollywood litigator Mark Geragos.

  • August 22, 2024

    NY AG Tells Appeals Court To Uphold $465M Trump Judgment

    Donald Trump has barely challenged the extensive proof of financial statement lies undergirding a $465 million civil fraud judgment against him and his co-defendants, New York's attorney general said in an appeals brief looking to preserve the bench verdict.

  • August 22, 2024

    Fla. Immigration Attorney Also Disbarred In NY

    A Miami immigration attorney who was disbarred in Florida earlier this year received another blow Thursday when the New York Supreme Court decided that he could no longer practice in its state either.

  • August 22, 2024

    DLA Piper Wants Texas High Court To Review Doc Order

    DLA Piper has asked the Texas Supreme Court to review a trial court order that would force it to hand over communications with a medical group it represented in a sale, writing that an ex-client is trying to carve out an exception to attorney-client privilege because she had hired multiple law firms.

  • August 22, 2024

    7th Circ. Says Hidden IP Fight Doomed Insurance Coverage Bid

    The Seventh Circuit has agreed an insurer could rescind its policies covering a garbage services company because that company failed to disclose an already brewing trademark dispute, concluding the company's argument that it didn't need to disclose the feud was "not supported by the record or common sense."

  • August 22, 2024

    Mich. Says Justices' Minimum Wage Ruling Lacks Detail

    The state of Michigan is seeking clarification from its high court on how to calculate the new minimum wage, saying there were several possible interpretations of the court's recent directive to account for inflation in the wage floor. 

  • August 22, 2024

    Borrowed Claims Revived In CenturyLink Merger Suit

    A Colorado Court of Appeals panel said Thursday that attorneys can borrow confidential witness statements from other lawsuits without speaking to the witnesses as long as they take other investigatory steps, reinstating a shareholder suit against CenturyLink.

  • August 22, 2024

    Ex-Delta Attendant Can't Revive Rape Suit, Split 1st Circ. Says

    A divided panel of the First Circuit has affirmed a summary judgment win for Delta Air Lines in a suit brought in Massachusetts by a former flight attendant who claimed the airline botched its investigation into her allegations that she was raped by a pilot.

  • August 22, 2024

    Au Pair Co. Tells 1st Circ. Arbitration Bid Came In Time

    An au pair company told the First Circuit that forcing it to advance arbitration efforts before filing a response in a wage suit would conflict with a U.S. Supreme Court's ruling tackling the timing of arbitration requests.

  • August 22, 2024

    Pa. Air Force Vet Can't Challenge Court's Medical Pot Rules

    A Pennsylvania appeals court won't let an Air Force veteran challenge the medical cannabis rules for treatment court programs in Berks County, saying he lacks standing because his use of medical cannabis was not the reason he was denied entry into the programs.

  • August 21, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Rethink IP Safe Harbor Case

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday declined to review its decision affirming the dismissal of Edwards Lifesciences' infringement suit against Meril Life Sciences after Edwards urged the full court to narrow its interpretation of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration safe harbor that essentially allows patent infringement during drug development.

  • August 21, 2024

    2nd Circ. Partly Revives Life Insurance Suit Against AXA

    The Second Circuit on Wednesday affirmed the dismissal of an investment firm founder's claims alleging AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. caused the founder to miss a payment that led to the termination of his life insurance policies, but revived his claim that AXA wrongly denied his request to reinstate the policies.

  • August 21, 2024

    Lion Air Families Want Full 7th Circ. To Hear Boeing Case

    The last two estates pursuing claims over 2018's Lion Air crash argued Wednesday that the full Seventh Circuit should rehear their bid for jury trial damages relating to injuries the victims experienced over land because their initial panel applied the governing law in a way that was never intended.

  • August 21, 2024

    Ga. Justices Look Ready To Kill $20M Garnished Judgment

    The Supreme Court of Georgia appeared inclined Wednesday to toss a $20 million default judgment that a state court judge slapped on a financial advisory after the firm failed to respond to a summons in an underlying case it claims it had zero stake in.

  • August 21, 2024

    Tobacco Cos. Ask Justices To Review FDA's New Warnings

    R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fifth Circuit decision affirming an FDA rule mandating new health warnings on cigarette packaging and advertisements, arguing that the court created an unjustified circuit split when it found the graphic warnings are "purely factual and uncontroversial."

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Questions Linger About DTSA's Scope After Motorola Ruling

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera, which held that the Defend Trade Secrets Act applies extraterritorially, does not address whether an act that furthers misappropriation must be committed by the defendant in order to satisfy the law's extraterritoriality requirement, say Ilissa Samplin and Grace Hart at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Slowing Down AI In Medical Research

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision overturning the Chevron doctrine may inhibit agencies' regulatory efforts, potentially slowing down the approval and implementation of artificial intelligence-driven methodologies in medical research, as well as regulators' responses to public health emergencies, say Ragini Acharya and Matthew Deutsch at Husch Blackwell.

  • What High Court TM Rulings Tell Us About Free Speech

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    Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings show tension between free speech and trademark law, highlighting that while political mockery is protected, established brands may be forced to adapt to evolving cultural values, says William Scott Goldman at Goldman Law Group.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Uncertainty In Scope Of ITC Oversight

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    The U.S. International Trade Commission's long-standing jurisprudence on some of the most disputed and controversial issues is likely to be reshaped by the Federal Circuit, which is no longer bound by Chevron deference in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, say Kecia Reynolds and Madeleine Moss at Paul Hastings.

  • Half-Truths Vs. Omissions: Slicing Justices' Macquarie Cake

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Macquarie v. Moab provides a road map for determining whether corporate reports that omit information should be considered misleading — and the court baked it into a dessert analogy that is key to understanding the guidelines, say Daniel Levy and Pavithra Kumar at Advanced Analytical Consulting Group.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule

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    A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.

  • Justices' Ch. 11 Ruling Is A Big Moment For Debtors' Insurers

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum ruling upends decades of Chapter 11 bankruptcy jurisprudence that relegated a debtor’s insurer to the sidelines, giving insurers a new footing to try and avoid significant liability, say Stuart Gordon and Benjamin Wisher at Rivkin Radler.

  • Justices' Starbucks Ruling May Limit NLRB Injunction Wins

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Starbucks v. McKinney, adopting a more stringent test for National Labor Relations Board Section 10(j) injunctions, may lessen the frequency with which employers must defend against injunctions alongside parallel unfair labor practice charges, say David Pryzbylski and Colleen Schade at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Justices' Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review

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    Each of the 11 criminal decisions issued in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently concluded term is independently important, but taken together, they reveal trends in the court’s broader approach to criminal law, presenting both pitfalls and opportunities for defendants and their counsel, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.

  • 7th Circ. Motorola Ruling Raises Stakes Of DTSA Litigation

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera gives plaintiffs a powerful tool to recover damages, greatly increasing the incentive to bring Defend Trade Secrets Act claims against defendants with large global sales because those sales could generate large settlements, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Bid Protest Litigation Will Hold Steady For Now

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    Though the substantive holding of Loper Bright is unlikely to affect bid protests because questions of statutory interpretation are rare, the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision may signal a general trend away from agency deference even on the complex technical issues that often arise, say Kayleigh Scalzo and Andrew Guy at Covington.

  • Challenging Prosecutors' Use Of Defendants' Jail Phone Calls

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    Although it’s an uphill battle under current case law, counsel for pretrial detainees may be able to challenge prosecutors’ use of jail-recorded phone calls between the defendant and their attorney by taking certain advance measures, say Jim McLoughlin and Fielding Huseth at Moore & Van Allen.

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