Appellate

  • January 06, 2025

    Breyer's 1st Circ. Visit A 'Very Cool' Opportunity For Attys

    As some lawyers practicing before the First Circuit may learn this week, having a former Supreme Court justice parachute into arguments adds an extra layer of gravitas to the proceedings and another challenge for advocates to navigate as they make their case.

  • January 06, 2025

    On Capitol Riot Anniversary, DOJ Update Says 1,500 Charged

    On the fourth anniversary of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol and the day President-elect Donald Trump's victory was to be made official, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that over 1,500 defendants have been charged with federal crimes related to the insurrection.

  • January 06, 2025

    Conn. Justices Won't Hike Benefits Cut For Law Partner's Ex

    The ex-husband of a law firm partner cannot secure a bigger cut of the partner's retirement funds because the payments from the firm are too "speculative" to qualify as property, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 5-1 on Monday.

  • January 06, 2025

    Arkansas' Justices Block New Chief From Firing Officials

    The Arkansas Supreme Court has blocked an attempt by its new chief justice to terminate 10 state court employees, saying that the proposed terminations appear to be "retaliatory" and "would disrupt the administration of justice across the state."

  • January 06, 2025

    2nd Circ. Says Argent Can't Force ESOP Suit To Arbitration

    The Second Circuit knocked down Argent Trust Co.'s bid to arbitrate a case alleging the wealth management company sold inflated shares to a barbecue chain's employee stock ownership plan, after ruling in a similar case that identical arbitration contract language wasn't enforceable.

  • January 06, 2025

    7th Circ. Affirms 'Do Not Call' Liability, But Balks At $28M Fine

    The Seventh Circuit vacated a $28.6 million penalty against two sales companies over unwanted telemarketing calls Friday, but upheld a district court ruling that they shared liability, ordering the lower court to reconsider the penalty and whether the companies could pay it.

  • January 06, 2025

    Judge Denies Trump's Request To Delay Jan. 10 Sentencing

    A New York state judge on Monday denied Donald Trump's request to suspend his Jan. 10 sentencing in his hush money case as the president-elect simultaneously appealed the court's refusal to throw out the charges based on presidential immunity.

  • January 06, 2025

    Disney Buy Ends Fubo Sports Streaming Suit

    Disney and Fubo announced a deal Monday morning to combine the streaming startup with Disney's Hulu + Live TV business, in an agreement that ends Fubo's lawsuit that had so far successfully challenged a three-way live sports streaming joint venture between Disney's ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.

  • January 03, 2025

    3rd Circ. Won't Hit Brakes On NY Congestion Toll Launch

    New York City's highly litigated congestion pricing toll program began Sunday morning after the Third Circuit denied an emergency motion for an injunction to delay it while an appeal by the state of New Jersey unfolds.

  • January 03, 2025

    Feds Fight Trump-Backed Bid For Justices To Stop TikTok Ban

    The Biden administration on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a call backed by President-elect Donald Trump to freeze the looming deadline for TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company or face a nationwide ban, arguing that the video-sharing app's First Amendment claims continue to fall flat. 

  • January 03, 2025

    CashCall Still On Hook For $134M To CFPB, 9th Circ. Rules

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday affirmed a $134.1 million restitution payment CashCall Inc. owes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying in a published opinion that the loan company's voluntary participation in a bench trial meant that it had waived a right to a jury trial.

  • January 03, 2025

    Justices Urged To Review Late-Found Fraud, Int'l IP Damages

    The winner of a $6.6 million patent infringement verdict is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit's refusal to increase those damages, saying the court set an improper standard for introducing fraud evidence discovered post-trial and overstepped when making unbriefed decisions on foreign damages.

  • January 03, 2025

    Mass. Justices Affirm $29M Award In Leg Amputation Suit

    The top court in Massachusetts on Friday upheld a nearly $29 million payout in a patient's lawsuit that accused two nurses and a physician assistant of causing his leg amputation, saying the details of a settlement agreement with two of the three healthcare professionals was properly excluded at trial.

  • January 03, 2025

    States Debate High Court Solution To Election Map Catch-22

    Louisiana has implored the U.S. Supreme Court to decisively resolve litigation over its federal election map in one of three ways, suggesting the justices could toss the case on standing, decide the merits, or, preferably, find that federal courts have no role in refereeing redistricting disputes.

  • January 03, 2025

    Energy Co. Urges 400-Mile Transfer Of Discrimination Suit

    A North Texas energy company told a state appeals court Thursday that a former employee's discrimination and libel suit belongs in Tarrant County, arguing the man dishonestly claimed that a substantial part of the suit's events took place more than 400 miles away.

  • January 03, 2025

    Energy Cos. Ask Top Calif. Court To End Climate Change Suits

    A half-dozen global energy giants urged California's top court Thursday to review a lower court's decision allowing climate change suits against them to proceed, arguing that California courts don't have jurisdiction over claims stemming from global fossil fuel use.

  • January 03, 2025

    Pa. Court Says State Can Bar Compromised Voting Machines

    Pennsylvania's top election official had the power to rescind Fulton County's permission to use its Dominion electronic voting machines, after county officials allowed third parties to inspect them following the 2020 election, a state appellate court has ruled.

  • January 03, 2025

    PBMs 'Wasting' Time in Opioid MDL Discovery Spat: Judge

    An Ohio federal judge overseeing multidistrict opioid litigation on Friday denied pharmacy benefit managers a stay to appeal a discovery order and said he believed the PBMs were "wasting" the court's time.

  • January 03, 2025

    9th Circ. Judge Says Asylum Seekers Can Use Appeals To Stall

    A Ninth Circuit judge has called to overturn a 20-year precedent that he said allows people to game their immigration appeals for more time in the country, after a divided panel affirmed the denial of a Ukrainian man's asylum bid.

  • January 03, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Revive Bias Suit Over SBA Small Biz Program

    A disabled veteran's constitutional challenge to a Small Business Administration contracting program over racial bias concerns must fail because the veteran didn't actually qualify for the program, the Fourth Circuit ruled Friday.

  • January 03, 2025

    Mich. Justices Asked To Ease Hospital Liability Standard

    A patient has urged the Michigan Supreme Court to clear up the standards for when hospitals can be liable for the mistakes of doctors who treat patients as independent contractors, saying a recent decision by the state's intermediate appellate court added an unwarranted hurdle to holding hospitals responsible.

  • January 03, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Cancellation Of TMs On Pink Hip Implants

    The Federal Circuit on Friday said a trademark panel correctly canceled a German medical supplier's trade dress protections for the color pink in a hip joint implant part because the color is functional, citing the company's previous patents and public statements to support that conclusion.

  • January 03, 2025

    Ohio Panel Backs Class Cert. In Farmers Total Loss Suit

    An Ohio trial court properly granted class certification over a man's claims that a Farmers Insurance unit failed to pay Ohio insureds state and local sales tax for vehicles insured under their auto policies, a state appeals court ruled while limiting the class only to insureds who suffered a total loss.

  • January 03, 2025

    Hertz Off The Hook For $337M Bond In Claim Recalculation Tiff

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge said Hertz Corp. doesn't need to post a $337.4 million bond while she uses an appeals court decision on underpaid interest to recalculate a group of unsecured noteholders' claims, writing the request would alter Hertz's more than 3-year-old Chapter 11 plan and give the noteholders better treatment than other creditors.

  • January 03, 2025

    GOP Defends FEC Discretion To Ax Campaign Finance Cases

    The GOP is backing the Federal Election Commission's bid to preserve a line of D.C. Circuit cases barring judges from second-guessing the commission's refusal to take enforcement actions, urging the en banc appeals court to safeguard "the careful, conscious congressional plan for the agency."

Expert Analysis

  • Risk Disclosure Issue Remains After Justices Nix Meta Case

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    After full briefing and argument, the U.S. Supreme Court recently dismissed Facebook v. Amalgamated Bank as improvidently granted, leaving courts with the tricky endeavor of determining when the failure to disclose a past event in an Item 105 risk disclosure is materially misleading, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • The Malpractice Perils Of Elder Abuse Liability

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    Recent cases show that the circumstances under which an attorney may be sued for financial elder abuse remain unsettled, but practitioners can avoid these malpractice claims altogether by taking proactive steps, like documenting the process of evaluating a client's directives under appropriate standards, says Edward Donohue at Hinshaw & Culbertson.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Shows Importance Of Trial Expert Specificity

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in NexStep v. Comcast highlights how even a persuasive expert’s failure to fully explain the basis of their opinion at trial can turn a winning patent infringement argument into a losing one, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Justices Mull Sex-Based Classification In Trans Law Case

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti this week, it appears that the fate of the Tennessee law at the center of the case — a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents — will hinge on whether the majority read the statute as imposing a sex-based classification, says Alexandra Crandall at Dickinson Wright.

  • Corporate Liability Issues To Watch In High Court TM Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a trademark dispute between Dewberry Group and Dewberry Engineers next week, presenting an opportunity for the court to drastically alter the fundamental approach to piercing the corporate veil, or adopt a more limited approach and preserve existing norms, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Collateral Estoppel Continues Evolving

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    We are starting to see brighter lines on collateral estoppel involving Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings, illustrated by two recent cases that considered whether collateral estoppel should apply to factual findings on prior art from the PTAB in a later district court litigation, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Series

    Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • Takeaways From DOJ's Intervention On Pricing Algorithm Use

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    A recent U.S. Justice Department amicus brief arguing that a Nevada federal judge wrongly focused on the nonbinding aspect of software company Cendyn Group's pricing algorithm underscores the growing challenge of determining when, if ever, pricing algorithms are legal, say attorneys at Rule Garza.

  • ERISA Ruling Is A Win For DOL Regulatory Authority

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    In Rappaport v. Guardian Life Insurance, a New York federal court recently issued a notable disability benefits ruling in finding that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright opinion does not affect how existing U.S. Department of Labor regulations apply in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review

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    For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • What Fed. Circ. Ruling Means For Patent Case Dismissals

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    ​​​​​​​The Federal Circuit's recent decision in UTTO v. Metrotech is significant because it specifically authorizes district courts to dismiss patent infringement lawsuits without a separate Markman hearing, but only when the meaning of a claim term is clear and case-dispositive, says Peter Gergely at Merchant & Gould.

  • 7th Circ. Travel Time Ruling Has Far-Reaching Implications

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    In a case of first impression, the Seventh Circuit’s recent holding in Walters v. Professional Labor Group will have significant implications for employers that must now provide travel time compensation for employees on overnight assignments away from home, says Anthony Sbardellati at Akerman.

  • The Fed. Circ. In October: Anti-Suit Injunctions And SEPs

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    The Federal Circuit's holding in Ericsson v. Lenovo, a complex global case involving standard-essential patents, will likely have broad consequences for practitioners, including by making it easier to obtain an anti-suit injunction, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

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