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Appellate
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November 06, 2024
Chicago Pol Urges Narrow Reading Of False Statement Law
The U.S. Supreme Court should narrowly interpret the federal statute barring people from using false statements to influence certain financial institutions because backing the government's broad reading could expose borrowers to criminal liability that was never intended, former Chicago alderman Patrick Daley Thompson argued Wednesday.
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November 06, 2024
Fed. Circ. Mulls Whether Billable Hour Tech Can Be Patented
The Federal Circuit is set to decide whether a LexisNexis program that helps attorneys track their billable hours is stepping on another company's intellectual property or if that company is simply trying to patent the noninventive concept of keeping time using a computer.
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November 06, 2024
10th Circ. Backs Colorado Age Limits For Gun Buyers
A Tenth Circuit panel on Tuesday upheld a Colorado law establishing 21 as the minimum age to buy and sell guns in the state, concluding that age restrictions for buying guns don't have to line up with the age of majority.
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November 06, 2024
9th Circ. Says No New Trial For Tesla Investors' Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday ruled that a lower court didn't err in denying Tesla investors' request for a new trial regarding their $12 billion claim over Elon Musk's 2018 tweets that he had "funding secured" to take the electric car giant private, saying there were no improper instructions given to the jury.
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November 06, 2024
Fla. Can't Reclaim Medicaid Payments On Immigrant Care
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday reaffirmed a previous decision that the state Agency for Health Care Administration cannot claw back asserted overpayments of Medicaid funds hospitals received for emergency services provided to eligible unauthorized immigrants, ruling in the class action that a statutory change did not overrule the decision but merely clarified the law.
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November 06, 2024
Alaska Asks 9th Circ. To Roll Back Ringed Seal Protections
The state of Alaska called on the Ninth Circuit to overturn a district court's refusal to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for Arctic ringed seals, arguing the federal government failed to properly credit new information that raised serious questions about the necessity for continuing protections.
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November 06, 2024
Venue For Fla. County Suit Against Funder Getting New Look
A Florida appellate court ruled Wednesday that Palm Beach County can't use the "sword-wielder" exception to deny a funding agency's choice of court in a lawsuit over the authority to levy property taxes, saying the agency has proved it's a governmental entity entitled to a home venue privilege.
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November 06, 2024
3rd Circ. Mulls Mootness In Boy Scouts Ch. 11 Plan Appeals
Questions over whether equitable and statutory mootness foreclose challenges to the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy took center stage Wednesday during arguments before the Third Circuit, with the judges and parties involved noting the impact that changing the Chapter 11 plan that's already in effect could have on thousands of sexual abuse survivors.
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November 06, 2024
Fed. Circ. Panel Irked By Confusion In Check Patent Case
An irritated Federal Circuit panel criticized attorneys for the United Services Automobile Association and PNC Bank on Wednesday for a lack of clarity on which issues reached a final judgment in their nine-figure patent dispute, with one judge telling them, "You both should be embarrassed."
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November 06, 2024
1st Circ. Tells Immigration Board To Rethink Torture Definition
The First Circuit has ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider denying removal relief for a man wanted for murder in Jamaica, finding that the board incorrectly assumed that direct police participation was needed to back his fear of torture.
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November 06, 2024
Netflix Jury Will Hear Victim ID Evidence In 'Our Father' Trial
An Indiana federal judge ruled Wednesday that Netflix Inc. can't exclude evidence of third-party statements in a suit accusing the entertainment giant of wrongly revealing the identities of the biological children of a rogue fertility doctor in the "Our Father" documentary, saying the statements were not inadmissible hearsay.
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November 06, 2024
5th Circ. Chides Texas For Clashing Insurance Law Messages
A Fifth Circuit judge Wednesday told the state of Texas it was "having its cake and eating it too" by arguing it didn't plan to enforce a law governing certain disclosures between vision insurers and optometrists while simultaneously fighting off a temporary injunction enjoining the law from going into effect.
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November 06, 2024
2nd Circ. Revives Authors' Breach Claim Against McGraw Hill
The Second Circuit has partially restored a breach of contract claim from a would-be class action that alleged McGraw Hill shortchanged textbook authors on royalties from e-book sales, saying there was merit to one of their arguments relating to contract language.
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November 06, 2024
10th Circ. Backs Asset Freeze In Forex Exec's Latest Bid
A foreign exchange asset manager lost his bid to overturn a lower court's decision that froze his assets and ordered him to pay $510,000 in legal bills in a dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with a panel of the 10th Circuit finding it does not have jurisdiction to reverse the ruling.
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November 06, 2024
Feds Fight Philly Injection Site Group's 3rd Circ. Appeal
The U.S. Department of Justice has urged the Third Circuit to preserve its win in preventing an overdose prevention organization from opening a supervised safe-injection site in Philadelphia, arguing that a lower court correctly ruled that the group is not a religious organization eligible for federal protection.
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November 06, 2024
Justices Eye Narrowing Disclosure Rules In Meta Investor Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed poised Wednesday to hand Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. a narrow victory in a case tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as justices put up a range of hypothetical scenarios to try to pin down when exactly a company needs to disclose to investors that a past event could cause future damage to its business.
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November 06, 2024
Maritime Commission Seeks To Ax Refusal To Deal Challenge
The Federal Maritime Commission is asking the D.C. Circuit to toss an ocean carrier industry challenge to federal rules for carrier practices, arguing that the World Shipping Council hasn't shown it has standing to contest the regulations.
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November 06, 2024
GOP Will Get A Crack At The Judiciary, But First, Lame Duck
With a little more than two months left in the Biden administration following Republicans' capture of the White House and Senate on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Durbin intends to confirm "every possible nominee" before time runs out on this Congress.
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November 06, 2024
Contractor Seeks Redo In Guatemala Power Plant Award Fight
A contractor on an ill-fated Guatemalan power plant construction project urged the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to reconsider its decision refusing to vacate an arbitral award favoring the plant's owner, saying the panel failed to properly consider "clear evidence" of corruption tarnishing the underlying contract.
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November 06, 2024
Fed. Circ. Panel Skeptical Of GeoComply Anti-Spoofing Patent
Judges on the Federal Circuit appeared unlikely to reverse a district court's dismissal of GeoComply's patent infringement suit against its geolocation competitor XPoint Wednesday, repeatedly telling GeoComply's attorney that its anti-location spoofing patent seemed to be largely built around conventional programming.
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November 06, 2024
Insurers Urge Del. Justices To Reverse Drug Co. Policy Ruling
Attorneys for three insurers battling Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. over potential director and officer insurance payouts in a securities action launched before Alexion received a separate federal regulator penalty told Delaware's Supreme Court on Wednesday that a lower court decision wrongly sided with the company on coverage worth an additional $20 million.
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November 06, 2024
5th Circ. Backs Gas Co. In Ex-Worker's Severance Pay Suit
The Fifth Circuit declined Wednesday to revive an oil and gas company worker's suit claiming he should have received severance after he resigned when his job duties changed following an acquisition, ruling that a plan committee backed up its finding that the job switch didn't qualify for exit pay.
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November 06, 2024
Fed. Circ. Upholds PTAB's Ax Of Centripetal Cybersecurity IP
The Federal Circuit declined Wednesday to revive a Centripetal Networks LLC patent covering computer network protection, backing a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that handed a win to challenger Palo Alto Networks Inc.
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November 06, 2024
Mass. Tobacco Law's Penalty Provision Hits State's Top Court
Massachusetts' highest court on Wednesday attempted to reconcile a state law mandating a $1,000 fine for selling flavored tobacco products with a separate statute requiring local officials to file a criminal complaint if they seek to enforce penalties of that amount.
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November 06, 2024
Insurer Must Fully Cover $1.17M Crash Award, Fla. Panel Says
A Florida state appeals court upheld a directed verdict finding an auto insurer acted in bad faith while attempting to settle a woman's injury claims over a drunken driving crash, affirming Wednesday that the company must fully cover her $1.17 million compensatory damages award, less a prior $25,000 payment.
Expert Analysis
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Nvidia Case's Potential Impact On Securities Class Actions
In Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder, the U.S. Supreme Court could strip lower courts of their long-standing ability and obligation to holistically weigh all relevant facts supporting plaintiffs' allegations of securities fraud, which would have a wide-ranging impact on securities fraud class actions in the U.S., say attorneys at Labaton Keller.
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Justices Face Tough Question On HHS Hospital Pay Formula
In Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Becerra, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine whether the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services properly applied certain Medicare reimbursement adjustments to hospitals — a decision that could significantly affect hospitals' ability to seek higher Medicare reimbursement for low-income patients, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.
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Where Can Privacy Plaintiffs Sue When Injury Is Online?
Website owners need to understand wiretapping laws to understand whether they may be sued for activity tracking in California or Pennsylvania courts, where the statutory damages for violations of half-century-old laws can be substantial — and a recent Third Circuit decision suggests establishing specific jurisdiction is not as easy as 1-2-3, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Short-Seller Implications Of 10th Circ.'s Overstock Decision
The Tenth Circuit's Oct. 15 decision in Overstock Securities Litigation provides clarity on the pleading standard for a market manipulation claim under the Exchange Act, and suggests that short sellers might not be able to rely on the fraud-on-the-market presumption typically invoked by securities plaintiffs, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
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Patent Lessons From 4 Federal Circuit Reversals In September
Cases that were reversed or vacated by the Federal Circuit last month provide helpful clarity on collateral estoppel, patent eligibility, construction of claim terms that have different boundaries across different claims, and the role of courts as neutral arbiter, say attorneys at Bunsow De Mory.
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11th Circ. Ruling Offers Refresher On 'Sex-Plus' Bias Claims
While the Eleventh Circuit’s recent ruling in McCreight v. AuburnBank dismissed former employees’ sex-plus-age discrimination claims, the opinion reminds employers to ensure that workplace policies and practices do not treat a subgroup of employees of one sex differently than the same subgroup of another sex, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.
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Ex-Chicago Politician's Case May Further Curb Fraud Theories
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Thompson v. U.S. to determine whether a statement that is misleading but not false still violates federal law, potentially heralding the court’s largest check yet on prosecutors’ expansive fraud theories, with significant implications for sentencing, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.
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High Stakes In Justices' Review Of Clean Air Act Venue Fights
Disputes over the Clean Air Act's venue provision may seem arcane, but a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision encompassing three cases will affect core principles of the separation of powers and constitutional due process in ways that could have significant consequences for the regulated community, say J. Michael Showalter and David Loring at ArentFox Schiff.
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Testing The Waters As New Texas Biz Court Ends 2nd Month
Despite an uptick in filings in the Texas Business Court's initial months of operation, the docket remains fairly light amid an apparent wait-and-see approach from some potential litigants, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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Employer Lessons From Mass. 'Bonus Not Wages' Ruling
In Nunez v. Syncsort, a Massachusetts state appeals court recently held that a terminated employee’s retention bonus did not count as wages under the state’s Wage Act, illustrating the nuanced ways “wages” are defined by state statutes and courts, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.
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Opinion
Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.
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The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO
The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.
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Fed. Circ. Ruling May Signal Software Patent Landscape Shift
The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Broadband iTV, despite similarities to past decisions, chose to rely on prior cases finding patent-ineligible claims directed to receiving and displaying information, which may undermine one of the few areas of perceived predictability in the patent eligibility landscape, say attorneys at King & Wood.