Appellate

  • March 13, 2025

    Pa. Justices Let Convicted Doctor Reapply For License

    A former University of Pittsburgh Medical Center radiologist who lost his license for unlawfully prescribing Vicodin can seek reinstatement less than 10 years after his 2019 suspension thanks to a change in state law defining a drug trafficking offense, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

  • March 13, 2025

    Full Fed. Circ. Probes Basis For $20M Google Patent Verdict

    The en banc Federal Circuit on Thursday closely scrutinized the damages evidence underlying EcoFactor's $20 million thermostat patent trial victory against Google, with some judges suggesting that it doesn't support the testimony given by EcoFactor's expert witness.

  • March 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Ends Idaho Abortion Law Row After Mutual Dismissal

    A Ninth Circuit panel has dropped an appeal from Idaho claiming the state's strict abortion ban doesn't conflict with a federal law protecting emergency abortions, after the Trump administration announced its decision to drop the Biden-era legal challenge. 

  • March 13, 2025

    Mich. High Court Unsure Of GOP Role In Poll Worker Parity

    Michigan Supreme Court justices mulled whether the Republican Party has standing to seek better representation of its party in the election workforce on Thursday while hinting mootness could present a wrinkle in the two-year-old case.

  • March 13, 2025

    Cavanagh Selected As Mich. Supreme Court's Chief Justice

    Justice Megan K. Cavanagh will become the Michigan Supreme Court's chief justice when Justice Elizabeth T. Clement steps down next month, the court announced Thursday. 

  • March 13, 2025

    Colo. Panel Keeps Workers' Comp Law Out Of Contractor Suit

    An independent contractor cannot use Colorado's workers' compensation law to limit the damages awarded to a colleague for his negligence claim over an on-the-job injury, a state appeals panel ruled Thursday, saying that the two worked together, but not for each other.

  • March 13, 2025

    6th Circ. Won't Rehear Ex-Electric Co. Exec's Severance Suit

    The Sixth Circuit will not rethink its panel decision upholding the dismissal of a severance suit brought by American Electric Power Services Corp.'s former chief digital officer who claimed he was shortchanged on his way out the door, according to a Thursday order.

  • March 13, 2025

    Rink Can't Escape Skater's Party Injury Claim, Ill. Panel Says

    An Illinois skating rink was incorrectly handed a pre-trial win over accusations that its failure to keep a floor supervisor on duty during a backward-skating round caused a man's injury during a birthday party, a state appellate panel said Wednesday.  

  • March 13, 2025

    Full 4th Circ. Urged To Rethink Drug Price-Fixing Class Action

    The Fourth Circuit's dismissal of a proposed class action accusing drug companies of conspiring to inflate the price of a drug for Huntington's disease has deepened a circuit split on proving injury under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a group of reimbursement recovery entities has said in asking the full court to rethink the ruling.

  • March 13, 2025

    Colo. Appeals Court Affirms $2.6M Award To Car Crash Victim

    A Colorado Court of Appeals panel on Thursday declined to throw out a jury's $2.6 million economic damages award to a car accident victim following arguments that her experts didn't explicitly state her medical expenses were of "reasonable value," finding the jury had enough information to reach their decision.

  • March 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Affirms Ex-Uber Exec's Conviction Over Data Breach

    The Ninth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a former Uber security executive's conviction for attempting to cover up a data breach from government investigators, rejecting his challenges to the jury instructions and strength of the evidence.

  • March 13, 2025

    Del.'s Divisive Corporate Law Rework Passes In State Senate

    Divisive amendments to Delaware's general corporation law cleared the state Senate Thursday with multiple questions but little debate and without dissenting votes, and will now be sent to the House amid warnings that failure to approve could weaken the state's standing as a top corporate charter hub.

  • March 13, 2025

    Mich. Justices Struggle With Line-Drawing For Rental Use

    Michigan Supreme Court justices on Thursday said they were struggling with where to draw the line for when homes can be rented short-term as property owners along a Lake Michigan neighborhood urged the state's top court to reverse a lower court's decision that said a restrictive covenant barred all vacation rentals.

  • March 13, 2025

    Swimsuit Pics App Maker Can't Revive Suit Against Facebook

    California appellate justices on Wednesday refused to revive an app developer's contract breach suit alleging Facebook rescinded its commitment to provide third-party developers with access to user data, rendering his app for finding users' swimsuit photos unworkable, after concluding Facebook's terms expressly said it could limit developers' access to data.

  • March 13, 2025

    5th Circ. Sides With NLRB On Reconsidered Exxon Ruling

    The National Labor Relations Board didn't overstep by wiping out and rethinking a decision involving an Exxon Mobil unit after learning a member had a stake in the company, the Fifth Circuit said, enforcing the board's ruling that the company sabotaged negotiations with a union.

  • March 13, 2025

    5th Circ. Asks If Enforcement Delay Affects CTA Challenge

    The Fifth Circuit has asked for supplemental briefing in a challenge against the Corporate Transparency Act, asking whether the case is affected by the U.S. Treasury Department's recent decision to suspend enforcement of reporting rules for domestic companies.

  • March 13, 2025

    Solicitor General Pick, 2 More DOJ Noms Go To Full Senate

    The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted out of committee the nomination of President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Dean John Sauer, to be solicitor general and two other nominees for major U.S. Department of Justice roles, all along party lines.

  • March 12, 2025

    Calif. Asks Justices To Ax Fuel Groups' Clean Air Waiver Suit

    California asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to uphold the D.C. Circuit's ruling that biofuel and fossil fuel industry players don't have standing to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Act waiver allowing the Golden State to set standards limiting greenhouse gas emissions for vehicles.

  • March 12, 2025

    7th Circ. Revives Suit By Law Professor Disciplined Over Exam

    The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday revived a retaliation claim from a University of a law school professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago who was disciplined for including a redacted racist slur on an exam, saying the professor has plausibly alleged that his academic speech is protected by the First Amendment.

  • March 12, 2025

    Phish Fans' Mellow Vibe Undercuts Injury Claims, Judge Hints

    A Washington state appeals court expressed skepticism Wednesday that Phish and Live Nation could have seen foreseen assaults that injured two concertgoers at an outdoor show, with one judge suggesting the jam band's vibes are more in tune with the mellow atmosphere of a Grateful Dead show than a raucous rock concert.

  • March 12, 2025

    Del. Justices Told Conflicts Tainted AstraZeneca Co.'s $3B Sale

    A stockholder class attorney told Delaware's Supreme Court on Wednesday that a vice chancellor never addressed the undisclosed conflicts cited in a Court of Chancery suit accusing AstraZeneca PLC of lining up a conflicted, underpriced $3 billion sale of clinical stage biopharmaceutical venture Viela Bio Inc.

  • March 12, 2025

    11th Circ. Won't Revive Trans Kid's Parents' Suit Against School

    Two Eleventh Circuit judges faced off on the merits of the substantive due process test Wednesday in a lengthy ruling that declined to revive a suit claiming school officials violated parents' rights when they allowed a teenager to express their gender identity at school.

  • March 12, 2025

    Wells Fargo Can't Force Adviser's Widow To Arb., Panel Finds

    Wells Fargo can't force a deceased employee's widow to arbitrate her claims that she never received certain stipulated benefits after her husband's death because the widow never agreed to arbitrate those claims, a California state appeals court has determined.

  • March 12, 2025

    Labcorp Warns Fed. Circ. Of 'Balkanization' In Prenatal IP Row

    Labcorp, one of the world's largest chains of clinical lab providers, told the full Federal Circuit that a loss it incurred there over a patent tied to a $384 million judgment in Texas was the result of the "balkanization" of the court's patent obviousness jurisprudence.

  • March 12, 2025

    Law360 Cheat Sheet: Novartis' Fight Over Generic Entresto

    Novartis has led a wide-ranging litigation campaign to block generic versions of its bestselling cardiovascular drug Entresto that has involved multidistrict litigation, trips to several circuit courts and cases against the federal government. Here, Law360 breaks down how the various cases intersect and what's still playing out.

Expert Analysis

  • Notable Q4 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    In a continuation of trends in property and casualty insurance class actions, last quarter insurers struggled with defending the merits and class certification of sales tax and fee suits, and labor depreciation cases, but succeeded in dismissing privacy class actions at the pleading stages, says Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.

  • Expropriation Claims After Justices' Holocaust Asset Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Hungary v. Simon, rejecting Holocaust survivors' claims against the Hungarian government under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's expropriation exception, continues the trend of narrowly interpreting that exception and offers important guidance for future plaintiffs considering such claims, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • Series

    Racing Corvettes Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I use when racing Corvettes have enhanced my legal practice in several ways, because driving, like practicing law, requires precision, awareness and a good set of brakes — complete with the wisdom to know how and when to use them, says Kat Mateo at Olshan Frome.

  • Questions Remain After Justices' Narrow E-Rate FCA Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Wisconsin Bell, holding that requests for reimbursement from the Federal Communications Commission's E-Rate program are subject to False Claims Act liability, resolves one important question but leaves several others open, says Jason Neal at HWG.

  • Opinion

    Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence

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    Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.

  • Colo. Anti-SLAPP Cases Highlight Dismiss Standard Disparity

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    A pair of recent decisions from the Colorado Court of Appeals highlights two disparate standards for courts evaluating anti-SLAPP motions: one that requires a court to accept the plaintiff's evidence as true and another that allows the court to assess its merits, says Jacob Hollars at Spencer Fane.

  • Appealing An Interlocutory Order On Insurer Duty To Defend

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    A recent First Circuit decision on a motion regarding an insurer's duty to defend underlying litigation highlights how policyholders may be able to pursue immediate appeals of interlocutory orders, especially in light of other circuit courts' stances on this issue, say attorneys at Anderson Kill.

  • Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises

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    “No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Del. Supreme Court TripAdvisor Ruling May Limit 'MFW Creep'

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    The Delaware Supreme Court's recent Maffei v. Palkon ruling regarding TripAdvisor's proposed reincorporation to Nevada potentially signals a turning point in the trend of expanding the protections from Kahn v. M&F Worldwide to other types of transactions, says Andrew J. Haile at Elon University.

  • 9th Circ. Draws The Line On Software As A Derivative Work

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Oracle International v. Rimini Street clarifies the meaning of derivative work under the Copyright Act, and when a work based upon a preexisting item doesn't constitute a derivative, says John Poulos at Norton Rose.

  • As Failure-To-Warn Preemption Wanes, Justices May Weigh In

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    Federal preemption of state failure-to-warn claims has long been a powerful defense in strict liability tort cases, but is now under attack in litigation over the weedkiller Roundup and other products — so the scope and application of preemption may require clarification by the U.S. Supreme Court, says Michael Sena at Segal McCambridge.

  • How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

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    Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

  • Justices' Certiorari Denial Leaves Interstate Tax Questions

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to review a Philadelphia resident’s claim that her Delaware state income taxes should be credited against her city wage tax liabilities, constitutional questions about state and local tax distinctions linger, and some states may continue to apply Supreme Court precedent differently, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Insights From 2024 Fed. Circ. Statistics

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    Looking at stats from the Federal Circuit's decisions in 219 Patent Trial and Appeal Board appeals last year sheds light on potential trends and strategy considerations that could improve appeals' chances of success, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Will Independent Federal Agencies Remain Independent?

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    For 90 years, members of multimember independent federal agencies have relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. establishing the security of their positions — but as the Trump administration attempts to overturn this understanding, it is unclear how the high court will respond, says Harvey Reiter at Stinson.

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