Appellate

  • October 23, 2024

    Ga. Justices Say Open Records Suit Against DA Can Proceed

    The Supreme Court of Georgia said a district attorney for the Peach State's Western Judicial Circuit must face an Open Records Act suit claiming she withheld records, and that one of her arguments to escape the suit "fundamentally misunderstands Georgia's separation-of-powers doctrine."

  • October 23, 2024

    Court Doubts Tax Program Is A Subsidy, Remands Steel Duty

    The U.S. Court of International Trade remanded a countervailing tariff on Turkish steel rebar for the U.S. Department of Commerce to explain why it treated a broadly available tax exemption as a subsidy conferring an unfair trade advantage.

  • October 23, 2024

    2nd Circ. Backs Early Wells Fargo Win In $100M RMBS Case

    The Second Circuit on Wednesday approved an early win for Wells Fargo in a lawsuit brought by Commerzbank AG alleging it lost $100 million investing in residential mortgage-backed securities, saying the German lender didn't have standing to sue.

  • October 22, 2024

    Texas Firm 'Tortured' Barratry Case, Appeals Court Hears

    A Texas law firm accused of ambulance chasing told a state appeals court that the opposition had "tortured" the case, saying during oral arguments Tuesday that Bandas Law Firm PC pursued the case merely as an extortion racket.

  • October 22, 2024

    Ex-Yale Student Wants Full Acquittal Record Sent To DHS

    An expelled Yale University student on Tuesday urged the Second Circuit to quickly vacate orders barring him from giving the U.S. Department of Homeland Security an unredacted transcript that resulted in his acquittal of sex crimes, saying a delay could seal his deportation and thus his execution by the Taliban.

  • October 22, 2024

    'Dewberry' Ruling Doesn't Threaten Corporate Veil, Justices Told

    An engineering company that won millions of dollars in a trademark case against a real estate developer that tried to use the "Dewberry" name for a hotel told the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to let that ruling stand, arguing that the Fourth Circuit ruling in its favor doesn't undermine the corporate veil.

  • October 22, 2024

    Colo. Justices Suggest Remanding 'Half-Baked' Privilege Case

    Colorado Supreme Court justices appeared reluctant Tuesday to do more than remand a case over whether attorney-client privilege protects communications by an insurance company's lawyers with engineers hired for processing a claim, with two justices calling the appeal "half-baked" since the trial judge admitted she used the wrong standard.

  • October 22, 2024

    Calif. Panel Says Panera Must Face PAGA Claims

    A California state appeals court on Monday reversed a state trial court's ruling compelling a Panera restaurant employee to arbitrate Private Attorneys General Act claims against the bakery and café chain, saying an arbitration agreement the worker had entered explicitly excluded PAGA claims.

  • October 22, 2024

    Copper Mining Co. Asks High Court To Toss Sacred Site Suit

    A copper mining company that wants to build operations in a tribally sacred part of the Tonto National Forest has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to toss a challenge to a Ninth Circuit ruling that allows for the transfer of nearly 2,500 acres of land.

  • October 22, 2024

    Colo. Justices Doubt Geico Agreed With Man's Crash Claims

    Justices of Colorado's highest court appeared skeptical Tuesday of a man's claim that his noneconomic damages for injuries from a car accident were uncontested by his insurance carrier, with one justice citing the policyholder's rejection of settlement offers as evidence of a dispute.

  • October 22, 2024

    Media, Small Biz Orgs. Fight FTC's 'Click To Cancel' Rule

    The Michigan Press Association and the National Federation of Independent Businesses lodged a challenge Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission's new "click to cancel" rule requiring that companies allow customers to ditch their subscriptions with a single click, telling the Sixth Circuit the commission has overstepped its authority.

  • October 22, 2024

    IP Atty Group Wants Fed. Circ. To Back Fintiv But Scold USPTO

    A group that advocates for intellectual property lawyers and patent owners has urged the Federal Circuit to uphold Patent Trial and Appeal Board precedent allowing its judges the discretion to deny patent reviews based on how proposed reviews overlap with related litigation in other forums.

  • October 22, 2024

    11th Circ. Signals Fla. Gun Ban Turns On 'Age Of Majority'

    Whether the full Eleventh Circuit will strike down or uphold Florida's firearms sales ban to anyone under 21 appeared to hinge Tuesday on whether the court adopts modern notions of when adulthood begins or prior beliefs understood as "18-year-old Johnny on his way to the militia," circa 1789.

  • October 22, 2024

    Supervisor Could've Prevented Electrician's Death, Widow Says

    The widow of a man who was electrocuted told a Texas appeals court during oral arguments Tuesday that it wouldn't matter if there was a supervisor looking over the deceased man's shoulder, claiming the question never came up because there wasn't a qualified supervisor on site.

  • October 22, 2024

    PTAB Axes Some Provisur Food Slicer Patent Claims

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found Weber Inc. was able to show most of the claims in a pair of food slicer patents owned by rival Provisur Technologies were invalid as obvious, the latest in a fight that made its way to both the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • October 22, 2024

    10th Circ. Rebuffs GEO's Early Appeal In Forced-Labor Suit

    The Tenth Circuit said Tuesday that GEO Group Inc. jumped the gun by appealing a Colorado federal judge's ruling that the private prison operator can't be shielded by derivative sovereign immunity from human-trafficking claims brought by immigrant detainees.

  • October 22, 2024

    10th Circ. Affirms Energera Broke Deal By Filing Patent Suits

    The Tenth Circuit has ruled that both basic logic and "ordinary grammar" support the finding that a covenant not to file any further patent infringement lawsuits was broken by Colorado oil field equipment supplier Energera when it continued to sue Fuel Automation's future customers over "related" patents.

  • October 22, 2024

    Texas DOT Ruled Immune In $1M Bike Accident Suit

    A Texas appeals court has thrown out a $1 million verdict against the state's Department of Transportation over a doctor's bicycle accident, saying there was no evidence to support a finding of gross negligence, and, as such, the state agency has sovereign immunity.

  • October 22, 2024

    Ivy League Athletes Plan To Appeal Antitrust Suit's Dismissal

    A group of college athletes challenging the Ivy League's practice of prohibiting athletic scholarships told a Connecticut federal judge they plan to appeal the dismissal of their antitrust suit against Harvard and other top-tier universities.

  • October 22, 2024

    Ark. Supreme Court Voids Nov. Effort To Expand Medical Pot

    The Arkansas Supreme Court has determined that voters will not get to decide November 5 whether to expand the state's medical marijuana program via a ballot initiative after finding that the title and summary of the proposed constitutional amendment were misleading.

  • October 22, 2024

    Fla. Union Says License Application Was Wrongfully Denied

    A public sector union told a Florida appeals court Tuesday that the state's Public Employees Relations Commission erred in holding the union to newly passed higher standards for re-registration before the law went into effect and upholding this decision would allow administrative agencies to simply ignore effective dates.

  • October 22, 2024

    Organic Food Group Asks 9th Circ. To Upend GMO Label Rule

    An organic food industry advocacy group urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reverse a district judge decision that largely left a Trump-era organic food labeling rule intact, saying the U.S. Department of Agriculture's implementation of a nationwide labeling law for genetically modified foods has been "arbitrary and capricious."

  • October 22, 2024

    Ga. Justices Reject GOP Effort To Restore New Election Rules

    Georgia's justices Tuesday unanimously rejected the state and national Republican parties' attempt to reinstate a slate of controversial new rules before Election Day that would require every ballot in the state to be hand-counted on election night and for officials to conduct "reasonable inquiries" into irregularities before certification.

  • October 22, 2024

    Split DC Circ. Backs Trespassing Charge In Jan. 6 Case

    A divided D.C. Circuit panel on Tuesday backed the conviction of a defendant charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, preserving a staple trespassing charge leveled against the majority of accused rioters.

  • October 22, 2024

    Halkbank Not Immune In Sanctions Case, 2nd Circ. Says

    The Second Circuit ruled Tuesday that Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank doesn't have common-law foreign sovereign immunity from charges that it laundered about $1 billion in sanctioned Iranian oil proceeds if the U.S. government's executive branch says it doesn't.

Expert Analysis

  • Justices' Starbucks Ruling May Limit NLRB Injunction Wins

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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.

  • How NJ Worker Status Ruling Benefits Real Estate Industry

    Author Photo

    In Kennedy v. Weichert, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently said a real estate agent’s employment contract would supersede the usual ABC test analysis to determine his classification as an independent contractor, preserving operational flexibility for the industry — and potentially others, say Jason Finkelstein and Dalila Haden at Cole Schotz.

  • 3 Policyholder Tips After Calif. Ruling Denying D&O Coverage

    Author Photo

    A California decision from June, Practice Fusion v. Freedom Specialty Insurance, denying a company's claim seeking reimbursement under a directors and officers insurance policy for its settlement with the Justice Department, highlights the importance of coordinating coverage for all operational risks and the danger of broad exclusionary policy language, says Geoffrey Fehling at Hunton.

  • Opinion

    Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism

    Author Photo

    As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.

  • Opinion

    High Court Made Profound Mistake In Tossing Purdue Deal

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to throw out Purdue Pharma's Chapter 11 plan jeopardizes a multistate agreement that would provide approximately $7 billion in much-needed relief to help fight the opioid epidemic, with states now likely doomed to spend years chasing individual defendants across the globe, says Swain Wood at Morningstar.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Piercing FEMA Authority Is Not Insurmountable

    Author Photo

    While the Federal Emergency Management Agency's discretionary authority continues to provide significant protection from claims under the Administrative Procedure Act, Loper Bright is a blow to the argument that Congress gave FEMA unfettered discretion to administer its own programs, says Wendy Huff Ellard at Baker Donelson.

  • What Happens After Hawaii Kids' Historic Climate Deal

    Author Photo

    Implications of the Hawaii Department of Transportation's first-of-its-kind settlement with youth plaintiffs over constitutional climate claims may be limited, but it could incite similar claims, says J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Series

    Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.

  • Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State

    Author Photo

    Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.

  • Differences In Enforcing Oral Settlements In NJ And Pa.

    Author Photo

    New Jersey mediations should incorporate new best practices for settlement agreements after a recent state appellate court ruling eliminated the enforceability of oral-only settlements, setting New Jersey at odds with Pennsylvania’s established willingness to enforce unwritten agreements that were clearly intended to be binding, say Thomas Wilkinson and Thomas DePaola at Cozen O'Connor.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Appellate archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!