Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Appellate
-
May 03, 2024
NJ Court Again Affirms Dismissal Of Suit Over Infant's Death
A New Jersey appeals court on Friday denied a bid from a couple to reinstate their malpractice suit over the death of their 6-month-old son, saying they failed to show they had substantially complied with the statute of limitations.
-
May 03, 2024
Adopted Great-Grandnieces Can Share In Trust, Panel Says
Two adopted great-grandnieces can receive distributions from a trust that inventor and businessman Joseph M. Merrow established for his siblings' children when he died in 1947, Connecticut's intermediate appellate court ruled Friday, concluding that distant adoptees were no longer "strangers" to a testator's gifts.
-
May 03, 2024
Chemours Escapes NJ Security Guard's Slip-And-Fall Suit
A New Jersey security guard who slipped and fell outside a Chemours facility can't sue the chemical manufacturer or the companies it contracted to shovel away snow, a state appeals court has ruled, saying they didn't owe him a duty of care because he ventured out to do his job during an ongoing storm.
-
May 03, 2024
Grubhub Urges Justices Not To Review Kroger TM Dispute
Grubhub told the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday that there's no need for the justices to review the Seventh Circuit's recent finding that consumers are unlikely to confuse Grubhub's logo with a logo used by Kroger's meal-kit delivery service Home Chef, arguing the trademark case doesn't raise a novel issue warranting review.
-
May 03, 2024
Mich. Justices Reject Agency's 'Secret' Meeting Settlement
The Michigan Supreme Court said Friday that a county road commission's settlement with three of its insurers over a coverage dispute was not binding because the commission — a public body — never voted to approve it in a public meeting.
-
May 03, 2024
Fla. Business Groups Line Up Behind State In CWA Permit War
A coalition of national companies and Florida-based business groups is weighing in on behalf of the state in its battle to convince the D.C. Circuit to stay a lower court's ruling that stripped it of the authority to administer a Clean Water Act program.
-
May 03, 2024
3rd Circ. Clarifies Review Standard For Derivative Suits
In a precedential ruling Friday declining to revive Cognizant Technology investors' derivative claims over a bribery scandal, the full Third Circuit held that the best way to review such cases on appeal was from the beginning, not giving deference to the lower court's decision or considering whether there was an abuse of discretion.
-
May 03, 2024
Honolulu Asks Justices To Affirm State Court Climate Case
Honolulu on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reject fossil fuel companies' bid to put an end to its lawsuit alleging they knew for decades about the negative impacts of their products on climate change but concealed the information.
-
May 03, 2024
DC Circ. Backs Feds' Puerto Rico Port Expansion Project
The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld the federal government's plans to broaden shipping lanes at Puerto Rico's largest port, rejecting arguments from a trio of environmental groups who accused the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of failing to take the requisite hard look at the dredging project's environmental risks.
-
May 03, 2024
How Big IP Judgment Winners Are Insuring 'Nuclear Verdicts'
Until a few years ago, intellectual property plaintiffs who scored large monetary awards — often referred to as "nuclear verdicts" — had to wait out a lengthy appellate process before knowing how much money they would end up with. But a relatively new type of insurance policy is allowing plaintiffs to insure part of their judgment in case it gets reduced or wiped out on appeal.
-
May 03, 2024
Colo. Justices' Med Mal Cap Ruling A Win For Patients
The Colorado Supreme Court's recent decision prohibiting trial courts from considering an injured patient's insurance liabilities before imposing the state's $1 million medical malpractice damages cap was the right call, experts say, and prevents an unfair windfall for negligent health care providers.
-
May 03, 2024
Ex-Defender Can't Make Feds Release Harassment Reports
A North Carolina federal court rejected a former assistant federal defender's bid to have the federal government release certain #MeToo evidence following a trial over her claims of a botched sexual harassment probe, saying she was "woefully late" in deciding to challenge its confidentiality status.
-
May 03, 2024
2nd Circ. Upholds Adidas TM Trial Loss To Thom Browne
The Second Circuit upheld a jury verdict that found fashion brand Thom Browne's shoes and apparel did not rip off Adidas' iconic three-stripe logo, saying Friday that a Manhattan federal judge did not make a mistake with the instructions he provided jurors.
-
May 03, 2024
4th Circ. Preview: Hemp, Wells And A Withdrawal
The Fourth Circuit's second session of 2024 will have the court pondering the tension between Virginia's recent hemp restrictions and federal regulations, and how the Truth in Lending Act impacts a case accusing PNC Bank of an unauthorized account withdrawal.
-
May 03, 2024
Ohio Atty Gets 3rd Suspension After Not Reporting Conviction
A Cleveland-area attorney trying to get reinstated after neglecting bankruptcy cases was suspended yet again by the Ohio Supreme Court, which said he failed to report a drug conviction to his county bar association for almost eight months.
-
May 03, 2024
IRS Can Assess Foreign Info Disclosure Penalty, DC Circ. Says
The D.C. Circuit on Friday overturned a major U.S. Tax Court ruling that had struck down the Internal Revenue Service's authority to assess and administratively collect penalties from taxpayers for failing to file an information return on their interests in a foreign corporation.
-
May 02, 2024
7th Circ. Mostly Backs Ill. Home Health Kickbacks Judgment
The Seventh Circuit on Thursday largely left intact an Illinois federal judge's $6 million ruling that a home health care company broke federal kickback laws, refusing to reverse the lower court's liability finding but directing it to ensure its damages award was calculated correctly.
-
May 02, 2024
'We're Not All Innocent': 6th Circ. Tackles Whitmer Kidnap Case
A Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday questioned prosecutors who convicted two men of plotting to kidnap Michigan's governor who argue they should have been able to show jurors more evidence to support their entrapment defense, with one judge saying there's a gray area between being "innocent" and being "predisposed" to commit a crime.
-
May 02, 2024
Fed. Circ. Revives Axed Suit Tied To Amazon Patent Program
The Federal Circuit ruled Thursday that a company alleging patent infringement through Amazon's patent evaluation program must face a declaratory judgment suit in the accused infringer's home state, rejecting a claim that the ruling will "open the floodgates" to such cases.
-
May 02, 2024
TikTok, Users Push 9th Circ. To Keep Block On Montana Ban
TikTok and its users are hitting back at Montana's bid to convince the Ninth Circuit to unblock a new law that would ban the social media app in the state, arguing that the state's position that the statute is a consumer protection measure that regulates conduct and not constitutionally protected speech is "premised on fiction."
-
May 02, 2024
Conn. Venue Did Not Taint Malware Conviction, 2nd Circ. Says
The Second Circuit on Thursday upheld a Russian citizen's conviction for his role in supporting hackers to infect hundreds of thousands of computers with malware, saying the government provided sufficient evidence while also rejecting his argument that the Connecticut federal district court was the wrong venue for the matter.
-
May 02, 2024
Ethics, Military Orgs. Back Review Of Judge's Non-Recusal
An ethics institute at the University of Pennsylvania and a military justice organization told the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that a D.C. Circuit judge deprived a former al-Qaida member of a fair hearing when the judge did not recuse himself from the Guantanamo detainee's appeal.
-
May 02, 2024
Attys Due For Spam Suit Sanction, But Not $750K, Judges Say
Class counsel's misconduct in helping instigate a spam text suit against stock-trading app Robinhood Financial LLC warranted sanctions, a Washington state appeals court panel ruled Thursday, but the judges said the $750,000 penalty went over the top in deterring the bad behavior.
-
May 02, 2024
No Damages For Native Americans In State Prison
A group of Native Americans is not entitled to millions in compensation for wrongful prosecution and incarceration in state prison, a Federal Circuit panel said, finding that the group's arguments that provisions of two 19th century self-government rights' treaties as "money-mandating" are unpersuasive.
-
May 02, 2024
Patent Board Rulings Send $3.3M Judgment Up In Flames
The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions invalidating three networking patents that NetScout had been found to infringe, and then held that the holding wipes out a $3.3 million judgment against the company, because it was not yet final.
Expert Analysis
-
The Practical Effects Of Justices' Arbitration Exemption Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries, that a transportation worker need not work in the transportation industry to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, may negatively affect employers' efforts to mitigate class action risk via arbitration agreement enforcement, say Charles Schoenwetter and Eric Olson at Bowman and Brooke.
-
Binance Ruling Spotlights Muddled Post-Morrison Landscape
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Williams v. Binance highlights the judiciary's struggle to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank ruling to digital assets, and illustrates how Morrison's territorial limits on the federal securities laws have become convoluted, say Andrew Rhys Davies and Jessica Lewis at WilmerHale.
-
Practical Pointers After Fed. Circ. Double-Patenting Decision
With the Federal Circuit recently denying a full court review of In re: Cellect, a decision regarding obviousness-type double-patenting, affected patent family holders should evaluate their rights through both patent prosecution and future litigation lenses to minimize risks, say Austin Lorch and Jeff Wolfson at Haynes Boone.
-
Sorting Circuit Split On Foreign Arbitration Treaty's Authority
A circuit court split over whether the New York Convention supersedes state law barring arbitration in certain disputes — a frequent issue in insurance matters — has left lower courts to rely on conflicting decisions, but the doctrine of self-executing treaties makes it clear that the convention overrules state law, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.
-
Corp. Transparency Act Could Survive 11th Circ. Several Ways
If the Eleventh Circuit upholds an Alabama federal court’s injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, the anti-money laundering law could persist as a narrower version that could moot some constitutional challenges, but these remedies would likely generate additional regulatory or statutory ambiguities that would result in further litigation, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
-
Del. Match.com Ruling Maintains Precedent In Time Of Change
Despite speculation that the Delaware Supreme Court could drive away corporations if it lowered the bar for business judgment review in its Match.com stockholder ruling, the court broke its recent run of controversial precedent-busting decisions by upholding, and arguably strengthening, minority stockholder protections against controller coercion, say Renee Zaytsev and Marc Ayala at Boies Schiller.
-
The Future Of BIPA Insurance Litigation After Visual Pak
A recent Illinois appellate court decision, National Fire Insurance v. Visual Pak, may have altered the future of insurance litigation under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act by diametrically opposing a prominent Seventh Circuit ruling that found insurance coverage for violations of the act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
-
Macquarie Ruling Raises The Bar For Securities Fraud Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in Macquarie Infrastructure v. Moab Partners — holding that a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule does not forbid omissions in company disclosures unless they render other statements false — is a major setback for plaintiffs pursuing securities fraud claims against corporations, say attorneys at Skadden.
-
Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March
A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
-
NC Rulings Show Bankruptcy Isn't Only For Insolvent Debtors
Two recent rulings from a North Carolina bankruptcy court show that lack of financial distress is not a requirement for bankruptcy protection, particularly in the Fourth Circuit, but these types of cases can still be dismissed for other reasons, say Stuart Gordon and Alexandria Vath at Rivkin Radler.
-
A Look At Ex Parte Seizures 8 Years Post-DTSA
In the eight years since the Defend Trade Secrets Act was enacted, not much has changed for jurisprudence on ex parte seizures, but a few seminal rulings show that there still isn’t a bright line on what qualifies as extraordinary circumstances warranting a seizure, say attorneys at Finnegan.
-
Series
Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.
-
10 Years After Alice, Predictability Debate Lingers
A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling, critics continue to argue that the subject matter eligibility framework it established yields inconsistent results, but that contention is disproved by affirmance data from the Federal Circuit, district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Dennis Abdelnour and David Thomas at Honigman.
-
Cannabis Ruling Lights Path For Bankruptcy Protection
A recent Massachusetts bankruptcy appellate court ruling in Blumsack v. Harrington leaves the door open for those employed in the cannabis industry to seek bankruptcy relief where certain conditions are met, but rescheduling marijuana as a Schedule III drug may complicate matters, say Jane Haviland and Kathryn Droumbakis at Mintz.
-
This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener
As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.