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California
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August 16, 2024
PepsiCo Can't Nix Suit Over Gatorade Bars' 'Health Halo'
A California federal judge trimmed but declined to toss a putative consumer class action alleging PepsiCo created a "deceptive health halo" around its Gatorade brand protein bars, ruling that three self-proclaimed fitness enthusiasts plausibly alleged reasonable consumers could be misled by the company's marketing, ads and labels.
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August 16, 2024
Ex-Twitter Workers Seek Conditional Cert. In Age Bias Suit
Counsel for a former Twitter employee urged a California federal judge at a hearing Friday to conditionally certify a proposed age discrimination collective action on behalf of workers 50 and older who were fired after Elon Musk acquired the company, pointing to Musk's remarks as evidence of bias.
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August 16, 2024
Nikola, Romeo Power Targeted In Del. Derivative Complaint
A former Romeo Power Inc. stockholder has launched a double derivative suit seeking derivative damages from nine former Romeo directors and officers in part through derivative claims via Nikola Corp., which acquired Romeo in August 2022 for a fraction of the company's once $1 billion-plus valuation.
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August 16, 2024
Airbnb Says Travel Insurance Fee Fight Must Be Arbitrated
Airbnb and an Italian insurer are urging a California federal court to send a proposed class action over allegedly unfair fees on travel insurance policies to arbitration, arguing Thursday that the plaintiffs are ignoring an arbitration clause they had to sign to use the Airbnb platform.
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August 16, 2024
Calif. State Court Tosses Antitrust Case Against MultiPlan
A California state court has tossed a suit accusing MultiPlan Inc. of violating antitrust law through pricing tools used by health insurance providers, similar to claims being made in multidistrict litigation that were recently centralized in Illinois federal court.
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August 16, 2024
Carpenters Union Healthcare Plan Seeks To Ax Worker's Suit
A Carpenters-represented worker who lost health insurance once the union's healthcare plan stopped working with his employer lacks standing to sue the plan, the plan and its trustees argued in California federal court, suggesting the worker raise the issue with his employer or the union itself.
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August 16, 2024
9th Circ. Upholds Tribe's Win In Washington Dam Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Friday upheld an order requiring that a Washington hydroelectric company alter its rock pile dam on the Puyallup River, handing another win to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, which says the dam is threatening several species of endangered fish.
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August 16, 2024
Ga. BCBS Fights Hospital Remand Bid In Reimbursement Suit
A Georgia Blue Cross Blue Shield unit is fighting a California hospital's push to have a lawsuit seeking $905,000 in reimbursements sent back to a Georgia state court, arguing the hospital's state law claims are preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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August 16, 2024
Ex-Worker Says Toshiba Unit's Laxity Led To 3-Month Breach
A onetime employee of Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc., a U.S.-based subsidiary of Japanese electronics company Toshiba, has filed a proposed class action against his former employer claiming his personal information was stolen in a data breach made possible by the company's negligence.
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August 16, 2024
9th Circ. Keeps Part Of Block On Calif. Kids' Privacy Law
The Ninth Circuit on Friday refused to completely scrap an injunction halting a groundbreaking new California law requiring social media platforms to bolster privacy protections for children, finding that a tech trade group was "likely to succeed" on its argument that the mandate for companies to identify and address potential risks to minors violates the First Amendment.
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August 16, 2024
Fla. Advertising Co. Says Pot Cos. Didn't Pay Up For Services
A Miami advertising agency is suing the cannabis companies behind the Cookies brand, claiming they failed to pay for months of work worth tens of thousands of dollars.
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August 16, 2024
Ex-Matterport Worker Sues In Del. Over 'Invalid' Trade Block
A shareholder of 3D spatial mapping company Matterport Inc. sued the California company in Delaware's Court of Chancery Friday, alleging that when it went public by merging with a special acquisition company in 2021, the company prevented him from trading his shares for six months through an "invalid transfer restriction."
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August 16, 2024
Anthropic Says IP Suit Doesn't Show AI Users Infringed Lyrics
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has asked a California federal court to toss the bulk of a copyright suit from several music publishers that allege their song lyrics were ripped off to train Anthropic's chatbot Claude, arguing among other things that the plaintiffs have not shown any infringing acts by Claude users.
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August 16, 2024
$117M Interest Ruled 'Not A Windfall' On $262M Patent Verdict
A California federal judge approved $117 million in prejudgment interest for an Austrian inventor's company on top of the $262 million royalty verdict in its favor against hard drive maker Western Digital Technologies Inc., ruling that the interest "does not amount to a windfall or a punitive award."
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August 16, 2024
Ch. 7 Trustee Can't Recover Tax Payment, States Tell Justices
A group of roughly two dozen states threw their support behind the federal government in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that forced the IRS to return a tax payment after a bankruptcy trustee argued it was a fraudulent transfer and recoverable under state law.
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August 16, 2024
9th Circ. Revives Jamaican Man's Bid To Fight Removal
The Ninth Circuit resuscitated a Jamaican man's case to fight his removal from the country, agreeing with both the man and the government that an immigration appeals board misapplied the law when it dismissed the suit.
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August 16, 2024
PE Firm's SpaceX Suit Belongs In Delaware, HK Co. Says
A Hong Kong company that sued a California-based private equity firm for refusing to invest the company's $50 million into SpaceX says the firm has now sued the company's Chinese parent in California, creating "duplicative proceedings" that ought to be brought in Delaware's Chancery Court.
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August 16, 2024
Psilocybin Right-To-Try Petition To Get 9th Circ. Hearing
A Ninth Circuit panel will hear oral arguments Monday in an appeal brought by a Seattle doctor seeking to administer psilocybin to terminal cancer patients under state and federal right-to-try laws.
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August 15, 2024
CBS, Writer To Resolve Bias Suit Via Summary Judgment
A California federal judge refused to toss a freelance scriptwriter's lawsuit accusing CBS of repeatedly denying him a staff writer position for being a "white, heterosexual male," but said the suit could be resolved without a hearing.
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August 15, 2024
San Francisco Unveils Landmark Suit Over 'Deepfake' Porn
The San Francisco city attorney on Thursday launched a suit against the operators of 16 websites that he claims create and distribute nonconsensual, artificial intelligence-generated pornography, also known as "deepfake pornography" or "deepnudes."
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August 15, 2024
Uber Gets Most Claims Tossed In Driver Assault MDL, For Now
A California federal judge on Thursday threw out the majority of claims from California and Texas Uber riders in multidistrict litigation that aims to hold the ride-hailing company liable for their sexual assaults; however, the judge gave the plaintiffs the opportunity to amend those claims.
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August 15, 2024
Tom Girardi Has Dementia, USC Neurologist Tells Calif. Jury
A University of Southern California neurology professor testified Thursday in Tom Girardi's California federal criminal trial that she diagnosed him with mild-to-moderate dementia months after his law firm collapsed, although the lawyer insisted at the time that his memory was fine and that he was still busily working at his firm.
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August 15, 2024
Honda Slams 'Grossly Excessive' Atty Fee Bid In Defect Deal
Honda urged a California federal judge on Thursday to reject a $10.8 million fee request in a consumer settlement that's paid out just $540,000 to Acura car owners with a purported hands-free calling battery-draining defect, blasting the amount as "grossly excessive" under the Ninth Circuit's recent Lowery decision.
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August 15, 2024
Green Group Backs Feds' Denial Of Water Co.'s Right-Of-Way
Save Our Forest Association urged a D.C. federal judge on Thursday to reject the company behind Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water's attempt to block the federal government from requiring it cease operation of its 23,000-foot-long water pipeline in Berkeley, California's Strawberry Canyon.
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August 15, 2024
Bloom Firm Settles False Claims Act Suit Over Virus PPP Loan
Civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, her Calabasas, California-based firm and her husband have agreed to pay a combined $274,000 to settle a rival law firm's False Claims Act suit alleging they provided false information to obtain a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expert Analysis
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Lessons On Challenging Class Plaintiffs' Expert Testimony
In class actions seeking damages, plaintiffs are increasingly using expert opinions to establish predominance, but several recent rulings from California federal courts shed light on how defendants can respond, say Jennifer Romano and Raija Horstman at Crowell & Moring.
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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
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Airlines Must Prepare For State AG Investigations
A recent agreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation and 18 states and territories will allow attorneys general to investigate consumer complaints against commercial passenger airlines — so carriers must be ready for heightened scrutiny and possibly inconsistent enforcement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Series
Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.
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A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System
As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.
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Opinion
Climate Change Shouldn't Be Litigated Under State Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court should reverse the Hawaii Supreme Court's October decision in Honolulu v. Sunoco that Hawaii could apply state law to emissions generated outside the state, because it would lead to a barrage of cases seeking to resolve a worldwide problem according to 50 different variations of state law, says Andrew Ketterer at Ketterer & Ketterer.
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Measuring Early Impact Of Rule 702 Changes On Patent Cases
Since Federal Rule of Evidence 702 was amended to clarify the standards for admitting expert witness testimony five months ago, emerging trends in patent cases suggest that it may be easier to limit or exclude expert testimony, and hold key practice takeaways for attorneys, say Manuel Velez and Nan Zhang at Mayer Brown.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes
Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.
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What's Notable In JAMS' New Mass Arbitration Rules
The Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services’ recently released guidelines, coming on the heels of similar American Arbitration Association amendments, suggests that mass arbitrations will remain an efficient means for consumers to vindicate their rights against companies, say Jonathan Waisnor and Brandon Heitmann at Labaton Keller.
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5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow
The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.
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'Fat Leonard' Case Shows High Bar For Rescinding Guilty Plea
Prosecutors’ recent move in the “Fat Leonard” bribery case, supporting several defendants’ motions to withdraw their guilty pleas, is extremely unusual – and its contrast with other prosecutions demonstrates that the procedural safeguards at plea hearings are far from enough, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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PE In The Crosshairs Of Public And Private Antitrust Enforcers
A series of decisions from a California federal court in the recently settled Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, as well as heightened scrutiny from federal agencies, serve as a reminder that private equity firms may be exposed to liability for alleged anti-competitive conduct by their portfolio companies, say attorneys at Axinn.
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Series
Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.
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How Courts Are Interpreting Fed. Circ. IPR Estoppel Ruling
In the year since the Federal Circuit’s Ironburg ruling, which clarified the scope of inter partes and post-grant review estoppel, district court decisions show that application of IPR or PGR estoppel may become a resource-intensive inquiry, say Whitney Meier Howard and Michelle Lavrichenko at Venable.