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California
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July 25, 2024
Wells Fargo Says Sham Enrollment Claims Are Too Old
A proposed class's claims accusing Wells Fargo of attempting to shortchange customers after surreptitiously signing them up for unwanted financial products are time-barred, vague and "implausible," and therefore cannot proceed, the bank told a California federal court.
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July 25, 2024
Blue Bottle Won't Be Sanctioned Or Pay Atty Fees In TM Row
Blue Bottle won't be sanctioned nor ordered to pay $1.15 million in fees for losing its trademark suit against a company selling "Blue Brew" brand accessories, with a California federal judge ruling Wednesday that its infringement claims weren't frivolous and that its likelihood of confusion argument was "rooted in good faith."
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July 25, 2024
Google Wants To Keep 'Monopolistic Status Quo,' Epic Says
Epic Games assailed Google on Wednesday for overcomplicating and overpricing changes to the Play Store required by the gaming giant's antitrust jury win, arguing that what Google says are needed security and maintenance protocols are just the latest effort to relitigate the case and "weaken the remedy."
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July 25, 2024
Ninth Circ. Vacates, Remands BIA Sexual Misconduct Dispute
The Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court's ruling that the Bureau of Indian Affairs isn't liable for the actions of one of its officers who sexually assaulted a Northern Cheyenne woman, saying conflicting statements create a factual dispute regarding whether the officer was acting within the scope of his employment.
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July 25, 2024
Newsom Cites High Court In Ordering Encampments Cleared
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered state agencies to start removing homeless encampments on state property while providing outreach services to homeless residents following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave governments broader authority to ban camping in public.
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July 25, 2024
Defense Teams' Solidarity Key In Hawaii DA's Acquittal
California federal prosecutors' bribery case against a prosecutor, a businessman and an outside counsel collapsed after no defendant turned state's evidence and one even testified for the defense, showing the value of presenting a unified front, the winning lawyers said.
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July 25, 2024
New Tree Co. Owners Can't Lodge Suit Over Defunct ESOP
Alerus Financial NA defeated a lawsuit claiming it unlawfully let the former owners of a tree care company take a large portion of the business's $34 million sale price, with a California federal judge saying the new owners can't sue on behalf of a defunct employee stock ownership plan.
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July 25, 2024
California Disses Chamber's Climate Compliance Attack
The state of California on Wednesday slammed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's attempt to block the state's corporate climate disclosure rules before discovery opened in the Chamber's suit, arguing it should be allowed a chance to disprove the group's "vague and unsubstantiated" claims.
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July 25, 2024
Texas Judge Again Orders Transfer Of SpaceX NLRB Suit
A Texas federal judge again denied SpaceX's request that he reconsider an earlier decision transferring to California the company's challenge to the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board, reaffirming a May decision holding the company did not provide good reason to rethink the transfer.
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July 25, 2024
Solar Tech Co. Investor Drops Securities Action
An Enphase Energy Inc. shareholder told a California federal judge he's voluntarily dismissing a proposed class action alleging the energy technology company and its executives had failed to disclose slow growth trends.
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July 25, 2024
Justices Urged To Hear Red State Bid To End Climate Torts
Industry groups and conservative think tanks urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a novel request by 19 Republican-led states to nix climate change torts brought by rival state governments against fossil fuel companies, arguing the rival states' claims violate the constitutional bounds of state authority.
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July 25, 2024
Calif. Appeals Court Revives Roadside Attraction Challenges
A California state appeals court revived two suits targeting San Benito County approvals for a roadside attraction proposed to be built along Highway 101, holding that the Center for Biological Diversity and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band filed timely challenges to the so-called Betabel Road project.
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July 25, 2024
GSK To Remove '100% Natural' Chapstick Labels To End Suit
A class of consumers is asking a California federal judge for approval of a settlement to end claims that chapstick made and sold by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Holdings (US) LLC and Pfizer Inc. was deceptively marketed as "100% Natural."
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July 25, 2024
EPA OIG Says Texas, Calif. Pollution Sources Need Oversight
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has, since at least 2006, failed to keep tabs on air pollution sources in California and Texas that might require more stringent control measures, the EPA's internal watchdog said Wednesday.
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July 25, 2024
Public Counsel Promotes Longtime Civil Rights Atty To CEO
Public Counsel's newly named President and CEO Kathryn Eidmann went to law school focused on becoming a professor, wanting eventually to write academic works on access to justice and other legal issues. That all changed during her first clinic in law school, she told Law360 Pulse in an interview.
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July 25, 2024
Disney Can't Sink Fired 'Star Wars' Actor's Political Bias Suit
Disney and Lucasfilm must face a former "Star Wars" actor's lawsuit claiming she was unlawfully fired for sharing political views on social media, a California federal judge ruled, saying the companies hadn't shown that her statements impeded their artistic expression.
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July 25, 2024
The Biggest Copyright Decisions Of 2024: A Midyear Report
The justices ruled there's no time limit for how far back copyright plaintiffs can pursue infringement damages as long as their claims are timely, and an Ohio jury said video game developers didn't infringe a tattoo artist's works by depicting the images on basketball players. Here's a look at some of the most notable copyright decisions so far in 2024.
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July 25, 2024
Celeb Video Platform Cameo Fined $100K Over Paid Promos
Celebrity video platform Cameo will pay $100,000 as part of a 30-state settlement over claims it failed to inform customers that its advertising service for businesses involved paid promotions.
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July 25, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Wiz-Google, Daily Telegraph, Medline IPO
Cybersecurity startup Wiz has rebuffed a buyout offer from Google, former British finance minister Nadhim Zahawi is preparing a $773 million bid for the Daily Telegraph, and medical supplies giant Medline is preparing an initial public offering for 2025. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.
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July 25, 2024
Calif. Justices Rule Prop 22 Is Constitutional
The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Proposition 22 statewide ballot measure from 2020 that exempts certain app-based drivers from the state's independent contractor classification law, a ruling that could have widespread consequences for the gig economy and driver litigation.
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July 24, 2024
FTC Chair Wary AI Tools Can Be Used For Corporate Collusion
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan weighed in on a host of topics during a discussion Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, expressing concerns about the agency's high legal bills for expert witnesses and describing AI price-setting tools as a potential loophole for collusion.
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July 24, 2024
Solicitor General Warns Against Feds 'Winning At All Costs'
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar underscored the importance of the federal government ensuring justice is served and not "winning at all costs" during a keynote speech Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, defending the DOJ's changed position in a high court case concerning a criminal defendant's right to a jury trial.
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July 24, 2024
PepsiCo, Frito-Lay Sued Over Flamin' Hot Cheetos Origin Story
A retired Frito-Lay executive previously touted as the inventor of Flamin' Hot Cheetos is suing the snack giant and its parent company PepsiCo in California state court for defamation and racial discrimination, claiming there's a "smear campaign" to discredit him that has derailed his motivational speaker career and a planned documentary.
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July 24, 2024
Feds Say They're Shielded From Family Separation Damages
The U.S. Department of Justice told a California federal judge on Wednesday that the federal government was immune from claims brought by families seeking damages for emotional trauma after being separated at the border under the Trump administration.
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July 24, 2024
SF DA Sued By Staffer Fired Over 'Panties' Reply-All Snafu
A San Francisco District Attorney's Office staffer who says he was fired after accidentally sending a risqué reply-all email at work has filed a state court lawsuit accusing his former boss and the county of defamation and standing in the way of his getting future employment.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story
Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.
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Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler discuss notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year ranging from salvage vehicle titling to rate discrimination based on premium-setting software.
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Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws
Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.
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Opinion
Viral Deepfakes Of Taylor Swift Highlight Need For Regulation
As the nation grapples with addressing risk from artificial intelligence use, the recent circulation of AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift on the social platform X highlights the need for federal legislation to protect nonconsenting subjects of deepfake pornography, say Nicole Brenner and Susie Ruiz-Lichter at Squire Patton.