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California
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August 22, 2024
Calif. Justices Revive PwC's $2.5M Sanction Against LA
The California Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously restored a $2.5 million sanction sought by PwC against the city of Los Angeles for pervasive discovery misconduct in an underlying utility billing fight, finding that the trial court had the authority to impose monetary sanctions under the state's Code of Civil Procedure.
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August 22, 2024
Calif. Justices OK Argentine Atty's Uber Fraud Fight
California justices gave an Argentinian lawyer a green light Thursday to pursue allegations that Uber fraudulently hid crucial information as he represented Uber before its Buenos Aires launch, clarifying that his tort fraudulent-concealment claim is not necessarily barred by the so-called economic loss doctrine if his employment contract never contemplated the alleged fraud.
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August 22, 2024
9th Circ. Revives Suit Over App-Maker's Anti-Bullying Pledge
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday revived a lawsuit against anonymous messaging app-maker Yolo Technologies over claims it didn't enforce its commitment to reveal and ban users who harass and bully others, finding Yolo repeatedly promised to do so, but never did, "and may have never intended to."
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August 22, 2024
9th Circ. Revives Military Bias Claims Against Alaska Airlines
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday revived a class action alleging Alaska Airlines illegally denied accrued vacation and sick time to pilots on military assignments, saying the case now has the benefit of a decision from the court in a similar case involving the airline.
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August 22, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Force Yellow Corp. Bias Suit Into Arbitration
The Ninth Circuit refused Thursday to kick a former Yellow Corp. employee's disability discrimination lawsuit to arbitration, ruling the agreement the worker signed was improperly lopsided in favor of his employer and had to be scrapped.
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August 22, 2024
Larry Flynt's Widow Asks 9th Circ. To End Calif. Cardroom Law
The widow of late pornography mogul Larry Flynt and two other cardroom operators urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to invalidate California statutes barring certain out-of-state casino investors from holding a state cardroom license, arguing the law interferes with interstate commerce and that's "a straight-up violation of the Constitution."
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August 22, 2024
Williams-Sonoma Infringes Fabric TMs, Michigan Co. Claims
A supplier of moisture-resistant textiles and fabric treatments sued Williams-Sonoma Inc. in Michigan federal court Thursday, alleging the retailer is infringing three trademarks with its Pottery Barn furniture.
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August 22, 2024
Consumers Will Appeal Tossed Apple Web App Antitrust Case
Consumers have told a California federal court they plan to appeal the dismissal of a case accusing Apple of violating antitrust law by preventing iPhones from running web-based apps, instead of amending the proposed class action.
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August 22, 2024
9th Circ. Rebuffs Crypto Law Firm's Bid To Revive SEC Suit
A Ninth Circuit appeals panel said Thursday that a California federal judge was right to toss a crypto-focused law firm's preemptive challenge to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since the firm failed to show it faced any "realistic danger" of catching an enforcement case over its use of the ethereum network.
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August 22, 2024
Debtors Claim $3M Award Is Tainted By Fraud In China
Two Chinese debtors said to owe nearly $3 million under an arbitral award issued to an investment company in the People's Republic of China have asked a California federal court to vacate an order enforcing the award earlier this year, saying the company participated in criminal fraud.
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August 22, 2024
Calif. Panel Backs Arbitration Denial In Staffing Co. Wage Suit
A California state appeals court refused to ship to arbitration a worker's lawsuit accusing a staffing agency of unlawfully miscalculating his sick leave wages, saying the arbitration pact he signed promised that all Private Attorneys General Act claims will be litigated in court.
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August 22, 2024
Comedians Duel With Pandora For Joke Copyright Victories
A group of comedians and companies that licensed their routines has urged a California federal judge to grant it partial summary judgment against Pandora Media LLC for copyright infringement on the same day that the company argued it should come out on top because it has implied "pass-through licenses" to broadcast those routines.
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August 22, 2024
California Fires Back At Red State Attacks On Climate Torts
California and a contingent of blue states told the U.S. Supreme Court that their climate change torts against fossil fuel companies are on solid legal ground and that an effort by Alabama and other red states to undercut them must be rejected.
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August 22, 2024
Calif. Atty Can't Beat Sanctions In Geragos Malpractice Suit
A California state appeals court on Wednesday affirmed $23,000 in sanctions for discovery violations on the part of a lawyer representing clients in a malpractice case against Hollywood litigator Mark Geragos.
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August 22, 2024
IT Staffing Co. Can't Push Unpaid OT Suit Into Arbitration
A California federal judge refused to send to arbitration a class action accusing a tech staffing company of underpaying recruiters by misclassifying them as overtime-exempt, saying the company's establishment of the arbitration pact two years into the litigation was misleading and unfair.
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August 22, 2024
Tom Girardi Takes The Stand In His Criminal Fraud Trial
Disbarred attorney Tom Girardi took the stand Thursday in his California federal fraud trial and denied stealing from any of his clients, while also showing a strong grasp of past events and people but claiming to have no memory of the trial's witnesses and key moments, or to even know his own lawyer's name.
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August 22, 2024
Mike Lynch's Path From Tech Founder To DOJ Target
Friends and colleagues paid tribute to Mike Lynch following his death in a yachting accident on Thursday, hailing the British tech entrepreneur for the decades he spent furthering the industry despite the legal troubles that threatened to overshadow his career.
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August 22, 2024
'Beloved By Everyone': Attys Recall Clifford Chance's Morvillo
Clifford Chance LLP partner Christopher Morvillo, who died this week after a luxury yacht he was on sank off the coast of Sicily, is being remembered not only as a lion of the legal community but also as an "extraordinary human being" and a "Renaissance man" who was devoted to his family.
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August 22, 2024
Mike Lynch's Body Recovered From Yacht Wreck
Mike Lynch, founder of technology company Autonomy, died when a yacht he was aboard sank off the Sicilian coast, his family confirmed Friday, after a trip the entrepreneur had reportedly chartered with his legal team to celebrate their victory in a U.S. fraud case.
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August 21, 2024
Hunter Biden Can't Link Trauma, Drug Abuse To Tax Charges
Hunter Biden can't tell jurors in his criminal tax trial that traumatic events like his brother's death caused his addiction, which led to a diminished mental capacity and his failure to pay taxes, a California federal judge said Wednesday, noting the information was irrelevant and not backed by expert opinion.
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August 21, 2024
Girardi Faked Dementia Symptoms, Neurologist Testifies
A neurologist with Vanderbilt University testified Wednesday in Tom Girardi's criminal fraud trial in California federal court that the disbarred attorney was likely exaggerating his cognitive problems in late 2020 just as his law firm imploded into bankruptcy and his legal problems mounted because he believed it would be "beneficial."
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August 21, 2024
Tech Cos. Duck Proposed Calif. Bill Via News Funding Deal
Major tech companies, including Google, agreed Wednesday to pay roughly $250 million into a fund that proponents say would support newsrooms across California in a deal that avoids a proposed regulation that would've forced Big Tech to pay the state's media organizations for distributing news content.
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August 21, 2024
9th Circ. Upholds Toss Of Suit Over Car Insurer's Data Breach
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive a proposed class action accusing auto insurance provider Noblr Reciprocal Exchange of failing to safeguard driver's license numbers exposed in a 2021 data breach, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to credibly allege that their data had actually been stolen.
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August 21, 2024
Union Health Plan Trustees Can't Avoid Fee Claim, Judge Says
Trustees of a UNITE HERE health plan can't topple a group of Southern California workers' claims that they are facing higher administrative expenses compared to another group of workers in Las Vegas, an Illinois federal court ruled Wednesday.
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August 21, 2024
9th Circ. Lets Atty Fight Against $8M Malicious Prosecution
A Nevada attorney may take to the federal court to challenge an Arizona state court's civil judgment finding him liable for malicious prosecution, the Ninth Circuit determined Wednesday, finding the federal district court was wrong to toss his claims on the grounds they were barred by jurisdictional precedent established in the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
Expert Analysis
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Think Like A Lawyer: Dance The Legal Standard Two-Step
From rookie brief writers to Chief Justice John Roberts, lawyers should master the legal standard two-step — framing the governing standard at the outset, and clarifying why they meet that standard — which has benefits for both the drafter and reader, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Alice Step 2 Trends Show Courts' Extrinsic Evidence Reliance
A look at recent trends in how district courts are applying Step 2 of the Alice framework shows that courts have increasingly relied on extrinsic evidence to help determine whether a claimed invention is "well-understood, routine, and conventional," says Jonathan Tuminaro at Sterne Kessler.
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What To Know As Children's Privacy Law Rapidly Evolves
If your business hasn't been paying attention to growing state and federal efforts to protect children online, now is the time to start — there is no sign of this regulation slowing down, and more aggressive enforcement actions are to be expected in the coming year, says Susan Rohol at Willkie Farr.
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What Cos. Should Know About New Global Plastics Regs
As the global regulatory landscape for plastics and recycling changes rapidly — with new policies coming into effect in California, at the federal level, in the European Union and at the United Nations — businesses that operate across jurisdictions must stay informed to remain compliant, mitigate legal risk and achieve stewardship goals, say attorneys at O'Melveny.
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How Calif. Ruling Alters Worker Arb. Agreement Enforcement
The California Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Ramirez v. Charter Communications should caution employers that while workers’ arbitration agreements will no longer be deemed unenforceable based on their number of unconscionable provisions, they must still be fair and balanced, says Sander van der Heide at CDF Labor.
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The Rise Of State And Local Environmental Leadership
While Congress is deadlocked, and a U.S. Supreme Court with a hostility toward the administrative state aggressively dismantles federal environmental oversight, state and local governments are stepping up with policies to shape a more sustainable future for all species, says Jonathan Rosenbloom at Albany Law School.
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Series
Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer
When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.
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Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity
The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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2 Lessons From Calif. Overtime Wages Ruling
A California federal court's recent decision finding that Home Depot did not purposely dodge overtime laws sheds light on what constitutes a good faith dispute, and the extent to which employers have discretion to define employees' workdays, says Michael Luchsinger at Segal McCambridge.
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New State Climate Liability Laws: What Companies Must Know
New legislation in Vermont and New York creating liability and compliance obligations for businesses deemed responsible for climate change — as well as similar bills proposed in California, Massachusetts and Maryland — have far-reaching implications for companies, so it is vital to remain vigilant as these initiatives progress, say Gregory Berlin and Jeffrey Dintzer at Alston & Bird.
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Justices' Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review
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.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons
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.
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Utilizing Liability Exemption When Calif. Cities Lease Property
With rising costs pushing California municipalities to lease real estate assets instead of purchasing them, municipalities should review the ample case law that supports certain exceptions to California Constitution Section 18(a) requirements, providing that certain long-term lease obligations are not considered to be liabilities, says Steven Otto at Crosbie Gliner.
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Despite Calif. Delays, Climate Disclosure Rules Are Coming
Progress continues on state, federal and international climate disclosure regimes, making compliance a key concern for companies — but the timeline for implementation of California's disclosure laws remains unclear due to funding and timing disputes, says David Smith at Manatt Phelps.
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Dueling Calif. Rulings Offer Insight On 401(k) Forfeiture Suits
Two recent decisions from California federal courts regarding novel Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims around 401(k) forfeitures provide early tea leaves for companies that may face similar litigation, offering reasons for both optimism and concern over the future direction of the law, say Ashley Johnson and Jennafer Tryck at Gibson Dunn.