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August 12, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Multimillion-dollar share conversions, power struggles in a classic rock band, a good deal for fandom collectibles, and a pindown by two heavyweights were all part of the spectacle in Delaware's Court of Chancery last week. New cases involved pharmaceutical companies, cannabis, drones and liquid-gas exports. In case you missed it, here's the latest from the Chancery Court.
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August 12, 2024
Celebrity Photo Companies Hit Ye With $1.5M Copyright Suit
Ye, the musical artist formerly known as Kanye West, was hit with a $1.5 million copyright infringement suit by two celebrity photography companies that claimed he posted at least 10 of their photos to his Instagram account and his Yeezy website without permission.
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August 09, 2024
Ex-Twitter Board Member Says X Owes Him $23M From Stock
A former member of Twitter's board of directors who helped oversee the sale of the social media company to Elon Musk in 2022 claimed X Corp. owes him more than $23 million worth of vested and unvested shares, according to a lawsuit filed in California state court.
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August 09, 2024
Google Beats Users' Challenge To Apple Pact, For Now
A California federal judge on Friday dismissed, for now, consumers' suit alleging that Google made an illegal pact with Apple to serve as the iPhone's default search engine, a decision that comes days after a D.C. federal court held that Google is a monopolist in a separate antitrust case.
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August 09, 2024
Real Estate Recap: Big 4 Market Views, Gas-Ban Backfire, AI
Catch up on this week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including what the largest commercial real estate brokers expect from capital markets in the second half of the year, how municipalities are reacting to the Ninth Circuit striking down Berkeley, California's natural gas-hookup ban, and why Brookfield Corp. is betting big on AI.
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August 09, 2024
Split 9th Circ. Affirms Ax Of Meta Anti-Vax Censorship Suit
A split Ninth Circuit panel Friday affirmed the dismissal of Children's Health Defense's lawsuit challenging Meta's policy of censoring its anti-vaccine Facebook posts, with the majority concluding that the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-founded nonprofit failed to show Meta was acting on the government's behalf to state viable constitutional claims.
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August 09, 2024
9th Circ. Wipes Out BNSF's Retaliation Win
The Ninth Circuit on Friday overturned BNSF Railway Co.'s win in a late conductor's retaliation suit on Friday, saying the railroad failed to show it would've terminated the worker regardless of his refusal to stop conducting a brake test — even though the employer has insisted he was mainly fired for insubordination and misreporting his time card.
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August 09, 2024
Valeant's Legal Gripe A Total 'Nothingburger,' Justices Told
A lawyer who assembled a whistleblower lawsuit against a major pharmaceutical company using publicly available patent board filings says the larger legal question of whether he can do that is way too niche for the U.S. Supreme Court to bother thinking about.
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August 09, 2024
Tesla Can't Duck Workers' PAGA Case Under Anti-SLAPP
A California appellate court has rejected Tesla's attempt to ditch a Private Attorneys General Act case brought by former employees seeking personnel records, agreeing with a lower court that the workers' status as members of a class in a related action against Tesla doesn't entitle the electric-car maker to protection under anti-SLAPP.
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August 09, 2024
SVB's $1.9B FDIC Suit Won't Open 'Floodgates,' Judge Says
A California federal judge trimmed claims from the parent of Silicon Valley Bank's lawsuit against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seeking $1.93 billion, but rejected the agency's arguments that allowing some claims to move forward will "open the floodgates" for every failed bank's uninsured depositors to bring a claim.
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August 09, 2024
Rugby League's US Subscribers Say Private Info Was Stolen
The international streaming service for Australian professional rugby disclosed personal information to Meta and other parties without the subscribers' knowledge or consent, according to a proposed class action from subscribers filed on Friday in California federal court.
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August 09, 2024
Meta Urges Justices To Ax Investors' Risk Disclosure Suit
Meta Platforms Inc. filed its opening brief Friday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that kept alive a class action stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data abuse scandal, arguing that decision would create unnecessary disclosure obligations and encourage "fraud by hindsight" lawsuits.
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August 09, 2024
Lucid Narrows Securities Suit Over EV Production Targets
A California federal judge has trimmed a suit alleging electric-vehicle startup Lucid Group Inc. misled investors about its production target, trimming the case down to four out of 30 statements the investors said were misleading.
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August 09, 2024
Aetna Illegally Axed Exec's Disability Benefits, Judge Says
A California federal judge said Aetna was wrong to end an executive's disability benefits after it found he suffered from a mental illness instead of a physical disability, stating the insurer used flawed doctor opinions and may have been motivated by cutting costs.
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August 09, 2024
Justices Urged To Turn Away $1.3B Sovereign Immunity Case
A commercial division of India's space agency is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to revisit a Ninth Circuit decision refusing to enforce a $1.3 billion arbitral award issued to a satellite communications company, arguing that the jurisdictional question raised in the petition has been long settled.
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August 09, 2024
Former Syrian Prison Chief Accused Of US Immigration Fraud
Federal grand jurors in California have charged a former Syrian official with covering up his time running a Syrian prison where political dissidents were physically abused on U.S. immigration applications.
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August 09, 2024
Investor Can't Drop Fraud Suit Against Crowdfunding CEO
A California cannabis investor cannot withdraw his lawsuit against a CEO he accused of helping to operate a $2 million crowdfunding scheme, a federal judge ruled, saying the investor now needs the defendant's permission.
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August 09, 2024
Fisher Phillips Adds Tharpe & Howell Litigator In Calif.
Labor and employment firm Fisher Phillips added a new partner from Tharpe & Howell LLP in California to bolster its bench of attorneys handling high-stakes class action matters and Private Attorneys General Act claims.
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August 08, 2024
Amazon Actors' Overtime Dispute Can Go Back To State Court
A background actor can take her unpaid wages class action against Amazon Studios back to state court, a California federal judge concluded, finding federal labor law doesn't preempt the claims, which involved the payment of hourly rates that didn't fall under collective bargaining agreements with SAG-AFTRA.
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August 08, 2024
SPAC Investors Can't Sue Lucid Over Merger, 9th Circ. Says
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday refused to revive investors' proposed class action alleging that Lucid duped them into buying stock in a special purpose acquisition company ahead of the electric-vehicle maker's $11.75 billion merger, saying an acquiring company's investors can't sue the target company over its alleged misstatements before the merger.
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August 08, 2024
Oracle's $115M Deal For Selling Internet Users' Data Gets OK
A California federal judge on Thursday preliminarily approved Oracle's $115 million deal to end a proposed class action alleging that the software company illegally sold internet users' electronic profiles, but expressed concern over an "overly burdensome" opt-out process that Oracle's lawyer said would prevent "mass" opt-outs.
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August 08, 2024
Uber's $200M Deal To End Investors' 'Train Wreck' IPO Suit OK'd
A California federal judge granted preliminary approval Thursday to Uber's $200 million class action deal with investors who claim the ride-hailing giant made false and misleading statements ahead of its $8.1 billion initial public offering regarding its passenger safety record, financial condition and the legality of its business model.
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August 08, 2024
House Rep. Wants Calif. To Pump Brakes On AI Safety Bill
Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who represents Silicon Valley in Congress, has taken the rare step of voicing her opposition to a proposed California bill to set safety standards for large artificial intelligence models, arguing that the measure lacks a "sound evidentiary basis" and would stifle innovation without addressing real-world harms.
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August 08, 2024
Calif. Justices Side With Hartford Unit In Virus Coverage Fight
The California Supreme Court on Thursday reversed an appellate court's finding that a virus endorsement rendered a restaurant's policy illusory in a coverage dispute with a Hartford entity over pandemic-related losses, instead ruling that the endorsement clearly provides coverage "only if the virus results from certain specified causes of loss."
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August 08, 2024
Credit Repair Software Co., CEO To Pay $3M CFPB Fines
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday said a California-based software company and its CEO have agreed to pay a combined $3 million in fines to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the company assisted credit repair businesses that charged illegal advance fees to consumers.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
The first quarter of the year brought the usual onslaught of new regulatory developments in California — including a crackdown on junk fees imposed by small business lenders, a big step forward for online notarizations and a ban on predatory listing agreements, says Alex Grigorians at Hanson Bridgett.
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Breaking Down California's New Workplace Violence Law
Ilana Morady and Patrick Joyce at Seyfarth discuss several aspects of a new California law that requires employers to create and implement workplace violence prevention plans, including who is covered and the recordkeeping and training requirements that must be in place before the law goes into effect on July 1.
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Series
Serving As A Sheriff's Deputy Made Me A Better Lawyer
Skills developed during my work as a reserve deputy — where there was a need to always be prepared, decisive and articulate — transferred to my practice as an intellectual property litigator, and my experience taught me that clients often appreciate and relate to the desire to participate in extracurricular activities, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.
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How Suit Over An AI George Carlin May Lead To Legislation
George Carlin’s estate recently sued a company over an artificial intelligence-generated podcast allegedly impersonating the late comedian, highlighting the importance of much-needed state and federal protection against unauthorized representations of an individual’s image in the time of AI, say Anna Chauvet and Maxime Jarquin at Finnegan.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Preparing For Possible Calif. Criminal Antitrust Enforcement
Though a recent announcement that the California Attorney General's Office will resume criminal prosecutions in support of its antitrust enforcement may be mere saber-rattling, companies and their counsel should nevertheless be prepared for interactions with the California AG's Antitrust Section that are not limited to civil liability issues, say Dylan Ballard and Lillian Sun at V&E.
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California Shows A Viable Way Forward For PFAS Testing
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has no good way of testing for the presence of specific per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances in food packaging — but a widely available test for a range of fluorine compounds that's now being used in California may offer a good solution, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.
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Unpacking The Complicated Question Of CIPA's Applicability
As the number of California Invasion of Privacy Act cases increases, more and more companies with little-to-no California presence are being hauled into California court, raising questions of when CIPA applies and to whom, says Matthew Pearson at BakerHostetler.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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Antitrust Ruling Shows Limits Of US Law's Global Reach
Antitrust plaintiffs often cite the legislative history of the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act to support application of U.S. antitrust law to alleged injuries abroad, but as a California federal court recognized recently in Figaro v. Apple, the cited history does no such thing, say Daniel Swanson and Eli Lazarus at Gibson Dunn.
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New Concerns, Same Tune At This Year's SIFMA Conference
At this year's Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference on legal developments affecting the financial services industry, government regulators’ emphasis on whistleblowing and AI washing represented a new refrain in an increasingly familiar chorus calling for prompt and thorough corporate cooperation, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Calif. High Court Ruling Has Lessons For Waiving Jury Trials
The California Supreme Court’s recent decision in TriCoast Builders v. Fonnegra, denying relief to a contractor that had waived its right to a jury trial, shows that litigants should always post jury fees as soon as possible, and seek writ review if the court denies relief from a waiver, say Steven Fleischman and Nicolas Sonnenburg at Horvitz & Levy.
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SC Ruling Reinforces All Sums Coverage Trend
A South Carolina state court's recent ruling in Covil v. Pennsylvania National is the latest in a series of decisions, dating back to the 2016 New York Court of Appeals ruling in Viking Pump, that reject insurers' pro rata allocation argument, further supporting that all sums coverage is required whenever a loss could be covered under a policy in any other year, say Raymond Mascia and Thomas Dupont at Anderson Kill.
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What Rescheduling Could Mean For Cannabis Bankruptcies
Bankruptcy courts have historically been closed for cannabis-related businesses, but recent case law coupled with a possible reclassification of cannabis provides cautious optimism, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Opinion
DOJ Press Office Is Not Fulfilling Its Stated Mission
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs’ apparent practice of issuing press releases when someone is indicted or convicted, but not when a defendant prevails, undermines its stated mission to disseminate “current, complete and accurate” information, and has negative real-world ramifications, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.