California

  • August 24, 2026

    Former Disney Child Star Alleges Rape By Adult On Film Set

    A former Disney child actress has sued the entertainment giant in California state court, alleging that nobody protected her while an adult employee twice her age plied her with alcohol and raped her during the filming of a Disney Channel Original Movie, "The Poof Point," when she was 14.

  • August 24, 2026

    Judge Orders $245M In Guardant Damages In DNA Patent Suit

    A judge has boosted what Guardant Health Inc. owes in a case in which it was found to have infringed two TwinStrand Biosciences Inc. patents covering methods of lowering the error rate in DNA sequencing, bringing the total to $245 million.

  • August 24, 2026

    Feds Cut Colo. River Basin Water For 2 Years Amid Drought

    The U.S. Department of the Interior has finalized a 10-year framework for Colorado River operations that will reduce water delivery to Arizona, California and Nevada by 1.25 million acre-feet for two years, as reservoirs dive to lows not seen since their 1963 construction due to ongoing drought conditions.

  • August 24, 2026

    Founder Of Crypto Startup Block Bits Convicted Of Fraud

    A California federal jury on Monday held that cryptocurrency startup founder Japheth Dillman deceived Block Bits investors by falsely claiming the company's auto-trading platform was up and running, following a trial in which his co-founder testified against him under a plea agreement.

  • August 24, 2026

    Interference Cross-Claims Tossed In Pot Sale Contract Suit

    A Los Angeles judge has thrown out several interference cross-claims in a contract dispute over cannabis product distribution rights, finding that distributor Broadway Alliance hadn't sufficiently alleged that Stella Farms deliberately sabotaged its relationships with third parties.

  • August 21, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Retail, Hospitality Leaders Weigh In

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including interviews with real estate attorneys about the latest trends in the retail and hospitality sectors, among others.

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Rules Workers' Vaccine Bias Suit Must Go To Trial

    The Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that a jury must decide workers' religious-discrimination claims against the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, finding the lower court erred in concluding the agency accommodated the workers' religious-exemption requests from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate by offering them limited reassignment options.

  • August 21, 2026

    Crypto Co. Founder's Atty Tells Jury Biz Partner Lied, Not Him

    A cryptocurrency firm's founder deceived investors by claiming his company's auto-trading platform was up and running, a federal prosecutor told a California federal jury during closing arguments Friday, while the defendant's lawyer said his client was not trying to cheat anyone and called the government's cooperating witness "a stone cold liar."

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Tosses Calif. Ghost Gun Suit Over Standing

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday vacated a lower court ruling that struck down part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ghost gun regulation, finding California and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence lacked standing to sue on the grounds that the regulation did not go far enough in defining various "ghost gun" parts.

  • August 21, 2026

    Produce Co. Says Staffing Firm Owes Defense In Pot Test Suit

    Plant-based protein food producer Myrtle Greens says it shouldn't be on the hook in a hiring discrimination lawsuit filed by a man who was turned away from a delivery job due to a positive drug test, arguing that all hiring is done by a third-party contractor that allegedly agreed to indemnify the food-maker.

  • August 21, 2026

    Natural Fish Co.'s Sardines Contain Arsenic, Says Suit

    Natural canned seafood company Wild Planet Foods Inc. was hit with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging that its sardines contain dangerous levels of arsenic above the state's Proposition 65 threshold and exceeding the levels found in competitors' products.

  • August 21, 2026

    Amazon Uses Twitch Streamers' Content To Train AI, Suit Says

    Twitch and Amazon were hit with a proposed class action in California federal court Thursday by a Twitch streamer who says the companies are exploiting and using his live broadcasts, images and recorded videos to train Amazon's generative AI models by default, without obtaining their consent.

  • August 21, 2026

    Trump Seeks Justices' Review Of DEI Grant Termination Case

    The Trump administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision requiring the federal government to reinstate research grants that were terminated due to presidential orders against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

  • August 21, 2026

    Calif. Panel Creates Exception To Successive Prosecution Ban

    A California state appeals court panel has upheld the convictions of a man who illegally bought large-capacity magazines, creating a new exception to a rule barring successive prosecutions for multiple related crimes that have already resulted in judgments.

  • August 21, 2026

    Balancing The Scales: Diminished Capacity, Sentencing Rules

    The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned 25 years of state precedent by reviving the diminished capacity defense, and the justices in Pennsylvania said the Legislature is out of time to craft new sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

  • August 21, 2026

    TikTok Inks $400M Deal With DOJ To End Kids' Privacy Suit

    TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to resolve the U.S. Department of Justice's claims that the short-form video platform illegally collected personal information from kids under 13, marking one of the largest recoveries ever obtained under the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the feds said Friday.

  • August 21, 2026

    Apple's ICloud Private Relay Leaks User IP Address, Suit Says

    Apple misleads paying iCloud+ subscribers into believing its Private Relay feature hides their IP addresses and browsing activity in its default web browser, Safari, but flaws in Apple's technology expose that information, alleges a proposed class action lodged in California state court.    

  • August 21, 2026

    11th Circ. Ruling Could Help ERISA Suits Survive Until Trial

    The Eleventh Circuit's decision to reopen a suit from a former Royal Caribbean worker claiming 401(k) participants lost millions on underperforming target-date funds could make it easier for plaintiffs to get to trial in cases accusing companies of retirement plan investment picks that violate federal benefits law, attorneys said.

  • August 21, 2026

    The Race Is On To Confirm Trump's Judges By Year-End

    President Donald Trump nominated 11 judges this past week, meaning 19 nominees are now in the pipeline. But how many can the Senate confirm before the end of the year, given that it will mostly be absent and consumed by the midterm election? 

  • August 21, 2026

    Ex-Google Engineer Wins Partial Acquittal After IP Theft Trial

    A California federal judge acquitted an ex-Google software engineer of espionage charges Thursday while upholding his trade secret theft conviction, ruling that although trial evidence showed his trade secret theft was "ad hoc, disorganized and feeble," such evidence isn't enough to prove he intentionally colluded with the Chinese government.

  • August 21, 2026

    Kirkland Guides Cloverleaf In Nvidia Stake For AI Buildout

    Nvidia has made a minority investment in Cloverleaf Infrastructure to support digital infrastructure development across the U.S., the companies said Friday, in a deal advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

  • August 21, 2026

    Groups Say HHS Left Migrant Children Without Legal Help

    Former legal services providers for unaccompanied migrant children have told a California federal judge that the Trump administration could be violating an injunction requiring the government to maintain legal representation for the minors, alleging that thousands are now unrepresented after the providers' contract expired last month.

  • August 21, 2026

    Gov't To Take 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty To High Court

    The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling disqualifying Nevada's top prosecutor from assuming that role without Senate confirmation, saying it plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Keeps Order To Improve ICE Site Amid Feds' Appeal

    The Trump administration must continue to address the "severe and inhumane deficiencies" a California federal court identified at an immigrant detention facility in the Mojave Desert, the Ninth Circuit has ruled, finding it unlikely to prevail in detainees' constitutional challenge.

  • August 21, 2026

    Foley & Lardner Adds Chief Information Officer From Fenwick

    Foley & Lardner LLP announced Thursday the hiring of James McKenna, formerly the chief information officer at Fenwick & West LLP, to operate in the same role at the firm.

Expert Analysis

  • Checking For AI Errors Is Now A Two-Way Street

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    A handful of recent federal and state cases demonstrate the importance of checking for errors generated by artificial intelligence not only in your own court submissions, but also your opponent's, as well as when catching opposing counsel's AI mistakes could result in an award for attorney fees, says Tamara Barago at Hollingsworth.

  • Green Card Memo Warps Long-Standing Adjustment Process

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    A recent policy memorandum that treats a nonimmigrant visa holder’s decision to seek adjustment of status in the U.S., rather than at a U.S. consulate, as an adverse factor reinterprets existing discretionary frameworks, compounds risks for applicants required to apply abroad and changes practitioner approaches to application preparation, says attorney Jack Jrada.

  • Celebs May Need Federal Protection To Fight Voice Deepfakes

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    Deepfakes and digital replicas are increasingly misappropriating celebrities' voices for commercial purposes, but unless federal right of publicity protections are developed, celebrities are left to rely on ill-equipped trademark and state law, say attorneys at Brown Rudnick.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Shoring Up Corporate Law In Maryland

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    Launched more than 20 years ago to improve complex corporate adjudication, Maryland's Business and Technology Case Management Program has been a solid success in some areas, but there always is room for improvement, says Bill Krulak at Miles & Stockbridge.

  • State Enviro Agencies Give Cosmetics Regulation A Makeover

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    As state oversight of cosmetics rapidly expands, the new statutes and regulations governing these products are being implemented by environmental agencies rather than consumer product regulators, requiring manufacturers, distributors and retailers to reevaluate their supply chains and procedures, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • How End Of SEC 'Gag Rule' Affects Free Speech Certiorari Bid

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    The Securities and Exchange Commission's recent rescission of the so-called gag rule, which forbade defendants in settlements from denying the SEC’s allegations, may sway the outcome of a petition to the Supreme Court in a case challenging the rule on First Amendment grounds, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Perfectus Settlement Illuminates DOJ's Tariff Fraud Strategy

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    The Department of Justice's recent False Claims Act settlement with Perfectus Aluminum illustrates the government's continuing interagency focus on customs and tariff enforcement, and the related criminal indictment provides insight into conduct enforcers may associate with tariff evasion schemes, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Product-Or-Content Question Is Pivotal In AI Litigation

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    A growing range of civil cases against OpenAI address the question of whether the output of a generative artificial intelligence system is a product, subject to traditional tort doctrine, or third-party content — and the framing courts adopt will shape software liability well beyond AI, says David Meldofsky at Lawsuit Informer.

  • Citron Founder Verdict Tests Reach Of 'Half-Truth' Fraud

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    A California federal jury's conviction this week of Citron founder Andrew Left may be remembered less as a conventional manipulation prosecution than as a case about how far the "half-truth" doctrine can reach when applied to modern market speech, says Elisha Kobre at Sheppard.

  • Series

    Competing At Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing poker in male-dominated rooms taught me to treat skepticism as background noise when my opponents seem to underestimate me, to apply pressure when it matters and to adapt without losing strategic discipline — skills that are all indispensable in restructuring and insolvency matters, says Alexis Gambale at Pashman Stein.

  • Why IPR Slowdown Has Not Led To More Patent Litigation

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    Despite sustained strength in patent application filings and a decline in inter partes review and post-grant review, 2026 has not seen the anticipated surge in patent litigation in district courts and at the U.S. International Trade Commission, potentially due to four reasons, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

  • Revisiting TransUnion's Underused Standing Rule, 5 Years On

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    The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' recent use of the U.S. Supreme Court’s now five-year-old TransUnion v. Ramirez rule specifying that the "mere risk of future harm" isn't concrete enough to support a damages claim presents an opportunity to revisit this underutilized standing rule, say attorneys at Horvitz & Levy.

  • 5 Things Associates Must Ask About Their Firm's Merger Plan

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    The associates who navigate law firm mergers best ask the right questions early, such as inquiring about partners' plans, to assess how the merger could affect their workflow and career path, says Jackie Bokser-LeFebvre at Major Lindsey.

  • Turning To The Courts When PBM Reform Falls Short

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    The effectiveness of state laws intended to regulate pharmacy benefit managers remains uncertain, but litigation — utilizing tried-and-true theories like breach of contract and fair dealing — offers another mechanism through which stakeholders may seek relief from PBMs, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • 2 'Rocket Dockets' And The Rules That Propel Them

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    The fastest civil trial courts in the country are currently in the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Florida, and their chief judges provide insights into the court rules that keep them ahead, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

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