Criminal Practice

  • October 07, 2025

    Mich. Panel Upholds Hazing Charges In Frat Member's Death

    A Michigan appeals panel upheld the constitutionality of a state law criminalizing hazing that results in injury or death, greenlighting charges stemming from a Michigan State University fraternity pledge's death from alcohol poisoning.

  • October 06, 2025

    Girardi's Son-In-Law Gets Mixed Sentence For Contempt

    Tom Girardi's son-in-law received a mixed sentence in Chicago federal court Monday that included equal parts incarceration and home confinement alongside a hefty community service obligation for failing to alert a judge when he knew Girardi wasn't paying certain Lion Air crash clients their settlements as ordered.

  • October 06, 2025

    Justices Wary Of Hard Rules On Recess Testimony Talks

    The U.S. Supreme Court appeared reluctant Monday to rule that the Sixth Amendment allows defense counsel to freely discuss defendants' testimony with them during an intervening overnight recess, with justices questioning which topics should be off limits and which should not.

  • October 06, 2025

    Chief DC Judge Rejects Feds' Bid To Force Local Indictment

    The chief judge for the Washington, D.C., federal court rejected the government's request to make a magistrate judge accept an indictment secured through a local grand jury when the initial federal grand jury declined to indict, after prosecutors argued the tactic is legal and has been used for decades.

  • October 06, 2025

    'We Paid Him': Ex-VP Testifies In Former Budget Official's Trial

    Former Connecticut school construction grant director Konstantinos Diamantis claimed he was drowning in bills and increasingly demanded money when a masonry contractor didn't immediately pay kickbacks on the timeline he wanted, the construction company's onetime vice-president testified Monday.

  • October 06, 2025

    Full 11th Circ. Told To Rehear Sentence In Armed Career Case

    The Eleventh Circuit was asked to rehear a decision upholding a 15-year prison sentence for a man who claims an enhancement to a federal firearms conviction violates his rights under the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

  • October 06, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Court Overstepped On Using Fugitive Doctrine

    The Ninth Circuit has given a French father another shot at challenging an active contempt of court warrant arising from a bitter custody battle in Oregon, ruling that despite being a fugitive in the U.S., he still has standing to sue his ex-wife for custody of their children.

  • October 06, 2025

    Pa. Justices Reject Parole Board Record Privilege Argument

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court found Monday that probation and parole records were not privileged under a state record-confidentiality law, saying the state's parole board has no authority to "create an evidentiary privilege."

  • October 06, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week, the owner of the Kentucky Derby was hit with a suit accusing it of withholding escrow funds for environmental compliance violations owed under a 2022 deal with hospitality company Enchantment Holdings LLC.

  • October 06, 2025

    Trump Names Investigator Of Russia Probe As DOJ Acting IG

    The White House has tapped an experienced government attorney who investigated the FBI's probe into President Donald Trump's links with Russia to be the U.S. Department of Justice's acting inspector general, according to a notification sent to Congress.

  • October 06, 2025

    Mass. Justices Say Harvard Must Face Cadaver Theft Claims

    Massachusetts' highest court on Monday reinstated claims against Harvard University over what one justice called a "ghoulish" and "macabre scheme" by its former medical school morgue manager to dissect, steal and sell body parts from donated medical research cadavers.

  • October 06, 2025

    Ghislaine Maxwell's Appeal Is Rejected By Supreme Court

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal of her 2021 sex trafficking conviction.

  • October 06, 2025

    Supreme Court Declines To Revisit McGirt Tribal Jurisdiction

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a Cherokee Nation member's challenge to his conviction over a speeding ticket issued by Tulsa, Oklahoma, police on Creek land that he argues runs afoul of the court's 2020 landmark decision holding that only federal and tribal governments can prosecute Native Americans on tribal lands.

  • October 06, 2025

    Justices Reject Case Over Legal Client's Lawsuit Threat

    The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to take up a case by a man who argued that his threat to sue his civil lawyer for malpractice created an automatic conflict of interest when the same lawyer was also defending him in a criminal case.

  • October 03, 2025

    Up First At High Court: Election Laws & Conversion Therapy

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in six cases during the first week of its October 2025 term, including in disputes over federal candidates' ability to challenge state election laws, Colorado's ban on conversion therapy, and the ability of a landlord to sue the U.S. Postal Service for allegedly refusing to deliver mail. 

  • October 03, 2025

    4 Top Supreme Court Cases To Watch This Term

    After a busy summer of emergency rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court will kick off its October 2025 term Monday with only a few big-ticket cases on its docket — over presidential authorities, transgender athletes and election law — in what might be a strategically slow start to a potentially momentous term. Here, Law360 looks at four of the most important cases on the court's docket so far.

  • October 03, 2025

    11th Circ. Upholds Robbery Convictions Despite Lawyer Errors

    The Eleventh Circuit agreed Friday that a man serving 26 years in prison for a string of Walmart robberies received ineffective counsel at trial but declined to overturn his conviction, citing the "mountain of evidence against him" it said would likely have secured his conviction regardless.

  • October 03, 2025

    Justices To Confront Divisive Cases On Rights, Power, Liberty

    The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to confront a slate of divisive issues in its upcoming term that begins Monday, with voting rights, transgender equality, religious freedom, immigration detention, and criminal procedure all on the docket.

  • October 03, 2025

    Sentenced To Debt: The Growing Fight Over Court Fees

    Activists are increasingly working to abolish the myriad fees that states and municipalities charge criminal defendants to fund their courts and jails but that critics say leave indigent people with lifelong debt they can never pay.

  • October 03, 2025

    Nurse Staffing Exec Says Jury Misled In Wage-Fixing Case

    A nurse staffing executive convicted of wage fixing and wire fraud is asking a Nevada federal court for a new trial, arguing that prosecutors misled the jury about a cooperating witness's leniency deal.

  • October 03, 2025

    NC Gov. Gives Stamp Of Approval To Bill Ending Cashless Bail

    North Carolina's Democratic governor on Friday signed into law a bill to eliminate cashless bail that is named for the Ukrainian refugee who was murdered on Charlotte's public transit system, but he said it lacks overall "vision" and lambasted a provision adopting alternative execution methods in the state.

  • October 03, 2025

    Pa. Supreme Court Snapshot: Silent Witness, Corporate Veil

    When its October session launches Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will consider issues such as the time limits on long-hidden crimes and long-undiscovered construction flaws, along with witnesses who say nothing on the stand and experts who opine on manner of death.

  • October 03, 2025

    High Court Asked To Review Racial Bias In Miss. Jury Strikes

    It wasn't until after he endured six capital murder trials tainted by racial prejudice that Curtis Flowers, a Black Mississippian, was finally exonerated, had the charges against him dismissed and his name cleared.

  • October 03, 2025

    Mass. Justices Say Pandemic Delay Not Speedy Trial Violation

    Massachusetts' highest court ruled Friday that pandemic-related delays in bringing a defendant to trial did not violate his right to a speedy trial under the state and U.S. constitutions.

  • October 03, 2025

    Gov. Lamont May Testify In Ex-Conn. Budget Official's Trial

    Former Connecticut budget official Konstantinos Diamantis on Friday told a panel of potential jurors that he plans to call Gov. Ned Lamont to testify in his federal corruption trial, setting up a possible courtroom showdown between Diamantis and the elected official who removed him from his post before he was indicted.

Expert Analysis

  • Understanding And Managing Jurors' Hindsight Bias

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    Hindsight bias — wherein events seem more predictable after the fact than they were beforehand — presents a persistent cognitive distortion in jury decision-making, but attorneys can mitigate its effects at trial through awareness, repetition and framing, say consultants at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Protecting Sensitive Court Filings After Recent Cyber Breach

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    In the wake of a recent cyberattack on federal courts' Case Management/Electronic Case Files system, civil litigants should consider seeking enhanced protections for sensitive materials filed under seal to mitigate the risk of unauthorized exposure, say attorneys at Redgrave.

  • DOJ Chemical Seizure Shows Broad Civil Forfeiture Authority

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent seizure of meth precursor chemicals en route from China to Mexico illustrates the U.S. government's powerful jurisdictional reach to seek forfeiture of cartel-related assets, and company compliance programs must take note, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • High Court Right-To-Counsel Case Could Have Seismic Impact

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in Villarreal v. Texas about whether prohibiting testimony discussions between defendants and their counsel during an overnight recess violates the Sixth Amendment, and the eventual decision could impose a barrier in the attorney-client relationship, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • High Court Firearm Case Tests Limits Of Double Jeopardy

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week on the double jeopardy implications of overlapping federal gun statutes in Barrett v. U.S., and its ultimate decision could either erode a key shield in defense practitioners’ arsenals or provide strong constitutional grounds to challenge duplicative charges, says Sharon Appelbaum at Appelbaum Law.

  • Series

    Judging Figure Skating Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Judging figure skating competitions helps me hone the focus, decisiveness and ability to process complex real-time information I need in court, but more importantly, it makes me reengage with a community and my identity outside of law, which, paradoxically, always brings me back to work feeling restored, says Megan Raymond at Groombridge Wu.

  • What Ethics Rules Say On Atty Discipline For Online Speech

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    Though law firms are free to discipline employees for their online commentary about Charlie Kirk or other social media activity, saying crude or insensitive things on the internet generally doesn’t subject attorneys to professional discipline under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, says Stacie H. Rosenzweig at Halling & Cayo.

  • Junior Attys Must Beware Of 5 Common Legal Brief Mistakes

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Junior law firm associates must be careful to avoid five common pitfalls when drafting legal briefs — from including every possible argument to not developing a theme — to build the reputation of a sought-after litigator, says James Argionis at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Demystifying Generative AI For The Modern Juror

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    In cases alleging that the training of artificial intelligence tools violated copyright laws, successful outcomes may hinge in part on the litigator's ability to clearly present AI concepts through a persuasive narrative that connects with ordinary jurors, say Liz Babbitt at IMS Legal Strategies and Devon Madon at GlobalLogic.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: How And Why Training Must Evolve

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    Empowering paralegals through new models of education that emphasize digital fluency, interdisciplinary collaboration and human-centered lawyering could help solve workforce challenges and the justice gap — if firms, educators and policymakers get on board, say Kristine Custodio Suero and Kelli Radnothy.

  • Series

    Playing Softball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My time on the softball field has taught me lessons that also apply to success in legal work — on effective preparation, flexibility, communication and teamwork, says Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty.

  • How New Rule On Illustrative Aids Is Faring In Federal Courts

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    In the 10 months since new standards were codified for illustrative aids in federal trials, courts have already begun to clarify the rule's application in different contexts and the rule's boundaries, say attorneys at Bernstein Litowitz.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Time Management

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    Law students typically have weeks or months to prepare for any given deadline, but the unpredictability of practicing in the real world means that lawyers must become time-management pros, ready to adapt to scheduling conflicts and unexpected assignments at any given moment, says David Thomas at Honigman.

  • How Hyperlinks Are Changing E-Discovery Responsibilities

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    A recent e-discovery dispute over hyperlinked data in Hubbard v. Crow shows how courts have increasingly broadened the definition of control to account for cloud-based evidence, and why organizations must rethink preservation practices to avoid spoliation risks, says Bree Murphy at Exterro.

  • State False Claims Acts Can Help Curb Opioid Fund Fraud

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    State versions of the federal False Claims Act can play an important role in policing the misuse of opioid settlement funds, taking a cue from the U.S. Department of Justice’s handling of federal fraud cases involving pandemic relief funds, says Kenneth Levine at Stone & Magnanini.

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