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June 25, 2024
Plaintiffs Firms Appealing $2.1B Fee Order In Opioid Case
Motley Rice LLC, Weisman Kennedy & Berris Co. LPA, Stranch Jennings & Garvey PLLC, Crueger Dickinson LLP, Goldstein & Russell PC, Kelley & Ferraro LLP, Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP and Meyers & Flowers LLC are appealing $2.13 billion in attorney fees stemming from opioid settlements awarded earlier this month.
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June 25, 2024
Chancery OKs $71M Premier Deal, $14M Four-Firm Fee
Shareholder attorneys led by Friedlander & Gorris who negotiated a $71 million settlement to end derivative Delaware Chancery Court litigation with healthcare-purchasing giant Premier Inc. will get $14 million for their efforts, the total fee award they sought.
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June 25, 2024
United Strikes Deal To Exit Bias Suit Over Mask Policy
United Airlines told a California federal court it reached a deal with a baggage handler to end his lawsuit after the Ninth Circuit determined a jury should hear his claims that the company unlawfully refused to let him wear a face shield in lieu of a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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June 25, 2024
Gov't Asks Ala. Fed. Court To Stay Gender Care Case
The Biden administration has asked an Alabama federal court to stay a suit challenging a state law criminalizing gender-affirming care for transgender youth, which has drawn attention because of judge-shopping allegations leveled against plaintiff's counsel, as the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a separate but potentially precedential suit.
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June 25, 2024
GAO Won't Hear Protest Over Canceled DOD Sole-Source Deal
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a protest over the Defense Health Agency canceling a company's contract to instead seek competitive bids, saying the company ultimately sought the award of a sole-source deal, a position the watchdog won't support.
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June 24, 2024
NYC Pharmacy Owners Get Jail Time For $18M Med Fraud
Two brothers who own several New York pharmacies will each have to pay over $18 million in restitution in addition to serving jail time for submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare for pricey cancer medication and funneling illicit proceeds through several shell companies, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
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June 24, 2024
Doctor Left Text Trail Describing NBA Fraud Scheme, Jury Told
Prosecutors told a Manhattan federal jury that a Seattle medical professional sent a series of text messages detailing a plan to submit fraudulent claims to an NBA healthcare plan to obtain payouts, kicking off a second trial over the alleged scheme.
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June 24, 2024
LA Schools Says Pseudoscience Infected 9th Circ. Vax Ruling
The Los Angeles Unified School District said Friday that a split Ninth Circuit panel leaned on pseudoscience when ruling that a rescinded employee COVID-19 vaccination mandate implicated the right of district employees to refuse medical treatment, urging an en banc panel to correct the "fatally flawed" decision.
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June 24, 2024
Harvard Fertility Doctor Settles Secret-Impregnation Claim
A fertility doctor and longtime Harvard Medical School professor has settled claims that he secretly used his own sperm to impregnate a patient in 1980, according to a Monday court filing.
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June 24, 2024
Wage Law Doesn't Apply To $32M In PPE Sales, NJ Panel Says
An employee who sold more than $32 million in personal protective equipment during three months of the COVID-19 pandemic is not entitled to $1.3 million in commissions under the New Jersey Wage Payment Law, because the sales did not fall under her normal role and are instead "supplementary incentives," a state appeals panel ruled Monday.
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June 24, 2024
Ark. AG Sues Pharmacy Benefit Managers Over Opioids
The Arkansas attorney general said Monday that he had sued pharmacy benefit managers Optum Inc. and Express Scripts Inc. in state court, claiming they contributed to the opioid crisis and profited from the drug epidemic.
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June 24, 2024
Suit Over Medical Screws Filed Too Late, Texas Panel Finds
A Texas appeals court won't revive a woman's suit against BioPro Inc. alleging that surgical screws used in her feet were defective, saying the evidence establishes that she filed her suit after the two-year statute of limitations had expired.
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June 24, 2024
Jurisdictional Discovery Ordered In NJ COVID Test Fraud Suit
A New Jersey federal court has denied without prejudice a dismissal bid and ordered "tightly-targeted and prompt jurisdictional discovery" in a Garden State medical supply business' complaint accusing a Texas attorney and his solo practice of aiding in an alleged $2.45 million fraud scheme involving COVID-19 test kits that were never delivered.
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June 24, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law topped the news out of the Court of Chancery again last week, as the hotly contested measure sailed through the state's legislature. Tesla and its shareholders continued their tug-of-war over attorney fees for Chancery litigation about Elon Musk's pay package, and new cases were filed involving biotechs, car rental companies, workout platforms, telecom towers, and a cargo ship fire in Brazil.
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June 24, 2024
Defense Contractor Gresham Inks $83M SPAC Merger
Defense contractor Gresham Worldwide Inc. and special-purpose acquisition company Ault Disruptive Technologies Corp. agreed Monday to merge in a deal that values Gresham at $83 million and enlarges the company's profile, steered by two law firms.
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June 24, 2024
Justices Pass On Conn. School Vaccine Mandate Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Second Circuit decision that largely upheld the dismissal of a suit challenging a Connecticut law passed during the COVID-19 pandemic that revoked religious exemptions to student vaccine mandates.
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June 24, 2024
$2.9M Health Co. Data Breach Settlement Gets Final Approval
A Michigan federal judge has given final approval to a $2.9 million deal for a maker of prosthetics and orthotics to settle claims the company didn't protect customers' sensitive information from a cyberattack.
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June 24, 2024
Justices Pass On Rutgers COVID-19 Vax Mandate Case
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to review a split Third Circuit ruling that Rutgers University students cannot challenge the school's COVID-19 vaccine policy because, under the high court's 1905 precedent in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, there is no fundamental right to refuse vaccinations.
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June 24, 2024
Blumenauer Predicts Cannabis Rescheduling Before Year-End
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a longtime champion of cannabis reform in Congress who is retiring this year, told cannabis attorneys on Monday that he was optimistic marijuana would be moved to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act before the end of the year.
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June 24, 2024
High Court To Review State Gender Care Bans
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review a Sixth Circuit decision that allowed Tennessee to keep in place a new ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
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June 24, 2024
Justices Won't Hear Objections To $2.67B BCBS Deal
The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to review Home Depot's challenge of a $2.67 billion settlement in antitrust litigation targeting Blue Cross Blue Shield, along with a separate challenge of the attorney fees awarded for the deal.
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June 21, 2024
Estate Of Alzheimer's Patient Awarded $600K In NJ Death Case
A New Jersey jury awarded $600,000 to the family of a psychiatric hospital patient with Alzheimer's who died after sustaining several fractures and a traumatic brain injury at the facility, a Philadelphia law firm announced Friday.
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June 21, 2024
Texas Medical Board Adopts Abortion Records Requirement
Texas doctors who determine that an abortion is necessary during a pregnant patient's health crisis will face new recordkeeping requirements under a final rule issued Friday by the state's medical board.
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June 21, 2024
4th Circ. Revives TCPA Suit Over Fax Promoting Free Webinar
A chiropractic office in Ohio on Friday succeeded in reviving its putative class action against a healthcare technology company accused of sending junk faxes, with the Fourth Circuit finding the communication counts as an unsolicited advertisement under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
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June 21, 2024
Billing Report Order Was 'Overly Broad' In Injury Suit, Panel Says
A Georgia appeals court on Friday vacated a trial court order requiring a medical provider and its claims manager to produce a database report with financial and billing information during discovery in a car accident case, saying the order was overly broad and didn't do enough to protect the companies' confidential information.
Expert Analysis
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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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Direct Claims Ruling May Alter Gov't Ties To Software Firms
A recent Federal Circuit decision allowing a software developer to pursue legal action under the Contract Disputes Act could change the government's relationship with commercial software providers by permitting direct claims, even in third-party purchase situations, say Dan Ramish and Zach Prince at Haynes Boone.
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AI In Accounting Raises OT Exemption Questions
A recent surge in the use of artificial intelligence in accounting work calls into question whether professionals in the industry can argue they are no longer overtime exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, highlighting how technology could test the limits of the law for a variety of professions, say Bradford Kelley at Littler and Stephen Malone at Peloton Interactive.
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What To Know About State-Level Health Data Privacy Laws
Companies that handle consumer health data, including those in the retail sector, should take a conservative approach when interpreting the scope of new health privacy laws in Washington, Nevada and Connecticut, which may include development of privacy notices, consent procedures, rights request response processes and processor contracts, say attorneys at Hunton.
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Opinion
Intoxicating Hemp Products: It's High Time For Clarity
Thanks to ambiguity in the 2018 Farm Bill, intoxicating hemp cannabinoid products are largely unregulated and are widely available without restrictions on who can buy the products, and although there are several possible solutions, voluntary industry action by good actors is the best option, say Andrew Kline and Tommy Tobin at Perkins Coie.
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HHS' Updated Tracking Tech Guidance Offers Little Clarity
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights' updated guidance on the use of online tracking technologies appears more focused on legal issues raised in ongoing litigation with the American Hospital Association and less on practical guidance for covered entities, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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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
Pharmacies Need More Protection Against PBM Fee Practices
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' recent reform regarding direct and indirect remuneration fees will mitigate the detrimental effects that pharmacy benefit manager policies have on struggling pharmacies, but more is needed to prevent PBMs from exploiting loopholes, says Bhavesh Desai at Mazina Law.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.
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Takeaways From The 2023 DOJ Fraud Section Report
Attorneys at Wiley discuss notable trends from the U.S. Department of Justice's recently reported Fraud Section activity last year and highlight areas of enforcement to watch for in the future, including healthcare fraud and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.
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Hospitals Must Adapt To Growing Cybercrime Threats
As the tide of cybersecurity attacks targeting the healthcare industry continues to grow, hospitals and healthcare providers must take steps to protect themselves, including by replacing legacy records systems and ensuring that business associate agreements address responsibility for breaches, says Christine Chasse at Spencer Fane.
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Assessing FDA Pathways For Genome-Edited Plant Foods
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent clarification of the regulatory pathways for foods produced from genome-edited plants seeks to strike a balance between public health and innovation, and may hold broader significance for developers of novel human foods subject to voluntary notification programs, say Emily Marden and Diane McEnroe at Sidley Austin.
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Opinion
Proposed MDL Management Rule Needs Refining
Proponents of the recently proposed Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16.1 believe it may enhance efficiency in multidistrict litigation proceedings if adopted, but there are serious concerns that it could actually hinder plaintiffs' access to justice through the courts — and there are fundamental flaws that deserve our attention, says Ashleigh Raso at Nigh Goldenberg.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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Opinion
NIST March-In Framework Is As Problematic As 2021 Proposal
While the National Institute of Standards and Technology's proposed march-in framework on when the government can seize patents has been regarded as a radical departure that will support lowering prescription drug costs, the language at the heart of it is identical to a failed 2021 notice of proposed rulemaking, says attorney Kelly Morron.