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Trials
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September 23, 2024
Jury Finds MGA Owes T.I. $71.4M For Ripping Off IP With Dolls
A California federal jury handed rapper T.I. a victory Monday in the third trial over his claims against MGA Entertainment, awarding his side more than $71.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages for infringing the trade dress and publicity rights of the OMG Girlz pop group he co-owns with seven of MGA's O.M.G. dolls.
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September 23, 2024
NC Man Gets 100 Mos. For Fleecing Attys In 'Collection' Scam
A North Carolina man has been sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison after a Pennsylvania jury found him guilty on charges of mail, bank and wire fraud stemming from an international scheme to bilk attorneys out of millions of dollars.
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September 23, 2024
New Managing Atty At Firm That Helped In George Floyd Case
A small Chicago law firm that helped win a $27 million settlement on behalf of the family of George Floyd has named a personal injury lawyer and former teacher as its new managing attorney.
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September 23, 2024
Autism Played Role In Bankman-Fried Case, 2nd Circ. Told
A group of experts on neurodiversity told the Second Circuit that Sam Bankman-Fried, who has said he has autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, may have been hurt at trial by a "cognitive and communication style" that at times frustrated the trial judge.
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September 23, 2024
California City Worker Loses Bias Suit Over Racist Nickname
A federal jury sided with a California city in a race bias lawsuit filed by a Black maintenance worker who alleged that a supervisor and colleagues violated federal and state law by repeatedly referring to him by the name of a Mexican comic book character.
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September 23, 2024
Julie Chrisley Fights For Sentence Cut After 11th Circ. Ruling
Former reality TV star Julie Chrisley asked a Georgia federal judge on Friday to resentence her to no more than five years for her role in a $36 million tax evasion and fraud scheme, arguing against prosecutors' insistence that the seven-year sentence she was previously given be kept intact.
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September 23, 2024
5th Circ. Refuses Texas A Jury Trial For Border Buoy Case
The Fifth Circuit refused Texas' request for jurors to decide the legality of barriers installed in the Rio Grande to deter migrants, saying the Seventh Amendment's right to a jury trial doesn't apply to the case.
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September 23, 2024
Letterman Enjoys Jury Service, But Not Picked For Fraud Trial
David Letterman was excused from a Manhattan federal jury pool Monday ahead of the trial of a businessman accused of defrauding NBA athletes including former Los Angeles Laker Dwight Howard, after a lawyer said his son had interacted with the late-night television legend.
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September 20, 2024
RV Co. Wins $5.5M Enhanced TM Damages, $1.3M Atty Fees
Forest River can collect enhanced damages after a jury determined inTech Trailers infringed its mountain design trademarks on recreational vehicles, an Indiana federal judge ruled Thursday, increasing the award from $2 million to more than $5.5 million to make sure inTech does not profit from its infringement.
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September 20, 2024
Baby Biz Can't Get Fees After Beating Shampoo Pitcher IP Suit
A Louisiana federal judge said a 7-year-old fight over baby products "was a hard-fought patent case," rejecting efforts from a Louisiana company to obtain nearly $2 million in legal fees from a Kansas inventor of a pitcher for rinsing out shampoo.
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September 20, 2024
T.I.'s Fight With MGA Over Pop Group IP Goes To Jury Again
An attorney for hip hop moguls T.I. and Tiny Harris told a California federal jury during closing arguments Friday that "common sense" should lead them to find that MGA Entertainment's line of O.M.G. dolls infringed the trade dress and misappropriated the name, likeness and identity of the OMG Girlz pop group.
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September 20, 2024
Family Of NY Helicopter Crash Victim Wins $116M Verdict
A Manhattan jury has held that three aviation companies must pay a total of more than $116 million for negligence and design defects that contributed to a 26-year-old man's death during a sightseeing helicopter crash in New York's East River.
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September 20, 2024
Telemarketing Scheme Ringleader Convicted In $4M Scam
A North Carolina federal jury on Friday convicted a man of perpetuating a phone scam that ripped off more than $4 million from victims, many elderly, by using fake U.S. government official identities and offering fraudulent sweepstakes prizes that required up-front payments to obtain, according to prosecutors.
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September 20, 2024
Getting Around ITC Was 'Sneaky,' Judge Tells Caterpillar
A Delaware court has held that Caterpillar owes about $19.5 million in a patent case, citing in part the company's "sneaky" decision to domesticate manufacturing after a setback in a related infringement case at the U.S. International Trade Commission, while also finding that Caterpillar is subject to a rare injunction blocking the sale of some of its road construction machines.
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September 20, 2024
Northwestern Scores $6.6M Verdict On 'Cobot' Patents
A Delaware federal jury has awarded $6.6 million to Northwestern University after finding that Universal Robots infringed claims in three patents on collaborative robot, or "cobot," systems.
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September 20, 2024
'Free Karen Read' Protest Case Is Moot, 1st Circ. Says
The First Circuit has bowed out of hearing a First Amendment challenge brought by protesters who gathered outside a business run by a witness in Karen Read's first trial for the alleged murder of her boyfriend, ruling that the dispute centering on the Massachusetts witness intimidation law was moot.
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September 20, 2024
Avenatti Seeks Top Court Review Of Daniels ID Theft Verdict
Incarcerated celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his conviction for misappropriating money from ex-client Stormy Daniels, claiming the Second Circuit's decision upholding the verdict runs afoul of precedent for identity-theft cases.
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September 20, 2024
Trump Again Asks To Delay Evidence In DC Election Suit
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump again asked the Washington, D.C., federal judge overseeing his election interference case to push back a highly anticipated evidentiary filing from prosecutors, saying special counsel Jack Smith's office shouldn't be allowed to publicly lay out evidence until the court addresses Trump's concerns about the scope of discovery.
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September 19, 2024
Publishers 'Did Not Trust Google,' Former Ad Tech Exec Says
A former Google executive acknowledged Thursday that at least some website publishers sought a workaround to the search giant's advertising placement technology because they didn't trust the company's consolidated control, which the Justice Department has challenged in a Virginia federal courtroom.
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September 19, 2024
Mistrial Avoided In MGA's 3rd Round With T.I. In IP Saga
A California federal judge declined to order a mistrial Thursday in the intellectual property dispute between MGA Entertainment and hip-hop moguls Clifford "T.I." Harris and Tameka "Tiny" Harris, but he issued a curative instruction to jurors after MGA objected to statements made by an attorney for the Harrises.
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September 19, 2024
Ill. Justices Affirm $2.1M Verdict In Blood Clot Death Suit
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday declined to overturn a jury's $2.1 million verdict in a medical malpractice suit accusing a doctor of causing a patient's death, saying the widower's award for "material services" was recoverable even though he remarried about a year after his wife's death.
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September 19, 2024
4th Circ. Won't Flip Fraud Convictions Over Unseen Jury
The Fourth Circuit has refused to overturn two men's investment-fraud convictions over complaints that COVID safety protocols made the jury invisible to the public, but vacated part of one sentence because probation conditions weren't adequately spelled out.
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September 19, 2024
Feds Can't Order $31M To Refill Class Funds, 3rd Circ. Told
A New Jersey man convicted for stealing $40 million from settlements in stockholder class actions told a Third Circuit panel Thursday the multimillion-dollar restitution ordered at his sentencing is unlawful and should be vacated, arguing that the settlements weren't harmed.
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September 19, 2024
Mich. Atty Gets 1 Year For Inflating Apartment Values
A Michigan attorney and real estate executive was sentenced Thursday to one year and a day in prison for inflating how profitable his company's apartments were, allowing him to sell them for more than $500 million.
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September 19, 2024
Newsmax Appeals Quash Of Smartmatic Atty Subpoenas
Newsmax Media Inc. is appealing a Florida judge's decision to quash its attempt to subpoena a slew of criminal defense attorneys — representing Smartmatic USA Corp. executives in a criminal case over a Philippines elections contract — in Smartmatic's defamation suit over Newsmax reports tying the voting tech company to alleged conspiracies to steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Expert Analysis
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A Simple Proposal For Improving E-Discovery In MDLs
Given the importance of e-discovery in multidistrict litigation, courts, parties and counsel shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel in each newly consolidated case — and a simple process for sharing e-discovery lessons and knowledge across MDLs could benefit everyone involved, particularly clients, say Benjamin Barnett and Shauna Itri at Seeger Weiss.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
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Opinion
Post-Chevron, Good Riddance To The Sentencing Guidelines
The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron doctrine may signal the end of the U.S. sentencing guidelines, which is good news given that they have accomplished the opposite of Congress’ original intent to bring certainty, proportionality and uniformity to sentencing, say attorneys Mark Allenbaugh, Doug Passon and Alan Ellis.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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How Attorneys Can Reduce Bad Behavior At Deposition
To minimize unprofessional behavior by opposing counsel and witnesses, and take charge of the room at deposition, attorneys should lay out some key ground rules at the outset — and be sure to model good behavior themselves, says John Farrell at Fish & Richardson.
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Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal
Text messages were extremely important in a recent civil trial against Terraform Labs, leading to a $4.5 billion settlement, so litigants in securities fraud cases need to have robust mobile data policies that address the content and retention of messages, and the obligations of employees to allow for collection, say Josh Sohn and Alicia Clausen at Crowell & Moring.
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Tricky Venue Issues Persist In Fortenberry Prosecution Redo
Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry was recently indicted for a second time after the Ninth Circuit tossed his previous conviction for improper venue, but the case, now pending in the District of Columbia, continues to illustrate the complexities of proper venue in "false statement scheme" prosecutions, says Kevin Coleman at Covington.
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Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
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Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice
The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.
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In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State
On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.
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Opinion
Justices' Malicious-Prosecution Ruling Shows Rare Restraint
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Chiaverini v. City of Napoleon, Ohio, declining to limit malicious-prosecution suits, is a model of judicial modesty and incrementalism, in sharp contrast to the court’s dramatic swings on other rights, says Steven Schwinn at the University of Illinois Chicago Law School.
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Opinion
Trump Immunity Ruling Upends Our Constitutional Scheme
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. U.S. decision elevates the president to imperial status and paves the way for nearly absolute presidential immunity from potential criminal prosecutions — with no constitutional textual support, says Paul Berman at the George Washington University Law School.