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Trials
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December 16, 2024
BNSF Can't Derail $20M Verdict For Man Hit By Train
A California appeals panel won't upend a nearly $20 million verdict in a suit by a former BNSF Railway Co. employee who says the company's negligence led to him getting hit and dragged by a train car, saying the trial court correctly found that BNSF violated federal safety regulations.
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December 16, 2024
The Biggest Patent Decisions Of 2024
This year's notable patent decisions from the Federal Circuit provided clearer guidelines on double patenting and opened the door for new ways to invalidate design patents. Here's a look at the cases from 2024 that will shape patent litigation going forward.
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December 16, 2024
Blindsided Developer Says $112K Legal Bill Should Be $25K
A real estate developer fighting a $112,000 legal bill from Conrad & Scherer LLP testified in a Florida state court Monday that he hired the firm for its banking regulation expertise but not for trial work in a lawsuit over a luxury house in Colorado.
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December 16, 2024
Investment Pro Denies $600M 'Cherry-Picking' Fraud Charges
A California investment executive on Monday denied cheating a group of his firm's clients by assigning them poorer-performing trades, pleading not guilty before a Manhattan federal judge to what prosecutors call a $600 million criminal "cherry-picking" fraud.
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December 16, 2024
Lin Wood Must Pay $2M To Ga. Court After Defamation Verdict
Embattled former attorney Lin Wood will have to hand over $2 million to a Georgia federal court and must ensure that property offered as collateral is accessible and maintained while he appeals a $4.5 million defamation award against him, a federal judge ruled Monday.
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December 16, 2024
Ozy Media CEO Gets Almost 10 Years For Investor Fraud
A New York federal judge on Monday sentenced former Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson to nearly 10 years in prison following his conviction at trial for lying to banks and investors to secure tens of millions of dollars in funding for the nascent multimedia company.
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December 16, 2024
Feds Ask To Speak With Juror In Failed $34M Kickback Trial
Prosecutors on Monday asked a New Jersey federal judge if they could speak with the foreperson of a jury that acquitted a Philadelphia pharmacy executive of scheming to bilk $34 million from insurers by paying kickbacks, after the juror offered to share feedback ahead of a possible retrial.
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December 16, 2024
Mass. Paper To Close, Pay $1.1M To Settle Defamation Case
A Massachusetts mayor said he has settled his defamation claims against the city's local newspaper for a $1.1 million payment and an agreement that the publication will close its doors later this week.
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December 16, 2024
Dental Workers' Retaliation Appeal Nixed For Lack Of Docs
A California appeals court declined to revive a suit brought by two dental office workers who claimed they were fired after complaining that their boss sexually harassed them, saying they hadn't provided enough details for the court to evaluate their case.
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December 14, 2024
ABC News Agrees To Pay $16M To End Trump Defamation Suit
ABC News has agreed to pay $16 million to end Donald Trump's defamation suit over George Stephanopoulos' on-air description of rulings in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll in her sexual abuse and defamation suits against Trump, according to a settlement filed Saturday in Florida.
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December 13, 2024
Combs Gives Up Bail Fight Ahead Of Sex-Trafficking Trial
Embattled music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs abandoned his final avenue for pursuing bail amid racketeering and sex-trafficking charges Friday, agreeing to remain jailed through his scheduled May 2025 trial in New York federal court.
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December 13, 2024
Apple Can't Drag Out Privilege Claims Re-Review, Judge Says
A California federal magistrate judge on Friday rejected Apple's argument that Apple and Epic Games should agree on a document-review protocol before Apple re-reviews 57,000 documents it claims are attorney-client privileged in their antitrust fight, telling Apple's counsel such a process would likely drag out litigation without being useful.
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December 13, 2024
Ex-Harlem Globetrotter Gets 7 Years For COVID Funds Scheme
A former player for the Harlem Globetrotters was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution by a North Carolina federal judge for his role in a fraudulent Paycheck Protection Act scam during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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December 13, 2024
Cardi B Tries To Sink Ch. 11 Of YouTuber Who Owes Her $3.8M
Cardi B has asked a Florida bankruptcy court to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of YouTuber Tasha K, saying she deliberately hid her assets to frustrate the rapper's efforts at collecting on a $3.8 million defamation verdict.
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December 13, 2024
Biden Commutes Sentence For Ex-Ohio Dem Party Boss
A former Ohio Democratic Party boss serving a federal prison sentence of more than two decades for corruption-related crimes is among the 1,499 people whose sentences were recently commuted by President Joe Biden.
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December 13, 2024
Jury Sides With MetLife In Fired Exec's Pay Bias Suit
A New York federal judge closed a former MetLife executive's suit after a jury sided with the company on her claims that she was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars less than her male counterparts and passed over for a promotion due to her gender.
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December 13, 2024
Pa. Contractor Hit With $4.2M Verdict In Pot Software Row
A Pennsylvania federal jury hit a cannabis software company with a $4.2 million judgment in a lawsuit from a subcontractor claiming it was brought on to help with a government project because of its Black-owned status, then pushed out of the $10 million deal.
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December 13, 2024
Feds Narrow Drug Case Against Wife Of Convicted Drexel Prof
Prosecutors have told a New Jersey federal judge that they would drop one of three drug distribution charges against the wife of a convicted former Drexel University professor, saying their evidence might not establish intent after the U.S. Supreme Court raised the burden of proof for such cases in 2022.
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December 13, 2024
Calif. Justices Won't Undo Judge's Ouster Over Misconduct
The California Supreme Court has decided not to overturn a state judge's removal from the bench for conducting a campaign of retaliation against court employees he suspected of being "moles."
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December 13, 2024
Menendez, 2 Co-Defendants Lose Bids For New Bribery Trial
A Manhattan federal judge on Friday rejected bids by former Sen. Bob Menendez and two co-defendants for a new trial, ruling there is no manifest injustice after the ex-senator argued the government failed to offer any evidence of how he used his office's power to benefit any of the alleged bribe givers.
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December 13, 2024
Trump Rips DA's 'Dark Dream' To Legally Treat Him As Dead
Donald Trump's attorneys Friday slammed a proposal by the Manhattan district attorney to preserve the president-elect's hush money conviction by treating him like a defendant who dies after a verdict, pushing the judge to dismiss the case altogether.
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December 12, 2024
Ill. Jury Awards $79.8M Over Child's Death From Police Chase
An Illinois jury has awarded $79.85 million to the family of a 10-year-old girl who died when an unauthorized police pursuit led to a fatal car collision in a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.
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December 12, 2024
Carlisle Cleared In Patent Trial Over Spray Guns
Jurors cleared Carlisle's construction materials company on Thursday from allegations in Delaware federal court that the Pennsylvania company was infringing a single claim in a rival's patent that covered a spray gun marketed to construction workers.
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December 12, 2024
T-Mobile Says Split On TM Use Must Be Resolved By Justices
T-Mobile is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fourth Circuit panel's revival of a prepaid cellphone company's trademark infringement suit, telling the justices in a new petition this week that trademarks should have to be in continuous use for their holders to be able to protect them.
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December 12, 2024
AT&T Exec Can't Get Bribery Acquittal After Jury Deadlocks
An Illinois federal judge on Thursday denied a former AT&T executive's bid for acquittal on charges he bribed ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan after his case resulted in a hung jury earlier this year, saying the government presented sufficient evidence of a quid pro quo.
Expert Analysis
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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Trump's Best Hush Money Appeal Options Still Likely To Fail
The two strongest potential arguments former President Donald Trump could raise in appealing his New York hush money conviction seem promising at first, but precedent strongly suggests they will still ultimately fail — though, of course, Trump's unique position could lead to surprising results, says former New York Supreme Court Justice Ethan Greenberg, now at Anderson Kill.
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2 Vital Trial Principles Endure Amid Tech Advances
Progress in trial technologies in the last 10 years has been transformative for courtroom presentations, but two core communication axioms are still relevant in today's world of drone footage evidence and 3D animations, say Adam Bloomberg and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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7th Circ. Ruling Sheds Light On Extraterritoriality In IP Law
A recent Seventh Circuit decision involving the Defend Trade Secrets Act, allowing for broader international application of trade secrets laws, highlights a difference in how trade secrets are treated compared to other areas of intellectual property law, say Armin Ghiam and Maria Montenegro-Bernardo at Hunton.
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5 Defense Lessons From Prosecutors' Recent Evidence Flubs
The recent dismissal of Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges, and the filing of an ethics complaint against a former D.C. prosecutor, both provide takeaways for white collar defense counsel who suspect that prosecutors may be withholding or misrepresenting evidence, say Anden Chow at MoloLamken and Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?
A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.
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6 Factors That Can Make For A 'Nuclear' Juror
Drawing from recent research that examines the rise in nuclear verdicts, Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies identifies a few juror characteristics most likely to matter in assessing case risk and preparing for jury selection — some of which are long-known, and others that are emerging post-pandemic.
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DOJ Paths To Limit FARA Fallout From Wynn's DC Circ. Win
After the D.C. Circuit’s recent Attorney General v. Wynn ruling, holding that the government cannot compel retroactive registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the U.S. Department of Justice has a few options to limit the decision’s impact on enforcement, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Series
Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.
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Unpacking Executive Privilege, Contempt In Recent Cases
The U.S. House of Representatives’ recent move to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress is the latest example in a growing trend of executive privilege disputes, and serves as a warning to private citizens and corporate leaders who are in communication with the president, says Kristina Moore at Womble Bond.
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3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture
Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.
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Attorneys Can Benefit From Reverse-Engineering Their Cases
Trial advocacy programs often teach lawyers to loosely track the progression of a lawsuit during preparation — case analysis, then direct examination, then cross-examination, openings and closings — but reverse-engineering cases by working backward from opening and closing statements can streamline the process and also improve case strategy, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents
Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.
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Autonomy Execs' Acquittal Highlights Good Faith Instruction
The recent acquittal of two former Autonomy executives demonstrates that a good faith jury instruction can be the cornerstone of an effective defense strategy in white collar criminal cases, in part because the concept of good faith is a human experience every juror can relate to, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.