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Appellate

  • August 01, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB Ax Of Claims In Network Speed Patents

    The Federal Circuit on Friday affirmed a handful of Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions that found claims across four patents on increasing network communication speed owned by Israeli tech company Bright Data were invalid.

  • August 01, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Jury Doesn't Need Experts For Sig Sauer Suit

    A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was accidentally shot in the leg does not need expert testimony to make his case that a defective gun design was the cause of his injury, since a layperson could draw their own conclusions once they understood the underlying mechanisms, a Third Circuit panel said Friday.

  • August 01, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Court Can Hear Asbestos Spinoff's Ch. 11

    The Fourth Circuit Friday found Georgia-Pacific asbestos unit Bestwall can stay in Chapter 11, saying a debtor's financial status has no bearing on whether a bankruptcy court has jurisdiction over its case.

  • August 01, 2025

    Hyundai, Kia Can't Get Rehearing On Cities' Car Theft MDL

    The Ninth Circuit won't hold an en banc rehearing on an appeal from Hyundai Motors America Inc. and Kia America Inc. seeking to dismiss negligence claims by cities in three of seven states in multidistrict litigation over their alleged failure to install anti-theft technology in millions of vehicles.

  • August 01, 2025

    Widow Can't Be Spared Husband's Tax Debt, 11th Circ. Affirms

    A widow is not entitled to innocent spouse relief from tax debt she shared with her husband because the underlying income belonged to her, the Eleventh Circuit said, affirming a U.S. Tax Court ruling and skirting an additional challenge to job protections for judges.

  • July 31, 2025

    Appeals Court Resurrects DC's Privacy Suit Against Facebook

    A Washington, D.C., appeals court Thursday revived a lawsuit from the district's attorney general accusing Facebook of misleading users about how their data could be shared with Cambridge Analytica and other third-party apps, finding the lower court relied on too high an evidence standard in axing the claims.

  • July 31, 2025

    Justices Told State Med Mal Laws Fly In Federal Court

    A Delaware federal court must apply a state statute requiring an expert affidavit in all medical malpractice suits, a hospital defendant told the U.S. Supreme Court, as key aspects of the Delaware law and similar statutes in 28 other states "should not be checked at the federal courthouse doors."

  • July 31, 2025

    NY Court Tosses 10-Year Sentence After Illegal Arrest

    A homeless man sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting and trying to rob a woman in Manhattan had his conviction vacated Thursday when a New York appeals court said evidence against him never should have been allowed in court since it was gained via his illegal arrest.

  • July 31, 2025

    11th Circ. Says 'Urban Cowboy' Can Amend Taken Horses Suit

    A divided Eleventh Circuit on Thursday granted a Georgia man whose horses were seized by Atlanta-area authorities a fresh shot at amending a lawsuit over the seizure, with the majority saying the lower court wrongly found that amending the suit was futile under the Fifth Amendment's takings clause.

  • July 31, 2025

    3rd. Circ. Lets Khalil Remain Free During Feds' Appeal

    The Third Circuit denied the Trump administration's request to fully stay a district court order releasing pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, ruling that the federal government failed to show it would be irreparably harmed without a stay.

  • July 31, 2025

    Georgia Court Panel Revives Woman's Bus Injury Suit

    A commuter who filed a personal injury lawsuit against an Atlanta-area bus company two years and two days after she was injured did not run afoul of Georgia's statute of limitations, a state appeals court ruled on Thursday, saying the law gives plaintiffs additional time when the last day would technically fall on a weekend.

  • July 31, 2025

    Sex Abuse Verdict Tossed Because Jury Wasn't Sworn In

    A Michigan man will be given a new trial after a split state appeals panel on Thursday found that because a trial judge failed to swear in the jury that convicted him of criminal sexual conduct, a structural error occurred with the proceeding.

  • July 31, 2025

    Colo. Court Affirms Stalking Conviction In 'True Threat' Case

    The Colorado Court of Appeals on Thursday declined to overturn the stalking and harassment convictions of a man who claimed his threatening emails to a police officer were protected First Amendment speech.

  • July 31, 2025

    7th Circ. Says Chemical Co. OK To Stop Paying Union Fund

    A chemical distributor was allowed to stop paying into a Teamsters pension fund in 2021, and an Illinois federal judge was wrong to conclude otherwise, the Seventh Circuit said Thursday, reversing a ruling that ordered the company to pay the fund over $365,000.

  • July 31, 2025

    Calif. Med Mal Law Can't Apply To Ambulance Crash Suits

    The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state's one-year time limit for medical malpractice claims does not apply to suits over ambulance drivers' negligence, saying instead the two-year deadline for ordinary negligence governs.

  • July 31, 2025

    Texas Court Allows Habeas Relief In Misdemeanor Fine Case

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday ruled that defendants facing only fines can be eligible for pretrial habeas corpus relief, saying complaints, preliminary convictions and appellate bonds can constitute "restraint" under state law.

  • July 31, 2025

    6th Circ. OKs Toss Of Trustee Removal Bid In Union Fund Row

    A Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday upheld an Ohio federal court's decision finding that a trade union, three trustees of a union benefit fund, and a fund participant cannot remove two other trustees they accused of self-dealing, saying they failed to show they would face irreparable harm.

  • July 31, 2025

    10th Circ. Says Water Exclusion Bars Co.'s $1.75M Loss

    A Kansas office building's property insurer has no duty to provide coverage for roughly $1.75 million in repairs over a broken water pipe, the Tenth Circuit ruled, rejecting the building owner's argument that an exception in one exclusion conflicted with a separate exclusion for water damage.

  • July 31, 2025

    11th Circ. Revives American Airlines Cuban Property Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit has sent back to lower court a Miami man's suit claiming that American Airlines illegally benefited when using a Havana airport he says the Cuban government stole from his family in 1959.

  • July 31, 2025

    NJ Justices Clarify Pension Beneficiary Designation Process

    The Garden State's Police and Firemen's Retirement System improperly distributed more than $200,000 in unpaid pension benefits to the estranged spouse of a deceased Newark police officer, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Thursday, ordering the money to be redirected to his estate.

  • July 31, 2025

    Anadarko Asks 5th Circ. To Back La. Suit Indemnity Win

    Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has asked the Fifth Circuit to uphold its indemnification win against an environmental remediation company in connection with a decade-old Louisiana kickback suit, writing that "one who makes his own bed must lie in it."

  • July 31, 2025

    Mich. Justices Say Employer Suit Limits Must Be Reasonable

    The Michigan Supreme Court held Thursday that employment agreements that limit how much time employees have to sue their employer must be examined for reasonableness before they are enforced by courts.

  • July 31, 2025

    NJ Town Knocks Out Worker's $1.6M Disability Bias Win

    A New Jersey appellate court scrapped a $1.6 million verdict Thursday for a township employee who said she was discriminated and retaliated against for taking leave to treat her anxiety, ruling the evidence presented at trial didn't justify the damages award.

  • July 31, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Judges Cast Doubts On Trump Tariff Powers

    Several Federal Circuit judges raised concerns about whether President Donald Trump's tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act override constitutional and congressional authority during oral arguments Thursday in their questions to better understand the extent of the appeals court's review.

  • July 31, 2025

    3 Federal Circuit Clashes To Watch In August

    The Federal Circuit's argument calendar for August includes Brita's effort to revive a patent suit against water filter rivals that fell short at the U.S. International Trade Commission, and a prolific inventor's bid to undo a decision clearing Coca-Cola of infringing a beverage dispenser patent.

Expert Analysis

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

  • ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

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    The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • How Political Divisions Are Stalling Pa. Energy Development

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    Despite possessing the nation's second-largest natural gas reserves and a legacy of energy infrastructure, Pennsylvania faces a fragmented and politically charged path to developing the energy resources it will need in the future, thanks to legislative gridlock, divided public opinion and competing energy interests, says Andrew Levine at Stradley Ronon.

  • How High Court Ruling Can Aid Judgment Enforcement In US

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    In CC/Devas (Mauritius) v. Antrix, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that only two steps are required to keep a foreign sovereign in federal court, making it a little easier for investors to successfully bring foreign states and sovereign-owned and -controlled entities into U.S. courts, says Kristie Blase at Felicello Law.

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