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Appellate

  • May 30, 2025

    Bird Marella's Sanctions Win Upheld In $2.25M Fraud Dispute

    A California appellate panel has affirmed Bird Marella's terminating sanctions win against Frontline Medical Associates, holding that a state judge did not abuse her discretion by finding Frontline committed fraud on the court in its suit alleging the firm tricked it into paying $2.25 million for legal services for one of the firm's clients.

  • May 30, 2025

    Rocket Mortgage Class Asks Justices To Scope Decertification

    Rocket Mortgage borrowers who saw their class action against the lender decertified have told the U.S. Supreme Court that another pending case before it will resolve the question that undid their own class standing, and their litigation should be put on hold until that case is resolved.

  • May 30, 2025

    Construction Co. Owners Beat Long-Runing Fla. Qui Tam Suit

    A Florida federal judge ruled in favor of the owners of a construction company accused of defrauding a program for disadvantaged small businesses in a qui tam, or False Claims Act, lawsuit, saying in her dismissal of the nearly decade-long case that it violates the U.S. Constitution.

  • May 30, 2025

    Trump Blames Federalist Society For Trade Court Loss

    President Donald Trump blamed his recent, short-lived loss in the U.S. Court of International Trade both on judges he accused of hating him as well as on the Federalist Society — the conservative legal group that helped him with judicial selection during his first term — in a Truth Social post highlighting tensions within the conservative legal and political movements.

  • May 30, 2025

    Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

    Saying that June's circuit court calendars include important arguments in all practice areas would be hyperbolic — but just slightly. That's because significant showdowns are imminent involving appellate procedure principles, "click-to-cancel" rules, government procurement protests, judiciary employment protections and litigation risk insurance — as well as President Donald Trump's felony convictions and extraordinary deportation measures.

  • May 30, 2025

    Texas Panel Keeps Intact Judge's LGBTQ+ Wedding Challenge

    A Texas appeals court, in a Friday opinion, kept intact a judge's lawsuit against the state judicial ethics commission over sanctions for her refusal to officiate same-sex marriages, but left the issue of merits for the trial court to hash out.

  • May 30, 2025

    Wash. High Court Relaxes Standard For Worker Illness Suits

    Washington's highest court has lowered the bar for employees to sue over work-related illnesses, finding that in cases of latent diseases such as mesothelioma, a worker has a valid claim if they show their employer was "virtually certain" that the malady would develop.

  • May 30, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Possession Decides Rockwell Drawings Feud

    A split Fourth Circuit panel Friday said Norman Rockwell illustrations gifted to Franklin D. Roosevelt's press secretary belonged to the grandchild of the presidential aide who possessed the drawings, evoking the Bible as well as "Beauty & The Beast" in saying inheritance fights are "a tale as old as time."

  • May 30, 2025

    Texas Justices Back Bid To Close Migrant-Aiding Nonprofit

    The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state attorney general can initiate legal proceedings, known as a quo warranto action, to shut down a nonprofit, saying that a lower court's injunctions barring the proceedings were "premature at best."

  • May 30, 2025

    NJ Panel Upholds Unemployment Benefits Claims For Strikers

    A New Jersey state appeals court on Friday supported a state employment board's conclusion that Teamsters-represented workers at a concrete manufacturing company who went on strike are eligible for unemployment benefits, finding federal labor law does not preempt the state agency's decision. 

  • May 30, 2025

    5th Circ. To Rehear No Surprises Act Ruling En Banc

    The full Fifth Circuit agreed Friday to reconsider a dispute over provisions for calculating qualifying payments under the 2020 No Surprises Act.

  • May 30, 2025

    Wholesalers Take Rejected 5-Hour Energy Suit To 9th Circ.

    Family-owned wholesalers want the Ninth Circuit to take a look at a recent ruling that said while they were able to show the maker of 5-Hour Energy committed price discrimination by offering Costco disproportionate promotions, they weren't able to show that discrimination hurt them.

  • May 30, 2025

    Insurer's Hail Claim Denial Not Unreasonable, 10th Circ. Says

    A commercial property owner failed to show that its insurer unreasonably denied coverage for a hail damage claim under Colorado law or violated insurance industry standards by relying on an expert report, the Tenth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion Friday.

  • May 30, 2025

    Iowa Supreme Court Reinstates $3.2M Med Mal Verdict

    The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday reinstated a jury's $3.25 million verdict in a suit accusing a physician of failing to properly repair an incision made to assist a patient's childbirth that caused injuries, saying a lower court wrongly deemed certain expert testimony deficient.

  • May 30, 2025

    Nicotine Tax Dispute Heads To Texas Supreme Court

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a dispute over whether a vape company that sells oral nicotine products should be subject to a state tax on tobacco products.

  • May 30, 2025

    Pa. Justices Back Hospital Tax Break Despite High Salaries

    The corporate structure and high executive pay at a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, hospital were not reason enough to take away its nonprofit, tax-exempt status, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

  • May 30, 2025

    Wash. Judge Doubts Valve's Suit Alleging Arbitration Scheme

    A Washington state appellate judge pushed back Friday against Valve Corp.'s stance that it could sue an attorney over an alleged scheme to manipulate arbitration pacts between the gaming giant and its customers, suggesting the company opened the door for such conduct by previously forcing gamers to arbitrate antitrust claims individually.

  • May 30, 2025

    Russia Can Argue Sovereign Immunity In $34M Award Appeal

    The D.C. Circuit on Thursday agreed to consider Russia's sovereign immunity defense as the Kremlin looks to avoid a $34 million arbitral award issued to Ukrainian gas companies that operated in Crimea, writing that the "merits of the parties' positions are not so clear as to warrant summary action."

  • May 30, 2025

    Insurance Cos. Can't Force Arbitration Of Race, Sex Bias Suits

    American Income Life Insurance Co. and a brokerage firm can't make Black and female former employees arbitrate several lawsuits claiming they were forced to endure rampant harassment, a New Jersey state appeals court ruled Friday, saying the workers' arbitration agreement didn't properly explain what they were giving up.

  • May 30, 2025

    Ga. Panel Ends County Workers' Whistleblower Suit

    A Georgia appellate panel said that Fulton County should have been handed an early win in a whistleblower suit from two ex-employees who said they were canned for reporting corruption by an elected official, ruling the county was justified in firing them for their own financial indiscretions.

  • May 30, 2025

    AT&T Unit Loses Dispute Over Calif. Property Tax Rates

    AT&T unit Pacific Bell and other phone companies failed to prove that a California county's differing tax rates for locally assessed and state-assessed properties are unconstitutional, a state appeals court affirmed.

  • May 30, 2025

    No Point In Vacating NEPA Ruling, Gov't Tells 8th Circ.

    The Trump administration on Friday urged the Eighth Circuit to preserve a North Dakota federal judge's decision striking down Biden-era National Environmental Policy Act regulations, a ruling that states and environmental groups say should be vacated.

  • May 30, 2025

    DC Circ. Keeps Block On Texas AG's Media Matters Probe

    A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday upheld an order barring the Texas attorney general from demanding internal records from Media Matters about the left-leaning media watchdog's reporting on the social media platform X.

  • May 30, 2025

    Associations Back Airplane Parts Cos. In NC Crash Appeal

    The General Aviation Manufacturers Association has backed a pair of airplane parts makers in their appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court seeking to dismiss claims brought against them over a fatal 2015 crash, arguing that the state justices' decision could shield or spurn the Tar Heel State's aviation market.

  • May 30, 2025

    Trump Admin To Defend Biden's For-Profit College Loan Rule

    The Trump administration will defend parts of a Biden-era U.S. Department of Education rule allowing students to have their federal loans forgiven over their college's misconduct, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to resume briefing in a case that will pit the administration against the for-profit college industry.

Expert Analysis

  • Making The Case For Rest In The Legal Profession

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    For too long, a culture of overwork has plagued the legal profession, but research shows that attorneys need rest to perform optimally and sustainably, so legal organizations and individuals must implement strategies that allow for restoration, says Marissa Alert at MDA Wellness, Carol Ross-Burnett at CRB Global, and Denise Robinson at The Still Center.

  • 1st Circ. IMessage Ruling Illustrates Wire Fraud Circuit Split

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    The First Circuit’s recent decision that text messages exchanged wholly within Massachusetts but transmitted by the internet count as interstate commerce spotlights a split in how circuits interpret intrastate actions under the federal wire fraud statute, perhaps prompting U.S. Supreme Court review, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy

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    This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.

  • Justices' Revival Ruling In Bias Suit Exceeds Procedural Issue

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Waetzig v. Halliburton allowed the plaintiff in an age discrimination lawsuit to move to reopen his case after arbitration, but the seemingly straightforward decision on a procedural issue raises complex questions for employment law practitioners, says Christopher Sakauye at Dykema.

  • Cleanup Claim Characterization Key For Timeliness Inquiry

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    The Tenth Circuit's recent ruling in Atlantic Richfield Co. v. NL Industries, determining that ARCO's contribution claim was timely, highlights the importance of accurately characterizing a claim for recoupment of environmental cleanup costs as a cost-recovery action or contribution to avoid dismissal or recharacterization of the claim, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.

  • A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing

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    U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.

  • A Closer Look At Money Laundering Sentencing Issues

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    Federal money laundering cases are on the rise, often involving lengthy prison sentences for defendants who have little to no criminal history, but a closer look at the statistics and case law reveal some potentially valuable arguments that defense attorneys should keep in their arsenal, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

  • Justices Likely To Issue Narrow Ruling In $1.3B Award Dispute

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    After last week's argument in Devas v. Antrix, the Supreme Court appears likely to reverse the holding that minimum contacts are required before a federal court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a foreign state and remand the case for further litigation on other important constitutional questions, say attorneys at Cleary. 

  • Pleading Rules At Stake In High Court Hamas Banking Case

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    While a case between victims of Hamas terrorist attacks and a Lebanese bank, recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, appears to ask a narrow question of which civil procedure rules apply to requests to reopen final judgments, how the justices rule could drastically change pleading strategies for future plaintiffs, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • What's At Stake In High Court Transgender Care Suit

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    The outcome of U.S. v. Skrmetti will have critical implications for the rights of transgender youth and their access to gender-affirming care, and will likely affect other areas of law and policy involving transgender individuals, including education, employment, healthcare and civil rights, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Considerations As Trump Admin Continues To Curtail ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ

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    Recent sweeping moves from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new leadership have signaled a major shift in the agency's trajectory, and regulated entities should prepare for broader implications in both the near and long term, say attorneys at Pryor Cashman.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Paves Path Out Of Loper Bright 'Twilight Zone'

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright ruling created a twilight zone between express statutory delegations that trigger agency deference and implicit ones that do not, but the Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in Moctezuma-Reyes v. Garland crafted a two-part test for resolving cases within this gray area, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • NCAA Rulings Signal Game Change For Athlete Classification

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    A Tennessee federal court's recent decision in Pavia v. NCAA adds to a growing call to consider classifying college athletes as employees under federal law, a change that would have unexpected, potentially prohibitive costs for schools, says J.R. Webster Cucovatz at Gilson Daub.

  • Copyright Ruling Could Extend US Terminations Worldwide

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    If upheld on appeal, Vetter v. Resnik, a recent ruling from a Louisiana federal court, could extend the geographical scope of U.S. copyright termination rights to foreign territories, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Recent Cases Clarify FCA Kickback Pleading Standards

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    Two recently resolved cases involving pharmaceutical manufacturers may make it more difficult for False Claims Act defendants facing kickback scheme allegations to get claims dismissed for lack of evidence, say Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz, Ellen London at London & Noar, and Gregg Shapiro at Gregg Shapiro Law.

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