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Appellate

  • September 25, 2025

    Pa. Justices Allow Utilities To Deny Rivals' Billing For Add-Ons

    Electricity distributors in Pennsylvania can apply add-ons to their customers' bills for things like smart thermostats, line insurance and tree trimming while denying the same "on-bill billing" service to third-party electricity providers, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

  • September 25, 2025

    6th Circ. Rejects GOP's Challenge To Michigan Voter Rolls

    The Sixth Circuit rejected the Republican National Committee's bid to purge ineligible voters from Michigan's voter rolls on Thursday, finding the party lacked standing.

  • September 25, 2025

    Pa. Justices Reject 'Key Witness' Test In Forum Swap

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that litigants shouldn't have to prove that out-of-town witnesses are "key" to their case to get a suit moved to a more convenient forum for them, unwinding a lower court's finding that raised the bar for seeking a "forum non conveniens" transfer.

  • September 25, 2025

    Pa. High Court Backs Two-Lab Rule For Medical Pot Products

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a state rule requiring medical marijuana businesses to test their products at two separate laboratories, finding that the state law's emphasis on public safety empowered regulators to impose the requirement.

  • September 25, 2025

    Mich. High Court To Decide If Four Years Makes A Speedy Trial

    The Michigan Supreme Court will review whether a man sentenced to up to 15 years for domestic violence was denied the right to a speedy trial due to a four-year wait between his arrest and his case going before a jury.

  • September 25, 2025

    AstraZeneca Asks High Court To 'Unscramble' Drug Price Law

    As legal losses pile up for drug manufacturers in their fight to overturn the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation program, pharma giant AstraZeneca is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the program infringes on its constitutional rights. 

  • September 25, 2025

    DC Court Upholds Transfer Tax On Long-Term Leaseback

    The $39 million sale of a Washington, D.C., property and a long-term deal to lease it back to the seller constituted two separate taxable transactions, an appeals court said Thursday, rejecting a claim for a $1 million refund.

  • September 25, 2025

    NCAA Urges 4th Circ. To Move Fast On W.Va. U. Eligibility Suit

    The NCAA's appeal of the injunction allowing four West Virginia University football players to immediately return to competition needs an expedited schedule, at the risk of district courts granting even more athletes eligibility while cases are still being argued, the NCAA told the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday.

  • September 25, 2025

    Calif. Panel Rejects Prisoner's Racial Bias Discovery Motion

    A California state appeals court has determined that an incarcerated Samoan man did not sufficiently allege he was discriminated against when brokering a plea agreement with state prosecutors, ruling that he should not have been granted limited discovery to prove his claims under a state racial justice law.

  • September 25, 2025

    NJ Amusement Park Co. Won't Get Hearing On Shore Project

    New Jersey appeals court found Thursday that a Jersey Shore amusement park owner isn't entitled to a hearing before an agency that approved a grant making way for a luxury housing and retail development on the site of a nearby parking lot.

  • September 25, 2025

    NJ Panel Tosses Suit Over West Windsor Industrial Project

    A New Jersey appellate court on Thursday backed the permanent dismissal of a suit filed by two West Windsor residential property owners over the township's approval of a zoning ordinance for a more than 5 million-square-foot commercial and industrial project.

  • September 25, 2025

    DC Circ. Backs Whistleblower In IRS Award Dispute

    A whistleblower who received millions of dollars in awards for helping the IRS nab prominent Wall Street firms that helped offshore hedge funds evade taxes was wrongly blocked from receiving millions more, the D.C. Circuit ruled.

  • September 25, 2025

    Pa. Justices Affirm Pittsburgh's 'Jock Tax' Is Unconstitutional

    Pittsburgh's 3% fee imposed on the income of nonresident professional athletes is unconstitutional and violates the state's uniformity clause, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed Thursday.

  • September 25, 2025

    Full Fed. Circ. Won't Reconsider IPR Estoppel Decision

    The full Federal Circuit on Thursday rejected a rehearing petition from Ioengine LLC, which was appealing the invalidation of its flash drive patents in a case that set precedent on estoppel.

  • September 25, 2025

    AI-Created Attack Video Among Threats Facing State Judges

    State judges sounded the alarm Thursday over "disturbing" threats leveled against them and fellow jurists across the country, from unsolicited pizza deliveries to an artificial intelligence-generated video of a jurist being murdered with a hatchet.

  • September 25, 2025

    Pence Group Backs 7th Circ. Pick Attacked By Conservatives

    Former Vice President Mike Pence's organization has come out in support of Seventh Circuit nominee Rebecca Taibleson following attacks against her from other conservative groups.

  • September 25, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Dismissal Of Patent Suit Against Aldi

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday won't revive a suit accusing supermarket chain Aldi's mobile app of infringing patents covering a way to find consumer products in particular areas, backing an Illinois federal court's finding that the patents were invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice standard.

  • September 25, 2025

    Fla. Atty Vacancy Proposal Draws Support Amid Bar Criticism

    A proposal to allow out-of-state lawyers to work in Florida state government has drawn support this month from the governor's office and associations of prosecutors and public defenders, while the Florida Bar believes the proposal violates the state constitution.

  • September 25, 2025

    Texas Atty Loses Appeal In Ex-Client's Fraud Suit

    A Texas appellate court ruled Thursday that a Lone Star State lawyer's counterclaims against a former client suing him for fraud should be tossed under the state's free speech law, and denied the attorney's bid for dismissal under the anti-SLAPP statute because it was filed past the deadline.

  • September 25, 2025

    3rd Circ. Won't Revive Debt Collection Suit Against NJ Firm

    The Third Circuit rejected a bid Thursday from a woman suing Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP to revive her proposed class action over allegedly unfair debt collection practices after a federal trial court ruled that she filed her suit too late.

  • September 25, 2025

    8th Circ. Backs UPS In Driver's Bias, Retaliation Suit

    A Black UPS driver has lost his suit accusing the company of coming down harder on him for skipping Saturday shifts than it did on white drivers at a facility in Des Moines, Iowa, with the Eighth Circuit affirming the dismissal of the litigation Thursday.

  • September 25, 2025

    Pool Design Patent Owner Loses Bid For Fed. Circ. Rehearing

    The full Federal Circuit on Thursday left intact a decision refusing to revive North Star Technology International Ltd.'s suit claiming Latham Pool Products Inc. infringed its design patent.

  • September 25, 2025

    Families Cite Trump In Bid To Revive Tylenol Autism Claims

    Families suing the maker of Tylenol quickly cited President Donald Trump's words this week as they pushed the Second Circuit to overturn a lower-court ruling that barred their expert witnesses from testifying that prenatal exposure to the medicine can cause autism.

  • September 25, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Revives Apex Bank's TM Bid Over TTAB Error

    The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board incorrectly prevented a Tennessee bank from registering "Aspire Bank" for banking and financial services because of potential confusion with a credit card company's existing "Aspire" mark, the Federal Circuit said in a precedential decision Thursday that remanded the case for further analysis.

  • September 25, 2025

    Calif. City Asks Justices To Reboot Housing Law Challenge

    The city of Huntington Beach, California, has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to revive its claims challenging state laws that require the city to build enough housing to keep up with population growth, arguing an appeals panel wrongly found the city can't bring a federal constitutional challenge against its parent state.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Quilting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Turning intricate patterns of fabric and thread into quilts has taught me that craftsmanship, creative problem-solving and dedication to incremental progress are essential to creating something lasting that will help another person — just like in law, says Veronica McMillan at Kramon & Graham.

  • 3rd Circ. FMLA Suit Revival Offers Notice Rule Lessons

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    In Walker v. SEPTA, the Third Circuit reinstated a former Philadelphia bus driver's Family and Medical Leave Act lawsuit, finding the notice standard is not particularly onerous, which underscores employers' responsibilities to recognize and document leave requests, and to avoid penalizing workers for protected absences, say Fiona Ong and Leah Shepherd at Ogletree.

  • Utility Agency Suits May Rise As Calif. Justices Nix Deference

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    A recent California Supreme Court ruling rejecting the uniquely deferential standard of review accorded to California Public Utilities Commission decisions interpreting the Public Utilities Code will incentivize more litigation against the agency, as long as litigants can show their challenges meet certain requirements, says Thaila Sundaresan at Davis Wright.

  • 2 Appellate Rulings Offer Clickwrap Enforcement Road Map

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    Two recent decisions from the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits in cases involving Experian signal that federal appellate courts are recognizing clickwrap agreements' power in spite of their simplicity, and offer practical advice on how companies can sufficiently demonstrate notice and assent when attempting to enforce contractual terms, says Brian Willett at Saul Ewing.

  • Fleeing Or Just Leaving Quickly? 2nd Circ. Says It Depends

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    The Second Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Bardakova decision adopted a new approach for determining whether a defendant who commits a crime in the U.S., and then leaves and remains abroad, intends to avoid prosecution — making it more difficult to argue against the fugitive disentitlement doctrine in most cases, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • What 2 Profs Noticed As Transactional Law Students Used AI

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    After a semester using generative artificial intelligence tools with students in an entrepreneurship law clinic, we came away with numerous observations about the opportunities and challenges such tools present to new transactional lawyers, say professors at Cornell Law School.

  • What Patent Claim 'Invalidity' Means In Different Forums

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    A recent Federal Circuit order allowing a patent suit to proceed despite similar claims being invalidated in an inter partes review underscores how fractured the patent litigation landscape has become, leading to critical nuances in how district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and Patent Trial and Appeal Board treat invalidity, says Jason Hoffman at BakerHostetler.

  • Reel Justice: 'Eddington' Spotlights Social Media Evidence

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    In the neo-Western black comedy “Eddington” released last month, social media is a character unto itself, highlighting how the boundaries between digital and real-world conduct can become blurred, thereby posing evidentiary challenges in criminal prosecutions, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.

  • 8th Circ. Rulings Show Employer ADA Risks In Fitness Tests

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    Two recent Eighth Circuit decisions reviving lawsuits brought by former Union Pacific employees offer guidance for navigating compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, serving as a cautionary tale for employers that use broad fitness-for-duty screening programs and highlighting the importance of individualized assessments, says Masood Ali at Segal McCambridge.

  • Rebuttal

    BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation

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    A recent Law360 op-ed argued that loosening law firm funding restrictions would make BigLaw firms less inclined to settle with the Trump administration, but deregulating legal financing ethics may well prove to be not merely ineffective, but counterproductive, says Laurel Kilgour at the American Economic Liberties Project.

  • 9th Circ. Leaves Scope Of CIPA Applicability Unclear

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    Three recent Ninth Circuit decisions declined to directly address whether all of the California Invasion of Privacy Act's provisions actually apply to internet activity, and given this uncertainty, companies should heed five recommendations when seeking to minimize CIPA litigation risk, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • 5 Ways Lawyers Can Earn Back The Public's Trust

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    Amid salacious headlines about lawyers behaving badly and recent polls showing the public’s increasingly unfavorable view of attorneys, we must make meaningful changes to our culture to rebuild trust in the legal system, says Carl Taylor at Carl Taylor Law.

  • What Insurers Must Know About New La. Proof Of Loss Law

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    Insurers that comply with all the requirements under a Louisiana law effective this month may condition claim payments on receipt of proof of loss statements, but those that overlook even one prerequisite risk penalties and late payments, say attorneys at Phelps Dunbar.

  • Criminal Healthcare Fraud Takeaways From 4th Circ. Reversal

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    After the Fourth Circuit reversed a doctor’s postconviction acquittal in U.S. v. Elfenbein last month, defense attorneys should consider three strategies when handling complex criminal healthcare matters, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: August Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses key takeaways from federal appellate decisions involving topics including antitrust, immigration, consumer fraud, birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, and product defects.

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