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Appellate
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September 11, 2025
5th Circ. Won't Revisit Doctor's Captive Insurance Case
The Fifth Circuit rejected a Texas doctor's request for the full court to review a panel's July decision that he was not entitled to $1 million in tax deductions linked to his urgent care network's captive insurance company.
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September 11, 2025
Italian Firm Adds Obama Counsel For Cross-Border Advice
A former senior U.S. Department of Justice lawyer and senior counsel for former President Barack Obama has joined Italian digital media technology and life sciences firm Portolano Cavallo to bolster its cross-border capabilities, it announced Thursday.
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September 10, 2025
11th Circ. Tosses Gun Conviction Over Alabama Loophole
The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday threw out the conviction of an Alabama man charged with illegally having a gun after a prior felony, ruling that because the state offense to which he pled guilty did not require imprisonment, it did not trigger the federal firearm ban for felons.
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September 10, 2025
Fed. Circ. Won't Revisit Double-Patenting, Soda TM Appeals
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday declined to revisit its decisions in a trio of intellectual property cases, including one where it upheld an Acadia Pharmaceuticals Parkinson's disease drug patent and addressed double-patenting, and another deeming "Kist" and "Sunkist" soft drink marks confusingly similar.
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September 10, 2025
Pa. Court Upholds Defense Verdict In Throat Surgery Suit
The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday affirmed a jury verdict in favor of an anesthesiologist accused of causing a patient's trachea tear following throat surgery, saying the doctor's expert witness didn't introduce new testimony at trial.
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September 10, 2025
Denver Fights $14M Verdict Over Protester Abuse Claims
A Tenth Circuit panel pressed both sides Wednesday over whether jurors should have heard testimony from an investigator that Denver says unfairly tainted a trial which yielded a nearly $14 million verdict to 12 protesters over clashes with police during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the city.
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September 10, 2025
Cannabis Co. Says Battle With Activists Was Tossed Too Soon
A multistate cannabis company told a New Jersey state appeals court on Wednesday that its lawsuit against local opponents of a cultivation facility was prematurely dismissed, while the activists countered that the case amounted to a strategic lawsuit against public participation cloaked in land-use litigation.
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September 10, 2025
2nd Circ. OKs Verizon's $47M FCC Fine, Splitting With 5th Circ.
The Second Circuit upheld Wednesday the Federal Communications Commission's $46.9 million fine against Verizon Communications Inc. for misuse of device-location data, rejecting Verizon's arguments that the data falls outside federal privacy protections and that such a penalty without a jury trial was unconstitutional, creating a split with the Fifth Circuit.
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September 10, 2025
NC Justice Probes 'Scalia-Style' View Of Waste Fee Law
A North Carolina Supreme Court justice probed the expansiveness of counsel's argument over a county's solid waste ordinance Wednesday, wondering if channeling a "Justice Scalia"-style reading of the text suggests that a property owner could hire a private waste collector just once a year to sidestep an annual fee.
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September 10, 2025
En Banc 11th Circ. Ruling Hints At Broad Reach For Skrmetti
The Eleventh Circuit invoking a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that backed a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors to rule against a transgender Georgia sheriff's deputy who challenged her health plan's coverage exclusions invites lower courts to import the justices' rationale into workplace discrimination cases, experts say.
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September 10, 2025
Ga. Stroke Patient Seeks New Trial Over Misdiagnosis Claims
A woman who says that an emergency room doctor at an Atlanta-area hospital failed to diagnose her stroke in time to save her from lifelong brain damage urged the Georgia Court of Appeals Wednesday to grant her a new trial, telling the court that "the record is absolutely silent" about the doctor's purported ordering of exams that might have turned the tide.
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September 10, 2025
Ga. Panel Says Privilege Can Cover Unlicensed In-House Atty
The Georgia Court of Appeals said a trial court rightly found that Church's Chicken and its chief legal officer were protected by attorney-client privilege in a franchisee's contract suit, finding privilege can sometimes cover communications between a corporation and unlicensed in-house counsel.
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September 10, 2025
6th Circ. Splits In Racial Bias Suit Over Hearsay Evidence
A divided Sixth Circuit panel upheld an elevator manufacturer's defeat of a former employee's retaliation suit Wednesday, saying a human resources representative's secondhand statement about the reason for the employee's termination was correctly kept out of the case.
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September 10, 2025
Del. Justices Urged To Revive $10.5B Zendesk Deal Challenge
An attorney for stockholders of software-as-a-service business Zendesk Inc. told Delaware's Supreme Court Wednesday that a conflict at the heart of a challenge to the company's $10.5 billion take-private deal with a private equity consortium was undisclosed at the time of its approval.
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September 10, 2025
State AGs Back Trans Worker In Liberty U.'s 4th Circ. Appeal
A group of 19 states and Washington, D.C., urged the Fourth Circuit to back a trial court's decision to keep a former Liberty University employee's transgender bias case in court, arguing the religious university's interpretation of the First Amendment would decimate anti-discrimination efforts.
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September 10, 2025
Md. Appeals Court Says Psychoactive Hemp Wares Illegal
A Maryland appeals court on Tuesday ruled that products containing psychoactive compounds derived from hemp are illegal, delivering a blow to a coalition of hemp interests that brought a constitutional challenge to the state's recreational marijuana legalization law.
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September 10, 2025
Texas Panel Says Expert Not Qualified In Facelift Suit
A panel of the Texas appellate court has excluded an expert report offered by a woman suing her plastic surgeon over an allegedly botched facelift, saying the anesthesiologist did not establish that he is qualified to opine on the surgery and claims in question.
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September 10, 2025
3rd Circ. Questions NJ's Bid To Block Kalshi's Sports Bets
The Third Circuit seemed prepared on Wednesday to block New Jersey from enforcing a sports gambling ban on trading platform KalshiEx, with at least one judge arguing the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's authority to regulate the event contracts space "seems quite broad."
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September 10, 2025
FTC Warns Healthcare Employers About Noncompetes
The Federal Trade Commission has sent letters warning healthcare employers and staffing companies not to include overly broad noncompete restrictions in their employment contracts and urged them to conduct a review to ensure they comply with the law.
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September 10, 2025
Biz Groups Ask 4th Circ. To Revisit Ethylene Oxide Class Suit
Business groups have urged the Fourth Circuit to reconsider a recent ruling that allowed a West Virginia woman's proposed class action to proceed against Union Carbide Corp. and Covestro LLC over ethylene oxide exposure, arguing that she doesn't have ground for her medical-monitoring claims.
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September 10, 2025
Fla. Panel Says State's Open-Carry Ban Is Unconstitutional
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday unanimously struck down a state law that restricted the open carry of firearms, saying the statute was incompatible with the Second Amendment because it was at odds with a "historical tradition of firearms regulation" in the U.S.
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September 10, 2025
Meet The Attys Now Fighting Judge Newman's Suspension
Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's main attorney in the fight against her suspension from the appeals court has departed from the New Civil Liberties Alliance, leaving his former colleagues to head the litigation.
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September 10, 2025
Ohio Appeals Court Orders Retrial For Invalid Jury Trial Waiver
A state appeals court in Ohio has ruled that a pro se appellant accused of double murder and a weapons charge must be retried because he was unfairly denied a jury trial without verbally waiving his rights in open court.
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September 10, 2025
4th Circ. Hears Neb. Tribe's Fight For Children's Repatriation
The U.S. Army can't say that the remains of two children entombed in a former Pennsylvania Indian boarding school are not part of a collection or holding, counsel for a Nebraska tribe told a Fourth Circuit panel on Wednesday in seeking the return of the remains to their tribe, arguing that they were buried and re-buried without tribal consent.
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September 10, 2025
CORRECTED: Fla. Court Affirms $131M Judgment For Trinidad And Tobago
A Florida appeals court Wednesday affirmed a $131 million judgment against a trio of businessmen a jury found conspired to defraud the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago out of more than $32 million in a bid-rigging scheme that involved the government awarding hyperinflated airport construction contracts.
Expert Analysis
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Calif. Arbitration Fee Ruling Gives Employers Slight Leeway
The California Supreme Court's decision in Hohenshelt v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County offers a narrow lifeline that protects employers from losing arbitration rights over inadvertent fee payment delays, but auditing arbitration agreements and implementing payment tracking protocols can ensure that deadlines are always met, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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Ruling Offers Insurers A Path To Settle Sans Insured Consent
A recent North Carolina federal court ruling, Martin Marietta Materials v. Ace, joins other states in holding that an insurer may consider its own interests in settlement negotiations, outlining a strong strategy for insurers faced with an uncooperative insured and the threat of a large verdict, say attorneys at Phelps Dunbar.
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Lessons From 7th Circ.'s Deleted Chat Sanctions Ruling
The Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Pable v. Chicago Transit Authority, affirming the dismissal of an ex-employee’s retaliation claims, highlights the importance of properly handling the preservation of ephemeral messages and clarifies key sanctions issues, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.
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Adapting To USPTO's Tighter Inter Partes Review Rules
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent pivot regarding how it will address general knowledge in inter partes review petitions presents immediate strategic implications for petitioners, patent owners and litigants watching the contours of Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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Series
Quilting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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3rd Circ. FMLA Suit Revival Offers Notice Rule Lessons
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.
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Utility Agency Suits May Rise As Calif. Justices Nix Deference
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.
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2 Appellate Rulings Offer Clickwrap Enforcement Road Map
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.
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Fleeing Or Just Leaving Quickly? 2nd Circ. Says It Depends
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.
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What 2 Profs Noticed As Transactional Law Students Used AI
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.
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What Patent Claim 'Invalidity' Means In Different Forums
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.
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Reel Justice: 'Eddington' Spotlights Social Media Evidence
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.
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8th Circ. Rulings Show Employer ADA Risks In Fitness Tests
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.
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Rebuttal
BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation
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.
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9th Circ. Leaves Scope Of CIPA Applicability Unclear
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.