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Appellate

  • September 18, 2025

    Ill. Justices Reverse Therapist's Fee Win Against Regulator

    Illinois' financial and professional regulator should not be ordered to pay attorney fees in connection with a therapist's successful bid to shield his notes from a doctor's administrative reinstatement hearing, the state's highest court ruled Thursday.

  • September 18, 2025

    Delaware Judge Calls For Civility After 'Annus Horribilis'

    In a rare postscript to her bench ruling this week, a Delaware vice chancellor lamented what she observed as a breakdown in the state bar's civility and mutual respect over the past "annus horribilis," comments that have since drawn cautious support and resonance with several in the First State's legal community.

  • September 18, 2025

    Ga. Panel Lifts Bar On Mom's Suit Over Accidental Shooting

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has revived a woman's wrongful death suit over her son's accidental shooting while in training as a security guard, overturning a lower court's ruling that her claims were preempted by a liability release in a workers' compensation settlement.

  • September 18, 2025

    Alaska Asks Justices To End Feds' Subsistence Fishing Regs

    The state of Alaska is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to step into its dispute with the federal government and Native American groups over fishing regulations in its navigable waters, challenging a Ninth Circuit ruling that barred the state from opening part of the Kuskokwim River to all fishers.

  • September 18, 2025

    Fed. Circ.'s PTAB Prior Art Ruling Risks Havoc, Justices Told

    The Federal Circuit created a "jumbled mess" when it ruled that the filing date of a patent application dictates whether it can be used as prior art to invalidate a later patent, rather than the date the application was published, Lynk Labs Inc. has told the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • September 18, 2025

    Texas Court Says Citizen Can't Intervene To Uphold Pot Law

    The citizen sponsor of a voter-approved marijuana decriminalization ordinance cannot intervene in the deal struck between the state attorney general and city of Elgin that declared the ordinance void, a Texas appeals court ruled, saying the advocate doesn't have standing.

  • September 18, 2025

    Conn. Justice 'Embarrassed' By State's Atty Discipline Rules

    A Connecticut Supreme Court justice said Thursday that he was "embarrassed" by the "terribly unclear" ethics rules at the center of an attorney discipline case, appearing sympathetic to the argument that a trial court should have entertained the lawyer's constitutional challenge to the grievance process.

  • September 18, 2025

    DC Circ. Judge Says PJM Monitor May Have 'Hint Of Paranoia'

    The D.C. Circuit didn't seem so sure Thursday morning that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was flouting the rules by denying an independent market monitor access to its liaison committee meetings, with one judge saying the monitor seemed to be exhibiting a "hint of paranoia."

  • September 18, 2025

    7th Circ. Judge Wary Of Ex-Firefighter's Free Speech Position

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Thursday said an attorney for a former Chicago firefighter seeking to revive a suit claiming he was unlawfully fired for a series of memes and other statements posted on Facebook seemed to be making a "hyperbolic" argument that public employers cannot regulate speech outside the workplace.

  • September 18, 2025

    Wash. Panel Calls Gas Station Co.'s Insurance Delay Risky

    Whether gas station operator Gull Industries Inc. is entitled to legal defense costs from Granite State Insurance Co. in long-running litigation over the company's environmental liability may ultimately boil down to timing, Washington state appellate judges suggested at a hearing Thursday.

  • September 18, 2025

    2nd Circ. To Weigh EFTA's Scope In NY's Citi Wire Fraud Case

    The Second Circuit has granted Citibank's request for an appeal in its fight with New York Attorney General Letitia James over the bank's response to incidents of online wire transfer fraud, agreeing to review whether key federal consumer protections for electronic payments apply to wire transfers initiated over the internet.

  • September 18, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Hears 'Settled Expectations' Are 'Lawless' In IP Feud

    SanDisk Technologies Inc. and its former parent have become the latest challengers at the Federal Circuit to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's discretionary denial practices, taking aim at its acting director's holdings that patent owners eventually have the right to assume their patents won't be challenged.

  • September 18, 2025

    Split Court Shields Mich. City From Teen's Drowning Suit

    The city of South Haven, Michigan, is immune from the claims of the estate of a man who drowned while swimming in Lake Michigan because the estate failed to establish that an exception to governmental immunity applied, a divided state appeals court ruled.

  • September 18, 2025

    Groups Look To Block EPA's $3B Grant Cuts Amid Appeal

    Conservation, tribal groups, and local and county governments are looking to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from terminating a $3 billion climate grant program while they appeal a decision that dismissed their claims, arguing that public interest and equities weigh heavily in their favor.

  • September 18, 2025

    6th Circ. Allows Case Against Deputy For Attacking Man

    A Sixth Circuit panel has affirmed a lower court's ruling, finding that a Tennessee police officer who went into a man's home and hit him on Halloween in 2021 could not use qualified immunity to shield himself from liability for his actions.

  • September 18, 2025

    Mich. Top Court To Weigh Medicare's Role In No-Fault Cases

    Michigan's highest court will weigh whether an injured driver who opted out of personal injury protection due to his Medicare coverage must offset his damages by billing the insurance program for accident-related medical expenses in a no-fault dispute. 

  • September 18, 2025

    Circuit Board Maker Fights $7.6M Trial Loss At 11th Circ.

    A Chinese circuit board manufacturer asked the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday to reverse a ruling in its U.S. distributor's favor, arguing that the lower court improperly held it to a heightened pleading standard in their contract dispute, paving the way to a $7.6 million loss at trial.

  • September 18, 2025

    7th Circ. Questions Jurisdiction In $250M Van Gogh Dispute

    The Seventh Circuit on Thursday appeared skeptical that an Illinois court had jurisdiction to hear a dispute brought by heirs of a German Jewish art collector persecuted by the Nazi Party, seeking to recover a Vincent van Gogh "Sunflowers" painting from a Japanese firm.

  • September 18, 2025

    Army Challenges Tribe's Claims In Burial Dispute At 4th Circ.

    The U.S. Army told the Fourth Circuit this week that a tribe seeking the repatriation of remains from a former Pennsylvania Native American boarding school was wrong to claim that it couldn't find living relatives of the entombed children, citing a news article pointing to the existence of those relatives.

  • September 18, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Stay Venezuelans' TPS Win Amid Feds' Appeal

    The Ninth Circuit denied on Wednesday the Trump administration's latest emergency-stay request, which would have let the government continue to unwind temporary protected status for 600,000 Venezuelans as it challenges its summary-judgment loss on appeal, rejecting the government's argument that the U.S. Supreme Court's prior stay ruling in the case controls.

  • September 18, 2025

    EPA Will Maintain Hazardous Designations For PFOA, PFOS

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it will defend the Biden administration's decision to list two common forever chemicals as hazardous substances under the federal Superfund law.

  • September 18, 2025

    Circuit Split On Felon Gun Ban Could Set Up High Court Review

    A growing divide among federal appellate courts on how a gun ban for felons fits within the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 expansion of individuals' right to carry firearms in public could force the high court to revisit the Second Amendment.

  • September 18, 2025

    Citing Lashify, ITC Finds Domestic Industry In Vape Case

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed with a judge's finding that Pax Labs Inc. has satisfied a requirement for it to bring its case alleging imports of vape devices infringed various patents, relying on a pair of Federal Circuit rulings over what counts toward that requirement.

  • September 18, 2025

    Couple Slam NC Defense Attys In Hospital Negligence Appeal

    A couple pursuing negligence claims against a local hospital scoffed at the idea that they were lurking on the sidelines waiting to cash in on a favorable outcome in a similar case, telling the North Carolina appeals court to ignore an amicus brief by defense attorneys arguing as much.

  • September 18, 2025

    Colibri Wants Full Fed. Circ. To Rethink Medtronic Patent Case

    Colibri Heart Valve LLC wants the full Federal Circuit to review a panel's ruling overturning a patent infringement judgment of more than $125 million against Medtronic's CoreValve unit, saying the panel wrongly applied a reading of the law that is too broad.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • A Look At Justices' Rare Decision Not To Limit Agency Powers

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    The Supreme Court's recent denial of Alpine's cert petition in its long-running case against the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority sends a strong signal that litigation strategies dependent on the elimination of government agencies merit caution, even from a court that lately hasn't been shy about paring back agency authority, say attorneys at Venable.

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