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Appellate

  • August 07, 2025

    7th Circ. Backs $75M In Chicken Price-Fixing Settlements

    The Seventh Circuit rejected an appeal from restaurants challenging $75 million in settlements inked in the broiler chicken price-fixing litigation with Koch Foods Inc. and House of Raeford Farms Inc., after finding an analysis of prices failed to show the deals were unreasonable.

  • August 07, 2025

    Democracy Forward Launches Appellate Practice

    The Democracy Forward Foundation has formed an appellate practice on the heels of a hiring spree that has doubled the nonprofit's legal staff since November with former BigLaw and government attorneys, as some private firms have pulled back from taking on cases that challenge the current White House.

  • August 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Skeptical Of Realty Co.'s IRS Contract Dispute

    Federal Circuit judges seemed skeptical Thursday of a realty company's claim that the IRS improperly blocked its bid to continue leasing office space to the agency after IRS employees complained about the building, with one judge challenging whether evidence actually showed the agency acted in bad faith.

  • August 07, 2025

    CoStar Asks Full 9th Circ. To Revisit Antitrust Ruling For Rival

    Commercial real estate information company CoStar Group Inc. and a subsidiary are urging the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling reviving antitrust counterclaims lodged by rival Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc., which CoStar has accused in a suit of stealing property listing data and copyrighted photos.

  • August 07, 2025

    Mass. High Court Affirms $1M Pension Loss For OT Fraud

    The forfeiture of $1 million in pension and health benefits following a Massachusetts state trooper's conviction in an overtime fraud scheme is not so grossly disproportionate to the offense that it violates the state constitution's prohibition on excessive fines, Massachusetts' highest court concluded on Thursday.

  • August 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Affirms PTAB Ax Of Bone Fusion Device Patents

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld Patent Trial and Appeal Board rulings that invalidated claims in a pair of Stryker Corp. patents for a surgical implant that a Berkshire Hathaway-owned rival had challenged.

  • August 07, 2025

    Wawa Beats Injury Suit Appeal Despite Deleted Footage

    The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld a trial win for Wawa Inc. in a personal injury lawsuit, rejecting the plaintiff's argument that the judge should have given an adverse inference instruction to the jury because of Wawa's alleged failure to preserve surveillance video footage from the day of the accident.

  • August 07, 2025

    Kratom Buyers Take Addictiveness Suit To 9th Circ.

    A proposed class of kratom buyers is appealing to the Ninth Circuit after their claims that Thang Botanicals and FTLS Holdings LLC misled them about the addictive qualities of kratom products were dismissed with prejudice.

  • August 06, 2025

    6th Circ. Rips 'Stalking Horse' Ploy In Drug Negotiation Suit

    The pharmaceutical industry will feel the sting of a Wednesday loss in a wide-ranging war over Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices, as the Sixth Circuit tossed a suit and accused one major company of utilizing a "stalking horse" to sue in a more favorable forum.

  • August 06, 2025

    6th Circ. Orders Redo Of Pension Fund Withdrawal Liability

    The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday said a pension fund's actuary must redo his estimate of a Michigan-based paving company's withdrawal liability, likening the actuary to an oddsmaker giving a bad estimate of how many points a college basketball team will give up in a game because he is "just rude."

  • August 06, 2025

    States Urge Justices To Back Med Mal Laws In Federal Court

    Tennessee and 26 other states on Wednesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that state statutes requiring an expert affidavit in all medical malpractice suits may be applied in federal court, arguing that overriding these laws under federal procedure rules would undermine state authority.

  • August 06, 2025

    Calif. Water Toxicity Test Flouts Federal Law, Court Rules

    A California state appeals court has barred state regulators from requiring wastewater entities to use a new water pollution test for discharge permits, but said the Golden State's adoption of new toxicity provisions was proper under state law.

  • August 06, 2025

    Ga. Judges Weigh Birth Defect Ruling in Sterigenics Case

    A group of Georgia residents who alleged they were injured by emissions from a Sterigenics sterilization plant urged the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday to overturn a lower court's grant of partial summary judgment to the company on the issue of whether the plant's emissions caused birth defects.

  • August 06, 2025

    Ohio Panel Revives Robbery Case Over Receipt Evidence

    An Ohio state appeals court has ruled that a state prosecutor's office did not violate evidence rules when it failed to turn over a sales receipt for a stolen cell phone in a robbery case, finding the evidence wouldn't have helped the defendant.

  • August 06, 2025

    RJ Reynolds Keeps Trial Win In Cancer Death Suit, Panel Says

    A Massachusetts intermediate-level appeals court on Wednesday affirmed RJ Reynolds' trial win in a suit accusing it of causing a man's lung cancer, saying a new trial was not warranted as the trial judge did not unfairly exclude certain evidence.

  • August 06, 2025

    Compelling ERISA Arbitration No Sure Thing, 9th Circ. Shows

    The Ninth Circuit aligned with several other federal appeals courts when it recently struck down a clause in a food service company's employee health plan that barred class or representative actions, marking the latest in a series of setbacks for employers looking to push federal benefits suits into solo arbitration.

  • August 06, 2025

    Pa. Panel OKs Doctor's Midtrial Win In Bad Surgery Suit

    A Pennsylvania appellate panel on Wednesday upheld a trial judge's decision to grant a midtrial win to a physician accused of botching a woman's saliva gland removal surgery, saying the plaintiff's liability theory was not supported by the testimony of her medical expert.

  • August 06, 2025

    Axed Verdicts Put Spotlight On Patent Applicant Statements

    Recent Federal Circuit decisions overturning substantial patent judgments due to statements the patent owner made during the application process illustrate the importance of applicants carefully calibrating their arguments, particularly when seeking design patents, attorneys say.

  • August 06, 2025

    5th Circ. Upholds Gun Ban For Convicted Felons

    A Fifth Circuit panel on Wednesday shot down a felon's attempt to have a gun charge thrown out after he was found guilty of a drive-by shooting, saying a historical analog from the time of the country's founding allows for confiscation of firearms from felons.

  • August 06, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Habeas Request Prevented By Procedure

    The Fourth Circuit denied habeas relief to a Virginia attempted bank robber who has since been released from prison, affirming Wednesday that his argument that he was sentenced under an unconstitutionally vague guideline did not meet procedural requirements for postconviction relief and could not be considered.

  • August 06, 2025

    Parents Lose Deportation Appeal That Cited Child's Disability

    An Eleventh Circuit panel said Wednesday that hardship determinations in deportation proceedings should be reviewed to ascertain whether federal immigration courts have "substantial evidence" to back the determinations, in the process rejecting an undocumented immigrant couple's bid to stay in the U.S. to continue treatment and schooling for their child, who has a learning disability.

  • August 06, 2025

    Mich. Panel Wary Of MSU Student's Hazing Law Challenge

    A former Michigan State University student may have an uphill battle convincing a state appellate panel to ax criminal hazing charges related to a student's death at a fraternity party, the judges on the panel suggested Wednesday.

  • August 06, 2025

    Archdiocese Seeks Reinsurance Docs In Sex Abuse Row

    The Archdiocese of New York urged a state appeals court Wednesday to uphold an order mandating that nine Chubb units turn over reinsurance documents as they litigate coverage for thousands of sex abuse lawsuits, noting Chubb already said before the trial court that "reinsurance is simply insurance for insurers."

  • August 06, 2025

    Insulin Collusion Needn't Be 'Clever' To Exist, 2nd Circ. Says

    A Second Circuit panel revived safety-net providers' proposed class action claims against Sanofi, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and AstraZeneca on Wednesday that allege the company agreed to limit discount program participation to spike insulin and weight-loss drug costs, with the appeals court rejecting drugmaker arguments that their actions weren't "clever" enough to be collusion.

  • August 06, 2025

    UC Policy Found Discriminatory Based On Immigration Status

    A California state appeals court has ruled that the University of California's employment policy against hiring unauthorized immigrant students who lack federal work permits is "facially discriminatory," and that the university system couldn't lean on a risk of federal enforcement for justification.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

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    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • Quantifying Trading-Based Damages Using Price Impact

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely increasingly rely on price impact analyses to demonstrate pecuniary harm from trading-related misconduct, meaning measuring price impact will be helpful in challenging SEC disgorgement, determining appropriate remedies, and assessing loss causation and damages in private litigation, says Vyacheslav Fos at Boston College and Erin Smith at Compass Lexecon.

  • 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.

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