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Illinois

  • October 01, 2025

    States Say DOJ Can't Tie Victim Service Funds To Immigration

    Several state attorneys general sued the U.S. Department of Justice in Rhode Island federal court Wednesday over new restrictions prohibiting them from using federal funding that supports crime victims to provide services to "removable aliens," in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution's spending clause.

  • October 01, 2025

    Accellion Breach Plaintiffs Get Cert. For Narrow Subclasses

    A California federal judge has agreed to allow plaintiffs to proceed with five subclasses in their dispute with Accellion over allegations the company failed to protect against cyberattacks on its file-sharing software, while finding that a lack of "cohesion" doomed their chances to certify a broader negligence class of roughly 5 million breach victims. 

  • October 01, 2025

    Insurance Row Can't Halt Deal With 'Joker' Producer's Broker

    Movie investors who've settled Ponzi scheme accusations against a broker who solicited funds for "Joker" producer Jason Cloth's purported projects should be allowed to continue that part of their case despite the investors' pending coverage fight and amended claims against Cloth, an Illinois appellate panel ruled.

  • October 01, 2025

    Captive Audience Ban Meets Starkly Different Fate In Calif., Ill.

    A California federal judge preliminarily blocked a new state law that prohibits employers from holding so-called captive audience meetings on Tuesday, the same day that an Illinois federal judge tossed a lawsuit challenging a similar state law in the Prairie State.

  • October 01, 2025

    HP Ditches Antitrust Suit Over Third-Party Ink, For Now

    HP customers accusing the printer maker of illegally using a firmware update to block them from using third-party ink cartridges in their machines have not outlined a viable antitrust claim to pursue, but they can try again, an Illinois federal judge has ruled.

  • October 01, 2025

    Ill. Jury Awards $67M In Panera Truck Crash Case

    An Illinois jury has awarded $67 million to the families of two people who were killed and a man who was severely injured in a 2018 crash where a car hit a Panera Bread truck and then struck a third vehicle head-on.

  • October 01, 2025

    Court OKs Policy Rescission In $2.5M Tax Coverage Row

    An insurer for a telecommunications company owes no coverage for its $2.5 million settlement with the Illinois government over claims that it failed to collect and remit certain taxes and fees owed by customers, an Illinois federal court ruled, finding the insurer was entitled to rescind its policy.

  • October 01, 2025

    NY Judge Undoes Order Freeing NFL's Lions From IP Suit

    A New York federal judge has reversed an order that let the Detroit Lions football team out of a suit brought by a photographer who says the team modeled a statue of Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders on his photo.

  • October 01, 2025

    Conn. Diocese Attys Slam US Trustee's $3.1M Fee Complaint

    The Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp.'s attorneys at Ice Miller LLP and Robinson & Cole LLP, along with other bankruptcy advisers, have disputed a U.S. Trustee's claims that nearly $3.1 million in combined professional fees were not actual, necessary and reasonable in light of a mediator's efforts.

  • October 01, 2025

    Judge Warns Of 'Bickering' In Creditor's Row With Law Firm

    An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday gave Chicago law firm Johnson & Bell LLP just under two weeks to produce records or a privilege log to a New York creditor who says the firm unlawfully "paid itself" with a client's $500,000 settlement, and encouraged the parties to "take a breath" in what she called one of the most contentious cases on her docket.

  • October 01, 2025

    Ill. AG Backs Workers In Amazon COVID Screenings Fight

    The Illinois attorney general backed two workers claiming Amazon owes them for the time they spent on COVID-19 screenings, arguing to the state's Supreme Court that Illinois wage law is more expansive than the Fair Labor Standards Act and includes no exception for preliminary and postliminary activities. 

  • October 01, 2025

    Software Co. Not Covered For $3M Privacy Fight, Court Says

    Various Travelers units owe no coverage to a software provider that reached a nearly $3 million class action settlement over claims that it violated Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, a federal court ruled, finding that an exclusion relating to the "access or disclosure" of personal information is applicable.

  • September 30, 2025

    Ill. Doctor Gets Two Years' Probation For $4M Medicare Fraud

    A former doctor who admitted to submitting more than $4 million in false Medicare claims was sentenced to two years of probation Tuesday by an Illinois federal judge who sought to honor the ex-physician's cooperation in prosecutors' efforts to pursue other allegedly culpable defendants in different jurisdictions.

  • September 30, 2025

    Union Pacific Takes Chicago Metra Lines Fight To 8th Circ.

    Union Pacific told the Eighth Circuit that a federal rail regulator acted arbitrarily when it recently granted terminal trackage rights on three of its rail lines to Metra, Chicago's commuter rail system, the latest escalation in a yearslong contractual dispute over access to the crucial rail hub.

  • September 30, 2025

    Blue Cross Insurers Sanctioned For 2-Year Discovery Drawout

    An Illinois federal judge has ordered a host of Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers to pay the fees and costs Walgreens incurred in an overbilling suit while helping to work through discovery production, which took two years to remediate with a special master.

  • September 30, 2025

    7th Circ. Urges Litigants To Exercise Caution In Using AI

    A Seventh Circuit panel ended an inmate's appeal of his life sentence, noting in an unpublished opinion filed Tuesday that his lawyer found no real legal issues worth raising, while warning the parties not to rely blindly on generative AI when writing court papers, as it can lead to serious mistakes.

  • September 30, 2025

    Nationwide Insurers Must Defend Auto Co. In BIPA Dispute

    Two Nationwide units must defend an automotive accessory company accused of violating Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, an Illinois federal court held Tuesday, following a ruling in a separate case that found no coverage for the company under its Hanover Insurance policies.

  • September 30, 2025

    NPR Fights CPB's $30M Grant Shift In Court

    A federal judge got assurances from Corporation for Public Broadcasting lawyers Tuesday that it won't commit $30 million to a new National Public Radio alternative for managing the public radio satellite system for at least the next month as he considers a motion from NPR for an injunction blocking the move indefinitely.

  • September 30, 2025

    Judge Freezes Chinese Cos.' Assets In X-Ray IP Suit

    Two Chinese companies were barred from doing business in the United States and had their U.S.-based assets frozen by a Chicago federal judge until they comply with an earlier injunction order, with the judge stopping short of referring the pair and two of their executives for criminal contempt charges.

  • September 30, 2025

    Hospital Urges Justices To Review 7th Circ. Medicaid Ruling

    A Chicago hospital urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its petition for review of a Seventh Circuit ruling that had shut down its suit against the state of Illinois seeking enforcement of timely Medicaid payments, saying it's an "excellent opportunity" to address "resulting uncertainties" after a recent ruling against Planned Parenthood.

  • September 29, 2025

    Chess Website Can't Dodge Suit Over Video Data-Sharing

    An Illinois federal judge has refused to ax a proposed class action accusing Chess.com LLC of illegally sharing information about website visitors' video-viewing activities, finding that the plaintiff qualified as a "consumer" and met two other necessary elements to assert a claim under the Video Privacy Protection Act.

  • September 29, 2025

    DHS Can't Tie FEMA Funds To Immigration Agenda, AGs Say

    A dozen state attorneys general sued the Department of Homeland Security in Rhode Island federal court on Monday, accusing it of holding emergency response funding hostage unless they help enforce federal immigration laws, despite a recent court order blocking the department's attempts to condition funds on such assistance.

  • September 29, 2025

    Resort Co. Loses TCPA Suit Targeting Unsolicited Promo Calls

    Club Exploria LLC lost its bid to compel arbitration in a class action targeting unsolicited telemarketing calls when an Illinois federal judge favored instead the lead plaintiff's bid for a quick win on his claim that the resort company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

  • September 29, 2025

    CTA Could Face Second Ill. Jury Over Vaccine Bias Allegations

    An Illinois federal judge has found there are too many open questions to give a win to the Chicago Transit Authority in a former employee's suit over its decision to terminate him after he sought a religious exemption to the agency's mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.

  • September 29, 2025

    Boeing Using Rejected Args In 737 Max Fraud Suit, Fund Says

    An investment fund has told an Illinois federal judge that Boeing cannot escape a lawsuit alleging it misrepresented the overall safety of the 737 Max 8 after two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, saying it has pinpointed specific misstatements that judges in similar cases have already deemed actionable.

Expert Analysis

  • $100K H-1B Fee May Disrupt Rural Healthcare Needs

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    The Trump administration's newly imposed $100,000 supplemental fee on new H-1B petitions may disproportionately affect healthcare employers' ability to recruit international medical graduates, and the fee's national interest exceptions will not adequately solve ensuing problems for healthcare employers or medically underserved areas, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • What Ethics Rules Say On Atty Discipline For Online Speech

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    Though law firms are free to discipline employees for their online commentary about Charlie Kirk or other social media activity, saying crude or insensitive things on the internet generally doesn’t subject attorneys to professional discipline under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, says Stacie H. Rosenzweig at Halling & Cayo.

  • What's At Stake In High Court's Ill. Ballot Deadline Case

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    In Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week on whether and when candidates for office have standing to bring prospective challenges to election laws, raising broader issues about the proper timing of federal court election litigation, say Richard Pildes and Samuel Ozer-Staton at NYU School of Law.

  • Junior Attys Must Beware Of 5 Common Legal Brief Mistakes

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    Junior law firm associates must be careful to avoid five common pitfalls when drafting legal briefs — from including every possible argument to not developing a theme — to build the reputation of a sought-after litigator, says James Argionis at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: How And Why Training Must Evolve

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    Empowering paralegals through new models of education that emphasize digital fluency, interdisciplinary collaboration and human-centered lawyering could help solve workforce challenges and the justice gap — if firms, educators and policymakers get on board, say Kristine Custodio Suero and Kelli Radnothy.

  • Series

    Playing Softball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My time on the softball field has taught me lessons that also apply to success in legal work — on effective preparation, flexibility, communication and teamwork, says Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: Choosing MDL Venues

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    One of the most interesting yet least predictable facets of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation's practice is venue — namely where the panel decides to place a new MDL proceeding — and its choices reflect the tension between neutrality and case-specific factors, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.

  • 8 Steps For Industrial Property Buyers To Limit Enviro Liability

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    Ongoing litigation over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s designation of PFAS as hazardous site contaminants demonstrates the liabilities that industrial property purchasers risk inheriting, but steps to guarantee rigorous environmental compliance, anticipate regulatory change and allocate cleanup responsibilities can mitigate this uncertainty, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Time Management

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    Law students typically have weeks or months to prepare for any given deadline, but the unpredictability of practicing in the real world means that lawyers must become time-management pros, ready to adapt to scheduling conflicts and unexpected assignments at any given moment, says David Thomas at Honigman.

  • How Hyperlinks Are Changing E-Discovery Responsibilities

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    A recent e-discovery dispute over hyperlinked data in Hubbard v. Crow shows how courts have increasingly broadened the definition of control to account for cloud-based evidence, and why organizations must rethink preservation practices to avoid spoliation risks, says Bree Murphy at Exterro.

  • Recent Precedent May Aid In Defending Ad Tech Class Actions

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    An emergent line of appellate court precedent regarding the indecipherability of anonymized advertising technology transmissions can be used as a powerful tool to counteract the explosion of advertising technology class actions under myriad statutory theories, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Series

    Writing Musicals Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My experiences with writing musicals and practicing law have shown that the building blocks for both endeavors are one and the same, because drama is necessary for the law to exist, says Addison O’Donnell at LOIS Law.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From Va. AUSA To Mid-Law

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    Returning to the firm where I began my career after seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia has been complex, nuanced and rewarding, and I’ve learned that the pursuit of justice remains the constant, even as the mindset and client change, says Kristin Johnson at Woods Rogers.

  • Considerations For Cos. Amid Wave Of ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ Vacatur Bids

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    As some entities look to vacate prior voluntary agreements with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, there are several considerations companies should take into account before seeking to vacate their settlements in the current legal and regulatory environment, says Jasmine Jean-Louis at Goodwin.

  • 7 Document Review Concepts New Attorneys Need To Know

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    For new associates joining firms this fall, stepping into the world of e-discovery can feel like learning a new language, but understanding a handful of fundamentals — from coding layouts to metadata — can help attorneys become fluent in document review, says Ann Motl at Bowman and Brooke.

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