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Appellate

  • August 05, 2025

    Fired NCUA Officials Urge DC Circ. To Return Them To Board

    Two top credit union regulators fired by President Donald Trump are asking the D.C. Circuit to let them go back to work while it reviews a lower-court decision reinstating them, arguing their service is needed to prevent a painful impending snapback in interest-rate limits for federal credit unions.

  • August 05, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Presses Brita On Bid To Revive Water Filter Patent

    A Federal Circuit panel Tuesday questioned Brita LP's effort to reverse a U.S. International Trade Commission decision that a water filter patent is invalid, suggesting the patent describes little more than an unpredictable scientific formula.

  • August 05, 2025

    Ex-USPTO Heads, Judges Oppose Anti-Patent Thicket Bill

    A pro-innovation group composed of former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials and former Federal Circuit judges on Tuesday asked Congress to oppose a bill introduced last month that would limit so-called patent thickets used by pharmaceutical companies to restrict the production of generic counterparts to their drugs.

  • August 05, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Panel Feeling Deja Vu In Hoverboard IP Case

    A Federal Circuit panel had little support for the owner of hoverboard design patents Tuesday, as the judges said much of its noninfringement appeal relies on concerns addressed in a prior appellate decision.

  • August 05, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Partly Revives Solar Panel Safety Patent Challenge

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has to take another look at one of renewable energy industry trade group SunSpec Alliance's arguments in its challenge to claims of a patent on safeguards for solar panels.

  • August 05, 2025

    10th Circ. Says No Signature Needed In Asylum Appeal

    The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday revived a Salvadoran family's appeal of an immigration judge's denial of their asylum claim, ruling that the Board of Immigration Appeals wrongly rejected it over a missing signature that wasn't legally required.

  • August 05, 2025

    UBH Patients Score Partial Win In Mental Health Claims Fight

    A California federal judge handed a partial win Tuesday to a class of participants in employee health benefit plans who sought coverage for mental health and substance use disorder treatments from United Behavioral Health, holding the company's overly restrictive guidelines breached fiduciary duties under federal benefits law.

  • August 05, 2025

    Fed. Hazmat Law Doesn't Bar Negligence Suit, 2nd Circ. Says

    A Connecticut federal judge was wrong to find that the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act preempted a propane company's common-law negligence and recklessness claims over damage it suffered from a heating oil spill, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday in restoring a lawsuit seeking more than $500,000 to cover remediation costs.

  • August 05, 2025

    McDermott Investors Say One Class Is Enough In Fraud Case

    An employee retirement plan leading an investor class action against McDermott International Inc. asked the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday to reverse an order certifying two subclasses of investors based on whether they held stock before or after a 2018 merger.

  • August 05, 2025

    Ill. Appeals Court Backs Counsel Redo In Battery Case

    An Illinois state appeals court has ruled that a man found guilty of domestic battery is entitled to a trial court hearing on a motion he personally lodged claiming his attorney was ineffective and that he was unfairly denied the hearing because of how he filed the request.

  • August 05, 2025

    2nd Circ. Nixes Madoff Feeder Fund Clawback Suits

    About 300 clawback lawsuits filed by the liquidators of British Virgin Islands-based funds that invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities should be dismissed, a Second Circuit panel said on Tuesday, finding the deals were protected by the U.S. Bankruptcy Code's safe harbor for securities transactions.

  • August 05, 2025

    Homeowners Policy Doesn't Cover Shooting, 6th Circ. Says

    State Farm has no duty to defend or indemnify a man facing wrongful death claims after he unintentionally shot and killed a woman in a domestic dispute, the Sixth Circuit affirmed Tuesday, finding that his intentional gunshots still created a foreseeable risk of harm and thus weren't an insurable accident.

  • August 05, 2025

    Infant Death Suit Reinstated Against Texas Hospital, Doctors

    A Texas appeals panel on Tuesday reinstated a couple's suit against Texas Children's Hospital and doctors with Baylor College of Medicine over the death of their 5-week-old infant, finding the trial court abused its discretion in finding their expert report was insufficient to support their claims.

  • August 05, 2025

    DC Circ. Upholds Reincarceration Following Release Mistake

    The D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that the lower court in the district did not violate the civil rights of a man who served 27 additional months in prison after the D.C. Department of Corrections accidentally released him and only discovered the error while he was incarcerated again for a different matter.

  • August 05, 2025

    Pa. Court Says State Can Suspend DUI Suspect's License

    In a precedential ruling, Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court has found that a state law stripping those suspected of DUI of their driver's licenses for one year if they refuse to be tested for intoxicating substances is constitutional, despite a driver's contrary assertions.

  • August 05, 2025

    RI Urges 1st Circ. To Toss Challenge To Pot License Regime

    Rhode Island cannabis regulators on Tuesday urged the First Circuit to uphold the dismissal of a Florida entrepreneur's challenge to the state's marijuana licensure program and to reject his bid to have the case remanded back to lower district court.

  • August 05, 2025

    4th Circ. Faults Board For Shallow Review Of Asylum Case

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday partially revived a Salvadoran woman's claim for asylum, finding that the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to properly assess whether she belonged to a legally protected social group.

  • August 05, 2025

    Ghislaine Maxwell Slams Feds' Bid To Unseal Grand Jury Docs

    Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking children for late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to deny the government's bid to unseal grand jury transcripts, saying release of the sealed materials could jeopardize the appeal of her 2021 conviction.

  • August 05, 2025

    Yacht Listing Co. Tells 11th Circ. Sellers Agree To Arbitrate

    A yacht listing service told the Eleventh Circuit that sellers agree to arbitrate any claims related to the platform when a broker lists their vessel, as it looks to force arbitration in a case accusing it of conspiring with others to inflate broker fees.

  • August 05, 2025

    Tenn. Executes Man With Intellectual Disability For 3 Murders

    Tennessee on Tuesday executed Byron Black, who the state conceded had an intellectual disability and should have been removed from death row, for a 1988 triple murder.

  • August 05, 2025

    Ex-Patent Examiner Fights USPTO Exclusion At High Court

    A former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review his exclusion from practicing before the agency, saying the justices should look at issues relating to a suspension he received and also federal civil rights protections.

  • August 05, 2025

    Gas Breaks Can't Justify Russian Fertilizer Duties, Fed. Circ. Told

    The federal government improperly concluded that EuroChem's Russian imports to the U.S. were subject to countervailing duties because of natural gas subsidies those products benefited from, counsel representing the company told the Federal Circuit during oral arguments Tuesday.

  • August 05, 2025

    Law Profs Urge 11th Circ. To Toss Judge-Shopping Sanctions

    A group of seven law school professors is urging the Eleventh Circuit to toss a sanctions ruling against three attorneys for judge shopping, arguing that federal law does not forbid the practice and citing the "potentially chilling effect the order will have on counsel, especially those involved in pro bono representation."

  • August 05, 2025

    NJ Court Clarifies Sentencing Guidelines For Weapons Charge

    First-degree unlawful possession of a handgun does not automatically activate the mandatory parole disqualifiers of the Graves Act, a cornerstone of New Jersey's firearm sentencing framework, the state's highest court ruled Tuesday.

  • August 05, 2025

    Charlotte Bar Shares Blame For Fatal Shooting, NC Panel Told

    The estate of a shooting victim has doubled down on its efforts in a North Carolina appellate court to revive wrongful death claims against a bar accused of overserving the shooter, arguing the lower court ruled on foreseeability too early in the case.

Expert Analysis

  • What 9th Circ. Cracker Barrel Ruling Means For FLSA Cert.

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    The Ninth Circuit's decision in Harrington v. Cracker Barrel suggests a settling of two procedural trends in Fair Labor Standards Act jurisprudence — when to issue notice and where nationwide collectives can be filed — rather than deepening circuit splits, says Rebecca Ojserkis at Cohen Milstein.

  • Series

    Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator

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    Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.

  • How Latest High Court Rulings Refine Employment Law

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    The 2024-2025 U.S. Supreme Court term did not radically rewrite employment law, but sharpened focus on textual fidelity, procedural rigor and the boundaries of statutory relief, say attorneys at Krevolin & Horst.

  • Calif. Air Waivers Fight Fuels Automakers', States' Uncertainty

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    The unprecedented attempt by Congress and the Trump administration to kill the Clean Air Act waivers supporting California's vehicle emissions standards will eventually end up in the U.S. Supreme Court — but meanwhile, vehicle manufacturers, and states following California's standards, are left in limbo, says John Watson at Spencer Fane.

  • Diversity, Equity, Indictment? Contractor Risks After Kousisis

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Kousisis v. U.S. decision, holding that economic loss is not required to sustain wire fraud charges related to fraudulent inducement, may extend criminal liability to government contractors that make false diversity, equity and inclusion certifications, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Navigating Client Trauma

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    Law schools don't train students to handle repeated exposure to clients' traumatic experiences, but for litigators practicing in areas like civil rights and personal injury, success depends on the ability to view cases clinically and to recognize when you may need to seek help, says Katie Bennett at Robins Kaplan.

  • 9th Circ. Customs Ruling A Limited Win For FCA Plaintiffs

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    While the decision last month in Island Industries v. Sigma may be welcome news for False Claims Act relators, under binding precedent courts within the Ninth Circuit still do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate customs-based FCA claims pursued by the government, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • 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.

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