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Appellate

  • November 18, 2025

    Colo. High Court Weighs Test For Political Donor Disclosures

    Colorado Supreme Court justices pushed attorneys Tuesday on how the court should measure a political organization's spending and efforts on ballot measures in determining whether a conservative political group fined for not disclosing donors after spending millions on state ballot questions in Colorado's 2020 election qualifies as an "issue committee" that must disclose its donors.

  • November 18, 2025

    Colo. Justices Unsure On Limits For Borrowing Claims Rule

    Colorado Supreme Court justices on Tuesday grappled with when an attorney has satisfied their requirements under Colorado law to conduct a "reasonable inquiry" when including pleadings from other litigation during oral arguments in CenturyLink's petition to have a securities class action dismissed for including anonymous claims from a different lawsuit.

  • November 18, 2025

    Pa. Panel Says Burnt Weed Smell Justified Search

    The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Tuesday refused to suppress evidence in a drug possession case, ruling that the odor of burnt marijuana creates probable cause for police officers to detain someone and search for drugs.

  • November 18, 2025

    Vt. High Court Upholds Revocation Of Pot Grower's License

    The Vermont Supreme Court upheld the state's Cannabis Control Board's decision to pull a cultivator's license on allegations that the grower used a prohibited pesticide after being explicitly told not to, with the justices rejecting the company's request to review how the board weighed the evidence.

  • November 18, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Check Decision Eroding $4M IP Judgment

    The Federal Circuit won't rethink any part of a panel's decision that overruled most of a New York federal judge's $4 million infringement judgment against two hospitality providers in a multifaceted appeal over hookless shower curtains.

  • November 18, 2025

    Flagstar Urges 9th Circ. Redo For Escrow Interest Ruling

    Flagstar Bank pushed the entire Ninth Circuit to reconsider its prior ruling in a putative class action that accused the bank of violating a California law that requires banks to make interest payments for escrow accounts connected to certain types of residential mortgage loans, arguing that the court deciding that the state law is not preempted by the National Bank Act clashes with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a similar case.

  • November 18, 2025

    6th Circ. Revives Deadly Force Suit Against Mich. Police

    A divided Sixth Circuit panel found Tuesday that a pair of Lansing, Michigan, police officers are not entitled to qualified immunity for shooting and killing a man outside his home, reviving an excessive force claim against the officers.

  • November 18, 2025

    NJ Justices Asked How 'Beneficial Use' Should Affect Zoning

    A Garden State town urged the New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday to provide a blueprint for how municipal zoning boards should evaluate variance applications under a nearly three-decade-old amendment to the state's land use law, arguing that a lower court did not give the update proper consideration when it overturned the town's denial of a senior living facility.

  • November 18, 2025

    Pa. Justice Spots 'Slippery Slope' In Trafficking Coverage Row

    Justices on Pennsylvania's Supreme Court seemed wary Tuesday of creating a "slippery slope" where alleged violations of criminal law could be used by insurers to deny coverage under a "public policy exception," scrutinizing a suit in which insurers wanted out of defending a Philadelphia hotel accused of ignoring sex trafficking.

  • November 18, 2025

    Bristol-Myers Squibb Can Appeal Pension Suit To 2nd Circ.

    Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb and its investment manager can ask the Second Circuit to review a decision from September denying their motion to dismiss a pension dispute for lack of standing, a New York federal judge ruled.

  • November 18, 2025

    Feds Tell DC Circ. Congress OK'd Quick Removal Of Parolees

    The Trump administration urged the D.C. Circuit to undo a federal judge's order placing limits on expedited removals, arguing that its hands are being tied in lawful efforts to deport noncitizens who were paroled into the country.

  • November 18, 2025

    Calif. Panel Won't Revive Hip Replacement Med Mal Suit

    A California appeals panel won't reinstate a man's suit alleging he needed to have his hip replacement redone after his leg shrank two inches, saying he failed to rebut the doctor's expert testimony that the initial surgery was within the standard of care.

  • November 18, 2025

    Asst. Gets New Try At Religious Bias Suit Over Wash. Vax Rule

    A divided Washington state appeals court panel said Tuesday a lower court was wrong to dismiss a legal assistant's lawsuit accusing the Washington State Attorney General's Office of wrongfully refusing her request for a religious accommodation to the state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, reopening the suit.

  • November 18, 2025

    Atty Asks 5th Circ. To Address Outlying Matters In TM Case

    An attorney locked in a trademark battle with Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP asked the Fifth Circuit to address the case again Tuesday, saying it did not get to several outstanding issues that will affect the case in district court when it vacated the firm's $1 million damages award against him.

  • November 18, 2025

    1st Circ. May Nix Trump Funding Freeze In 'Weird' Case

    The First Circuit on Tuesday hinted that a federal judge may have been in bounds when blocking the Trump administration from withholding certain funds for states, expressing skepticism that the judge's order was improper or overly broad.

  • November 18, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Voids Allergan's $39M Trial Win Over Eyelash Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday reversed a $39 million verdict against Sandoz in Allergan's suit accusing it of infringing an eyelash growth drug patent, finding a Colorado federal jury should have found the patent claim at issue invalid for inadequate written description.

  • November 18, 2025

    11th Circ. Won't Revive Oil Contract Suit Against Siemens

    The Eleventh Circuit has upheld the dismissal of a Saudi company's business interference complaint against Siemens Energy Inc. because Siemens, as the owner of the company's joint venture partner, was not a stranger to the agreement.

  • November 18, 2025

    Trump Can't Revive $475M Libel Suit Against CNN At 11th Circ.

    The Eleventh Circuit upheld a ruling Tuesday tossing President Donald Trump's $475 million lawsuit alleging CNN defamed him by repeatedly calling Trump's 2020 presidential election fraud claims a "Big Lie," agreeing with the lower court that Trump failed to adequately allege CNN's "subjective" statements about Trump's conduct were false.

  • November 18, 2025

    Ill. Panel Says Court Misapplied Drug Charge Immunity Law

    An Illinois appeals court revived a man's methamphetamine possession charges, ruling that he is not protected from prosecution by state drug harm reduction laws.

  • November 18, 2025

    9th Circ. Doubts Suit Over Seattle's Response To BLM Protest

    The Ninth Circuit appeared skeptical Tuesday about reviving claims that the city of Seattle violated the constitutional rights of two businesses by abandoning several city blocks during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, with one judge questioning whether city officials put them in a "more dangerous situation" than others in the neighborhood.

  • November 18, 2025

    Juror Discharge Prompts New Trial In NY Murder Attempt Case

    A New York state appeals court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2022 for attempted murder and other crimes in New York City, finding that the discharge of a juror for allegedly not speaking enough English wasn't supported by the record.

  • November 18, 2025

    Polaris Hits Back At 'Settled Expectations' Fed. Circ. Fight

    Polaris PowerLED says Sandisk Technologies Inc.'s Federal Circuit challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's denial of patent reviews based on a patent owner's "settled expectations" is not any different from similar cases that have been rejected by the circuit court.

  • November 18, 2025

    3rd Circ. Backs Burger King's Win In Miscarriage Bias Suit

    The Third Circuit upheld an arbitrator's ruling that Burger King didn't discriminate against an ex-employee's pregnancy when her superiors wouldn't relieve her when she miscarried during a shift, finding the arbitrator rationally determined that bias did not infect company decision-making.

  • November 18, 2025

    YouTube Channel Can't Recover Costs In IP Fight After Appeal

    A man who claimed co-authorship of a disclaimer notice used on a YouTube channel about mental health has persuaded an appellate court to set aside an order requiring him to pay the legal costs of the educational platform he was suing for copyright infringement after proving that the previous judge ignored key parts of his plea.

  • November 18, 2025

    4th Circ. Restores Trade Secrets Suit Against Insurance Execs

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday revived insurer Sherbrooke Corp.'s claims of trade secrets theft against three former executives, disagreeing with a district judge who found that the company had not made enough of an effort to guard the software in question.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

  • Lessons From 7th Circ. Decision Affirming $183M FCA Verdict

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    The Seventh Circuit's decision to uphold a $183 million False Claims Act award against Eli Lilly engages substantively with recurring materiality and scienter questions and provides insights into appellate review of complex trial court judgments, say Ellen London at London & Naor, Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz and Kimberly Friday at Osborn Maledon.

  • How Calif. High Court Is Rethinking Forum Selection Clauses

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    Two recent cases before the California Supreme Court show that the state is shifting toward greater enforcement of freely negotiated forum selection clauses between sophisticated parties, so litigators need to revisit old assumptions about the breadth of California's public policy exception, says Josh Patashnik at Perkins Coie.

  • AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

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    Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

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    In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

  • How 9th Circ. Ruling Deepens SEC Disgorgement Circuit Split

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sripetch creates opposing disgorgement rules in the two circuits where the SEC brings a large proportion of enforcement actions — the Second and Ninth — and increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Calif. Justices Continued Anti-Arbitration Trend This Term

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    In the 2024-2025 term, the California Supreme Court justices continued to narrow arbitration's reach under state law, despite state courts' extreme caseload backlog and even as they embraced contractual autonomy in other contexts, says Josephine Petrick at The Norton Law Firm.

  • DC Circuit Charts Path On FERC Orders In Loper Bright Era

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    The D.C. Circuit's recent decision in Solar Energy Industries Association v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, upholding the agency's assessment of a power production facility's output, laid out an approach for addressing statutory interpretation in FERC appeals in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's game-changing Loper Bright decision, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Lessons From Fed. Circ. On Expert Testimony In Patent Cases

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    Several recent decisions from the Federal Circuit are notable for their treatment of expert testimony, with relevance to the three pillars of every patent case — infringement, invalidity and damages — and offer lessons on ensuring that expert testimony is both admissible and sufficient to support the jury's verdict, say attorneys at Honigman.

  • When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

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    Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

  • Fed. Circ. In September: The Printed Matter Doctrine Expands

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Bayer v. Mylan represents an extension of the doctrine that adding new words to an existing product or method will not support patentability unless there is a functional relationship, bringing new considerations for both patent holders and challengers, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Justices' LabCorp Punt Leaves Deeper Class Cert. Circuit Split

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    In its ruling in LabCorp v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court left unresolved a standing-related class certification issue that has plagued class action jurisprudence for years — and subsequent conflicting decisions among federal circuit courts have left district courts and litigants struggling with conflicting and uncertain standards, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • State Of Insurance: Q3 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey discusses three notable Pennsylvania auto insurance developments from the third quarter, including the Third Circuit weighing in on actual cash value, a state appellate court opining on the regular use exclusion and state legislators introducing a bill to increase property damage minimums.

  • Opinion

    Courts Must Continue Protecting Plaintiffs In Mass Arbitration

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    In recent years, many companies have imposed onerous protocols that function to frustrate plaintiffs' ability to seek justice through mass arbitration, but a series of welcome court decisions in recent months indicate that the pendulum might be swinging back toward plaintiffs, say Raphael Janove and Sasha Jones at Janove Law.

  • Series

    Practicing Stoicism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Practicing Stoicism, by applying reason to ignore my emotions and govern my decisions, has enabled me to approach challenging situations in a structured way, ultimately providing advice singularly devoted to a client's interest, says John Baranello at Moses & Singer.

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