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Trials
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August 14, 2025
State Farm Found Liable For Bad Faith In Moped Death Suit
A Florida federal judge has found State Farm liable for bad faith following a jury trial in a lawsuit involving the DUI-related death of a moped driver, whose family accused the insurer of failing to timely settle their claim against the estate of the driver accused of causing the fatal crash.Â
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August 14, 2025
4th Circ. Allows Trial For Prisoner's Excessive Force Claim
The Fourth Circuit said Thursday that a man incarcerated in a Maryland state prison should not have had claims that he was brutalized by correctional officers summarily dismissed because a reasonable jury could find that his allegations were credible.
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August 14, 2025
Energy Co. Can't Avoid 401(k) Forfeiture, Fee Fight
A Florida federal judge refused Thursday to toss a proposed class action against NextEra Energy from an employee 401(k) participant who alleged plan forfeitures were misspent and that a recordkeeper illegally profited off retirement plan earnings, opening discovery on allegations that the conduct violated federal benefits law.
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August 14, 2025
Boston Bomber Asks Full 1st Circ. To Weigh Judge DQ Bid
The convicted Boston Marathon bomber on Thursday asked the full First Circuit to consider disqualifying his trial judge from leading an investigation into potential juror bias, arguing an appellate court panel failed to assess whether post-trial public comments tainted his impartiality.
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August 14, 2025
11th Circ. Looks For Immunity Line In $40M Taser Case
An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared conflicted Thursday over whether to toss a $40 million verdict against the city of Atlanta and a cop who left a man a quadriplegic after shocking him with a Taser over suspicions of panhandling, struggling with whether the officer should have foreseen the injuries he caused.
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August 14, 2025
Ponzi Scheme Trial Not Tainted By Video Depo, 7th Circ. Says
A Seventh Circuit panel upheld the conviction and 17-year sentence of an alleged Ponzi schemer, rejecting a "host of challenges," including that he was denied his Sixth Amendment confrontation rights when the government presented a key witness's testimony through a videotaped foreign deposition neither he nor his counsel attended.
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August 14, 2025
Fla. Juror Misconduct Claim Stymied By 'Lack Of Diligence'
A new trial ordered in an auto collision case was wrongly granted based on juror misconduct, a Florida appeals court has ruled, saying a juror's involvement in injury litigation was disclosed on his questionnaire but wasn't explored in court due to a "lack of diligence" by defense counsel.
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August 14, 2025
Fed. Circ. Upholds Hoverboard Co.'s Design Patent Loss
An Illinois federal judge properly followed the Federal Circuit's orders when throwing out an infringement suit over hoverboard designs, the appeals court affirmed Thursday.
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August 14, 2025
Who Owns A Beat? The Dispute Over Reggaeton's Core Sound
The origin of the rhythm that underpins much of reggaeton music is at the center of a copyright lawsuit from Jamaican artists who claim a loop from an instrumental song they released in 1989 has become foundational to reggaeton, which thousands of songs have copied without permission.
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August 14, 2025
4th Circ. Won't DQ Judge From Church Mass Shooting Case
Hearsay evidence and conclusory allegations of impartiality are not enough to cause the Fourth Circuit to remove the federal judge presiding over white supremacist mass shooter Dylann Roof's criminal case in South Carolina, a panel of out-of-circuit judges determined in a nonprecedential ruling.
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August 14, 2025
Rising Star: Goldman Ismail's Emma Ross
Emma Ross of Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP has taken key roles in trials for Bayer over the pesticide Roundup and for Merck defending the safety of the Gardasil vaccine, earning her a spot among the trials attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 13, 2025
Va. Judge Dismisses VLSI Suit Over PTAB Conduct
Patent Quality Assurance took home another win against semiconductor patent company VLSI Technology on Wednesday, as a Virginia state court dismissed the abuse of process and conspiracy claims VLSI brought against PQA after the latter got VLSI's microchip patent invalidated at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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August 13, 2025
Labcorp Wins ERISA Trial As Judge Cites Stronger Witnesses
Medical testing chain Labcorp did not breach its duty of prudence to its multibillion-dollar employee retirement investment fund, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Tuesday after a trial, saying two plaintiffs' experts earned little credibility.
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August 13, 2025
Holster Maker Absolved In Sig Sauer Pistol Defect Suit
Holster maker Wintrode Enterprises Inc. isn't to blame for a pistol discharging without warning into a man's leg while he was sitting on his motorcycle, a North Carolina federal judge said Wednesday in granting it summary judgment.
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August 13, 2025
Trump's Troop Deployment In Calif. Troubles Judge
A California federal judge overseeing a bench trial over the state's claims that President Donald Trump unlawfully deployed troops there told a U.S. Justice Department lawyer Wednesday that he was troubled by the seeming lack of limits on the use of the soldiers once they're in place.
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August 13, 2025
9th Circ. Won't Review $23M GEO Detainee Pay Ruling
A deeply divided Ninth Circuit on Wednesday denied private detention operator GEO Group's request to review the appellate court's decision upholding $23 million in judgments against the company over its failure to pay detainees minimum wage for work behind bars.
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August 13, 2025
Fla. Court Affirms New Trial Over Boxer's Parking Brawl
A Florida appeals court Wednesday affirmed a decision to grant plaintiffs who sued pro boxer Shakur Stevenson over a parking garage brawl a new trial because of comments made by Stevenson's counsel during closing argument that impugned the credibility of the plaintiffs' lawyers.
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August 13, 2025
How A Flowchart Won $14.5M In Fla. Woman's Fraud Suit
In Mireya Cambero's lawsuit against her ex-husband Jose Fernando De Matos, her attorneys at Miami-based Diaz Reus LLP had to prove fraudulent transfers but avoid confusing a jury with voluminous, uninteresting business filings. The best way to do it, they decided, was to organize their evidence in an easily digestible flowchart.
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August 13, 2025
Fed. Circ. Throws Out $4.7M Verdict In DNA Patent Suit
The Federal Circuit reversed a Delaware federal jury's verdict from 2021 that found biotechnology company Qiagen Sciences LLC owed $4.7 million for infringing genetic testing patents, saying the jury's findings weren't sufficiently backed by evidence.
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August 13, 2025
Rising Star: Quinn Emanuel's Sara Clark
Sara Clark of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP was a key member of the team that secured a midtrial dismissal of a manslaughter charge against actor Alec Baldwin in connection with a fatal shooting during the filming of the movie "Rust," earning her a spot among the trial attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 13, 2025
Convicted ComEd CEO Seeks Bond Pending 7th Circ. Appeal
Former Commonwealth Edison and Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore has requested to stay out of jail while she appeals her criminal conviction and two-year prison sentence, saying her case was "far from ordinary" and that bond would keep her from serving a substantial portion of her sentence unnecessarily if the Seventh Circuit finds in her favor.
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August 13, 2025
2nd Circ. Says Allowing Biased Jury Strikes Can Be Strategic
A unanimous Second Circuit panel found Wednesday that a Black man sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted murder and other crimes cannot win release by arguing his lawyer failed to adequately object to the dismissal of Black potential jurors, saying the attorney may have been acting "strategically."
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August 12, 2025
OneTaste Execs Lose Acquittal Bid In Forced Labor Case
A Brooklyn federal judge has refused to grant OneTaste's founder and sales director a judgment of acquittal following their conviction for a forced labor conspiracy at the "orgasmic meditation" company, saying the trial evidence against them was abundant.
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August 12, 2025
Meta Privacy Verdict Raises Stakes For Website Data Tracking
A California federal jury's move to hold Meta accountable for unauthorized receipt of sensitive health data gathered through a popular online tracking tool strengthens website users' position in these disputes and should prompt companies to revisit their data collection and sharing practices, even as the social media giant fights the decision.Â
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August 12, 2025
Trump Wants To 'Strike Fear' With Troops In Calif., Judge Told
A lawyer for California argued during a San Francisco bench trial Tuesday that President Donald Trump's military deployment in the state is unlawful and aims to "strike fear into the hearts" of residents, while a Justice Department lawyer said the soldiers stayed within legal boundaries by not carrying out law enforcement activities.
Expert Analysis
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Google Damages Ruling May Spur Income Approach Usage
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in EcoFactor v. Google may affect the extent to which damages experts apply the market approach in patent infringement matters, and income approach techniques may assume greater importance, says Erin Crockett at Charles River Associates.
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Series
Adapting To Private Practice: From US Attorney To BigLaw
When I transitioned to private practice after government service — most recently as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — I learned there are more similarities between the two jobs than many realize, with both disciplines requiring resourcefulness, zealous advocacy and foresight, says Zach Terwilliger at V&E.
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Measuring The Impact Of Attorney Gender On Trial Outcomes
Preliminary findings from our recent study on how attorney gender might affect case outcomes support the conclusion that there is little in the way of a clear, universal bias against attorneys of a given gender, say Jill Leibold, Olivia Goodman and Alexa Hiley at IMS Legal Strategies.
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The Ins And Outs Of Consensual Judicial References
As parties consider the possibility of judicial reference to resolve complex disputes, it is critical to understand how the process works, why it's gaining traction, and why carefully crafted agreements make all the difference, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
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Opinion
The BigLaw Settlements Are About Risk, Not Profit
The nine Am Law 100 firms that settled with the Trump administration likely did so because of the personal risk faced by equity partners in today's billion‑dollar national practices, enabled by an ethics rule primed for modernization, says Adam Forest at Scale.
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Opinion
Courts Must Revitalize Robust Claim Construction
Two Federal Circuit decisions from earlier this year illustrate the rarity of robust claim construction and the underused reverse doctrine of equivalents — a dual problem that prevents courts from clearly delineating and correctly cabining the scope of rights conferred by patent claims, say attorneys at Klarquist Sparkman.
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ESOP Ruling Clarifies Trustees' Role In 3rd-Party Sales
An Illinois federal court's dismissal of a class action related to an employee stock ownership plan in Rush v. GreatBanc demystifies the trustee's role in a sale transaction to a third party by providing commentary on the prudent process and considerations for trustees to weigh before approving a sale, says Katelyn Harrell at BCLP.
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Google Ad Tech Ruling Creates Antitrust Uncertainty
A Virginia federal court’s recent decision in the Justice Department’s ad tech antitrust case against Google includes two unusual aspects in that it narrowly construed U.S. Supreme Court precedent when rejecting Google's two-sided market argument, and it found the company liable for unlawful tying, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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Series
Brazilian Jiujitsu Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Competing in Brazilian jiujitsu – often against opponents who are much larger and younger than me – has allowed me to develop a handful of useful skills that foster the resilience and adaptability necessary for a successful legal career, says Tina Dorr of Barnes & Thornburg.
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Oft-Forgotten Evidence Rule Can Be Powerful Trial Tool
Rule 608 may be one of the most overlooked provisions in the Federal Rules of Evidence, but as a transformative tool that allows attorneys to attack a witness's character for truthfulness through opinion or reputation testimony, its potential to reshape a case cannot be overstated, says Marian Braccia at Temple University Beasley School of Law.
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1st Circ. Ruling Widens Split Over Sentencing Enhancements
In U.S. v. Salvador-Gutierrez, the First Circuit recently switched sides in a circuit split by holding that certain sentencing enhancements apply only where the defendant used a minor in the commission of the crime, deepening a divide over the scope of role adjustments, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.
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Series
Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles
Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Google Case Amicus Briefs Reveal Patent Damage Fault Lines
The 21 amicus briefs filed before the en banc rehearing of EcoFactor v. Google offer opposing viewpoints on important patent damages issues that extend beyond the specific question the Federal Circuit eventually ruled on, helping practitioners anticipate and address likely objections to future damages opinions, say attorneys at Stout.
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Series
Playing Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Poker is a master class in psychology, risk management and strategic thinking, and I’m a better attorney because it has taught me to read my opponents, adapt when I’m dealt the unexpected and stay patient until I'm ready to reveal my hand, says Casey Kingsley at McCreadyLaw.
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Avoiding The Risk Of Continued AI-Washing Enforcement
A recent action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice, alleging a software developer defrauded investors by lying about his app’s artificial intelligence capabilities, suggests this administration will continue to target AI washing, so companies should adopt practices to mitigate enforcement risk, say attorneys at Debevoise.