 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35605514&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35605514&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35605514&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35605514&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35605514&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35605514&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
A U.S. judicial panel approved a first-of-its kind rule designed to govern federal mass torts cases and provide judges an initial roadmap to follow when assigned to hear hundreds or thousands of lawsuits against companies, our colleague Nate Raymond reports.
The U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure during a meeting in Washington, D.C., voted in favor of a rule that would give judges guidance on how to conduct early case management when they begin overseeing federal multidistrict litigation.
The rule has been under consideration since 2017, with defense lawyers and companies that frequently face litigation over their products like Johnson & Johnson and Bayer pushing for major changes to weed out meritless cases. The ultimate rule, though, is a “modest rule, quite frankly, given what the initial proposals were,” said U.S. District Judge John Bates, a D.C. judge who chairs the committee.
The rule now goes to the Judicial Conference, which is expected to consider it during its September meeting. If approved, it would be transmitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would then submit it to Congress. Barring Congress moving to disapprove it, the rule would take effect Dec. 1, 2025.
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874763&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35605514&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
- Snack food giant Mondelez and law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner must face at least part of a proposed class action over a data breach at the firm that compromised personal information belonging to thousands of Mondelez employees. U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso in Chicago dismissed some of the allegations in the case for now, but he refused to throw out the employees’ negligence claims against Mondelez and BCLP.
- The U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure advanced a proposal that would strengthen the judiciary’s rules governing the disclosure of who funds friend-of-the-court briefs by outside groups advocating for a position in court cases. The judicial panel voted in favor of publishing a draft rule for public comment that would impose greater transparency requirements on filers of amicus briefs.
- Two federal judges have issued contradictory rulings on whether litigation funding firm Burford Capital can take over as the plaintiff in lawsuits brought by its financing client Sysco. In the latest order, U.S. District Judge Tunheim in Minnesota upheld a magistrate’s February decision requiring food distribution giant Sysco to remain the plaintiff in antitrust lawsuits it filed accusing pork and beef suppliers of overcharges. The ruling was opposite a Chicago judge’s conclusion.
|
That was the law school acceptance rate in 2023 of the small cohort of applicants who were STEM majors, which had more success than non-STEM majors, due in part to their strong LSAT scores. Our colleague Karen Sloan takes a look at how STEM majors aiming to become attorneys could lose some of their competitive edge with the August removal of the “logic games” portion of the LSAT, according to tutors and admissions consultants. An LSAT without logic games may be daunting enough to certain STEM majors that they simply don’t take the test or pursue legal careers, some admissions officials fear. That could compound the challenges law schools already face in recruiting STEM majors.
|
Conservative groups challenging diversity programs got a clear message on Monday from an 11th Circuit decision barring a venture capital fund from making grants to Black women entrepreneurs: Venue matters. The group that brought the suit, Ed Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights, convinced the 11th Circuit majority that it had a constitutional right to sue on behalf of anonymous business owners who didn’t meet Fearless Fund’s racial criteria. But as Alison Frankel explains, the case wouldn’t have survived in the 2nd Circuit, which held earlier this year that anonymous declarations are not enough to establish standing. Will the 11th Circuit decision prompt the 2nd Circuit to reconsider?
|
“We hope that Bernhard Modern has made its last appearance in an appellate brief.”
|
|
|
- The NFL “Sunday Ticket” antitrust trial kicks off in Los Angeles federal court, where residential and commercial subscribers of the weekly pro football game package are seeking billions of dollars in alleged overcharges. The NFL, whose defenders include Beth Wilkinson of Wilkinson Stekloff and Covington’s Gregg Levy, has denied the allegations and defended its business practices for distributing what it has called a premium product. Several current and former league executives have been named as witnesses. The plaintiffs’ team includes Marc Seltzer of Susman Godfrey and Hausfeld’s Scott Martin.
- The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will take up a new round of judicial nominees, including Orlando-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd to fill a vacancy on the 11th Circuit; and Meredith Vacca for a U.S. district post in New York, where she is a judge in Monroe County. Vacca would become the first woman of color to serve as a life-tenured judge on Western District of New York trial court.
- In San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin will hold an initial case management conference in a lawsuit accusing Tesla of deceiving drivers into believing that their vehicles could soon have self-driving capabilities. Last month, Lin rejected Tesla’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit against the Elon Musk-owned electric car company. The proposed nationwide class action accused Tesla and Musk of having advertised since 2016 Autopilot and other self-driving technology as functional or “just around the corner,” inducing drivers to pay more for their vehicles.
- Software company Rimini Street will try to convince a 9th Circuit appeals court panel to overturn a permanent injunction from a 14-year-long copyright dispute with Oracle over its alleged theft of Oracle software as part of Rimini’s software-support business. Lawyers from Morgan Lewis, Paul Weiss and Boies Schiller are defending Oracle in the litigation, and Rimini is represented by Gibson Dunn and Weil Gotshal.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- A Pennsylvania judge slashed a $2.25 billion U.S. jury verdict against Bayer to $400 million for a man who said he developed cancer from exposure to the company’s Roundup weedkiller. Judge Susan Schulman granted some of Bayer’s post-trial motions challenging that verdict, reducing compensatory damages to $50 million and punitive damages to $350 million. Bayer said it would still challenge the liability verdict.
- The 9th Circuit in a 2-1 ruling revived a $411 million antitrust class action accusing California health system Sutter Health of engaging in anticompetitive behavior that artificially drove up insurance premiums. The appeals panel overturned a verdict against the plaintiffs and ordered a new trial, after finding the trial judge gave improper instructions and prevented jurors from hearing relevant evidence.
- Netflix settled a defamation lawsuit brought by best-selling author and former Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein over her portrayal in a 2019 crime series about the Central Park Five case. The settlement averts a trial over Fairstein’s portrayal in the series “When They See Us,” which had been set to begin on June 10 in Manhattan federal court. Fairstein will receive no money in the settlement, but Netflix said it will donate $1 million to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to free wrongfully convicted people.
- General Mills was sued by eight Black employees who accused the food company of tolerating decades of racism at a suburban Atlanta plant led by white managers known as the Good Ole Boys. A complaint said managers at the Covington plant, which makes cereal and trail mix, favor whites for promotions over more qualified Blacks, subject Blacks to tougher performance standards, and manufacture false evidence to justify demoting Blacks.
- Japanese baseball great Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $17 million from the athlete’s bank account to pay off his own gambling debts. Ippei Mizuhara, the one-time translator and de facto manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ power-hitting pitcher, pleaded guilty in a deal announced last month, U.S. prosecutors said. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 25. Mizuhara’s lawyer declined to comment.
- The 3rd Circuit seemed unlikely to block a novel New Jersey law requiring businesses to pay temporary workers provided by staffing agencies the same wages and benefits as full-time employees who do similar jobs. A three-judge panel heard a bid by three New Jersey-based trade groups to block enforcement of the 2023 law pending the outcome of their legal challenge, which a lower-court judge declined to do last year.
- Disney settled allegations that its film studios misused another company’s motion-capture technology in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Deadpool,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and other movies. Disney and Rearden have resolved pending lawsuits over all of the films at issue except Disney’s 2017 remake of “Beauty and the Beast,” according to an order in California federal court.
|
|
|
|
