Some key changes impacting attorneys have been proposed to the Local Rules for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Two of the proposed changes concern attorney incapacity, caused by issues such as illness,…
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/ Administrative Law, Civil Procedure
In a recently published opinion, the Appellate Division, Second Department, upheld a Suffolk County Supreme Court decision granting summary judgment in favor of an injured bridge worker who slipped backwards off a scaffold while…
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/ Construction Law, Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury
Effective July 1, 2025, attorneys practicing law in Maryland may no longer state that their fees are “earned upon receipt” in their engagement agreements. Under the new, amended Rule 19-301.15, “[a]n attorney shall deposit into…
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/ Law Practice Products & Services
In a February 18, 2025 unpublished opinion overruling the Circuit Court of Loudon County, the Court of Appeals of Virginia confirmed that under Va. Code § 8.01-271.1, an attorney facing sanctions must be afforded notice and the…
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/ Business Torts, Civil Procedure, Civil Remedies
At its March 1, 2025, meeting, the VSB Council voted to approve changes to Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5. The proposed amendment to the Rule includes a new subjection (g), which codifies an understanding that has been around…
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/ Commercial Law & Contracts, Law Practice Products & Services, Professional Malpractice
On January 23, 2025, the Fourt Circuit, in Alig v. Rocket Mortg., LLC, No. 22-2289, 2025 WL 271563 (4th. Cir. Jan. 23, 2025), reversed the District Court’s decision that a certified class action. In Alig, the plaintiffs filed a…
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/ Civil Procedure, Consumer Protection, Finance & Banking
On January 15, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States in Royal Canin U.S.A., Inc., et al. v. Wullschleger et al., upheld the Eighth Circuit’s decision, holding that when a plaintiff amends their complaint and deletes the…
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/ Civil Procedure, Consumer Protection, Products Liability
On December 11, 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed NVIDIA Corporation’s appeal, allowing a class action securities fraud case to move forward towards trial. The Plaintiffs originally brought the case in the United States…
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/ Civil Procedure, Consumer Protection, Securities Law
Understanding coverage exclusions in a subcontractor’s commercial general liability insurance policy can be a daunting task. What the insuring language of the policy appears to provide, may be taken away through a policy…
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/ Commercial Law & Contracts, Construction Law, Insurance
In November 2023, a class action lawsuit was filed against the genetic testing company, 23andMe. The plaintiffs alleged that a data breach resulted in the unauthorized disclosure of 6.9 million users’ personal and genetic…
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/ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Civil Procedure, Privacy, Science, Computers, & Technology
On August 29, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) urging them to reclassify marijuana as a schedule III drug. The Department of Health and Human Services…
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/ Administrative Law, Health
Should a contractor’s Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy cover the expense of uncovering defective work causing damage to the owner’s property as well as the costs of exposing or accessing damaged building…
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/ Commercial Law & Contracts, Construction Law, Insurance
We are halfway through 2024 and one thing is clear: the “AI” marketing is booming. Nvidia, the software company dubbed the “artificial intelligence titan,” has a market cap of over $3 trillion and recently issued a 10-for-1…
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/ Law Practice Products & Services, Science, Computers, & Technology
This past January, Judge Glenn T. Harrell, Jr. of the Appellate Court of Maryland (ACM) found in favor of an insurance company that disclaimed coverage, under a corporate automobile liability issued to a business, when the…
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/ Business Organizations, Commercial Law & Contracts, Insurance
On June 17, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari on Nvidia’s appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s decision to revive a shareholder class action lawsuit against the company. The Supreme Court will consider the appropriate…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Securities Law