Moore v. Oakland County, Michigan, 126 F.4th 1163 (6th Cir. 2025) - This § 1983 lawsuit was filed against a police officer after a confrontation during a traffic stop in which the plaintiff resisted compliance. Despite the...more
Key Points: Use of Deadly Force: The court upheld the police officers’ use of deadly force, which is relevant for insurance coverage in similar incidents. Municipal Liability: No liability for the defendant as there was no...more
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in 15 cases: Waetzig v. Halliburton Energy Solutions, No. 23-971: This case concerns the intersection between Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41, which...more
Dozens of college and university campuses experienced protests in April and May of 2024 due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Many were peaceful, but some turned violent — and they engendered a wide variety of law...more
Egbert v. Boule, No. 21-147: In this case, Robert Boule sued a border patrol agent arguing the agent violated his Fourth and First Amendment rights by using excessive force during a search and retaliating against Boule when...more
Notwithstanding the fact that, as we approach the end of the term, the Court still had 30 cases to decide as of Wednesday morning, June 8, the day’s count has only been reduced by one. So, expect a flurry of cases with the...more
On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Egbert v. Boule, No. 21-147, declining to recognize a cause of action for damages against a federal border agent for either a Fourth Amendment excessive-force claim or a First...more
Events from recent years related to alleged police misconduct raised major questions surrounding the protections afforded by qualified immunity to police officers in excessive force claims. Two recent Supreme Court decisions...more
In a 5-3 decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Torres v. Madrid that a woman who was shot while fleeing from police officers was “seized,” even though she remained at large. ...more
In a divided opinion, the United States Supreme Court recently corrected the Tenth Circuit’s divergence from centuries old law defining what constitutes a seizure by law enforcement for the purposes of Fourth Amendment...more
Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist., No. 19-368; Ford Motor Co. v. Bandemer, No. 19-369: In two separate products liability actions, petitioner Ford Motor Company challenged the Montana and Minnesota State courts’...more
A while back I wrote about the collateral order doctrine as discussed by the Fourth Circuit in Williams v. Strickland. Williams involved an alleged excessive force claim against a law enforcement officer and an...more
The US Supreme Court issued an Opinion April 2, 2018 (Kisela v. Hughes) that a Tucson Police officer was justified in shooting a woman who was holding a knife near her roommate after the woman was reported exhibiting...more
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a Tucson police officer who shot a woman four times could not be sued for violating the woman’s Constitutional rights. The case is a significant win for government officials. It’s a...more
Each month, Nexsen Pruet attorney Marc Manos, a member of the SC Bar Torts and Insurance Practice Section Council, sheds light on a few recent cases from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, focused in the area of Torts &...more
In an October 2010 use of force case arising out of an incident in Los Angeles County, the Ninth Circuit attempt to expand officer liability with the “Provocation Rule” was struck down by the United States Supreme Court....more
The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in seven cases on Friday afternoon: Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., No. 15-1189: 1) Whether a "conditional sale" that transfers title to...more
In some form or fashion, law students learn that the words “reasonable man” denote a person exercising those qualities of attention, knowledge, intelligence and judgment which society requires of its members for the...more
Officers are immune from liability in lawsuits alleging use of deadly force against fleeing suspects unless it is “beyond debate” that a shooting was unjustified and clearly unreasonable, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The...more
Overview: Deputies shot and killed Shane Hayes inside his home. His daughter filed suit against the deputies and the county for excessive force, Fourth Amendment violations, negligent wrongful death and claims against the...more