This week, the Court address whether an employee can intervene in her co-worker’s employment suit, and orders discovery to determine whether a litigant was bound by her counsel’s agreement to arbitrate. CALLAHAN v....more
“Sticks and stones may break my bones … but [sharp] words [from the Federal Circuit] will make me wish I never went to law school.” The judges of the Federal Circuit understandably become frustrated when attorneys...more
Multidistrict litigation (MDL) has become a major component of the U.S. civil litigation system. MDLs now make up over half of the total civil caseload in the U.S., with product liability cases comprising the vast majority of...more
Absent an agreement to the contrary, the dismissal of a statutory cause of action providing for attorneys’ fees to the prevailing party would seem to entitle a defendant to its reasonable fees and costs. In a matter of first...more
Gust, Inc. v. AlphaCap Ventures, LLC, Appeal No. 2017-2414 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 28, 2018) In an appeal from a district court decision awarding fees pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1927, the Federal Circuit reversed. The decision makes...more
Former U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, the Special Master appointed to investigate alleged improper billing by class plaintiffs’ firms in Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v. State Street Bank and Trust Company,...more
In Amgen Inc. v. Hospira, Inc., the Federal Circuit held that Amgen could not obtain discovery related to activities that might infringe a patent that it had not asserted in its biosimilar patent litigation against Hospira....more
District Court Abused Discretion in Not Finding Case Exceptional - In Rothschild Connected Devices v. Guardian Protection Services, Appeal No. 2016-2521, the Federal Circuit held that a district court abused its discretion...more
On March 10, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2017 ("LARA") by a vote of 230–180. 163 Cong. Rec. H2025-03, H2025. The bill seeks to undo the 1993 amendments to Rule 11 of the...more
Those who practice regularly before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit know that the court has not been reluctant to punish a misbehaving lawyer....more
This may not be a book my new grandson Felix will soon be reading, but it does raise a legitimate question: When you really, truly, believe a federal appeal is frivolous, and not just garden variety, I know you’re going to...more
On September 22, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah dismissed a qui tam complaint brought against Triumph Gear Systems, Inc. (“TGS”) and its parent company Triumph Group, Inc. (“Triumph”). In an opinion...more