United States: Trials & Appeals & Compensation

A Texas-based radiologist who performed all work from his home state faced California income tax assessments on earnings from a California company contract. The California Court of Appeal rejected the Franchise Tax Board's attempt to apply the unitary business principle to a sole proprietor, creating new grounds for non-resident individuals to challenge similar assessments.

After more than twenty years in the courtroom, I have learned that efficiency affects how cases are prepared and managed, but it does not determine the outcome.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act celebrates its tenth anniversary, marking a decade of federal trade secret protection that has fundamentally transformed how companies safeguard their confidential information. From near-unanimous bipartisan support to substantial jury verdicts exceeding $700 million, the DTSA has generated thousands of cases and established critical legal precedents.

Appellate mediation programs are ubiquitous across California and federal courts, with extensive resources dedicated to alternative dispute resolution at the appellate level.

Just when the conventional wisdom seemed to be that the CFPB was no longer going to assert that it could not request funding from the Federal Reserve because of combined losses at the Federal Reserve Banks...

On April 6, 2026, the Colorado Supreme Court unanimously ruled that an attorney does not violate Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure (“C.R.C.P.”) 11(a) merely by copying information, including allegations, from complaints in lawsuits involving some of the same defendants, as long as the attorney conducts “a sufficient investigation to support the allegations contained in the complaint, at least on information and belief.” The court cautioned, however, that the sufficiency of that investigation is highly fact dependent.

On March 12, 2026, a division of the Colorado Court of Appeals issued a significant opinion concerning federal preemption, aviation law, and environmental nuisance. In Town of Superior v. Board of County Commissioners of Jefferson County, 2026 COA 14, the division held that federal law preempts a state court from ordering an airport proprietor to ban certain aircraft operations as a noise abatement measure, even though the proprietor itself retains the authority to impose such restrictions voluntarily.

This issue examines three significant federal appellate court decisions that shape class action litigation: the Fourth Circuit's analysis of ERISA claims and Rule 23(b)(1) certification requirements...

In a short but precedential opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidation of certain asserted claims of U.S. Patent No. 10,912,321 (the “'321 Patent”).