Amazon has had a tough month. The online retail giant is facing a number of massive antitrust lawsuits brought by individual customers and attorneys general around the United States. In two of those cases, courts rejected Amazon’s motions to dismiss, forcing the conglomerate to continue fighting for its interests. In... Read More »
Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed “Carlos’ Law,” a bill establishing more severe criminal liability for corporations that cause serious injury or death to their employees through lax safety standards and other negligent or reckless conduct. The legislation is aimed at stemming the increase in construction worker fatalities in New York... Read More »
Alec Baldwin’s criminal prosecution is not the only fallout from the fatal shooting that occurred on the New Mexico set of the upcoming film Rust. The film’s producers face OSHA citations for rampant safety violations that culminated in the fatal accident. The producers recently reached a settlement with the state... Read More »
A week before attorney Alex Murdgaugh was convicted of murdering his family and sentenced to life in prison, he took the stand in his defense. Did that testimony help his case, or seal his fate? Should criminal defendants normally testify on their own behalf? On March 2, a jury found... Read More »
Under new immigration rules announced by the Biden Administration, tens of thousands of migrants who cross through Mexico to seek safety in the United States will be summarily denied entry. The new policy has been decried by immigration and civil rights advocates as regressive and reminiscent of the strict rules... Read More »
The Federal Trade Commission recently voted to take a case against Intuit Inc. to trial rather than grant a summary decision against the financial software company. The enforcement action stems from allegations that the company falsely markets its TurboTax services as “free,” when in reality many customers end up with... Read More »
The New Mexico prosecutors pursuing the case against actor and producer Alec Baldwin have elected to drop the “firearm enhancement” previously included among the charges. Prosecutors originally tacked a gun enhancement on top of the involuntary manslaughter charges brought against Baldwin following the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on... Read More »
“Artificial intelligence” and “deep-fake” technology are getting more powerful by the day, raising a host of complex legal questions. The U.S. Copyright Office appears to have settled at least one debate recently, ruling that images created using the AI-powered Midjourney image generator should not have been granted copyright protection. AI... Read More »
A “psychiatrically disabled” customer is suing Disney after security refused to allow her to bring her Psychiatric Service Dog into Disneyland. According to her complaint, Alia Ashfaq has been certified with a disability since 1998. She has a valid California disabled license plate on her vehicle. She suffers from a... Read More »
A federal appeals court asked the California Supreme Court to make a definitive ruling on whether a business interruption insurance provider can refuse coverage for losses caused by COVID-19. Policyholders and lower courts alike are desperate for concrete and consistent rules concerning business loss coverage for pandemic-related claims. The underlying... Read More »
To the dismay of aging frat bros and raver chicks nationwide, the makers of Fireball whiskey may have been lying to us all this time. Consumers filed a lawsuit against Sazerac Company, Inc., claiming that mini bottles of the company’s Fireball Cinnamon don’t actually contain any whiskey. Sazerac sells Fireball... Read More »
Several former Twitter employees lost their bid for a class action against the social media giant based on alleged violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act). The laid-off plaintiffs will be sent to private arbitration to adjudicate their claims on an individual basis. The lawsuit alleges... Read More »
Last March, several former Google employees filed a proposed class action alleging the tech giant’s corporate culture imposes a systemic bias against Black workers. The parties are now engaged in a battle over whether the class claims should be dismissed out of hand. The case arises from allegations that Google’s... Read More »
City National Bank has agreed to pay $31 million to settle claims brought by the Department of Justice alleging the bank committed lending discrimination in Los Angeles County. The DOJ recently announced the multi-million dollar settlement with City National, Los Angeles County’s largest bank, which resolved claims that the bank... Read More »
California’s efforts to improve working conditions in the fast-food industry have been met with aggressive resistance. In late December, a county judge blocked the state from implementing a landmark new law aimed at setting a higher minimum wage for quick service workers, pending the results of a voter referendum. With... Read More »
