Adam Sorensen at Morrison & Foerster LLP

This Week at the Ninth: Old Debts and Flight Attendants

This week, we take a look at two cases requiring the Ninth Circuit to navigate interlocking provisions of state and federal law. In the first case, the Court addressed how the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies to a...more

3/16/2021 / Debt Collection , Debt Collectors , FDCPA , Financial Services Industry , Labor Code , Statute of Limitations , Time-Barred Debt , Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices , Wage and Hour

This Week at the Ninth: Arbitration and Accommodation

This week, we take a look at one Ninth Circuit decision exploring the enforceability of an arbitration clause precluding a party from acting as a “private attorney general,” and another addressing whether the Fair Housing...more

2/26/2021 / Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) , Arbitration , Arbitration Agreements , Interactive Process , Landlords , Reasonable Accommodation , Rehabilitation Act , Tenants

This Week at the Ninth: Biomaterials and Unclean Hands

This week, we take a look at the Ninth Circuit’s decisions construing the Biomaterials Access Assurance Act’s immunity for “biomaterials suppliers” and addressing the standard of review when a district court grants summary...more

2/19/2021 / Abuse of Discretion , Affirmative Defenses , Biomaterials Access Assurance Act (BAAA) , Life Sciences , Medical Devices , Pharmaceutical Industry , Standard of Review , Summary Judgment , Unclean Hands

This Week at the Ninth: Floral Prints and Janitors

This week, we take a look at one Ninth Circuit decision addressing how to assess damages among multiple copyright infringers, and another examining the implications of changes in California law governing the distinction...more

2/8/2021 / Copyright , Copyright Infringement , Copyright Office , Employer Liability Issues , Franchises , Independent Contractors , Intellectual Property Protection , Joint and Several Liability , Remand , Res Judicata , Statutory Damages , Vacated

This Week at the Ninth: Habeas and Hair Loss

This week, the Ninth Circuit declines to extend a recent Supreme Court decision on retaliatory arrest to the immigration bond revocation context, and resolves a particularly hairy preemption question about state-law...more

1/18/2021 / 42 U.S.C. §1983 , Dietary Supplements , False Advertising , Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) , Food and Drug Administration (FDA) , Motion for Summary Judgment , Preemption , State Law Claims

This Week at the Ninth: Secrets and Specialties

This week, the Ninth Circuit resolves a novel question about continuing violations under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, and invalidates an agency’s conclusion that computer programmers are not entitled to “specialty...more

12/18/2020 / Arbitrary and Capricious , Computer Programmers , Corrupt Organizations Act (COA) , Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) , H-1B , Misappropriation , Patent Applications , Racketeering , RICO , Specialty Occupations , Trade Secrets , Uniform Trade Secrets Acts , USCIS

This Week at the Ninth: Trans Fat and Stolen Emails

This week, we take a look at one Ninth Circuit decision addressing the difficult Article III issues that arise in certain types of consumer class actions, and another in which the Ninth Circuit examined the application of the...more

12/10/2020 / Abuse of Discretion , Article III , Class Action , Corporate Counsel , Electronic Communications , Email , Genuine Issue of Material Fact , Injury-in-Fact , Standing , Stored Communications Act

This Week at the Ninth: Willfulness and Waterways

This week, the Ninth Circuit came back from the Thanksgiving break with a bang, issuing three long-awaited en banc decisions in criminal and immigration cases. Here at Left Coast, however, we’ve focused on two other civil...more

12/7/2020 / Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) , Bonneville Power Administration , Employment Discrimination , Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) , Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) , Federal Admiralty Law , Navigable Waters , Notice Requirements , Reckless Disregard , Statute of Limitations , Willful Violations

Know Your Ninth Circuit Panel: Who Appoints Visiting Judges

Last week, we explored where the Ninth Circuit’s many visiting judges call home. This week, we investigate a slightly different subject: which president appointed those visiting judges? Some court watchers have suggested that...more

12/2/2020 / Appeals , Appellate Courts , Judges , Judicial Appointments , Presidential Nominations , Trump Administration

Know Your Ninth Circuit Panel: Who Gets Invited?

Last week, we noted that the Ninth Circuit’s visiting judges together perform the work of roughly 6 additional Ninth Circuit judges. But who, exactly, secures an invite to help serve as these supplemental members of the Ninth...more

11/24/2020 / Appeals , Appellate Courts , Caseloads , Court of International Trade , Court Schedules , Judges , Judicial Districts , Trial Attorneys

This Week at The Ninth: Answers and Amounts in Controversy

This week, we take a look at two decisions tackling novel procedural issues. In the first, the Court strictly applied the amount-in-controversy requirement of the Class Action Fairness Act, faulting a defendant for not...more

11/20/2020 / Affirmative Defenses , Amount in Controversy , Breach of Contract , CAFA , Calculation of Damages , Class Action , Corporate Counsel , Employment Litigation , Motion to Remand , Remand , Sua Sponte , Summary Judgment

Know Your Ninth Circuit Panel: Six Extra Judges

Ninth Circuit appeals are not always decided by Ninth Circuit judges. Because of the Court’s nation-leading workload, the Ninth Circuit regularly relies on visiting judges to fill out the panels that hear and resolve cases....more

11/18/2020 / Appeals , Appellate Courts , Corporate Counsel , Court Schedules , En Banc Review , Judges , Oral Argument

This Week at The Ninth: Collections and Coverage

This week, we examine one Ninth Circuit decision holding that a debt-collector cannot insulate itself from liability under the Federal Debt Collection Practice Act by contractually obligating its clients to provide it with...more

11/12/2020 / Addiction Equity Act , Debt Collection , Debt Collectors , Denial of Insurance Coverage , FDCPA , Mental Health Parity Rule , Mental Illness , Verification Requirements

This Week at The Ninth: Public Knowledge and Private Counsel

This week, the Ninth Circuit examines how the loss-causation requirement of a securities-fraud claim may be satisfied in cases involving FOIA disclosures, and considers the application of Younger v. Harris to a State...more

11/6/2020 / Bristol-Myers Squibb , Enforcement Actions , False Statements , First Amendment , FOIA , Loss Causation , Public Information , Putative Class Actions , Scienter , Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , Securities Fraud , Stock Drop Litigation

This Week at The Ninth: Debarred and Debugged

This week, the Court knocks down a party’s argument that it was “de facto debarred” from exporting activities under the Arms Export Control Act, and explains what exactly triggers the statute of limitations in Wiretap Act...more

10/30/2020 / Appeals , Appellate Courts , Arms Export Control Act , Audio Recording , Cause of Action Accrual , Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) , Exports , Licensing Rules , Preliminary Injunctions , Reaffirmation , Remand , Statute of Limitations , Wiretap Act

This Week at The Ninth: FCRA Dicta and Medicare Channeling

This week, we examine two decisions confronting novel procedural issues. In the first, the Ninth Circuit sought to promote development of the law by encouraging courts to alter how they address claims under the Fair Credit...more

10/23/2020 / Appeals , Beneficiaries , Credit Reports , Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) , Medical Devices , Medicare , Proxies , Reaffirmation , Reimbursements , Statutory Damages , Statutory Violations , Suppliers

This Week at the Ninth: Mobile Billboards and Secret Systems

This week, we take a look at Ninth Circuit cases holding a ban on mobile billboards subject to strict scrutiny given the vehicles exempted from its scope, and addressing the standards governing summary judgment and discovery...more

10/19/2020 / Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) , First Amendment , Intellectual Property Litigation , Intellectual Property Protection , Trade Secrets

This Week at The Ninth: Counterfeiting and Superfund

This week, we examine a Ninth Circuit decision addressing whether a plaintiff pursuing a Lanham Act counterfeiting claim must demonstrate that consumers were likely to be confused (the answer: yes), and another resolving the...more

10/12/2020 / Counterfeiting , Intellectual Property Protection , Lanham Act , Likelihood of Confusion , Trademark Infringement , Trademark Registration , Trademarks

Once More Into The Jurisdictional Morass: Supreme Court Grapples With Specific Jurisdiction At Oral Argument In Ford Cases

The Supreme Court heard roughly an hour of oral argument on Wednesday in a pair of cases against Ford Motor Company raising important questions about the scope of personal jurisdiction. In Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth...more

10/8/2020 / Due Process , Ford Motor , Manufacturing Defects , Personal Jurisdiction , SCOTUS , Third-Party

This Week at The Ninth: The FAA and the FAAAA

This week at This Week, we take a look at two cases that divided the panels deciding them. In the first, the Ninth Circuit (splitting from the Fourth) held an arbitration clause the plaintiff had signed with a third party to...more

10/5/2020 / Arbitration , Arbitration Agreements , Class Action , Common Law Claims , DirectTV , Federal Arbitration Act , Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) , Preemption

This Week at the Ninth: Class Waiver and FINRA

This week, we take a look at the Ninth Circuit’s decision handing an important victory to banks by declaring FINRA rules against compelled arbitration don’t bar enforcement of class waivers... ...more

9/29/2020 / Arbitration , Arbitration Agreements , Class Action , Federal Arbitration Act , Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) , Motion to Compel

This Week at The Ninth: Informational Injury and Union Dues

This week, we examine one Ninth Circuit decision exploring the extent to which the deprivation of information and statutorily-conferred powers can satisfy Article III’s injury-in-fact requirement, and a second declining to...more

9/20/2020 / Appeals , Appellate Courts , Article III , Board of Directors , Confidentiality Policies , Corporate Executives , Dismissals , First Amendment , Health Care Providers , Injury-in-Fact , Janus v AFSCME , Non-Union , Reaffirmation , Reversal , Special Committees , State Action Doctrine , Tribal Corporations , Union Dues

Getting Specific: Supreme Court Once Again Examines Limits Of Personal Jurisdiction In Ford Motor Company Cases

Despite their repeated efforts to provide guidance to lower courts, the Justices once again find themselves in a familiar position: attempting to clarify the constitutional limits on courts’ power to exercise personal...more

9/17/2020 / Bristol-Myers Squibb , Due Process , Ford Motor , Personal Jurisdiction , Proximate Cause , SCOTUS

This Week at The Ninth: Jersey Boys and Restroom Doors

This week, we highlight Ninth Circuit decisions denying copyright protection to assertions of fact (even if those facts were made up), and deepening a slight Circuit split on the Americans with Disabilites Act's...more

9/15/2020 / Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) , Appeals , Appellate Courts , Authors , Burden-Shifting , Copyright , Copyright Infringement , Disability Access Claims , Fair Use , Intellectual Property Protection , Judgment As A Matter Of Law , Public Accommodation , Screenplays , Split of Authority , Summary Judgment , Theater Productions

This Week at the Ninth: Long Arms and Sore Backs

This week, the Ninth Circuit explains when courts have personal jurisdiction over foreigners who contract with U.S.-based businesses, and whether severe pain can qualify as a disability under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’...more

Adam Sorensen

Morrison & Foerster LLP

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