Wisconsin Law Journal – WI Legal News & Resources Wisconsin Legal News & Resources

Washington (Dolan) — A federal agency’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request is a “report” within the meaning of the False Claims Act’s public disclosure bar, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-3 decision.

Tagged with: False Claims Act FOIA Freedom of Information Act

Washington — Taking aim at a U.S. Supreme Court ruling they say strips workers and consumers of their right to redress against powerful corporations Tuesday, lawmakers in both houses reintroduced the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would bar pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts and in civil rights disputes.

Tagged with: U.S. Supreme Court

By Correy Stephenson Dolan Media The Food and Drug Administration has released two new regulations pursuant to the Food Safety Modernization Act, which increased the agency‘s authority to recall unsafe foods. The Act also requires food producers to give FDA ...

Tagged with: FDA Food and Drug Administration

By Deborah Elkins Dolan Media The legal battle over the federal health care act has made it to the next level. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today heard arguments in the first two cases to advance from the ...

Tagged with: Obama Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Boston — A new app for the iPad helps trial lawyers create and organize deposition questions.

Tagged with: app iPad

The ABA Ethics Commission 20/20 recently met to discuss a package of proposals that are likely to affect small and solo law firms.

Tagged with: Ethics

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are pondering whether the Armed Career Criminal Act applies to a felon in possession of a firearm even after the penalty for one of the defendant’s triggering “serious drug offense” crimes has been reduced. And the answer, to quote former President Bill Clinton, “depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

Tagged with: ACCA Antonin Scalia Armed Career Criminal Act Jr. Samuel Alito

Blind people will have equal access to the Law School Admissions Council Inc.’s website under a settlement reached Tuesday with the National Federation of the Blind.

Federal judges are divided over whether the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure should be amended to require the government to hand over exculpatory evidence to criminal defendants, according to a recent survey by the Federal Judicial Center.

Over the past two years, patent attorneys have seen marked differences in the way patent applications are handled, and how a backlog of 700,000-plus filed patent applications are being tackled, by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Tagged with: Intellectual Property patents U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Washington (Dolan) — The D.C. Circuit has dismissed the American Bar Association’s case against the Federal Trade Commission over the application of the agency’s “red flags” rule, ending a long-running legal saga.

Tagged with: American Bar Association Federal Trade Commission

I’ve written quite a bit about legal blogging over the years. Since 2006, I’ve been following legal blogs, tracking the trends and predicting the future of blogging for lawyers.

Tagged with: blogging Blogs

Boston - Sanction motions and awards for e-discovery violations across the country have climbed dramatically in recent years and have now hit "historic highs," according to a study published in the Duke Law Journal.

Tagged with: e-discovery sanctions

By Pat Murphy Dolan Media The U.S. Supreme Court will decide the extent to which defendants in a civil rights case are entitled to attorney fees under Section 1988 after obtaining the dismissal of a frivolous claim that involved interrelated ...

Tagged with: Attorney fees U.S. District Court U.S. Supreme Court

Boston — A new federal rating system has concluded that for-profit nursing homes are more likely to provide a lower standard of care than non-profit homes. The rating system, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Dec. ...