Jonathan Bilyk News
Judge: 'Baffling' comparisons, lack of evidence doom suit vs Google over alleged YouTube discrimination
Black and Latino YouTubers claimed YouTube had discriminated vs non-white content creators by more harshly moderating their videos
'In a straitjacket:' Ninth Circuit ruling will leave cities powerless to confront homelessness, judges warn
The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court refused to reconsider its decision allowing a class action to continue vs Oregon city, seeking to bar enforcement of 'anti-camping' ordinances. Dissenters said the decision amounts to new constitutional right to camp anywhere
Employers can't be sued if their workers' spouses catch Covid: California Supreme Court
The state high court said allowing such lawsuits to move forward would open floodgates to potentially millions of lawsuits against every employer in the state, swamping courts and potentially crippling society in the process
Judge says California law requiring racial minority, LGBT representation on corporate boards is unconstitutional
The ruling could have implications for similar legislation or laws in other Democrat-dominated states, like Illinois, where lawmakers have considered following California's lead on increasing corporate board diversity by force of law
'California Knows Best:' SCOTUS says California can use Prop 12 to regulate pork producers across the country
Dissenting justices warned California should now expect other states to respond in kind, following California's "blueprint" to use state laws and market power to bypass Congress and bend the rest of the country to the will of voters in just one or a handful of states
Who benefits from Illinois' biometrics privacy law? Mostly trial lawyers, new report says
A report from the Chamber of Progress, which speaks for many "progressive" minded big tech and ecommerce companies, says Illinois' controversial Biometric Information Privacy Act has harmed Illinois' economy and limited access to new tech offerings in the state, while enriching lawyers
Judge OKs $725M Facebook data privacy settlement; Attorneys could ask for $181M
The settlement documents don't yet indicate how much money individual U.S. Facebook users may expect from the deal, but it could be less than $10 each
IL high court: Concerns over 'absurd,' 'annihalitive' payouts no reason to limit damage claims under IL biometrics law
Divided IL Supreme Court has ruled trial lawyers can demand employers pay potentially billions of dollars in damages covering every fingerprint scan, not just first one. Businesses who don't like it need to ask lawmakers to change the law, court says
Judge OKs Google Photos face scans class action settlement; Claimants get $150 each, lawyers get $35M
The $100 million settlement ends a class action lawsuit brought against Google, accusing the company of illegally scanning the faces of Illinois residents appearing in photos uploaded to Google Photos.
Lawsuits: Smith & Wesson should pay for Highland Park shootings; Shooter allegedly influenced by marketing
The lawsuits build on the campaign to use such litigation to make gun manufacturers liable for the criminal actions of others using firearms the manufacturers have made
Impax to pay $145M to settle Opana drug market manipulation claims from pharmacies, other direct purchasers
The lawsuit accused Impax Labs of agreeing with drugmaker Endo Pharmaceuticals to delay the entry of its Opana generic equivalent. The deal came quickly after a jury found in favor of Endo on the antitrust claims
Edelson lawsuit: Injury lawyer Girardi, Real Housewives star wife embezzled plane crash settlement money to fund 'lavish' habits
The lawsuit asserts L.A. personal injury lawyer Tom Girardi and his wife, Erika Jayne, of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, of converting settlement funds intended for the families of the victims of the Lion Air Flight 610 crash, to pay for "outrageous" personal spending practices.
FDA: Sterilization plants needed to boost PPE supply vs COVID; activists question, resist call to reopen plants
Anti-EtO sterilization groups in IL, GA, oppose FDA's call to reopen medical sterilization plants closed last year, which FDA says are needed to help fight COVID-19
Trade orgs warn EPA of shortages in key health care items, spices, if move too harshly vs use of ethylene oxide
American Spice Trade Association and AdvaMed both warn EPA against tightening the screws too tightly on facilities that use EtO to sterilize medical devices and keep spices free from Salmonella and other pathogens.
EPA data reveals EtO in air, far from targeted emissions sources; Med device makers urge EPA to pump brakes on rules
Industry warns acting on stringent public risk assessment levels 'pose increased risk to public health'
Facebook will pay $550M to settle Illinois photo tag class action brought by Edelson, other firms
Facebook has agreed to pay $550 million to settle one of the first and largest class actions launched under an Illinois biometrics privacy law.
IL Supreme Court: No actual harm needed to sue businesses for scanning fingerprints, other biometric IDs
The Illinois Supreme Court says an Illinois privacy law doesn’t require plaintiffs to prove they were actually harmed before suing businesses and others who scan and store their fingerprints or other so-called biometric identifiers. And the decision will give a green light to dozens of class action lawsuits already pending against businesses of all sizes in the state’s courts, with even more likely to follow.
Trial lawyers: EPA admission of fault in Sterigenics emissions measuring won't matter to lawsuits vs company
As federal environmental regulators reassess their controversial measurements of emissions from the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook, a group of lawyers representing Willowbrook residents are continuing unfazed in their lawsuits against the company, based largely on findings in a federal report that relied heavily on the allegedly faulty data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Sterigenics: Lawsuits asking courts to rewrite federal clean air rules, based on a 'flawed' report
Saying plaintiffs are asking the courts to essentially rewrite federal environmental laws and regulatory rules based on a single report issued by a federal agency relying on faulty data, medical device sterilizer Sterigenics has asked a federal judge to corral a stampede of lawsuits that have hit the courts in recent weeks amid a blizzard of media reports asserting the company’s use of a key sterilizing agent at its facility in suburban Willowbrook could cause cancer.
Report: Surging securities class actions over corporate M&A, 'adverse events,' a growing 'litigation racket'
Saying the trend carries substantial costs for investors and the entire economy, a new report is calling for reforms to tamp down on the growing surge in the number of so-called securities class action lawsuits filed against companies over mergers, acquisitions or stock price drops - a phenomenon the report author called a "litigation racket."