Walmart

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.24.21

* Man exonerated after wrongfully serving 43 years will not be given any compensation for his time served. Now that's criminal. [NYT] * Living in Iowa? A judge just ruled that Medicaid refusing to help you with  gender affirming care is unlawful. Woop Woop! [NBC News] * Company that's known for basically selling decaf cigarettes to children has to pay out $14.5M over a lawsuit that accused them of...marketing decaf cigarettes to children. Maybe now they won't advertise vapes on Cartoon Network! Woop Woop! [Axios] * White Supremacists will have to give up the green after being held liable for civil conspiracy to incite violence. Now if you excuse me, I am going to watch this on repeat for the rest of the day. Woop Woop! [ABA Journal] * CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens will be on the hook for helping to deepen the opioid crisis. Alarms should have went off when they started playing this whenever the pharmacy put you on hold, but I guess hindsight is 20/20. [NPR]

By Chris Williams
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.23.20

* A lawyer for a Pennsylvania man, who allegedly pretended to be his dead mother to cast an extra vote, claims his client was engaged in "civil disobedience." Pretty sure Gandhi and MLK didn't use that strategy... [Yahoo News] * President Trump issued a flurry of pardons and commutations yesterday to many individuals in his political circle and others. [CNN] * A Colorado lawyer is accused of allegedly mishandling $2 million earmarked by clients to purchase personal protective equipment. [Denver Post] * Walmart is being sued over allegations that the company helped fuel the opioid crises. [New York Times] * A New York lawyer, who allegedly went on a racist rant at a restaurant in 2018, has been disciplined for his conduct. [New York Post] * Somewhat relatedly, a Texas judge, who allegedly used racial slurs against Mexicans, has been sanctioned. [Texas Lawyer]

By Jordan Rothman
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.23.20

* A lawyer for Edward Snowden claims the whistleblower has received permanent residency from Russia. Guess he'll be going without Hot Pockets for a while longer... [New York Daily News] * A judge has thrown out the Trump Campaign's lawsuit against New Jersey's mail-in-voting plans. [Politico] * A Pennsylvania lawyer who was disbarred in 2000 for substance abuse issues and criminal convictions was denied reinstatement, even though he completed rehabilitation. [Bloomberg Law] * President Trump has seemingly selected his pick to replace Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the Seventh Circuit. [Chicago Tribune] * Walmart has sued the federal government in anticipation of being litigated against for opioid claims. [Wall Street Journal]

By Jordan Rothman
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.06.20

* A cannabis operator has hired a new top lawyer. Wonder if he's charging $420 an hour... [Law360] * A new lawsuit alleges that a cruise line held crewmembers against their will and without pay during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. [Fox News] * An attorney has been suspended from practice for paying clients fake recoveries out of his own pocket. [ABA Journal] * That Google Plus class-action settlement email many of us got recently was real just in case anyone had doubts. [Fast Company] * An ex-Walmart employee has filed a lawsuit after allegedly being fired for reporting social distancing violations. [Hill] * A lawyer who borrowed $440,000 from a litigation funder may now be on the hook for $18 million. Don't think an attorney can argue he didn't read the contracts... [Legal Newsline]

By Jordan Rothman
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.08.20

* A Florida judge has tossed a lawsuit claiming that the governor of Florida couldn't close the state's beaches because of COVID-19. Looks like people will have to hit tanning beds instead of beaches...it's an essential service, right? [Orlando Sentinel] * A federal judge has ordered the inspection of DC jails amid concerns that prison officials are not doing enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19. [Washington Post] * The family of a Walmart employee has filed a wrongful death lawsuit after the employee died from COVID-19. [NBC News] * StubHub is another one of the long list of businesses facing class action lawsuits for allegedly not treating customers fairly when it comes to dealing with issues involving COVID-19. [Billboard] * Officials in Los Angeles have settled a lawsuit with a company claiming that they had accurate in-home test kits that could detect antibodies for COVID-19. [Los Angeles Daily News] * A lawyer with no park experience will now be in charge of the Grand Canyon. What does this attorney really need to know other than not to fall in? [Washington Post]

By Jordan Rothman
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.26.20

* The star of the hit Netflix docuseries The Tiger King has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was framed as part of a massive conspiracy. Now I really need to watch series... [TMZ] * Lawyers are predicting that social isolation will lead to higher divorce rates in the months to come. [CNBC] * It seems that along with divorce attorneys, wills and estates lawyers are in high demand because of COVID-19, and certain attorneys are preparing so many wills that some are being signed on the hood of a Porsche. [Bloomberg Law] * The attorneys general from 33 states have sent a letter to Amazon, Walmart, and others asking them to crack down on price gouging related to COVID-19. [NPR] * Federal officials are forcing attorneys to wear gloves, masks, and other protective gear to represent clients in certain immigration detention centers. However, some attorneys argue that this could be taking equipment away from healthcare workers. [Denver Post] * A Native American tribe has sued a group of insurance companies seeking coverage for casino closures under a business interruption policy. Depending on the policy language, this could be a huge gamble... [Insurance Journal]

By Jordan Rothman
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.19.19

* An attorney who put price tags for cheaper items on more expensive products at Walmart has just received a one-year stayed suspension from practice. [Bloomberg Law] * A plaintiffs lawyer involved in litigation against Monsanto has been charged with extortion for offering to cease legal action against a large company in exchange for a $200 million consulting fee. Hasn't Michael Avenatti taught this lawyer anything? [CBS News] * Boeing has been hit with another lawsuit involving its 737 Max jets. [CNN] * The first African-American Attorney General in the history of Kentucky was sworn in this week. [NBC News] * An attorney has been suspended for among other things submitting fake expense receipts for an ABA conference. [Bloomberg Law]. * It's been a while since Above the Law published a "Lawyerly Lairs" segment, but check out famed "Making a Murderer" attorney Kathleen Zellner's pad, which just hit the market. [Chicago Tribune]

By Jordan Rothman
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.12.19

* Immediately after John Bolton lost his job, a true genius tweeted that he'd signed with the Patriots. It looks like he might return to Kirkland which is basically the same thing in legal circles. [National Law Journal] * Supreme Court decides government can circumvent international law while asylum rules get litigated. Cool. [NY Times] * Dentons just added five firms across Africa in one day. [American Lawyer] * "Chief Counsel of Digital Citizenship" is an actual title a major company came up with for a lawyer presumably after spinning the buzzword wheel. [Corporate Counsel] * Latest appellate judge pick was so mealy-mouthed and evasive that even the Republicans snapped at him before they'll ultimately vote down the line to give the racist myth peddling jackhole a lifetime job. [Huffington Post] * Former Big 4 partner gets a year for fraud. [Law360] * What exactly would happen if California stood up for college athletes? [Sports Illustrated] * John Hinckley seeks sentence adjustment so he can move to California and get into the music business which is a sentence no one ever expected. [AP]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.02.19

* After what could only be described as a rough day, Attorney General Bill Barr has opted to skip the House Judiciary Committee hearing he's supposed to attend and force us to remember that Congressional subpoenas are basically worthless. [National Law Journal] * Speaking of Barr, yesterday spawned a bunch of somber takes like this article with lines like "A few months ago, William Barr was a well-respected former top federal law enforcement official." No he wasn't. He was the cover-up artist who helped the first Bush administration stifle Iran-Contra. [The Bulwark] * Walmart has hired a new general counsel for health and wellness. One might have thought "paying your workers enough money to eat" would be a better way of promoting wellness, but Walmart decided to go with a lawyer. [Corporate Counsel] * Julian Assange doesn't want to be extradited to the United States which is an absolute shocker. [ABC News] * The administration argued that it should be able to keep the emails from private accounts sent as part of its joke voter fraud commission under wraps because irony is dead. Judge Hellerstein disagreed. [Courthouse News Service] * Google's CLO made over $47 million last year even though almost every decision he made last year was questionable. [Law360]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.20.16

* A law school peeping tom? Police have arrested and charged 30-year-old Yiyan Wang with 15 counts of voyeurism for allegedly videotaping women inside a bathroom in UConn Law's library. He allegedly placed his phone beneath the stall walls to film them. He is currently being held on $250,000 bond, and will face a judge in early November. [FOX 61 Connecticut] * "Walmart is the new marketplace. It's where people go. It makes sense to be there." Look out, Missouri, because The Law Store is coming to a Walmart Supercenter near you. The firm has three locations now, and COO Kurt Benecke says the firm is priced to compete with LegalZoom, charging flat fees without any hourly rates. [Springfield News-Leader] * Zucker Goldberg & Ackerman, a defunct New Jersey foreclosure law firm which laid off hundreds of its employees last year, is now suing Wells Fargo, with the bankrupt firm claiming that the bank's extreme delays in correcting its robo-signing problems and its refusal to pay $2.5M for work performed caused the firm to fail. [Wall Street Journal] * "Justice shouldn’t be about the money in your pocket. Justice has to be the same for everybody, no matter your station in life, color of your skin or resources in your pocket." Jonathan Lippman, who recently retired as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, will lead Fordham Law's new justice initiative. Congrats! [Big Law Business] * Judge Vicente Bermudez, a Mexican federal jurist who handled appeals in several cartel cases, including those of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the jailed leader of the Sinaloa cartel, and Miguel Trevino, the former leader of the Zetas cartel, was assassinated at his home on Monday. Descanse en paz, Su Señoría. [Reuters]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.29.16

* Legal showdown averted (for now): the feds were able to access the data on the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone without any help from Apple. [Washington Post] * A Harvard Law School grad stands accused of a $95 million fraud scheme -- yikes. We'll have more on this later. [ABA Journal] * Does a sentencing delay violate the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial? Some on SCOTUS seem skeptical. [How Appealing] * Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announces his intention to veto the Free Exercise Protection Act, which critics claimed would have protected discrimination as a form of religious liberty. [New York Times] * Hillary Clinton takes Republicans to task for their handling of the current Supreme Court vacancy. [Wisconsin State Journal via How Appealing] * Some thoughts from Professor Noah Feldman on the recent Seventh Circuit ruling about the use of form contracts on the internet (which nobody reads). [Bloomberg View] * Save money (on taxes), live better: a federal judge strikes down a tax levied by Puerto Rico on mega-retailer Wal-Mart. [Reuters] * The Bracewell law firm, now sans Giuliani, elects Gregory Bopp as its new managing partner. [Texas Lawyer]

By David Lat