News & Publications

I have done the number crunching for Texas Supreme Court cause disposition for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2023, and ending December 31, 2023. The broader statistics are set out below. I will provide additional numbers and calculations in the coming weeks. During the 2023 calendar year, the Texas Supreme Court disposed of 100 causes, consisting of 86 causes taken on petition for review, 11 original mandamus proceedings, and 3 certified questions. One hundred [...]

On March 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an important decision that sheds light on the test for determining scienter under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS). The Second Circuit held that to act "willfully" under the AKS, a defendant "must act knowing that its conduct is in some way unlawful." Applying this holding, the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of AKS-based False Claims Act (FCA) claims because the relator failed [...]

The Supreme Court of Delaware has held that a letter received by an insured from an attorney purporting to represent unidentified plaintiffs and forecasting future litigation did not constitute a "claim for damages" under a claims-made policy. Zurich Am. Ins. Co. v. Syngenta Crop Prot., LLC, 2024 WL 763418 (Del. Feb. 26, 2024). Before the coverage period of its claims-made policy began, the insured chemical manufacturer received a letter from an attorney who asserted that his [...]