SCOTUS mulls internet firms' legal shield, ABA moves to boot LSAT again, Rosenblatt wins negligence suit and courts may collide over Dentons' suit
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Before the U.S. Supreme Court today is a major case that could weaken a legal shield that protects internet companies from a wide array of lawsuits under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
At the center of the lawsuit is Beatriz Gonzalez, the mother of 23-year-old Nohemi Gonzalez, an aspiring industrial designer who was in Paris on a study-abroad program when she died in a hail of bullets fired by Islamist militants as she sat at a bistro called La Belle Epoque. The incident was part of a rampage of shootings and suicide bombings that killed 130 people, with the Islamic State militant group claiming responsibility.
The justices consider the Gonzalez family's appeal of a lower court's decision to throw out their lawsuit against Alphabet's Google for financial damages. The family claimed that the video-sharing service YouTube hosted Islamic State content, and its algorithms recommended the group's videos to certain users.
Also in SCOTUS today:
The American Bar Association's Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar overwhelmingly voted to resubmit a controversial proposal to end by 2025 the longstanding requirement that schools use the Law School Admission Test or other standardized test when admitting new students.
That decision comes less than two weeks after the ABA's policymaking body rejected that change amid warnings that law student diversity would suffer.
The proposal to end the admissions test rule will return to the ABA's House of Delegates in August—the same group that voted it down on Feb. 6. The legal education council can enact the change even if the House rejects it for a second time because the U.S. Department of Education recognizes that council as the official accreditor of law schools.
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London-based Rosenblatt Solicitors shook off a negligence lawsuit by the former executive chairman of UK roadside recovery company Automobile Association. Robert Mackenzie, who was sacked after attacking a colleague, hired the firm to represent him in a wrongful termination case against AA.
A London judge agreed that Rosenblatt had negligently failed to advise Mackenzie that his claim that AA's directors had conspired to remove him from the top post was weak, but denied the negligence caused Mackenzie any loss.
?? Dentons' $30 million fight with ex-lawyer could put New York, California courts on collision course
It started out as just a viciously ugly fight over a giant contingency fee, but a new order from the California Supreme Court has transformed a dispute between Dentons and onetime partner Jinshu "John" Zhang into a landmark test of a state law mandating California jurisdiction for employment disputes involving California employees.
But that's not all, writes columnist Alison Frankel. Zhang's fight with Dentons may well provoke a clash between New York and California courts, with possible constitutional implications under the Full Faith and Credit Clause. Frankel writes: "This, folks, is no run-of-the-mill fee dispute."
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