Where a jury found two companies’ statements about probiotics constituted false advertising, the district court enjoined them from making certain statements about the products. But when they violated that order, the court did not err in holding the companies in ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Albert Diaz Sanctions

Where a detainee sentenced to death for killing a police officer established that his defense counsel were deficient for not objecting to evidence about prison conditions during the penalty phase, but the state court’s conclusion that he failed to show ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Albert Diaz

Where 28 U.S.C. § 636(c) provides a magistrate judge with jurisdiction to approve a class action and enter judgment only by consent of the parties, the court, in a case of first impression, joined every other circuit to address the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Consumer Protection Judge Albert Diaz

Where the discovery procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, didn’t apply to Wikimedia’s suit against the National Security Agency, or NSA, alleging the agency is spying on Wikimedia’s communications through its Upstream surveillance program, the suit was ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Practice Judge Albert Diaz

Where an insurance carrier told an injured party that a certain person was “responsible” for the accident, that wasn’t an affirmative misrepresentation because that person held the insurance policy responding to the accident. Where the injured party could have ascertained ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Insurance Judge Albert Diaz

Where Montgomery County transferred a blind employee to her requested customer service position at a countywide call center after a jury found its failure to do so amounted to discrimination, she was entitled to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Employment Discrimination Judge Albert Diaz

Where the defendant moved to vacate his conviction for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence and drug trafficking because it relied in part on a now invalid predicate offense, but the statement of facts in his plea agreement ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Albert Diaz

Where the original complaint filed by a landowner alleging her house was damaged when a railroad diverted water asserted only state-law claims for negligence, nuisance and trespass, but her amended complaint included new claims for adverse possession and prescriptive easement ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Practice Judge Albert Diaz

Where a police officer asked two occupants in a stopped car whether there was “anything illegal” in the car, the motion to suppress firearms found in the car was denied because the question went to officer safety, given the time ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Albert Diaz

Where counsel presented substantial mitigating evidence about the defendant’s neglectful and violent childhood and his significant brain damage, including the opinions of four experts about the effects of brain damage on his behavior, the defendant sentenced to death for rape ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Albert Diaz