Where lawsuits brought against the insureds alleging shoddy construction of townhouses were “replete” with allegations of intentional conduct, that conduct is neither an “occurrence” nor an “accident,” so the insurer’s duty-t0-defend was not triggered. Allegations of negligent conduct were unsupported by ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Franchisees of urgent care centers who continued using the trademarks, service marks and a franchise system without authorization must pay most of the plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees. The claimed partner hourly rate of $400 and associate rate of $200-275 per hour ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Merit Systems Protection Board, or MSPB, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did not err in upholding the dismissal of plaintiff from the Patent and Trademark Office. The plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies or did not engage ...

Tagged with: Employment Employment Discrimination Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although the defendants prevailed at summary judgment by demonstrating the Lanham Act claims were time-barred, attorneys’ fees were denied because the plaintiff’s claims were not frivolous or objectively unreasonable, its litigation approach was not so unreasonable as to render it ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A law firm defendant must produce attorney-client privileged documents because the crime-fraud exception is applicable where the attorney purportedly committed a crime or fraud, there was a prima facie showing he engaged in criminal conduct and the Noerr-Pennington doctrine was ...

Tagged with: Judge Leonie Brinkema Sanctions U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria federal judge has approved a nearly $129,000 fee award in a battle over franchise rights for a Herndon doctor and his urgent care clinic. The fee ruling came after the doctor lost his legal team following a failed ...

Tagged with: Business Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Defamation allegations in a case involving an alleged scheme to defraud a company out of millions of dollars in student loan debt do not provide the requisite predicate for civil claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. A ...

Tagged with: Judge Leonie Brinkema Tort U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A nonprofit that works with servicemembers who are LGBTQ+ and/or HIV positive had direct standing to challenge the military’s accession and retention policies that forced the  organization to divert resources from other programs and impaired its ability to carry out ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A defendant convicted of bank robbery and weapons charges who was sentenced to three 15-year prison terms won a steep reduction in his sentence under the First Step Act. Because of the gross disparity between his sentence and one he ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a Russian-born British scholar sued media outlets alleging defamatory statements, the statements were made more than one year before her suit was filed so they were time-barred and could not be revived by republication or third parties’ electronic references. ...

Tagged with: Judge Leonie Brinkema Tort U.S. District Court - Eastern District