Last year's dismissal, under the Supreme Court decision preempting product liability claims for medical devices, was considered a landmark. But Medtronic decided to pay out an average $33,000 to plaintiffs before waiting to see what the Eighth Circuit would do.

Massachusetts Mutual and its lawyers at Quinn Emanuel crossed a major hurdle on Tuesday in a crush of litigation against banks that underwrote residential mortgage backed-securities. A federal judge in Boston largely denied motions to dismiss nine separate suits that Quinn Emanuel filed against Credit Suisse, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, WaMu Inc., and Goldman Sachs.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday supported efforts by Nike Inc. to rid itself of a rival's trademark suit by promising not to pursue its own lawsuit against the competitor, Already LLC.

The Federal Trade Commission is fighting a two-front battle against deals in which brand pharma makers pay generics to keep their products off the market. It seems to be making political headway, but on Tuesday the FTC took a big blow in court--partly because of some questionable litigation strategy.