A plaintiffs attorney who was debarred from filing claims with an asbestos trust could get another shot after a federal appeals court found the restriction may have wrongly curtailed his privilege to practice law.

In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on Thursday that an agreement under which Michael Mandelbrot, an attorney in Novato, California, was barred from making claims against four asbestos trusts might have violated his right to practice law under two California statutes and its own 2015 opinion in Golden v. California Emergency Physicians Medical Group. Mandelbrot, the Ninth Circuit panel said in the majority opinion, agreed to the deal after the trusts accused him of making “unreliable” claims on behalf of asbestos victims but tried to back out a few days later. A district judge in Los Angeles affirmed the agreement. The panel's majority vacated that order and remanded the case after finding “these calls are best for the district court to make in the first instance.”

“Accordingly, we vacate and remand this case so that the district court can decide whether federal or state law governs (including whether the federal law argument has been waived), and what impact, if any, Golden has on this case,” Judge John Owens wrote for the majority.