Judges in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “are getting tougher on lawyers who represent serial plaintiffs by reducing their fees and threatening sanctions,” said Seyfarth Shaw in an analysis Thursday. In an Oct. 24 opinion in Shayler v. 1310 PCH , the 9th Circuit panel affirmed the district court’s order awarding a reduced attorney’s fees and costs following the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff on a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The plaintiff, a serial ADA litigant, moved for an award of more than $34,000 in attorney’s fees and costs, said the opinion. But the district court “reduced this award significantly,” citing factors “such as the routine nature of the work performed by the plaintiff’s attorneys,” it said. This decision “should be useful for businesses fighting fee petitions filed by serial plaintiffs in routine cases,” said Seyfarth Shaw.

The U.S. District Court for Colorado, per a Nov. 2 order (see 2211030043), instructed plaintiffs Qwest, Level 3 and Global Crossing to confer with defendant Peerless Network and “make a showing in writing as to why private mediation is not feasible under the circumstances of this case,” said a joint mediation notice Thursday (docket 1:21-cv-03004). “Private mediation is acceptable to the Parties,” they told the court. Plaintiffs and defendants “will work together to identify a mediator and conduct private mediation,” they said. The case involves negotiated interconnect agreements and the access tariffs associated with them. Qwest, Level 3 and Global Crossing sued Peerless affiliates in eight states in November alleging that they engaged in a scheme of avoiding mandatory switched access charges, thereby giving them an unfair competitive advantage in the toll-free marketplace. The defendants countersued in March alleging the companies used unfair and unsupported billing methods, to the detriment of the Peerless affiliates.

U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles set a Feb. 23 scheduling conference on the Oct. 27 complaint alleging T-Mobile violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, said an order signed Tuesday (docket 2:22-cv-07831) by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong. Plaintiff Jose Alarcon alleges that T-Mobile, despite knowing that Alarcon was the victim of identity theft and that he did not authorize or consent to the opening of the T-Mobile account on which nearly $4,300 was past due, continued collection efforts and refused to properly, reasonably and in good faith investigate Alarcon’s dispute. T-Mobile denied last week that Alarcon is entitled to relief or damages (see 2211040006).

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Sherman canceled its Nov. 15 scheduling conference on AT&T’s Sept. 6 complaint alleging that T-Mobile’s BannedSeniors.com ad and marketing campaign lies to consumers about AT&T’s wireless services (see 2211020003), said a text-only entry Tuesday (docket 4:22-cv-00760). The court will enter a new scheduling order, said the entry.

The three plaintiffs in the Oct. 7 class action alleging Dish Network bilked New York installers of their proper biweekly pay and wrongfully terminated them in retaliation for their complaints about unsafe vans voluntarily dismissed their claims against Dish without prejudice, said their notice of dismissal Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-08151) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York. Dish’s letter motion for a deadline extension to Nov. 15 to answer the complaint foretold a looming settlement in the case (see 2210070037). Settlement terms weren't disclosed in Tuesday’s notice of dismissal, but Dish told U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil the plaintiffs agreed to individually arbitrate their disputes with Dish.

If Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan or the full SCOTUS lifts the stay on the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Oct. 22 order denying Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward’s request for an injunction against T-Mobile’s release of Ward’s phone records under subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Select Committee (see 2210270057), T-Mobile will ask the 9th Circuit to remand the subpoena to the district court for “clarification” of its scope, said the carrier Monday in a notice of indicative ruling (docket 22-16473). At issue is whether the committee had agreed to narrow the subpoena to exclude call detail records involving Ward’s medical patients, said T-Mobile. The U.S. District Court for Arizona seems to think the committee agreed to narrow the subpoena’s scope, but committee lawyers told T-Mobile counsel they had made no such agreement, the notice said. The “potential misunderstanding” between the committee and the district court puts T-Mobile “in an impossible position,” it said. T-Mobile repeated its description of the quandary in a letter Tuesday to the SCOTUS clerk.

Federal prosecutors have “voluminous" amounts of evidence against a former AT&T executive indicted on charges related to bribing state legislators, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz on a court-ordered status call Tuesday as part of the case against Paul La Schiazza (docket 1:22-cr-00520) in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois (see 2210280038). Discovery recently sent to La Schiazza’s defense counsel, Morgan Lewis attorney Tinos Diamantatos, included hundreds of intercepted phone calls and over 100,000 pages of documents, she said. Due to the large amount of discovery, Judge Robert Gettleman scheduled a second status conference for Jan. 9.

That Arkansas' Video Service Act doesn't expressly bar municipalities from bringing claims doesn't mean it confers a right for municipalities to do so, an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said Tuesday, upholding a lower court's dismissal of the city of Ashdown's suit seeking video service provider franchise fees from Netflix and Hulu. Judges Steven Colloton, Roger Wollman and David Stras, in a docket 21-3435 opinion inked by Wollman, said it's the state Public Service Commission's right and duty under the VSA to bring a claim. Read as a whole, the VSA's aim is establishing and regulating a statewide franchising system, and recognizing Ashdown's right of action would circumvent that intent, the judges said. Oral argument was in September (see 2209200046).

T-Mobile denies that plaintiff Jose Alarcon is entitled to relief or damages in his complaint alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, said the carrier in its answer Thursday (docket 2:22-cv-07831) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles. Alarcon’s Oct. 27 complaint alleges that, despite knowing he was the victim of identity theft and that he did not authorize or consent to the opening of the T-Mobile account on which nearly $4,300 was past due, T-Mobile “continued collection efforts and refused to properly, reasonably, and in good faith investigate” Alarcon’s dispute. Any violation of the statute, if it occurred at all, “was the result of bona fide error,” answered T-Mobile. Any damages he incurred “were pre-existing damages” not caused by T-Mobile, it said.

Plaintiff Nelson Fernandez, who alleges in an Americans With Disabilities complaint that Family Entertainment Group runs websites that contain “prevalent” access barriers that prevent free and full use by blind and visually disabled people (see 2211010068), has until Nov. 28 to provide FEG with a written report “concerning any claimed ADA violations,” said an ADA Title III scheduling order (docket 9:22-cv-81651) signed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks for Southern Florida in West Palm Beach. An FEG response is due Jan. 6. Mediation in the case is due Feb. 3, and a status report a week later, it said.