In an important Second Amendment decision that charts a course for evaluating the validity of gun laws now that the Supreme Court has declared the right to be an individual one, the 3rd Circuit has refused to strike down a federal law that bans possession of guns with obliterated serial numbers.

The California Supreme Court has carved out an exception to a quarter-century-old ruling banning cities and counties from hiring private counsel to handle public-nuisance suits on a contingency fee basis. The court said such hirings are acceptable if government lawyers retain complete control over all critical decision making, providing “a safeguard against the possibility that private attorneys unilaterally will engage in inappropriate prosecutorial strategy and tactics geared to maximize their monetary award.”

Georgia’s Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a 1987 Georgia statute of limitations that makes it harder for plaintiffs to bring certain medical malpractice cases.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has ruled that two plaintiffs alleging that asbestos exposure caused their illnesses cannot have their cases dismissed on summary judgment simply because their doctor opined their illnesses are attributable both to asbestos exposure and to smoking. According to the plaintiffs’ attorney, the court’s ruling could impact many cases beyond asbestos litigation by setting the standard of review of summary judgments as a de novo review, rather than an abuse of discretion standard of review.

New York courts have come down on opposite sides recently in immigration cases where defendants argued that their convictions are not valid in light of a recent Supreme Court decision on ineffective assistance of counsel. Steven Banks, attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society, said that while no federal or state appellate court has decided whether to apply Padilla v.