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October 16, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A split Pennsylvania appeals court on Oct. 15 affirmed a trial court’s $725 million judgment for a service station worker diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and $500,000 for the man’s wife after a jury determined that Exxon Mobil Corp.’s predecessor in interest manufactured and sold defective gasoline containing benzene.
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October 15, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge dismissed with prejudice a suit filed against the Chicago White Sox (CWS) and Major League Baseball (MLB) by a former pitching prospect alleging negligence and violations of the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA), arising from allegations that the defendants required that he be vaccinated for COVID-19, which the prospect alleged ultimately ended his career, finding that the suit is time-barred.
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October 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted the U.S. solicitor general’s motion to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae supporting a staff nurse at a federal detention center who has asked the court to reverse a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling recognizing a cause of action for damages under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics for an inmate who was injured in a prison gang fight but was not sent to a hospital.
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October 13, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge denied a woman's motion to exclude testimony from two medical experts retained by the United States in a lawsuit arising from a collision involving an electric scooter and a government vehicle, finding that their opinions on the extent of her injuries and necessity of medical treatment are admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
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October 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted Monsanto Co.’s petition for a writ of certiorari in a case brought by a man who says he developed cancer after exposure to the active ingredient in Roundup, vacated the judgment that followed a $28 million combined award for the man and remanded the case to a California appellate court for further consideration in light of the June 25 decision in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell.
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October 09, 2026
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Holding in part that “prejudice is presumed and plaintiffs need not prove an actual impact on the litigation in order to obtain relief” once a violation is found under Loudon v. Mhyre, the en banc Washington Supreme Courtadopted “a presumed prejudice standard” in a 6-3 ruling addressing privilege issues in a medical personal injury case.
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October 08, 2026
CARSON CITY, Nev. — On rehearing, the Nevada Supreme Court reversed a $7.9 million attorney fee award to a bicyclist who won a $14.1 million verdict after he was struck by a man driving for his employer, finding that the calculation of the fee award was based on counsel’s work during the entire case, rather than only on work performed after the bicyclist made a $1 million offer of judgment.
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October 07, 2026
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — An exercise equipment manufacturer is entitled to summary judgment on design defect and failure-to-warn claims after a New York federal judge excluded the injured user's primary expert, finding that his opinions about a leg press's design and warnings are not admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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October 07, 2026
PADUCAH, Ky. — A Kentucky federal magistrate judge declined to exclude the opinions of a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) that a motor vehicle accident caused a woman’s posttraumatic stress disorder and exacerbated her anxiety and depression, finding that the expert’s specialized knowledge will help a jury.
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October 05, 2026
NEW YORK — The plaintiffs in a New York asbestos case on Oct. 2 entered a notice of ruling in which a New York justice said they presented sufficient evidence of asbestos exposure to cause mesothelioma and that the $10 million award for past pain and suffering, while higher than past awards, was consistent with more recent jury verdicts.
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October 02, 2026
HAMMOND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion for class certification filed by 11 minors who are suing manufacturing companies for contaminating the area where they lived and attended elementary school with lead, granting certification of their proposed medical monitoring class but denying certification of the proposed personal injury class because the plaintiffs “suffer from dozens of different conditions.”
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October 02, 2026
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by Mead Johnson & Company LLC, Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. and Abbott Laboratories after the appellate panel reversed an order denying remand of five Pennsylvania cases that had been removed and joined with hundreds of others in a multidistrict litigation alleging that certain cow’s milk-based infant formula caused premature infants to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
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October 01, 2026
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Going “one step further” than the response in opposition, a Pennsylvania federal judge held that a motion filed by the last remaining defendant in a lawsuit brought by the estate of a man who died while working at a natural gas drilling site to compel genetic testing of two children listed as beneficiaries was “meritless” and precluded by limitations prescribed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 35.
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September 29, 2026
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The last remaining defendant in a lawsuit filed by the estate of a man who died while working at a fracking site told a Pennsylvania federal judge that it still wants to pursue a motion to compel genetic testing despite the other movants leaving the case following a summary judgment order, a dismissal and a settlement.
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September 25, 2026
HAMMOND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge adopted the result of a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and denied two motions for partial judgment on the pleadings filed by manufacturing companies accused of exposing to lead 11 minors who lived in homes and attended elementary school in an area later discovered to be contaminated, writing that “throwaway lines in a brief” regarding four plaintiffs not having injuries do not constitute “judicial admissions” that would warrant dismissal of their claims.
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September 24, 2026
MIAMI — Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM USA) filed three motions in Florida state court challenging a $37.5 million final judgment entered against it and in favor of a smoker’s estate after a jury trial, urging the court to set aside the judgment, order a new trial or, in the alternative, order remittitur, writing that the estate did not present sufficient evidence showing that PM USA influenced the smoker’s decision to smoke or caused her lung cancer and death at age 54.
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September 23, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York appellate court reversed the portion of a lower court’s ruling granting dismissal of some of an estate’s claims in a negligence, health law violations and wrongful death suit against a nursing home after a resident’s death purportedly from COVID-19, finding that the nursing home failed to show that it was immune under the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act (EDTPA).
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September 18, 2026
CARSON CITY, Nev. — A Nevada Supreme Court panel held that a lower court erred in awarding attorneys the full amount of requested contingent attorney fees for representing a man in a medical malpractice suit, finding that the fees were capped under state law because the settled claim sounded in professional negligence rather than ordinary negligence.
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September 16, 2026
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Wyoming federal judge granted a hydraulic fracturing company’s partial motion for summary judgment as to punitive damages sought by two fracking site workers who suffered serious burns from equipment explosions and sued the company for negligence, finding that there is no dispute that the company’s conduct was not willful or wanton misconduct warranting an award of punitive damages.
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September 15, 2026
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on Sept. 14 rejected arguments from Costco Wholesale Corp. that testimony from an expert retained by a man who was injured after he slipped at a Costco gas station is inadmissible and further denied its motion for summary judgment.
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September 15, 2026
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal court jury returned a $40 million verdict for a woman who alleged that a C.R. Bard Inc. implanted port catheter (IPC) device fractured and left a piece dislodged in her heart in the second bellwether case in the multidistrict litigation to reach trial.
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September 14, 2026
KINGS HILL, St. Croix, Virgin Islands — A Virgin Islands judge denied summary judgment but granted a bifurcated trial, finding that an indirect owner of an aluminum company could be liable to that company’s former employees for negligence and failure to warn about the dangers of the bauxite it supplied for use at the facility and that evidence of the supplier’s net worth will appear in phase 2 only if necessary to avoid introducing prejudice against the company in the first phase of the trial.
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September 14, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge allowed negligence, gross negligence and battery claims to proceed in a lawsuit brought by a former laboratory technician who alleges that occupational exposure to benzene-containing solvents caused his cancer but dismissed strict liability and fraud claims against three chemical companies; the judge also refused to order that the plaintiff provide a more definite statement under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(e).
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September 11, 2026
SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge applied Wyoming law and dismissed as federally preempted negligence and strict products liability claims brought against the manufacturer of a glucose monitoring system by the parents of a diabetic patient who died after allegedly becoming hypoglycemic while driving when his continuous glucose monitoring system failed to provide an adequate warning.
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September 10, 2026
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed remand of an asbestos action on Sept. 9, finding that General Electric Co.’s provision of turbines to the U.S. Navy did not give it a colorable federal contractor defense to a woman’s claims stemming from her husband’s work at one of the company’s commercial facilities.