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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • January 22, 2026

    Mother Claims ChatGPT Twisted Son’s Favorite Book, Design Complicit In Suicide

    LOS ANGELES — A man turned to OpenAI entities’ ChatGPT for consolation after a difficult breakup, but it quickly turned his favorite book into a story about letting go and romanticized suicide despite his insistence that he was happy to be alive, his mother alleges in a Los Angeles County Superior Court lawsuit.

  • January 22, 2026

    Federal Judge Agrees To Remand CoolSculpting Case, Allow Defendants To Be Added

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a man’s motion for joinder and remand in a case alleging that he was severely burned and scarred as a result of a CoolSculpting treatment, rejecting arguments from the manufacturers that the man failed to amend his complaint to add the treating doctor and facility.

  • January 21, 2026

    Hawaii Judge Denies New Trial For Smoker’s Estate After $0 Judgment

    KONA, Hawaii — A Hawaii state judge issued a ruling denying a smoker’s estate’s motion to vacate a jury’s general damages award and for a new trial on damages, finding the jury’s $0 general damages verdict was “consistent” with the evidence presented at trial regarding the smoker’s pain and suffering from various illnesses including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

  • January 21, 2026

    Goodyear Hit With $12.5M Judgment In Louisiana Mesothelioma Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A judge in Louisiana entered judgment in favor of a mesothelioma sufferer and against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. for more than $12.5 million after finding it liable for exposing the office manager to asbestos in brake products.

  • January 20, 2026

    $39.9M Settlement Made After Part Of Jury Award Tossed In Struck Pedestrian Case

    LOS ANGELES — After a California judge ordered a new trial or a $22 million reduction to a jury award of future noneconomic damages to a man who has been in a coma since he was struck by a city garbage truck, the parties reached an agreement that provides a total personal injury award of $23.4 million to the injured man and $16.5 million to his six children as settlement for their future wrongful death claims.

  • January 16, 2026

    No Indemnification Owed For $300,000 Personal Injury Judgment, Panel Says, Reverses

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts appeals court on Jan. 15 held that a homeowners insurer owes no indemnification for an underlying $300,000 personal injury judgment, reversing a lower court in concluding that the man who the underlying judgment was awarded against is not a member of his grandmother’s household and, as a result, is not insured under the policy at issue.

  • January 15, 2026

    Defense Expert Improperly Excluded In Fla. Slip-And-Fall Case; $5.5M Verdict Tossed

    MIAMI — An expert for Walgreens Co. who opined that a woman who fell in a store may have had a seizure due to alcohol withdrawal was improperly excluded, a Florida appeals court held Jan. 14, reversing a more than $5 million verdict in a slip-and-fall case and remanding the case for a new trial.

  • January 15, 2026

    Cancer Sufferers File 3 Cases Against Monsanto Alleging Fraud Related To Roundup

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Three people with cancer filed nearly identical lawsuits on Jan. 14 in Delaware state court asserting that Monsanto Co. fraudulently represented that independent scientists have concluded that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, is safe. One plaintiff, James O’Brien Jr., argues that Monsanto’s “intentional, grossly negligent, wanton, willful, and reckless conduct warrants” punitive damages.

  • January 15, 2026

    Airbnb Denies Liability For Carbon Monoxide Injuries At Rental Property

    SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb Inc. has filed an answer in California federal court denying all claims brought by a family that alleges they were poisoned by carbon monoxide (CO) during a stay at a property they rented through the online platform. Airbnb also asserts affirmative defenses, contending that the family is not entitled to punitive damages because the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

  • January 15, 2026

    Texas Federal Judge: Expert In RV Injury Case Out For Unreliable Methodology

    SHERMAN, Texas — A Texas federal judge found that a woman who sued over injuries she sustained when a wooden panel fell from a recreational vehicle failed to show that “it is more likely than not that” her expert’s opinions are based on a reliable methodology and granted a motion to exclude.

  • January 14, 2026

    Parties Agree To Dismissal Of Suit Alleging Uber Breached Duty Of Care To Driver

    SEATTLE — A rideshare company and the estate and survivors of one of its drivers filed a stipulation for order of dismissal with prejudice on Jan. 13, having reached a settlement in December in a lawsuit brought as a result of the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.

  • January 13, 2026

    Tesla Answers Complaint In Wrongful Death Suit Over ‘Defective’ Autopilot

    SALT LAKE CITY — Tesla Inc. and Tesla of UT Inc. (collectively, Tesla) filed an answer to a complaint in a product liability and wrongful death suit filed by survivors of people killed in a Tesla Model X, alleging that the vehicle was “unreasonably dangerous and defective” when it was driven by one of the decedents and crashed into a truck due to the failure of the vehicle’s autopilot feature.

  • January 12, 2026

    Jury Returns Defense Award In Injury Case After Judge Excludes Expert Testimony

    NASHVILLE — A Tennessee federal jury returned a defense verdict in a premise liability case in which the judge previously ruled that an expert retained by a woman who says she fell on a man’s raised sidewalk could not testify because his opinions were obvious and not based a reliable methodology.

  • January 12, 2026

    John Crane Appeals $10 Million Judgment In Oregon Asbestos Case

    PORTLAND, Ore. — John Crane Inc. (JCI) filed a notice indicating that it would appeal an Oregon judge’s entry of a $10,284,000 limited judgment against it in an asbestos case involving the company’s gaskets.

  • January 12, 2026

    Arizona Tobacco And Vape Shops Agree To Pay $460,000 For Underage Sales

    PHOENIX — Three companies and their owner agreed to pay $460,000 in restitution, civil penalties and attorney fees to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office as part of a consent judgment entered in Arizona state court resolving claims brought by the attorney general for illegal sales of tobacco and nicotine products to minors.

  • January 09, 2026

    Family Settles AI Chatbot Negligence Suit Against Character Technologies

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida dismissed a product liability and negligence suit after being informed of a settlement of a family’s claims that their child committed suicide after Character Technologies Inc.’s artificial intelligence chatbot encouraged him to do so.

  • January 09, 2026

    Man Seeking To Add COVID Vaccine To Vaccine Injury Table Appeals Standing Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man who sought an order forcing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT) so he could be compensated by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) filed a notice of appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 8 after a District of Columbia federal judge granted the government’s motion to dismiss for lack of standing, having found that an act of Congress was a necessary step to adding a vaccine to the VIT.

  • January 09, 2026

    Expert’s Testimony Properly Excluded As Unreliable, 9th Circuit Rules

    PHOENIX — An expert retained by a plaintiff in a product liability case to prove causation was properly excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 after the district court judge found his testimony to be unreliable, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 8, affirming a summary judgment award for the manufacturer of a portable camping fire device.

  • January 09, 2026

    Ky. High Court: Factual Parts Of Hospital’s Fall Analysis Exempt From Disclosure

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky trial court erred when it required a hospital to produce factual portions of a root cause analysis following a patient’s fall as that information is privileged, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate panel’s writ prohibiting a trial court from enforcing its discovery order as to those portions of the document.

  • January 08, 2026

    Insurer’s Rescission Bid Denied In Coverage Dispute As To Underlying Litigation

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment seeking rescission of policies due to a purported material misrepresentation in a policy application and a determination that the insurer has no duty to defend in underlying personal injury litigation involving a property owner and a property manager, finding “that there was no misrepresentation” in the application and that there is no dispute that a duty to defend is covered under the policies.

  • January 08, 2026

    Judge Refuses To Dismiss Insurer’s Suit Arising From Injury At Cryotherapy Facility

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California refused to dismiss an insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that its business owners liability insurance policy’s professional services exclusion bars coverage for a patient’s underlying action alleging that she was injured at a cryotherapy facility while receiving medical treatment from the insured, also denying the insured’s motion to dismiss the insurer’s claim seeking reimbursement of the $275,000 it paid to settle the underlying action on its insured’s behalf.

  • January 05, 2026

    Nevada High Court Affirms Ruling Finding Claim To Now-Insolvent Insurer Excluded

    LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling finding that a truck driver’s claim for work-related injuries to the trucking company’s now-insolvent insurer was excluded by a workers’ compensation exclusion clause, finding that the driver failed to show that he was an independent contractor and that the workers’ compensation claim related to his injuries was denied.

  • January 05, 2026

    Experts Cannot Opine On Negligence Theories Not In Complaint, Judge Holds

    OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on Jan. 2 held that testimony from an expert retained by employees of Union Pacific Railroad Co. (UPR) who sued for injuries they sustained during their employment is limited “to the three theories of negligence enumerated in the operative complaint.”

  • January 05, 2026

    ChatGPT Reinforced Delusions, Led To Murder-Suicide, Man’s Estate Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — ChatGPT foreseeably reinforced a Connecticut man’s delusions that his 83-year-old mother orchestrated attempts on his life leading him to commit murder-suicide, the administrator of his estate claims in a suit alleging product liability, negligence and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • January 02, 2026

    Judge: Flint Bellwether Plaintiffs’ Tort Claims Against Government Not Time-Barred

    DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan has ruled that the U.S. government has failed to satisfy its burden of showing that the claims of any bellwether plaintiff are time-barred in the $722.4 million Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit against the government related to the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint.