Analysis

Tesla Verdict Could Embolden Plaintiffs With Similar Claims

By Carolina Bolado

The $329 million verdict handed down by jurors in Miami on Friday over a fatal Florida Keys crash is the first to find Tesla's autopilot defective and will likely embolden other plaintiffs with similar claims to take them to trial, personal injury attorneys told Law360.

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Tesla Hit With Suit Over Autonomous Vehicle Issues

By Spencer Brewer

A Tesla Inc. investor has launched a proposed securities class action against the company in Texas federal court, claiming it overhyped its autonomous driving vehicles despite flaws that led to regulatory and legal blowback, including a recent $329 million verdict involving the Autopilot feature.

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Walmart's $2.6M Fall Injury Verdict Not Excessive, Court Affirms

By Y. Peter Kang

A California appeals court has affirmed a $2.6 million award in a suit accusing Walmart of causing a customer's devastating hamstring injury in a fall, saying the verdict was not excessive given the evidence.

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Judge Mulls Sanctioning Hagens Berman In Thalidomide Suits

By Lauren Berg

The Pennsylvania federal judge presiding over dozens of product liability actions against manufacturers of the morning sickness drug thalidomide Tuesday ordered Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP to explain why it shouldn't be sanctioned for allegedly conducting "grossly inadequate" pre-suit inquiries, obstructing discovery and doctoring evidence.

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OptumRx Urges Panel To DQ Motley Rice In LA Opioid Suit

By Craig Clough

OptumRx told a California appellate panel Tuesday that Motley Rice should be disqualified from representing Los Angeles County in a lawsuit alleging it colluded with drugmakers to fuel the opioid crisis, saying the firm violated state law by using confidential information obtained in the case in other lawsuits it's handling against Optum.

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Infant Death Suit Reinstated Against Texas Hospital, Doctors

By Mike Curley

A Texas appeals panel on Tuesday reinstated a couple's suit against Texas Children's Hospital and doctors with Baylor College of Medicine over the death of their 5-week-old infant, finding the trial court abused its discretion in finding their expert report was insufficient to support their claims.

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Novo Nordisk Lodges Suits Over 'Knockoff' Semaglutide Meds

By Rae Ann Varona

Novo Nordisk said Tuesday it has recently filed more than a dozen lawsuits accusing weight loss companies, med spas and pharmacies of tricking patients into purchasing and using unapproved drugs containing semaglutide, which the Danish pharmaceutical company uses in its blockbuster medicines Wegovy and Ozempic.

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Homeowners Policy Doesn't Cover Shooting, 6th Circ. Says

By Ganesh Setty

State Farm has no duty to defend or indemnify a man facing wrongful death claims after he unintentionally shot and killed a woman in a domestic dispute, the Sixth Circuit affirmed Tuesday, finding that his intentional gunshots still created a foreseeable risk of harm and thus weren't an insurable accident.

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Alaska Airlines Can't Nix Flight Attendant's Surgery Win

By Mike Curley

A Washington state appeals court won't disturb a jury's finding that a flight attendant was entitled to coverage of a spine surgery for an injury she sustained while working for Alaska Airlines, saying the trial court judge rightly rejected the airline's proposed jury instruction for its confusion.

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Ghislaine Maxwell Slams Feds' Bid To Unseal Grand Jury Docs

By Lauren Berg

Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking children for late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to deny the government's bid to unseal grand jury transcripts, saying release of the sealed materials could jeopardize the appeal of her 2021 conviction.

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Shuttered NJ Importer Pleads Guilty To Hiding AC Fire Risks

By Carla Baranauckas

A defunct New Jersey importer of consumer appliances pled guilty on Tuesday to one count of willfully violating the Consumer Product Safety Act for its failure to report dangerous defects in more than 33,000 portable air conditioners that have been linked to more than 40 fires and one death, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

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Food Co. Can't Exit Suit By Vendor Worker With Severe Burns

By Y. Peter Kang

A South Carolina federal judge refused Tuesday to toss a suit seeking to hold Sauer Brands liable for severe chemical burns suffered by an EcoLab worker who was servicing machinery at a food plant, saying workers' compensation immunity doesn't apply.

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Korean War Vet's Widow Sues Feds For Wrongful Death

By Kelcey Caulder

The widow of a Korean War veteran has sued the federal government, alleging that staff at Georgia's Carl Vinson VA Medical Center caused her husband's death by failing to care for him properly while he was a patient at its community living center.

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Key Opioid Theory Actually Irrelevant, Drug Cos. Tell 4th Circ.

By Jeff Overley

With federal judges in West Virginia suddenly split over the central legal theory in opioid litigation, major drug distributors are insisting the theory actually doesn't matter, telling the Fourth Circuit it can uphold their triumph in a landmark trial without even touching the hot-button issue.

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Charlotte Bar Shares Blame For Fatal Shooting, NC Panel Told

By Hayley Fowler

The estate of a shooting victim has doubled down on its efforts in a North Carolina appellate court to revive wrongful death claims against a bar accused of overserving the shooter, arguing the lower court ruled on foreseeability too early in the case.

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Property Co. Sues Zurich Over Music Video Shooting Defense

By Hope Patti

Zurich failed to adequately defend claims over a shooting that occurred during the filming of a music video for rapper Lil Baby, an Atlanta property owner told a Georgia federal court, saying it's entitled to retain independent counsel at the insurer's expense due to an ongoing conflict of interest.

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4th Circ. Faults Board For Shallow Review Of Asylum Case

By Britain Eakin

The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday partially revived a Salvadoran woman's claim for asylum, finding that the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to properly assess whether she belonged to a legally protected social group.

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10th Circ. Says No Signature Needed In Asylum Appeal

By Britain Eakin

The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday revived a Salvadoran family's appeal of an immigration judge's denial of their asylum claim, ruling that the Board of Immigration Appeals wrongly rejected it over a missing signature that wasn't legally required.

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Opinion

The Legal Education Status Quo Is No Longer Tenable

As underscored by the fallout from California’s February bar exam, legal education and licensure are tethered to outdated systems, and the industry must implement several key reforms to remain relevant and responsive to 21st century legal needs, says Matthew Nehmer at The Colleges of Law.

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Law, Medical School Orgs Face Application Fee Antitrust Suits

By Gina Kim

The Law School Admission Council and the Association of American Medical Colleges have each been hit with a proposed class action in Pennsylvania and D.C. federal courts, respectively, by candidates who said the nonprofits conspired with their member schools to charge excessive application fees that have been fixed at the same price regardless of the school.

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Analysis

A Free Exercise 'Blueprint' In Colo. Abortion Reversal Order

By Mark Payne

A Colorado federal judge's decision to allow medication abortion "reversals" on free exercise grounds could serve as a model for other lawsuits meant to legitimize a practice that is outside the standard practice of medicine.

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Law Profs Urge 11th Circ. To Toss Judge-Shopping Sanctions

By Madison Arnold

A group of seven law school professors is urging the Eleventh Circuit to toss a sanctions ruling against three attorneys for judge shopping, arguing that federal law does not forbid the practice and citing the "potentially chilling effect the order will have on counsel, especially those involved in pro bono representation."

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Feature

Meet FDA Chief Counsel Sean Keveney

By Dan McKay

The new top attorney at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, described as a "tremendous technical lawyer," rose through the ranks as a federal prosecutor before helping lead President Donald Trump's confrontation with elite universities this year.

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5th Circ. Says Texas Voter ID Law Is Legally Sound

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel upheld a Texas law that requires voters to provide an identification number when voting by mail, finding the law complies with the Civil Rights Act and that the state designed it to combat mail-in ballot fraud.

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Ex-USPTO Heads, Judges Oppose Anti-Patent Thicket Bill

By Elliot Weld

A pro-innovation group composed of former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials and former Federal Circuit judges on Tuesday asked Congress to oppose a bill introduced last month that would limit so-called patent thickets used by pharmaceutical companies to restrict the production of generic counterparts to their drugs.

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Analysis

Medicaid Cuts May Worsen Incarceration-Linked Death Risks

By Hannah Albarazi

A new public health investigation reveals an association between incarceration and elevated risk of early death, not only for people who have been behind bars but for entire communities. Experts caution that impending disinvestment in Medicaid could worsen outcomes in vulnerable populations.

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Ex-Patent Examiner Fights USPTO Exclusion At High Court

By Adam Lidgett

A former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review his exclusion from practicing before the agency, saying the justices should look at issues relating to a suspension he received and also federal civil rights protections.

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Approach The Bench: Justice Wecht On Judicial Campaigns

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

If running for judicial office often requires walking the line of being a sitting jurist and a politician, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht is no stranger to that tightrope.

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