Personal Injury & Medical Malpractice

  • April 22, 2024

    Ship Captain Can't Get New Trial Over Boat Fire That Killed 34

    A California federal judge on Monday denied a new trial bid by a captain convicted of manslaughter in connection with a deadly boat fire, rejecting his argument that the judge issued an erroneous jury instruction, causing the jury to overlook a lesser alternative charge of gross negligence endangering a person's life.

  • April 22, 2024

    Father Asks Texas High Court To Take Up Gun Suicide Case

    The father of a woman who died by suicide has asked the Texas Supreme Court to review the dismissal of his suit against a gun company, saying there were clear signs that his daughter was experiencing mental health problems and should not have been sold a weapon.

  • April 22, 2024

    Mich. Justices To Settle When Juries Make Crash Injury Call

    Michigan's Supreme Court has said it would hear oral arguments in the case of a teen whose college baseball prospects may have been cut short by a car crash, as the court considers who should decide if an injury is serious enough to support a claim against the at-fault driver.

  • April 22, 2024

    J&J Hit With $45M Talc Verdict In Illinois Cancer Trial

    An Illinois state jury has awarded $45 million to the estate of a woman who died from mesothelioma after using Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder for years, finding that her exposure to asbestos fibers in the powder led to her cancer.

  • April 22, 2024

    Estate Rep, Not Trustee, Ruled Proper Defendant In Death Suit

    A Minnesota appeals panel has thrown out a wrongful death suit filed by the daughter of a passenger killed in a car-motorcycle crash, saying that under state law she needed to file the suit against the personal representative of the driver's estate, not its trustee.

  • April 22, 2024

    Opioid Marketer Completes $1.5M Damages Settlement With Del.

    Delaware's chancellor signed off Monday on a $1.5 million payment to the state by a company that helped Purdue Pharmaceuticals market its opioid products, the latest step in a $358 million, 50-state damages settlement reached with Publicis Health LLC.

  • April 22, 2024

    Astroworld Victims Push For More Travis Scott Cell Data

    Victims of Travis Scott's fatal Astroworld festival have made another push to access the rapper's cellphone records ahead of trial, telling the court Monday that defense attorneys "self-selected" search terms for the rapper's texts that are too narrow to capture communications he sent before and after the tragedy.

  • April 22, 2024

    Dentist Must Face Harassment Suit, Mass. Panel Says

    A Massachusetts appellate panel on Monday revived claims that a dentist sexually harassed a female patient during a visit by allegedly making inappropriate comments and then purposely breaking her tooth after she rebuffed his advances.

  • April 22, 2024

    Man Keeps $1.8M Verdict In Calif. Auto Crash Injury Suit

    A California appeals court won't upend a nearly $1.8 million verdict in favor of a man who said he was injured following a low-speed automotive rear-ending, saying the evidence was enough for the jury to conclude his active lifestyle was effectively ended by injuries from the crash.

  • April 22, 2024

    Houston Megachurch Enabled Predatory Pastor, Victims Say

    Several women say a Baptist megachurch in Houston and the Southern Baptist Convention enabled and encouraged a sexual predator to work as a youth minister and even tipped him off about a police investigation, according to a suit in Texas state court Friday.

  • April 22, 2024

    Citing Cozen O'Connor Ties, Pa. Judge Leaves Bias Case

    Despite originally declining to recuse himself from a surgeon's gender discrimination case against Thomas Jefferson University Hospital when an attorney from his son-in-law's firm, Cozen O'Connor, became involved, U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson changed his mind now that the case is set for a retrial.

  • April 22, 2024

    Cos. Want Ga. Firm Punished For 'Impossible' COVID-19 Suit

    A Georgia law firm should face sanctions for pursuing claims that several ship operators infected a longshoreman with COVID-19 since those claims were "factually impossible" and their sanctions motion was filed on time, the companies told a Georgia federal court.

  • April 22, 2024

    Ex-Law Dept. Employee Cops To Workers' Comp Check Thefts

    A former New York City Law Department mail room worker on Monday admitted to a bank fraud conspiracy count after federal prosecutors charged him with a two-year workers' compensation check theft and forgery scheme they say netted $600,000.

  • April 22, 2024

    Supreme Court Will Hear Feds' Ghost Guns Ban Appeal

    The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from the federal government seeking to block an injunction excluding two companies from a rule classifying so-called ghost gun kits as firearms.

  • April 19, 2024

    Meta Faces Uphill Fight To Nix AG Claims In Addiction MDL

    A California judge expressed skepticism Friday over Meta's bid to ax the claims of 34 state attorneys general from multidistrict litigation over social media platforms' allegedly addictive design, saying Meta and its co-defendants haven't been transparent about how their platforms work, and it's plausible the states can obtain psychiatric treatment receipts to show economic injuries.

  • April 19, 2024

    Hearst, Security Co. Ignored Stalker Delivery Driver, Suit Says

    A Houston woman has accused a Hearst Newspapers LLC delivery driver in state court of repeatedly harassing her and engaging in stalking behavior, adding that the parent company of the Houston Chronicle and a security company were negligent in ignoring her complaints about him.

  • April 19, 2024

    Panel Voices Concern Over Prior-Convictions Evidence Rule

    A federal judicial committee overseeing evidence rules on Friday grappled with ideas to fix a rule broadly allowing defendants to be cross-examined regarding their prior convictions, with the group's research chair noting the directive is often misapplied.

  • April 19, 2024

    Dr. Says Colo. Plaintiffs Bar Trying To Open Tort Floodgates

    A doctor is asking the Colorado Supreme Court to scuttle a proposed ballot initiative that would remove noneconomic damages caps for certain claims, arguing that the measure is unconstitutionally broad and would turn the state into "one of the most plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions in the country."

  • April 19, 2024

    Texas Justices Open Door To Axing $14M Truck Crash Verdict

    What started as a monster $80 million trucking crash verdict but later was reduced to $13.7 million was put in further jeopardy Friday when the Texas Supreme Court found that a lower appeals court erroneously declined to hear challenges to how the injured truck driver's employment status was determined.

  • April 19, 2024

    Flint Class Urges Approval Of $25M Water Firm Settlement

    A proposed class of 45,000 Flint, Michigan, property owners, businesses and adult residents on Friday urged a Michigan federal court to give the go-ahead to a $25 million settlement with Veolia North America, the last remaining engineering defendant in sprawling litigation over the city's water crisis.

  • April 19, 2024

    Walgreens Inks $110M Deal To End Philly Opioid Crisis Suit

    Walgreens will pay the city of Philadelphia $110 million over the next five years to settle claims that it contributed to the opioid epidemic by ignoring suspicious prescriptions for addictive opioid painkillers, city officials announced Friday.

  • April 19, 2024

    Zurich Insurance Hit With $80M Verdict Over 3 Terminations

    Three former Zurich American Insurance Co. employees were awarded over $80 million by a Sacramento, California, jury that found they were wrongfully terminated for taking unofficial time off that the plaintiffs said was approved by their supervisor. 

  • April 19, 2024

    NY Diocese Claims Rep Warns Of 'Disaster' If Ch. 11 Scrapped

    The future claims representative for sex abuse victims in the bankruptcy case of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre told a New York judge Friday he could not "stand mute while this case barrels on toward disaster," after the organization moved to dismiss its case earlier this month.

  • April 19, 2024

    Defense Firms Say 'Political Question' Dooms Yemeni War Suit

    Three defense contractors warned a D.C. federal court that it would be improperly meddling with the executive branch's national security decisions if it didn't toss a lawsuit accusing the companies of supplying weapons used in Yemen's deadly civil war.

  • April 19, 2024

    J&J Unit Sued Over Defective Knee Replacements

    A woman is suing Johnson & Johnson unit DePuy Orthopaedics in New Jersey federal court, alleging it marketed and sold a faulty knee replacement system that's prone to failing, requiring additional surgery to fix the issue.

Expert Analysis

  • How Jurors' Great Resignation Views Affect Corp. Defendants

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    With recent surveys finding that many workers expect to leave their jobs in the next year, corporate defendants should consider measuring potential jurors’ attitudes about the "great resignation," which may reveal biases against large corporations and beliefs about personal responsibility, say Jorge Monroy and David Metz at IMS Consulting.

  • Insurers, Prepare For Large Exposures From PFAS Claims

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    With thousands of lawsuits concerning per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances pending across the country, several large settlements already reached, and both regulators and the plaintiffs bar increasingly focusing on PFAS, it is becoming clear that these "forever chemicals" present major exposures to insurers and their policyholders, say Scott Seaman and Jennifer Arnold at Hinshaw.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'

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    Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.

  • A 'Deliberate Indifference' Circ. Split For Prison Medical Cases

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    Allison Becker and Kendra Stark at Gordon & Rees examine the circuit split over how a patient's incarceration status affects the applicable standard for “deliberate indifference” in correctional medical lawsuits, noting an uptick in cases related to outbreaks and staffing shortages at correctional facilities during the pandemic.

  • Aviation Watch: Osprey Aircraft May Face Tort Claims

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    A recent U.S. Marine Corps Command report found that the cause of a 2022 Osprey crash was a problem known to the manufacturer and the military for over 10 years — and the aircraft may now be on its way to a day of reckoning in the tort liability arena, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Upcoming High Court ADA Cases May Signal Return To Basics

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    Recent cases, including Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, which will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in October, raise a fundamental question of whether Americans with Disabilities Act litigation has spiraled out of control without any real corresponding benefits to the intended beneficiaries: individuals with true disabilities, says Norman Dupont at Ring Bender.

  • 4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Introverted lawyers can build client bases to rival their extroverted peers’ by adapting time-tested strategies for business development that can work for any personality — such as claiming a niche, networking for maximum impact, drawing on existing contacts and more, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • Sales Reps In The Operating Room: How To Manage The Risks

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    While having a medical device sales representative providing advice during a surgery can be helpful, especially as medical technology continues to advance, their presence can also create exposure to tort claims and litigation alleging unauthorized practice of medicine, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Opinion

    3 Ways Justices' Disclosure Defenses Miss The Ethical Point

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    The rule-bound interpretation of financial disclosures preferred by U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — demonstrated in their respective statements defending their failure to disclose gifts from billionaires — show that they do not understand the ethical aspects of the public's concern, says Jim Moliterno at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.

  • Rethinking Mich. Slip-And-Fall Defense After Top Court Ruling

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    The Michigan Supreme Court recently overturned three decades of premises liability jurisprudence by ruling that the open and obvious danger defense is no longer part of a traditional duty analysis, posing the question of whether landowners will ever again win on a motion for summary dismissal, say John Stiglich and Meriam Choulagh at Wilson Elser.

  • What To Know About Duty To Settle Insurance Claims In Texas

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    Laura Grabouski of Holden Litigation examines the parameters of Texas insurers' duty to settle liability claims within the limits of the primary policy, as knowledge of the requirements — and the potential exposure from insureds, judgment creditors or excess creditors — can pay dividends in the era of nuclear verdicts.

  • Ohio Rulings Are Cautionary Tales For Attorneys In Crisis

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    Two recent decisions from Ohio state courts provide a sobering reminder that a counsel’s personal emergencies will not always suffice to alter court deadlines or excuse procedural missteps, and that prompt communication and documentation are crucial in the Buckeye State and beyond, says L. Bradfield Hughes at Porter Wright.

  • Caregiver Flexibility Is Crucial For Atty Engagement, Retention

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    As the battle for top talent continues post-pandemic, many firms are attempting to attract employees with progressive hybrid working environments — and supporting caregivers before, during and after an extended leave is a critically important way to retain top talent, says Manar Morales at The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance.

  • Cannabis Consumption Lounges Face Unique Liability Risks

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    As state laws regulating cannabis consumption lounges proliferate, operators must follow certain best practices to effectively address issues like air quality concerns and California Proposition 65 warnings, says Lauren Mendelsohn at the Law Offices of Omar Figueroa.

  • NY's Take On Premises Insurance Policies: What's In A Name?

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    A New York appellate court's recent decision in Wesco Insurance v. Fulmont Mutual Insurance — requiring insurance coverage for a property owner not named on the policy — strengthens a state case law trend creating a practical exception in premises liability cases to normally strict requirements for coverage, says Craig Rokuson at Traub Lieberman.

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