Product Liability

  • August 27, 2026

    Lack Of Reliance Dooms Uponor Leaky Pipes Class Action

    A California federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action alleging Uponor Inc.'s plastic pipes were defective and prone to leaking, saying the homeowner plaintiffs failed to establish that they relied on or could have relied on any misrepresentations allegedly made by the company.

  • August 27, 2026

    Boeing Says Bid To Depose Ex-Exec In 737 Suit Is Off Base

    The Boeing Co. is urging a Washington federal judge to toss a motion by Norwegian Air subsidiaries to depose a former senior executive in a suit over their purchase of 737 Max airplanes, saying it has no control over him, and he wouldn't have unique information relevant to the case anyway.

  • August 27, 2026

    Kratom Group Says DEA Order Could Snare Natural Wares

    A kratom trade group has asked a D.C. federal judge to find that a recent U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration rule change targeting certain kratom-derived compounds should not apply when those compounds naturally occur in the kratom leaf.

  • August 27, 2026

    Rising Star: Sidley's Morgan Branch

    Morgan Branch of Sidley Austin LLP helped defend Kraft Heinz in groundbreaking "ultraprocessed foods" litigation and Bayer in high-stakes litigation over a contraceptive device, earning her a spot among the product liability law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

  • August 27, 2026

    Uber Beats Defamation Claims In Philly RICO Fight

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday tossed Philadelphia personal injury firm Simon & Simon PC's counterclaim accusing Uber and FedEx of sham litigation, extortion and abuse of process in response to the companies' ongoing RICO lawsuit against the firm.

  • August 26, 2026

    Top Takeaways From Meta's $17B Kid Safety Deal

    A $17.1 billion deal with 29 states and Meta Platforms Inc. that includes reforms to Facebook and Instagram to protect children is seen as a benchmark for other settlements with social media companies as litigation and public pressure mounts over mental health harms to youth.

  • August 26, 2026

    Oil Cos. Insist High Court Must End Colo. Climate Suit

    Exxon and Suncor Energy argued Wednesday in their latest brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to end the city and county of Boulder, Colorado's climate change tort lawsuit against them that allowing the case to proceed would set a precedent that juries can make decisions on energy policy.

  • August 26, 2026

    Amazon Fatal Crash Suit Axed Over Diversity Gaps, For Now

    A Texas federal judge on Wednesday tossed a suit against Amazon entities and others in litigation over a fatal vehicle crash involving an Amazon-owned trailer, saying the court was not provided with the evidence to determine if it has jurisdiction over the claims.

  • August 26, 2026

    Norfolk Southern Says Precedent Undermines Derailment Suit

    Norfolk Southern urged a Georgia federal judge Wednesday to deny class treatment to investors who allege they were deceived about the company's safety operations before a fiery train derailment in Ohio in 2023, arguing U.S. Supreme Court precedent undercut the argument that the rail carrier's share price was unlawfully inflated.

  • August 26, 2026

    Groups Ask Congress To Reject Idaho Toxic Waste Land Swap

    The Center for Biological Diversity, Snake River Waterkeeper and ManaSota-88 Inc. urged Congress on Wednesday to remove a provision from the National Defense Authorization Act that the center says would "cede historic lands of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Idaho to expand a radioactive waste dump at one of the country's largest Superfund sites."

  • August 26, 2026

    X Loses Challenge To NY Social Media Disclosure Law

    New York's law requiring social media companies to divulge details of their content-moderation policies does not run afoul of the First Amendment, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, throwing out X Corp.'s challenge seeking to block enforcement of the measure.

  • August 26, 2026

    Suit Says Tesla Model Y Ran Into Barrier, Failed To Deploy Airbags

    A Boeing aircraft technician claims defects in his 2022 Tesla Model Y caused the vehicle to crash into a concrete barrier where another defect prevented his air bag from deploying, leaving him with permanent spinal injuries, in a lawsuit in Washington state court.

  • August 26, 2026

    9th Circ. Denies Challenges To EPA Rule On Chemical Reviews

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday denied petitions challenging a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule related to when and how some new chemicals can be exempted from standard pre-manufacture review processes, ruling the agency acted in line with its statutory powers.

  • August 26, 2026

    Meta Judge Quickly OKs $17B Deal Over Social Media Harms

    A California federal judge overseeing a bellwether trial over claims Meta hid social media's harms to youth on Wednesday approved its $17.1 billion deal with 29 states, after a hearing in which she pressed lawyers on details of the deal and raised concerns about how Meta was handling attorney-client privilege issues.

  • August 26, 2026

    Insurer Slams $2M Fee Request In Arbitrator Removal Bid

    An insurance exchange for the trucking industry has urged a New York federal judge to dismiss a request by reinsurers that the exchange pay roughly $2 million in attorney fees and costs in a fight over whether to remove a supposedly "side-switching" arbitrator from a case.

  • August 26, 2026

    Cessna Maker Says Owner, Operator Share Blame For Crash

    The manufacturer of a Cessna jet involved in a Connecticut crash that killed four people wants the jet's owner and operator added to an ongoing coverage dispute, saying even if it's found liable for the fatal flight due to a design flaw, the owner and operator will still bear some responsibility.

  • August 26, 2026

    Apple Seeks Win In Biometric Privacy Case, Citing 7th Circ.

    A recent Seventh Circuit decision affirming Samsung's win in a biometric privacy suit means Apple should prevail over similar claims, the tech giant has told an Illinois federal judge, arguing for summary judgment in a class action alleging that Apple's Photos app collects users' faceprints without permission.

  • August 26, 2026

    Dodge Ram 1500 Defect Causes Abrupt Stops, Drivers Say

    Dodge Ram 1500 drivers filed a proposed class action Tuesday in Michigan federal court against automaker Fiat Chrysler, alleging their vehicles suffer from a uniform and systemic defect that's causing persistent check engine light illumination, and unexpected stalling or stopping while in motion, posing a dangerous risk of vehicle collisions.

  • August 26, 2026

    Trucking Groups Urge Full 5th Circ. To Mull Penske Liability

    Trucking industry groups contend the Fifth Circuit unjustifiably expanded liability for upstream motor carriers when it recently held that trucking services giant Penske Logistics LLC could be held vicariously liable for a fatal 2018 Texas collision caused by a motor carrier that Penske knew nothing about.

  • August 26, 2026

    FCA Says Autoliv Still Missing The Mark In Air Bag Scrap

    FCA US LLC has urged a Detroit federal judge to dismiss Autoliv's amended countercomplaint in their contract dispute, saying that the automotive safety supplier acknowledged in its latest filing that it missed the deadline to request a price increase for an FCA-driven air bag redesign.

  • August 26, 2026

    Rising Star: Kirkland's Matt Bush

    Matt Bush of Kirkland & Ellis LLP is helping Johnson & Johnson defend against multidistrict litigation alleging that its baby powder caused cancer and defended Dow Chemical in a soil contamination case, earning him a spot among the product liability law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

  • August 26, 2026

    Pot Distributor Again Files Counterclaims In Contract Dispute

    A cannabis distributor has filed renewed counterclaims against its former consulting partner and a rival distributor, alleging that the rival deliberately interfered with an exclusivity agreement with the consulting partner.

  • August 26, 2026

    Meta Makes $17B Deal With States Over Child Harms

    Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion and enact reforms to Facebook and Instagram to resolve sprawling social media addiction claims, in the midst of a high-stakes bellwether trial over whether the company hid or downplayed its platforms' allegedly harmful impact on minors, state enforcers say.

  • August 25, 2026

    Albertsons Witness Says Co.'s Opioid Policies Beat Standards

    Albertsons' pharmacy policies for reviewing potentially suspicious opioid prescriptions "met or exceeded" the standard of care, an expert witness for the company testified Tuesday, on the 26th day of a bench trial in Washington's case accusing the pharmacy chain of fueling the state's opioid epidemic.

  • August 25, 2026

    'News To Me': Instagram CEO Unaware Its Attys Deleted Data

    Instagram's CEO appeared to be taken by surprise Tuesday during a California federal jury trial over claims Meta hid social media's harms, after the states revealed that Instagram's in-house counsel removed data from a teen-safety presentation before presenting it to minimize his "litigation exposure risk," saying "this is all news to me."

Expert Analysis

  • How Cos. Can Prep For Ultra-Processed Food Legal Risks

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    A wave of litigation and government scrutiny directed against ultra-processed foods is now gaining momentum, following patterns seen previously in other industries — and food companies that recognize those patterns early will be better positioned to manage the increasing risks, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • PacifiCorp Ruling Shows Limits Of Aggregate Wildfire Loss Models

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    An Oregon appeals court's recent decision in James v. PacifiCorp illustrates that in litigation involving multiple wildfires, materially different causation theories, and evidence tied to particular fires and locations, a single undifferentiated damages model is vulnerable to attack, say Paige Van Oosten and Jason Kim at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • Fighting The Evidentiary Risks Of Deepfakes In Court

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    Though courts and federal rules are only slowly developing frameworks for assessing digital evidence that could have been created or generated by artificial intelligence, litigators should understand what steps they'll likely need to take to successfully challenge potentially deepfaked exhibits — and fight questions about the authenticity of their own, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • What Durnell Ruling Means For Mo. Roundup Settlement

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Monsanto v. Durnell forecloses the failure-to-warn theory that carried most of the claims against Monsanto in a pending class action in Missouri state court, it leaves untouched the question of whether the class was assembled merely to contain the defendant's liability, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • Generative AI Is Reshaping The Defense Of Complex Litigation

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    Generative artificial intelligence is lowering the barriers to filing new cases, meaning that the defense bar must respond to an increased wave of litigation — but generative AI is also helping defense teams with legal research and drafting, fact witness development, and expert witness strategy, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Justices Stand On Statutory Specifics In Cisco And Landor

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    With its June 23 decisions in Cisco Systems Inc. v. Doe and Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on the critical point that the statute invoked in a federal claim must authorize a private lawsuit and the remedy sought, says Patrick Judd at Phelps Dunbar.

  • How Montgomery Ruling Will Affect Cos. Across Supply Chain

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court's May 14 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, the immediate focus has been on freight brokers and negligent carrier-selection claims, but the ripple effects may extend to shippers, logistics providers, insurers, transportation managers and other participants in the supply chain, say attorneys at Quintairos Prieto.

  • After Durnell, Connecting Science And Causation Will Be Key

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's June 25 decision in Monsanto v. Durnell narrowed label-based failure-to-warn claims — meaning that going forward, viable theories will depend even more on whether experts can reliably connect scientific evidence to the causal proposition the law requires, says Alex Smolak at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar.

  • Series

    Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

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    As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

  • 3 Litigation Strategies To Stay Ahead Of Bad Facts

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    A case with damaging facts can still be won if, instead of avoiding the facts, attorneys proactively address them by carefully selecting a strategy of confronting, containing or reframing, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.

  • Leveraging AI In MDL Discovery And Case Management

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    Generative and agentic artificial intelligence tools can help teams organize and digest the vast volume of documents inherent to multidistrict litigation, but workflows must be designed to maximize the tools' strengths and maintain human control of key operational and ethical factors, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Lessons For Cos. From Nixed Apple Watch Greenwashing Suit

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    A California federal court's recent decision in Dib v. Apple, a putative class action challenging carbon-neutral marketing statements made about the Apple Watch, provides meaningful guidance on how such claims may be defeated at the pleading stage, especially where they hinge on third-party verification, say attorneys at Mintz.

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