Product Liability

  • April 22, 2024

    9th Circ. Backs Class Cert. In Pet Supplement False Ad Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday upheld certification of a consumer class accusing health supplement company Nutramax of falsely marketing Cosequin as promoting healthy joints in dogs, saying an economics expert could use a generic and "otherwise reliable" damages model without applying it specifically to the class at this stage.

  • April 22, 2024

    USW Says EPA Asbestos Ban Doesn't Protect Workers Enough

    The United Steelworkers and the nonprofit Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization called on the D.C. Circuit to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent ban on the most prevalent variety of asbestos, with the union arguing the ban falls short by failing to provide certain interim protections.

  • 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

    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

    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

    3M Urges Mich. Justices To Ditch PFAS Water Rule Challenge

    Manufacturing giant 3M has urged the Michigan Supreme Court to reinforce an invalidation of the state's new limits on so-called forever chemicals in drinking water, telling justices that regulators illegally failed to estimate the full cost of its new restrictions on businesses.

  • April 22, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week, Delaware's Chancery Court news included a Tesla announcement about moving to Texas, a midcase appeal of Tripadvisor's move to Nevada, and United Airlines' escape from a stockholder suit. Disputes about board entrenchment, squeeze-out mergers, co-founder fallouts and deadly ice cream moved ahead.

  • April 22, 2024

    Hyundai, Kia Drivers Want $13M Fees In Car Theft Defect Deal

    A consumer class of Hyundai and Kia drivers who claimed that the companies knowingly sold them cars with defects that made them easy to steal asked a California federal judge for final approval of their $145 million deal, with $13.4 million in fees, after an objector said the deal wasn't enough.

  • 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

    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

    Shampoo-Maker Can't Wash Away 'Natural' False Ad Suit

    An Illinois federal judge on Thursday trimmed but refused to toss a proposed class action alleging Dr. Squatch LLC deceptively labels its shampoo as "natural" even though it contains multiple artificial ingredients, saying the consumers had sufficiently alleged consumer fraud and unjust enrichment.

  • 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.

  • April 19, 2024

    Nevada Justices Stop Block On State's Ghost Gun Ban

    The Nevada Supreme Court has reversed an order blocking enforcement of state laws blocking the sale of so-called ghost gun kits, saying the lower court was wrong in finding the laws were unconstitutionally vague.

  • April 19, 2024

    Arnold & Porter Atty Returns To Greenberg Traurig In Calif.

    Greenberg Traurig LLP has rehired a former associate from Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP whose practice focuses on a range of environmental litigation dealing with cancer-causing chemicals, plastic pollutants and the laws surrounding their regulation.

  • April 19, 2024

    Pennsylvania Chocolate Factory Sued Over Fatal Explosion

    The estate representing another victim of a 2023 fatal explosion at a Pennsylvania R.M. Palmer chocolate factory has filed suit in state court, claiming the candy company, the gas company and the maker of the plastic gas line all contributed to the catastrophe.

  • April 19, 2024

    EPA Says 2 'Forever Chemicals' Are Hazardous Substances

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday officially declared two "forever chemicals" to be hazardous materials under federal law, which could bring a host of consequences for Superfund site cleanups and development projects.

  • April 18, 2024

    LG Chem Wants NC Man's Exploding Battery Suit Tossed

    LG Chem Ltd. is urging a North Carolina federal court to throw out a man's suit alleging that he was injured when one of the company's lithium batteries exploded in his pocket, saying the court doesn't have jurisdiction over the South Korean company.

  • April 18, 2024

    NY Fertility Clinic Must Face Lost, Damaged Embryos Suit

    A New York appellate panel issued a published opinion Thursday reviving a suit over the loss or damage of embryos due to a fertility clinic's alleged negligence, saying the routine storage and maintenance of frozen embryos can be considered ordinary negligence rather than medical malpractice.

  • April 18, 2024

    Chancery OKs Case Lead For Blue Bell Creameries Suit

    A Delaware vice chancellor on Thursday restored a Blue Bell Creameries Inc. stockholder's widow as lead plaintiff in a derivative suit seeking to hold directors and officers of the ice cream company accountable for deadly food-safety oversight failures in 2015.

  • April 18, 2024

    Gov't Urges Redo Of Opt-Out Ruling In Camp Lejeune Suits

    The federal government has asked the North Carolina federal court overseeing the litigation over contaminated water at the Camp Lejeune base to rethink its decision from two months ago to allow some plaintiffs to opt out of discovery pre-trial.

  • April 18, 2024

    J&J Notches Win In Fla. Talcum Powder Trial

    A Florida state jury returned a verdict for Johnson & Johnson on Thursday, finding the company's talcum-based baby powder had not been shown to cause the ovarian cancer of a longtime user of the product.

  • April 18, 2024

    Pharma Co. Wants Tribe's Opioid Suit To Stay In Federal Court

    A pharmaceuticals distributor has asked an Oklahoma federal court to reject a magistrate judge's recommendation to move to state court a suit accusing it of flooding the Cherokee Nation's communities with opioids, saying the tribe's complaint raises a substantial question of federal law.

Expert Analysis

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Transparency And Explainability Are Critical To AI Compliance

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    Although there is not yet a comprehensive law governing artificial intelligence, regulators have tools to hold businesses accountable, and companies need to focus on ensuring that consumers and key stakeholders understand how their AI systems operate and make decisions, say Chanley Howell and Lauren Hudon at Foley & Lardner.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • How Social Media Can Affect Trial Outcomes

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    With social media’s ability to seize upon an issue and spin it into a specifically designed narrative, it is more critical than ever that a litigation communications strategy be part of trial planning to manage the impact of legal action on a company's reputation, say Sean Murphy and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Opinion

    Civil Litigation Against Gun Businesses Can Reduce Violence

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    With mass shootings skyrocketing, and gun control legislation blocked by powerful interest groups, civil litigation can help obtain justice for victims by targeting parties responsible beyond the immediate perpetrator — including gun manufacturers, dealers and retailers, says Tom D'Amore at D'Amore Law Group.

  • Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.

  • Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD

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    Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • Opinion

    Time To Ban Deferred Prosecution For Fatal Corporate Crime

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    As illustrated by prosecutors’ deals with Boeing and other companies, deferred prosecution agreements have strayed far from their original purpose, and Congress must ban the use of this tool in cases where corporate misconduct has led to fatalities, says Peter Reilly at Texas A&M University School of Law.

  • Why Hemp-Synthesized Intoxicants Need Uniform Regs

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    State laws regulating hemp-synthesized intoxicants are a patchwork with little consistency between any given state, and without the adoption of a uniform regulatory framework, producers and consumers alike will need to be very cautious, say Dylan Anderson and Seth Goldberg at Duane Morris.

  • Attorneys, Law Schools Must Adapt To New Era Of Evidence

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    Technological advancements mean more direct evidence is being created than ever before, and attorneys as well as law schools must modify their methods to account for new challenges in how this evidence is collected and used to try cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Analyzing The Legal Ripples Of The EPA's PFAS Regulation

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    As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency makes major moves on its pledge to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the developing body of PFAS regulation will lead to an increase in litigation, and personal injury and product liability claims, say attorneys at Gordon & Rees.

  • Boeing Opinion Strikes Blow Against Overpayment Theory

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    The Fifth Circuit's decision in Earl v. Boeing Co. casts doubt on consumers' standing to bring claims of overpayment for products later revealed to have defects — and suggests that it's more likely that those products would have been removed from the market, driving up the price of alternatives, say attorneys at Bush Seyferth.

  • Tips For Litigating Against Pro Se Parties In Complex Disputes

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    Litigating against self-represented parties in complex cases can pose unique challenges for attorneys, but for the most part, it requires the same skills that are useful in other cases — from documenting everything to understanding one’s ethical duties, says Bryan Ketroser at Alto Litigation.

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