Product Liability

  • September 25, 2025

    Nissan Hid Leaf EV Fire Risk, Charging Defect, Drivers Say

    Nissan Leaf drivers have hit the automaker with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging that it misled them about the electric car's charging capabilities and didn't inform them of a possibly dangerous fire risk.

  • September 25, 2025

    Widow Sues Philly Port Authority Over Husband's Death

    The wife of a warehouse worker is suing the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and others, alleging their negligence led to her husband being crushed to death by a bale of wood pulp while working at a PRPA-owned warehouse.

  • September 25, 2025

    Avon Gets Ch. 11 Plan Approved

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge has confirmed Avon's Chapter 11 plan a few days after verbally agreeing to approve it.

  • September 25, 2025

    Depo-Provera MDL Plaintiff Numbers Balloon To 1,300

    The plaintiffs in a multidistrict litigation claiming Pfizer failed to warn consumers of a link between brain tumors and the hormonal contraceptive Depo-Provera now number more than 1,300, with more expected to file suits ahead of a hearing Monday on whether their claims are preempted by federal law.

  • September 25, 2025

    Judge Says NY Discharge Law Usurps Feds' Nuclear Authority

    A federal judge has ruled that a New York law barring the release of radioactive materials into the Hudson River — which was passed in response to the decommissioning of the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear plant — infringed on the federal government's oversight of nuclear safety.

  • September 25, 2025

    Families Cite Trump In Bid To Revive Tylenol Autism Claims

    Families suing the maker of Tylenol quickly cited President Donald Trump's words this week as they pushed the Second Circuit to overturn a lower-court ruling that barred their expert witnesses from testifying that prenatal exposure to the medicine can cause autism.

  • September 25, 2025

    Driver Says Mazda's Sanctions Bid Is Itself Sanctionable

    The leader of a proposed class of Mazda drivers suing over an alleged oil burning defect is firing back at the automaker's call for sanctions for what it called "frivolous" postjudgment filings, saying Mazda's filing is legally baseless and filled with ad hominem attacks on his attorney, so the company is the one that should face sanctions.

  • September 24, 2025

    Ex-Lyft Lobbyist Testifies For Uber In Sex Assault Trial

    California has established model safety standards for the ride-hailing industry and Uber has exceeded those standards, a former lobbyist for Lyft told jurors Wednesday in a bellwether trial over claims Uber negligently failed to put sufficient measures in place to prevent sexual assaults by its drivers.

  • September 24, 2025

    Gunmakers Ask 2nd Circ. For Another Chance At Liability Law

    The Second Circuit has been asked to reconsider its recent ruling that upheld a New York public nuisance statute allowing claims specifically against gun manufacturers that cause public harm, saying the decision flouts a federal law shielding those companies from the criminal misuse of guns.

  • September 24, 2025

    Pharmacies Labeled As Gatekeepers In Fla. Opioid Trial

    A medical doctor who testified Wednesday in a Florida state court trial against Walgreens, Walmart and CVS over their alleged conspiracy to push addictive painkiller drugs characterized their pharmacists as gatekeepers in dispensing the medications, saying they had the ability to break the pharmaceutical companies' ability to make money off the opioid epidemic.

  • September 24, 2025

    Vehicle-Maker Says Ex-Worker Can't Bring Smoker-Fee Suit

    International Motors LLC, formerly Navistar, is looking to end a proposed class action by a former employee who claims its $50-a-month health insurance fee for workers who use tobacco violates federal law, telling an Illinois federal court that the harm he suffered was caused by his own refusal to quit smoking or try the company's smoke-free program.

  • September 24, 2025

    GAO Says Energy Dept. Must Review PFAS At Dozens Of Sites

    The U.S. Department of Energy needs to speed up its review of how forever chemicals are and have been used at its sites across the nation, the congressional watchdog agency said Wednesday.

  • September 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Allows One More Go-Round In Kleenex Ad Fight

    The Ninth Circuit Wednesday determined it does not have jurisdictional authority to revive a proposed class action alleging Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Kleenex Germ Removal Wet Wipes mislead consumers about the product's ability to kill germs, saying the consumers were not able to establish subject matter jurisdiction.

  • September 24, 2025

    Sen. Questions FAA's Proposed $3M Boeing Safety Fine

    U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is seeking answers from the Federal Aviation Administration on the calculations behind a proposed fine of $3.1 million against Boeing for safety violations that led to last year's Alaska Airlines door plug incident, and has told the agency the penalty would amount to a "rounding error" for the aerospace giant.

  • September 24, 2025

    American Airlines, US Gov't Sued Over Potomac Crash

    A new wrongful death complaint brought by the wife of an American Eagle Flight 5342 victim names both American Airlines and the United States government as liable in the "wholly avoidable tragedy" that killed 67 people on the Potomac River in January.

  • September 24, 2025

    Tribal Groups Back 9th Circ. Bid To Block Ariz. Land Transfer

    Two tribal advocacy groups are backing a Ninth Circuit bid to block a 2,400-acre federal land exchange in Arizona to make way for a billion-dollar copper mining project they say will destroy an ancient worship site, arguing that federal policies are systematically stripping Indigenous nations of their homelands.

  • September 24, 2025

    SharkNinja Gets Expert, Suit Alleging Blender Injury Tossed

    A Colorado federal judge has given SharkNinja Operating LLC a win in a suit alleging one of its blenders spilled hot contents onto a woman because of a design defect, finding her expert's opinions were unreliable and inadmissible.

  • September 23, 2025

    OTC Drug Co. Must Face Shampoo Cancer Risk Class Action

    A Pennsylvania federal judge denied Lake Consumer Products Inc.'s request to toss a putative class action alleging it manufactures coal tar shampoo with known carcinogens, reasoning that most of the claims against the company were plausible enough to move forward.

  • September 23, 2025

    Uber Asks Judge To Look Into Leak Of Sealed Records To NYT

    Uber has asked a San Francisco judge to order the lawyers in coordinated sexual assault litigation in California state court involving hundreds of accusers to officially state they have no knowledge about how sealed, confidential information protected under the court's order was handed over to The New York Times.

  • September 23, 2025

    Eli Lilly Deal In Weight Loss Drugs Trademark Suit Hits Snag

    Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and two Seattle-area medical clinics tried to leave a federal court "entirely in the dark" on the finer points of their newly proposed trademark suit settlement, a Seattle federal judge held in declining to approve the deal and enter a consent judgment in the case.

  • September 23, 2025

    5th Circ. Clears Tugboat Firm In Barge Sinking Dispute

    The Fifth Circuit on Monday said a lower court did not err in finding that a marine transportation services company wasn't liable for all claims arising from a June 2022 capsizing and sinking of a barge, saying that the barge's structure made it unseaworthy.

  • September 23, 2025

    Tylenol MDL In Spotlight After Trump Blasts Use In Pregnancy

    The Trump administration's attack on the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy drew on the work of a Harvard expert whose analysis is central to a legal clash now before a federal appeals court. The president's broadside promises to energize plaintiffs.

  • September 23, 2025

    Ship's Owner Can't Shift Blame For Bridge Collapse, Court Told

    The Singaporean owner and manager of the container ship that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and triggered its collapse cannot try to shift blame for its own failings, the South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. has told a Pennsylvania federal court.

  • September 23, 2025

    Pfizer Settles Conn. Zantac Lawsuits Alleging Cancer Risks

    Pfizer Inc. has settled two Connecticut state court lawsuits by patients who claimed generic forms of ranitidine, the heartburn and acid reflux drug sold under the brand name Zantac, degraded into a substance that caused cancer.

  • September 23, 2025

    Foes Slam Feds' GHG Plan As Trump Decries Green 'Scam'

    Green groups and democrats are strongly opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to abandon a key greenhouse gas policy, as President Donald Trump on Tuesday called climate change "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world."

Expert Analysis

  • Tesla's Robotaxi Push Exposes Gaps In Product Liability Law

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    As Tesla's deployment of robotaxis on public roads in Austin, Texas, faces regulatory scrutiny and legislative pushback, the legal community confronts an unprecedented challenge: how to apply traditional fault principles, product liability laws and insurance practices to vehicles that operate as rolling computers, says Don Fountain at Clark Fountain.

  • Series

    My Opera And Baseball Careers Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Though participating in opera and the world of professional baseball often pulls me away from the office, my avocations improve my legal career by helping me perform under scrutiny, prioritize team success, and maintain joy and perspective at work, says Adam Unger at Herrick Feinstein.

  • 8 Ways Lawyers Can Protect The Rule Of Law In Their Work

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    Whether they are concerned with judicial independence, regulatory predictability or client confidence, lawyers can take specific meaningful actions on their own when traditional structures are too slow or too compromised to respond, says Angeli Patel at the Berkeley Center of Law and Business.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Communicating With Clients

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    Law school curricula often overlook client communication procedures, and those who actively teach this crucial facet of the practice can create exceptional client satisfaction and success, says Patrick Hanson at Wiggam Law.

  • One Year On, Davidson Holds Lessons On 'Health Halo' Claims

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    A year after the Ninth Circuit's Davidson v. Sprout Foods decision — which raised the bar for so-called health halo claims — food and beverage companies can draw insights from its finding, subsequently expanded on by other courts, that plaintiffs must be specific when alleging fraud in healthfulness marketing, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Justices' NRC Ruling Raises New Regulatory Questions

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    In Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the NRC's authority to license private, temporary nuclear waste storage facilities — and this failure to reach the merits question creates new regulatory uncertainty where none had existed for decades, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From US Rep. To Boutique Firm

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    My transition from serving as a member of Congress to becoming a partner at a boutique firm has been remarkably smooth, in part because I never stopped exercising my legal muscles, maintained relationships with my former colleagues and set the right tone at the outset, says Mondaire Jones at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Opinion

    Senate's 41% Litigation Finance Tax Would Hurt Legal System

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    The Senate’s latest version of the Big Beautiful Bill Act would impose a 41% tax on the litigation finance industry, but the tax is totally disconnected from the concerns it purports to address, and it would set the country back to a time when small plaintiffs had little recourse against big defendants, says Anthony Sebok at Cardozo School of Law.

  • 3 Juror Psychology Principles For Expert Witness Testimony

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    Expert witnesses can sometimes fall into traps when trying to teach juries complex topics by failing to consider the psychology of juror comprehension, but attorneys can help witnesses avoid these pitfalls with a deeper understanding of cognitive lag, chunking and learning styles, says Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • In NRC Ruling, Justices Affirm Hearing Process Still Matters

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas safeguards the fairness, clarity and predictability of the regulatory system by affirming that to challenge an agency's decision in court, litigants must first meaningfully participate in the hearing process that Congress and the agency have established, says Jonathan Rund at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

  • Series

    Performing As A Clown Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    To say that being a clown in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has changed my legal career would truly be an understatement — by creating an opening to converse on a unique topic, it has allowed me to connect with clients, counsel and even judges on a deeper level, says Charles Tatelbaum at Tripp Scott.

  • Focusing On Fluoride: From FDA To Class Action

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    A class action filed two days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced plans to remove ingestible fluoride prescription drug products for children from the market may be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the connection between government pronouncements on safety and their immediate use as evidence in lawsuits, says Rachel Turow at Skadden.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Rejecting Biz Dev Myths

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    Law schools don’t spend sufficient time dispelling certain myths that prevent young lawyers from exploring new business opportunities, but by dismissing these misguided beliefs, even an introverted first-year associate with a small network of contacts can find long-term success, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • Speech Protection Questions In AI Case Raise Liability Risk

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    A Florida federal court's recent landmark ruling in Garcia v. Character Technologies, rejecting artificial intelligence developers' efforts to shield themselves from product liability and wrongful death claims under the First Amendment, challenges the assumption that chatbot outputs qualify as speech, and may redefine AI regulation and litigation nationally, says Peter Gregory at Goldberg Segalla.

  • The Legal Fallout Of The Open Model AI Ecosystem

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    The spread of open-weight and open-source artificial intelligence models is introducing potential harms across the supply chain, but new frameworks will allow for the growth and development of AI technologies without sacrificing the safety of end users, says Harshita Ganesh at CMBG3 Law.

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