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Product Liability
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January 27, 2025
Tesla Too Late To DQ Judge In Crash Suit, Court Told
A woman suing Tesla Inc. over a crash that resulted in the amputation of her legs is urging a California federal court not to disqualify the judge assigned to her product liability case, saying the automaker has no excuse for waiting nearly a year and a half, until just before trial, to call for his disqualification.
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January 27, 2025
SCOTUSblog Publisher Pleads Not Guilty To Tax Crimes
U.S. Supreme Court advocate and SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein pled not guilty in Maryland federal court on Monday to charges that he schemed to evade taxes and used funds from his boutique law firm to cover gambling debts.
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January 27, 2025
Pool Co. To Face Rival's Contempt Bid Over $16M Judgment
A Chinese pool parts supplier will have to appear for a show cause hearing to address whether it should be held in contempt for allegedly funneling money out of the country to avoid paying a $16 million judgment, a North Carolina federal judge said Monday.
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January 27, 2025
Justices Turn Away Venue Row In Zantac Carcinogen Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the Second Circuit's split decision that Connecticut state court is the right venue for consolidated claims brought against multiple pharmaceutical companies over alleged carcinogens in heartburn medication Zantac.
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January 24, 2025
Fla. Judge Splits Trial In Case Over DJ's Elevator Injuries
A Florida federal judge Friday bifurcated a trial between two insurance carriers and an elevator company that settled a Miami D.J.'s $5.5 million injury lawsuit, ruling that excess coverage claims will be tried first, with bad faith claims being tried after.
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January 24, 2025
Syngenta, Chevron Headed For October Paraquat Bellwether
An Illinois federal judge has set an October date for Syngenta and Chevron's first trial in a multidistrict litigation alleging that the pesticide paraquat causes Parkinson's disease, after the previous dismissal of trial-selected plaintiffs and the disqualification of an expert.
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January 24, 2025
Justices To Clarify Article III Standing For Certified Classes
The U.S. Supreme Court granted LabCorp's request on Friday to clarify federal law regarding whether district courts can certify class actions when some members of the proposed class may lack a cognizable injury in fact.
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January 24, 2025
Ill. Justices OK Workers' Injury Suits Over Dormant Diseases
The Illinois Supreme Court answered the Seventh Circuit's call on Friday to clarify the state's Workers' Occupational Diseases Act in a widow's wrongful death lawsuit against Goodrich Corp., finding the statute can apply to claims for asbestos-related cancer and other diseases that manifest belatedly despite the statute's other temporal restrictions.
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January 24, 2025
IVF Patients Want CooperSurgical Embryo Loss Suits Joined
Four product liability lawsuits targeting the maker of recalled culture media for in vitro fertilization should be consolidated and sent to the Connecticut Superior Court's complex litigation docket, the parties have agreed, but defendant CooperSurgical Inc. wants them kept out of Stamford.
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January 24, 2025
Ford Fails To Block Evidence Of Other Crashes In Death Trial
A Georgia federal judge refused to block evidence of similar crashes from being presented at a trial over the deaths of a couple in a rollover wreck of their Ford Motor Co. vehicle, but he limited the number of incidents that the plaintiffs can present from the 110 that the plaintiffs proposed to 50.
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January 24, 2025
Chemical Co. Says Insurer Owed Defense For Birth Defect Suit
A chemical supplier said a Liberty Mutual unit unreasonably denied coverage for an underlying suit brought by workers at a Seattle-area Boeing facility who blame their son's birth defects on chemicals they were exposed to on the job, according to a suit removed to Washington federal court.
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January 24, 2025
FDA's Premium Cigar Regulations Overturned By DC Circ.
A D.C. Circuit panel ruled on Friday that the Food and Drug Administration acted arbitrarily when subjecting premium, hand-rolled cigars to the same regulations as other tobacco products, saying the agency was wrong to overlook two studies about infrequent premium cigar use.
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January 24, 2025
Philip Morris Settles Tobacco Liability Trial After Openings
Philip Morris and a supermarket chain have reached a settlement with the family of a Massachusetts woman who died of lung cancer in 2022 after decades of smoking the company's Marlboro cigarettes, ending the case a day after trial began.
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January 23, 2025
Fitbit To Pay $12M Fine For Ionic Smartwatch Burns
Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 million fine to resolve the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's allegations it failed to immediately report that its Ionic smartwatches were overheating and leaving some consumers with second- and third-degree burns, the consumer safety agency announced Thursday.
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January 23, 2025
Atty Hit With TCPA Class Action Over Camp Lejeune Calls
A North Carolina plaintiffs firm was hit with a proposed class action accusing it of making unsolicited calls to a number on the National Do Not Call Registry in an effort to secure a client in the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune toxic drinking water case — at least the fourth firm to face similar claims.
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January 23, 2025
Marlboro Smoker Was Target Of Deception, Jury Hears
Philip Morris targeted a Massachusetts preteen as a "replacement" customer for others who were dying of lung disease, a Springfield jury heard Thursday, though the company's lawyer said the woman had free will and knew enough to stop smoking.
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January 23, 2025
Conn. High Court Snapshot: Atty's Bonus, Burn Verdict
In its next term starting Monday, the Connecticut Supreme Court will hear an appeal from an acupuncturist who doesn't want to share liability for a judgment paid to a burn victim, and consider whether to reverse a seven-figure verdict for a private equity management firm's founder, who claims other members improperly cut him out.
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January 23, 2025
Vape Maker Seeks Exit From Suit Over Delta-9 THC Levels
An Illinois-based vape maker urged a federal judge to toss a lawsuit accusing it of fraudulently passing off illicit Delta-9 products as legal Delta-8 ones, saying the suit lacks fundamental details, such as which products were purchased and what laboratory tested them.
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January 23, 2025
NJ Town Loses Bid To Join NYC Congestion Pricing Suit
A federal judge on Thursday rebuffed a bid from the mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, to be heard in the ongoing litigation surrounding this month's implementation of the congestion pricing toll program in Manhattan.
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January 23, 2025
Calif. Kids' Privacy Law Ignores 1st Amendment, Judge Says
A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to preliminarily blocking for the second time a landmark California law requiring tech giants to bolster privacy protections for children, telling the state's counsel that nothing shows the Legislature "cared one whit about the Constitution," and "now you're trying to reverse engineer it."
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January 23, 2025
Suncor Says Enviro Groups' Suit Duplicates Gov't Enforcement
Suncor USA Inc. told a Colorado federal judge that environmentalists suing it for allegedly violating emissions standards have improperly tied their claims to events that are already resolved or are being investigated by federal and state governments.
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January 23, 2025
Federal Agencies Must Order Full Return To Office By Friday
Federal agencies will order employees to return to the office by Friday at 5 p.m. to end the "national embarrassment" that remote work policies have fueled, the Office of Personnel Management said, following President Donald Trump's executive order.
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January 23, 2025
Meta Wants Mass. Justices To Intervene In AG's Suit
Meta Platforms has urged Massachusetts' highest court to take up its challenge to a pending lawsuit brought by the state attorney general's office, which accused the social media company of intentionally designing Instagram to be addictive to children and teenagers.
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January 23, 2025
15 States Reach $7.4B Settlement With Sackler Family
A bipartisan coalition of states on Thursday announced a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma Inc., representing the largest settlement to date with the family accused of contributing significantly to the opioid epidemic.
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January 22, 2025
J&J Seeks To Defeat $30M Punitive Bid After Conn. Talc Trial
Johnson & Johnson has blasted a bid requesting that it pay $30 million in punitive damages on top of a $15 million jury award to a real estate developer who allegedly contracted mesothelioma from the company's talc, telling a Connecticut state court that, "at most," it should pay $5 million.
Expert Analysis
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How To Grow Marketing, Biz Dev Teams In A Tight Market
Faced with fierce competition and rising operating costs, firms are feeling the pressure to build a well-oiled marketing and business development team that supports strategic priorities, but they’ll need to be flexible and creative given a tight talent market, says Ben Curle at Ambition.
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Series
Rock Climbing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Rock climbing requires problem-solving, focus, risk management and resilience, skills that are also invaluable assets in my role as a finance lawyer, says Mei Zhang at Haynes and Boone.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Dance The Legal Standard Two-Step
From rookie brief writers to Chief Justice John Roberts, lawyers should master the legal standard two-step — framing the governing standard at the outset, and clarifying why they meet that standard — which has benefits for both the drafter and reader, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Weight-Loss Drugs May Spur Next Major Mass Tort
With lawsuits concerning Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs potentially becoming the next major mass tort in the U.S., companies should consider key defense strategies ranging from alternate dispute resolution to enhanced drug safety, say Dino Haloulos and Jarif Khan at Foley & Mansfield.
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What Cos. Should Know About New Global Plastics Regs
As the global regulatory landscape for plastics and recycling changes rapidly — with new policies coming into effect in California, at the federal level, in the European Union and at the United Nations — businesses that operate across jurisdictions must stay informed to remain compliant, mitigate legal risk and achieve stewardship goals, say attorneys at O'Melveny.
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Del. 3M Ruling Risks Upending Corporate Insurance Programs
A Delaware court's findings last week in the 3M earplug insurance litigation that a parent company's defense fee payments don't count toward a subsidiary's self-insured retention and that an insurer's duty to pay defense costs doesn't attach to multidistrict litigation merit closer scrutiny in light of the modern corporate form and the fundamental objectives of MDLs, say Julie Hammerman and Gary Thompson at Thompson HD.
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And Now A Word From The Panel: Rare MDL Moments
Following a recent trend of rare moments in baseball, there are a few rarities this year in multidistrict litigation panel practice, including an unusually high rate of petition grants, and, in one session, a two-week delay from hearing session day to the first decision, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.
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Series
Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer
When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.
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FDA's Multifaceted Role On Display In MDMA Therapy Scrutiny
Ongoing deliberations at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder serves as a window into the intricate balance of scientific innovation and patient safety oversight, and offers crucial insights into regulatory nuances, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell and Kevin Lanzo at Pharmaka Clinical Consulting.
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Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity
The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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Nat'l Security Considerations For Telecom Products Counsel
An increase in federal national security measures in the telecommunications space, particularly from the Federal Communications Commission, means that products counsel need to broaden their considerations as they advise on new products and services, says Laura Stefani at Venable.
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How Cos. Should Handle Research Org.'s Carcinogen Evals
In light of the International Agency of Research for Cancer's list of substances slated for review over the next five years, manufacturers of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and consumer products should monitor for potentially unbalanced determinations, which could stimulate litigation regarding potential exposure from products, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.
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Boeing Plea Deal Is A Mixed Bag, Providing Lessons For Cos.
The plea deal for conspiracy to defraud regulators that Boeing has tentatively agreed to will, on the one hand, probably help the company avoid further reputational damage, but also demonstrates to companies that deferred prosecution agreements have real teeth, and that noncompliance with DPA terms can be costly, says Edmund Vickers at Red Lion Chambers.
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A Simple Proposal For Improving E-Discovery In MDLs
Given the importance of e-discovery in multidistrict litigation, courts, parties and counsel shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel in each newly consolidated case — and a simple process for sharing e-discovery lessons and knowledge across MDLs could benefit everyone involved, particularly clients, say Benjamin Barnett and Shauna Itri at Seeger Weiss.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.