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Product Liability
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June 04, 2024
Judiciary Panel Clears 1st MDL Rule, Eyes 'Mouthpiece' Amici
Top rulemaking gatekeepers for the federal judiciary Tuesday capped off seven years of strife in the defense and plaintiffs bars by backing a milestone measure aimed at optimizing multidistrict litigation, and then promptly greenlighted an entirely different war of words over new efforts to ferret out amicus briefs from "paid mouthpieces" masquerading as independent experts.
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June 04, 2024
Monsanto Tries To Flip $1B PCB Losses As Plaintiffs Press On
Monsanto is moving to capitalize on a Washington state appellate victory it claims casts doubt on more than $1.1 billion in PCB poisoning verdicts, while plaintiffs are staking out positions to defend — and even build on — their blockbuster wins.
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June 04, 2024
Insulin Pens Exposed Patients To Disease, Hospital Says
A Connecticut-based hospital says medical device manufacturer Novo Nordisk should be on the hook for a $1 million settlement the hospital paid to end claims that patients were exposed to blood-borne infections because of the medical staff's use of Novo Nordisk's product.
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June 04, 2024
Monsanto Gets $2.25B Roundup Verdict Slashed To $404M
A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday slashed a $2.25 billion verdict awarded to a cancer patient who claimed Monsanto's glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup contributed to his lymphoma, reducing the jury's 10-figure damages award to $404 million after the Bayer AG subsidiary argued that the initial award was "unconstitutionally excessive."
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June 04, 2024
FDA Advisers Rebuff Bid To Treat PTSD With MDMA
A panel of public health experts on Tuesday dealt a blow to a historic effort to regulate MDMA therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, saying although the positive effects shown in clinical trials are promising, the proposal was hindered by too many confounding factors.
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June 04, 2024
'Ghost Gun' Makers Ask 2nd Circ. To Weigh In On NY AG Case
A group of companies being sued by the New York attorney general over their distribution of so-called ghost gun kits is asking the Second Circuit to weigh in on the case and decide whether the parts kits can be considered "firearms" and if they are entitled to immunity under federal firearms law.
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June 04, 2024
Zantac Suits Belong In Conn. State Court, Cancer Patients Say
Lawsuits claiming Zantac and its generic equivalents caused cancer belong in Connecticut state court, two groups of Constitution State cancer patients and their estates say, arguing against several drugmakers' assertions that they can't be sued in the state on innovator and warning label liability claims.
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June 04, 2024
Chancery Pauses Meta Suit While Calif., Texas Cases Continue
Delaware's Chancery Court on Tuesday paused a derivative suit seeking potentially massive damages from Meta Platforms Inc.'s leaders for failing to eliminate pedophilia, human trafficking and child exploitation content from its social media sites, pending resolution of direct damages suits in Texas and California.
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June 04, 2024
J&J Owes $260M To Ore. Talc Mesothelioma Patient, Jury Says
An Oregon state jury has ruled that Johnson & Johnson owes $260 million to a woman who said she developed mesothelioma from breathing in asbestos during daily talcum powder use.
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June 04, 2024
10th Circ. Backs CPSC In Baby Lounger Injunction Dispute
The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday sided with the Consumer Product Safety Commission in an appeal by a pillow company aiming to block a CPSC proceeding against it over one of its infant products, saying even if the company can show that removal protections for CPSC's commissioners and a judge are unconstitutional, the company hasn't shown how that affects its case.
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June 04, 2024
Wildfire Attys Descend On Colo. As Xcel Litigation Ramps Up
Hundreds of lawsuits seeking to hold Xcel Energy responsible for a devastating 2021 Colorado wildfire are just the latest battleground for a relatively small community of lawyers who have been involved in some of the biggest catastrophic fire suits in the western U.S.
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June 04, 2024
GM Ends Ga. Crash Suit That Nearly Forced CEO To Testify
General Motors and the widower of a woman whose death was alleged to have been caused by one of its vehicles have reached an agreement to end long-running wrongful death litigation that at one point threatened to force the company's CEO to testify, the parties said.
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June 04, 2024
Champion Sports Settles Hurdle Injury Suit With Athlete
Champion Sports has settled claims that it sold a gym a defective hurdle that impaled a gym-goer after he failed to jump over it, according to documents filed recently in South Carolina federal court.
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June 04, 2024
Vape Distributors Push To Exit NYC E-Cigarette Suit
Two groups of e-cigarette distributors are urging a New York state court to toss claims from New York City alleging they're violating city laws by selling flavored e-cigarettes, saying that the law in question only applies to retail sales, not distributor-to-distributor sales.
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June 04, 2024
Alaska Airlines Passengers Drop Boeing 737 Blowout Suit
A group of passengers has agreed to drop claims against The Boeing Co., supplier Spirit AeroSystems and Alaska Airlines over the Jan. 5 mid-flight door plug blowout on a Boeing 737, according to a stipulated dismissal notice filed in Washington state court.
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June 04, 2024
GRSM50 Gains Liability Partner In San Diego
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP, the firm now known as GRSM50, has hired an attorney from Murchison & Cumming LLP, who joins the firm in California to continue her general liability practice, the firm announced Monday.
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June 03, 2024
Voir Dire With No Judge Present Persists In State Courts
Data released Friday by the National Center for State Courts revealed that voir dire conducted by lawyers with no judge present in the room persists in 7% of state court trials, but has been virtually eliminated in federal courts.
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June 03, 2024
TikTok Profits Off Of Child Sex Trafficking, Utah Alleges
Utah's Division of Consumer Protection hit TikTok Inc. with a lawsuit in state court Monday, accusing the social media giant of intentionally profiting off of child sex trafficking by implementing an unregulated virtual currency system in its live-streaming feature that allows children to be sexually exploited by adult viewers.
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June 03, 2024
PacifiCorp To Pay $178M To 400 Oregonians Over Fires
PacifiCorp has agreed to pay $178 million to more than 400 Oregon residents affected by a cluster of wildfires that burned more than a million acres of land on Labor Day 2020 amid dangerously dry and windy weather conditions, the utility announced Monday.
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June 03, 2024
Justices Won't Review Contempt Sanctions Against Drug Co.
The U.S. Supreme Court won't hear Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals' challenge to the Federal Trade Commission's $40 million judgment against it for misrepresenting weight-loss drugs and violating an injunction.
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June 03, 2024
Navy Federal Lets AI Co. Monitor Calls, Suit Says
Navy Federal Credit Union has been letting an artificial intelligence software company intercept, analyze and record all its customer calls, according to a new lawsuit accusing the nation's largest credit union of putting its members' confidential, personal and financial information at risk.
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June 03, 2024
No Sanctions For 'Fraudulent' Signatures In 3M Earplug MDL
A Florida federal judge has decided against sanctioning two law firms that signed documents in place of their clients but chastised their lawyers' "obviously improper" act, which could have cut their clients out of their share of the $6 billion settlement in the 3M combat earplugs multidistrict litigation.
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June 03, 2024
Royal Caribbean Sued Over Ship's Wave Simulation Attraction
Royal Caribbean was hit Monday with a lawsuit in Florida federal court alleging its FlowRider wave simulation attraction on one of its cruise ships was "unreasonably dangerous" and led to a passenger being injured.
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June 03, 2024
Mich. Asks 6th Circ. To Keep Airport PFAS Suit In State Court
Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the state attorney general are asking the Sixth Circuit to keep the department's suit against Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority over so-called forever chemicals in state court, saying the Airport Authority is not entitled to removal as a "federal officer."
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June 03, 2024
GAO Urges DEA To Streamline Religious Drug Use Requests
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a new report that the nation's drug enforcement agency needs to be more transparent about its process for reviewing religious exemption requests from churches that use controlled substances as sacraments.
Expert Analysis
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Calif. Right To Repair Law Highlights A Growing Movement
New legislation in California is a comprehensive victory for the "right to repair" movement — signaling that this push for legal reform represents a multifaceted challenge to the status quo not only on the consumer rights front, but also in the fields of copyright, software, antitrust and warranty law, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane Meadows.
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Teach Your Witness About 'Good' And 'Bad' Testimony Words
To ensure honest and accurate testimony in trials and depositions, attorneys must take care to educate their witnesses about the problematic words opposing counsel may use, such as “always” and “must,” and the effective words they can use in response, like “potentially” and “depends,” say Steve Wood and Bill Kanasky at Courtroom Sciences.
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Balancing Justice And Accountability In Opioid Bankruptcies
As Rite Aid joins other pharmaceutical companies in pursuing bankruptcy following the onslaught of state and federal litigation related to the opioid epidemic, courts and the country will have to reconcile the ideals of economic justice and accountability against the U.S. Constitution’s promise of a fresh start through bankruptcy, says Monique Hayes at DGIM Law.
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Opinion
Newman Suspension Shows Need For Judicial Reform
The recent suspension of U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman following her alleged refusal to participate in a disability inquiry reveals the need for judicial misconduct reforms to ensure that judges step down when they can no longer serve effectively, says Aliza Shatzman at The Legal Accountability Project.
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Lessons From Verizon's Cybersecurity FCA Self-Disclosure
A Verizon unit’s recent agreement to settle allegations of cyber-related False Claims Act violations illustrates the interplay between the government's prioritization of cybersecurity enforcement and the potential benefits of voluntarily disclosing cybersecurity failures, says Denise Barnes at Honigman.
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EPA's Final PFAS Rule Greatly Expands Cos.' Reporting Duties
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recently released final regulation requiring reporting by entities that have manufactured or imported products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances will require considerable time and attention from affected companies — including many that have not previously faced such obligations, say Lawrence Culleen and Judah Prero at Arnold & Porter.
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How And Why Your Firm Should Implement Fixed-Fee Billing
Amid rising burnout in the legal industry and client efforts to curtail spending, pivoting to a fixed-fee billing model may improve client-attorney relationships and offer lawyers financial, logistical and stress relief — while still maintaining profit margins, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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New Calif. Hemp, CBD Rules Affect Nationwide Compliance
Because of its huge market share, it is imperative that operators in every state understand the nuances of California's hemp and CBD regulatory regime, including policies refined over the past year and pending legislation that would allow cannabis licensees to sell, manufacture and distribute hemp and CBD products, say Alexis Lazzeri and Meital Manzuri at Manzuri Law.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Needs Defense Amid Political Threats
Amid recent and historic challenges to the judiciary from political forces, safeguarding judicial independence and maintaining the integrity of the legal system is increasingly urgent, says Robert Peck at the Center for Constitutional Litigation.
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How Law Firms Can Use Account-Based Marketing Strategies
Amid several evolving legal industry trends, account-based marketing can help law firms uncover additional revenue-generating opportunities with existing clients, with key considerations ranging from data analytics to relationship building, say Jennifer Ramsey at stage LLC and consultant Gina Sponzilli.
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Opinion
Science On Human Health Effects Of PFAS Is Still Inconsistent
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have soared to the top of environmental regulatory agendas, and dominated environmental news headlines — but scientific research into causal relationships between PFAS exposure and adverse human health effects is still unclear and inconsistent, say Jeffrey Dintzer and Samantha Van Winter at Alston & Bird.
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Navigating Over-The-Counter Product Ads After FTC Warning
Attorneys at Hunton examine advertising substantiation requirements under both the Federal Trade Commission Act and Lanham Act, following recent FTC letters informing hundreds of companies that over-the-counter product marketing claims must be corroborated by scientific evidence.
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AGs' Distaste For Food Bill May Signal Other State Issues
States' recent opposition to a proposed federal law that would block them from regulating out-of-state agricultural production could affect issues beyond this narrow debate, such as the balance of state and federal regulatory power, reproductive rights post-Dobbs, and energy production and water use, say Christopher Allen and Stephen Cobb at Cozen O'Connor.
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Strategic Succession Planning At Law Firms Is Crucial
Senior partners' reluctance to retire, the rise of the nonequity partner tier and generational differences in expectations are all contributing to an increasing number of departures from BigLaw, making it imperative for firms to encourage retirement among senior ranks and provide clearer leadership pathways to junior attorneys, says Laura Leopard at Leopard Solutions.
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FDA's Lab-Developed Test Rule Faces High Hurdles
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recently announced plans to explicitly regulate lab-developed tests will likely face resistance from industry stakeholders and congressional actions, and lead to significant litigation, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.