Product Liability

  • May 15, 2026

    American Airlines Must Face Suit Over Teen's In-Flight Death

    The Fifth Circuit partially revived a lawsuit claiming American Airlines caused a teen's death when an on-flight defibrillator used to shock his heart allegedly malfunctioned, ruling that a genuine dispute remains whether the airline equipped the flight with a working defibrillator as required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

  • May 15, 2026

    Resident Says Toxins' Presence Enough For Union Pacific Suit

    A Wichita homeowner is pushing back against a new bid to dismiss her proposed class action alleging Union Pacific Railroad Co. contaminated the groundwater by mishandling hazardous chemicals, saying the presence of those chemicals on her property is enough to allege an injury and standing.

  • May 14, 2026

    Freight Brokers Brace For New Risks After High Court Ruling

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday shattered what freight brokers believed was an ironclad shield against state-based negligence and injury claims over catastrophic accidents, as the trucking industry's middlemen face heightened legal exposure and question what reasonable care means in selecting motor carriers for a transport, experts say.

  • May 14, 2026

    Meta Starts NM Defense As Midtrial Win Bid Fails

    A judge denied Meta a midtrial win Thursday morning over harm to underage social media users, prompting the social media giant to call an executive to begin building a defense case that platform changes requested by New Mexico's attorney general are unnecessary or even counterproductive.

  • May 14, 2026

    NJ Doctor Prescribed Medical Marijuana To Kids, AG Says

    A New Jersey doctor had his medical license temporarily suspended by a state board, which found there is good reason to believe he is "a grave danger" to his patients after prosecutors accused him of repeatedly prescribing marijuana to adults and children without complying with state law.

  • May 14, 2026

    Human Reproduction Proves Talc Can Reach Ovaries, Jury Told

    A medical oncologist on Thursday told a Los Angeles bellwether jury considering claims that Johnson & Johnson's talc products caused three women's deadly ovarian cancer that the female reproductive system is an "open" system where talc can migrate to the ovaries, and that "we wouldn't exist" if that was not the case.

  • May 14, 2026

    Algorithms In Senate Spotlight After Social Media Suit Losses

    Lawyers and parents on Wednesday urged lawmakers to strengthen protections for children online, focusing on the addictiveness of social media algorithms after two recent trial losses for Big Tech.

  • May 14, 2026

    Smucker's Misleads About Splenda In Fudge, Consumer Says

    A New York man sued The J.M. Smucker Co. in federal court on Thursday, alleging it misleads consumers by claiming its fudge topping is sweetened with Splenda, when in reality its primary sweeteners are less-healthy sugar alcohols and sugar substitutes.

  • May 14, 2026

    Calif. Cannabis Distributor Gets $1.35M In Delivery Row

    Cannabis company Magnolia Extracts LLC must pay a distributor $1.35 million for delivered products, a California state court judge has ruled, saying the retailer waived any opportunity to claim the products were defective after accepting the shipment and then reselling it.

  • May 14, 2026

    Albertsons Not Covered In Opioid Litigation, Del. Judge Says

    Albertsons isn't entitled to defense or indemnity for more than 100 suits accusing the pharmacy and grocery chain of fueling the opioid epidemic, a Delaware state court ruled, tracking the state high court's rulings in nearly identical disputes involving Rite Aid and CVS.

  • May 14, 2026

    Honda Buyers Say 440K Odysseys Have Faulty Side Airbags

    Honda hid safety defects for years in its 2018-2022 Odyssey minivans where side airbag systems would suddenly deploy when traveling on flat roads, slowing down to a stop or going over a speed bump, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court.

  • May 14, 2026

    High Court Must End Colo. Climate Suit, Oil Cos. Say

    Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil urged the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to reverse a Colorado Supreme Court ruling allowing local communities to pursue state law tort claims for climate change damages, arguing their claims are "avowedly interstate and international in scope."

  • May 14, 2026

    Ga. Panel Quiet On Fate Of $20M Bard Cancer Verdict

    A Georgia appellate panel gave few indications Thursday of whether it would order a new trial in a former C.R. Bard worker's lawsuit alleging that exposure to ethylene oxide caused his cancer, weighing whether a mistrial on punitive damages necessitates scrapping a $20 million compensatory damages verdict.

  • May 14, 2026

    Volkswagen Hit With Class Claims Over EV Battery Fire Risk

    Volkswagen has been hit with a proposed class action in New Jersey federal court alleging that tens of thousands of its ID.4 electric vehicles contain defective high-voltage batteries that can spontaneously catch fire because of misaligned electrodes.

  • May 14, 2026

    Water Utilities Urge DC Circ. To Toss EPA PFAS Regs Suit

    A trade association for local public clean water utilities is urging the D.C. Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a suit from a group of farmers alleging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hasn't adequately regulated so-called forever chemicals, saying the plaintiffs' suit risks interfering with their ability to do their jobs.

  • May 14, 2026

    Justices Say Freight Brokers Can Face Negligence Suits

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday that freight brokers might also be liable under state law for selecting unsafe motor carriers that then get into highway crashes that kill or injure people, offering long-sought clarity on liability standards in a commercial trucking industry unnerved by supersized verdicts against carriers and drivers.

  • May 13, 2026

    Ore. Justices Urged To Reverse PacifiCorp Appeal Win

    Property owners urged the Oregon Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn a decision wiping out their wildfire damages verdict against PacifiCorp, saying the ruling leaves the state "without a workable framework" for class trials and citing "unfortunate appearance-of-justice concerns" regarding the judge who wrote the opinion.

  • May 13, 2026

    EPA Must Reconsider Flame Retardant Regs, 9th Circ. Says

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must revisit rulemaking on a flame retardant known as decaBDE, a Ninth Circuit panel said Wednesday, agreeing with a Native American tribe and environmental groups that the federal agency failed to adequately explain its past decisions declining to further regulate the chemical's disposal.

  • May 13, 2026

    Frito-Lay Poppables Have 'Synthetic Flavors,' Suit Says

    Frito-Lay Inc. was hit with a proposed class action accusing it of deceiving consumers by labeling Lay's Poppables as having "no artificial flavors" when they actually contain two ingredients that are not natural.

  • May 13, 2026

    'Powerful' Risk For Women Using Talc, UC Prof Tells Jury

    An epidemiology professor at the University of California, San Francisco testified Wednesday in a Los Angeles bellwether trial over claims Johnson & Johnson's talc products caused deadly ovarian cancer in three women, saying there are multiple studies concluding the product increases the risk of the disease, including one finding a "very powerful" risk.

  • May 13, 2026

    Roblox Exploits Kids' Labor To Build Games, Action Claims

    A Georgia mother accused gaming giant Roblox Corp. of turning her 13-year-old son into an unpaid game developer who worked more than 40 hours weekly, funneling him and millions of other children into a virtual currency system designed to trap their labor, according to a proposed class action filed in New York federal court.

  • May 13, 2026

    Conn. PFAS Plaintiffs Deny Forum Shopping In Montana Suit

    The City of Stamford and a local fire district are pushing back against a bid by 3M and others to sanction them for moving their claims from Connecticut to Montana, saying the sanctions bid misrepresents the facts and circumstances motivating them to join the litigation.

  • May 13, 2026

    Fla. Law Makes Lyft Immune To Passenger's Assault Suit

    A Florida state appeals court ruled Wednesday that a state law shielding Lyft and other ride-hailing companies from liability bars a suit over a driver's alleged assault of a passenger, noting that the law's immunity provision is "very broad."

  • May 13, 2026

    Ill. Jury Awards $49.5M To Ethiopian Air Victim's Family

    Illinois federal jurors awarded $49.5 million Wednesday to the family of a global health worker who died alongside 156 others when a Boeing jet carrying Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 crashed within minutes of takeoff.

  • May 13, 2026

    Bayer, Buyers Get Final OK Of $4.85M Benzene Settlement

    A New Jersey federal judge on Wednesday gave final approval to a $4.85 million settlement to end claims against Bayer Healthcare LLC and others alleging that antifungal products were contaminated with benzene.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Product Safety Insights May Expand Foreseeability

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    Product liability law has long held that companies are responsible for risks they knew about or should have known about — and with AI systems now able to assess and predict hazards during the design process, companies should expect that courts will likely treat such hazards as foreseeable, says Donald Fountain at Clark Fountain.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Educating Your Community

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    Nearly two decades prosecuting scammers and elder fraud taught me that proactively educating the public about the risks they face and the rights they possess is essential to building trust within our communities, empowering otherwise vulnerable citizens and preventing wrongdoers from gaining a foothold, says Roger Handberg at GrayRobinson.

  • How A 9th Circ. False Ad Ruling Could Shift Class Certification

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    The Ninth Circuit's July decision in Noohi v. Johnson & Johnson, holding that unexecuted damages models may suffice for purposes of class certification, has the potential to create judicial inefficiencies and crippling uncertainties for class action defendants, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • 5 Crisis Lawyering Skills For An Age Of Uncertainty

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    As attorneys increasingly face unprecedented and pervasive situations — from prosecutions of law enforcement officials to executive orders targeting law firms — they must develop several essential competencies of effective crisis lawyering, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.

  • Compliance Tips Amid Rising FTC Scrutiny Of Minors' Privacy

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    The Federal Trade Commission has recently rolled out multiple enforcement actions related to children's privacy, highlighting a renewed focus on federal regulation of minors' personal information and the evolving challenges of establishing effective, privacy-protective age assurance solutions, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Insights From Recent Cases On Navigating Snap Removal

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    Snap removal, which allows defendants to transfer state court cases to federal court before a forum defendant is properly joined and served, is viewed differently across federal circuits — but keys to making it work can be drawn from recent decisions critiquing the practice, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For The Judiciary To Fix Its Cybersecurity Problem

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    After recent reports that hackers have once again infiltrated federal courts’ electronic case management systems, the judiciary should strengthen its cybersecurity practices in line with executive branch standards, outlining clear roles and responsibilities for execution, says Ilona Cohen at HackerOne.

  • Tips For Cos. Crafting Enforceable Online Arbitration Clauses

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    Recent rulings from the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California indicate that courts are carefully examining the enforceability of online arbitration clauses, so businesses should review the design of their websites and consider specific language next to the "purchase" button, say attorneys at DTO Law.

  • Identifying The Sources And Impacts Of Juror Contamination

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    Jury contamination can be pervasive, so it is important that trial teams be able to spot its sources and take specific mitigation steps, says consultant Clint Townson.

  • Why This Popular Class Cert. Approach Doesn't Measure Up

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    In recent class certification decisions, plaintiffs experts have used the in-sample prediction approach to show that challenged conduct harmed all, or almost all, proposed class members — but this approach is unreliable because it fails two fundamental tests of reliable econometric methods, say consultants at Cornerstone Research.

  • Key Lessons From Youths' Suit Against Trump Energy Orders

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    A Montana federal court's recent decision in Lighthiser v. Trump, dismissing a challenge by a group of young plaintiffs to President Donald Trump's executive orders promoting fossil fuels, indicates that future climate litigants must anchor their suits in discrete, final agency actions and statutory text, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Series

    Writing Novels Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Writing my debut novel taught me to appreciate the value of critique and to never give up, no matter how long or tedious the journey, providing me with valuable skills that I now emphasize in my practice, says Daniel Buzzetta at BakerHostetler.

  • SDNY OpenAI Order Clarifies Preservation Standards For AI

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    The Southern District of New York’s recent order in the OpenAI copyright infringement litigation, denying discovery of The New York Times' artificial intelligence technology use, clarifies that traditional preservation benchmarks apply to AI content, relieving organizations from using a “keep everything” approach, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • What 9th Circ.'s Rosenwald Ruling Means For Class Actions

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Rosenwald v. Kimberly-Clark has important implications around the Class Action Fairness Act and traditional diversity jurisdiction — both for plaintiff-side and defense-side class action litigators — and deepens the circuit split concerning the use of judicial notice to establish diversity, says Grace Schmidt at DTO Law.

  • What EPA's Continued Defense Of PFAS Rule Means For Cos.

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent decision to continue defending a Biden-era rule designating two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as Superfund hazards may provide the EPA with significant authority over national PFAS cleanup policy — and spur further litigation by both government and private parties, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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