Product Liability

  • February 10, 2025

    Kratom Co. Says False Ad Addiction Suit Falls Short

    The company behind Kryptic Kratom and K-Chill branded supplements is urging a California federal court to throw out a suit alleging it concealed kratom's addictive qualities from consumers, saying the complaint fails to shore up its claims with factual allegations.

  • February 10, 2025

    Verizon Escapes Workers' Suit Over Lead-Covered Cables

    A Pennsylvania federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed on behalf of utility workers alleging Verizon endangered them by failing to properly dispose of lead-covered cables on telephone poles, ruling that allegations of suffering common ailments were not enough to support a class action.

  • February 07, 2025

    Injury Attys In Hot Water Over Possible AI-Hallucinated Cites

    Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group on Friday withdrew pretrial motions in a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart over an allegedly defective hoverboard after a Wyoming federal court ordered the firms to explain why the filings contained what appears to be case law hallucinated by generative artificial intelligence.

  • February 07, 2025

    70 Depo-Provera Suits Joined In Florida's Northern District

    The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Friday consolidated more than 70 consumer lawsuits claiming that Pfizer Inc. failed to adequately warn patients and doctors about the risk of brain tumors associated with the hormonal contraceptive drug Depo-Provera in the Northern District of Florida.

  • February 07, 2025

    John Deere Tractor Rivals Seek Info Safeguards In FTC Case

    A trio of tractor manufacturers asked an Illinois federal judge Friday to impose stringent safeguards for sensitive business information they turned over to the Federal Trade Commission in the run-up to its right-to-repair lawsuit against their "primary competitor," John Deere.

  • February 07, 2025

    5th Circ. Upholds High School's Win In Gym Fire Suit

    The Fifth Circuit on Thursday upheld a Louisiana high school's win in its suit claiming that a flooring company caused a gym fire, holding that the high school has a right of action for property damage to the gymnasium.

  • February 07, 2025

    For These Victims, Death Came Before Bankruptcy Resolution

    Thousands of people have died with no compensation in recent years as big institutions shield themselves in bankruptcy court from claims related to opioids, fraud, asbestos and sexual abuse, plaintiffs' lawyers say. Critics say it's an inherent part of a bankruptcy court system that helps insiders and hurts creditors.

  • February 07, 2025

    Laughing Gas Makers, Vape Shops Hit With Class Suit

    Several manufacturers of nitrous oxide, or "laughing gas," and seven Orlando-area smoke shops were hit with a proposed class suit on Thursday claiming their manufacturing, marketing and sales practices have contributed to a public health crisis and the death of a Florida woman.

  • February 07, 2025

    SoCal Edison Says Its Equipment May Have Caused Hurst Fire

    Southern California Edison told a state energy regulator that it believes its utility equipment might have ignited last month's Hurst Fire in northern Los Angeles County, but it's still investigating the cause of the area's far more destructive Eaton Fire.

  • February 07, 2025

    Insurers Say Meta MDL Row Should Be In Del. State Court

    Coverage litigation with Meta over underlying claims that it deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive to adolescents ought to take place in Delaware state court, units of Chubb and Hartford told a Delaware federal court, arguing the court need only examine the fact that Meta is a Delaware citizen.

  • February 07, 2025

    Conn. Trial Firm Partner Seeks Sanctions In Heated Split-Up

    Connecticut Trial Firm LLC former co-owner Andrew Garza has asked a Connecticut Superior Court judge to issue sanctions against his former 50-50 partner, Ryan McKeen, accusing McKeen of "misconduct presenting a threat to the administration of justice" in heated litigation over the firm's split.

  • February 06, 2025

    Tom's 'Natural' Kids Toothpaste Has Lead, Arsenic, Dad Says

    Tom's of Maine and its parent company Colgate-Palmolive have "egregiously" failed to disclose that its "Silly Strawberry" children's toothpaste has dangerous levels of lead and arsenic, a New York dad alleged in a proposed false advertising class action filed Thursday in New York federal court.

  • February 06, 2025

    Buyers Want Kratom Cos. Addiction Suit To Go On

    Two California kratom manufacturers shouldn't be allowed to escape a lawsuit claiming they failed to warn about the "highly addictive" nature of their products, a proposed class of consumers argued, pointing to a podcast where a company executive suggested their products were more potent than morphine.

  • February 06, 2025

    Air Traffic Control System Upgrade In Spotlight After DC Crash

    In the week since a midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River left 67 people dead, the Trump administration signaled Thursday that it's looking to expedite overhauling the nation's air traffic control system.

  • February 06, 2025

    CooperSurgical Hit With IVF Embryo Loss Class Claims

    A proposed class has sued CooperSurgical Inc. over embryos lost to its defective culture medium for in vitro fertilization, in the latest complaint in a series of individual lawsuits brought against the company after its 2023 recall of the product.

  • February 06, 2025

    Abbott Tells Judge To Keep Formula Cases In Federal Court

    Abbott Laboratories urged an Illinois federal judge on Thursday to keep six previously remanded lawsuits over allegedly harmful preterm baby formula in federal court after local hospitals' dismissal prompted their second removal, arguing the hospitals were only in the suits to avoid federal jurisdiction.

  • February 06, 2025

    'Novel' Kia, Hyundai Theft Liability Theory Faces 6th Circ. Test

    A Sixth Circuit panel wrestled Thursday with whether to endorse a theory that automakers Kia and Hyundai could be liable for victims' injuries from crashes involving vehicles stolen during a TikTok-spurred wave of car thefts.

  • February 06, 2025

    GSK's Zantac Woes Gave Investors Heartburn, Suit Says

    The maker of heartburn and acid reflux relief tablet Zantac has been hit with a shareholder suit in Pennsylvania federal court alleging that the company suffered stock price losses after it was revealed that for nearly 40 years the company knew that Zantac contained high levels of a cancer-causing compound.

  • February 06, 2025

    Filing Claims 'Secret Lockout' Led To Conn. Trial Firm Schism

    One of the 50-50 partners litigating the dramatic breakup of Connecticut Trial Firm LLC, a personal injury firm known for high-dollar verdicts, has accused his onetime partner of having "plotted a secret lockout" to remove him from the firm, according to a revised derivative complaint filed in Connecticut state court.

  • February 06, 2025

    Trump's Federal Worker Buyout Plan Put On Hold

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday put on hold the Trump administration's "deferred resignation" program for federal employees, delaying the deadline for workers to accept the offer until Monday while the court weighs the legality of the move.

  • February 05, 2025

    Toyota Urges NC High Court To Reverse 'Abusive' Ruling

    Toyota and Subaru Corp. are looking to the North Carolina Supreme Court to pull them out of an "impossible corner" they were pushed into by a trial judge overseeing a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a fatal car crash, arguing on Wednesday that his orders "incentivize" widespread "tactical abuse of discovery."

  • February 05, 2025

    Catholic Investors Bring Smith & Wesson Suit To Fed. Court

    A group of Catholic sisters has refiled in federal court their suit accusing Smith & Wesson's directors and senior executives of placing their own "greed" and "political concerns" above the interests of the company and its stockholders by ignoring the liabilities of marketing AR-15 rifles that are used to perpetrate mass shootings.

  • February 05, 2025

    NJ Judge Finds For Textron Unit In Fatal Copter Crash

    A New Jersey state judge said Tuesday that Avco Corp., a division of Textron Inc., wasn't liable for a helicopter crash that resulted in the death of a country singer, since the company didn't design the engine part that the plaintiffs claimed was defective.

  • February 05, 2025

    NJ Seeks Jury Trial In PFAS Cleanup Case Against 3M, DuPont

    New Jersey officials are fighting back against 3M and DuPont's requests to have a federal bench trial on their environmental claims seeking remediation and restoration cost reimbursement over purported PFAS contamination, arguing that its legal claims are tied to legal remedies that a jury, not a judge, must decide.

  • February 05, 2025

    Chicago's Climate Suit Belongs In Federal Court, Judge Hears

    The city of Chicago should not be allowed to take environmental deception claims against the nation's largest oil producers back to state court because the city's suit targets conduct performed largely for the federal government, a judge heard during a Wednesday hearing.

Expert Analysis

  • Complying With FTC's Final Rule On Sham Online Reviews

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    The Federal Trade Commission's final rule on deceptive acts and practices in online reviews and testimonials is effective Oct. 21, and some practice tips can help businesses avert noncompliance risks, say Airina Rodrigues and Jonathan Sandler at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • 5 Credibility Lessons Trial Attys Can Learn From Harris' Run

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    In launching a late-stage campaign for president, Vice President Kamala Harris must seize upon fresh attention from voters to establish, or reestablish, credibility — a challenge that parallels and provides takeaways for trial attorneys, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • Mich. Whistleblower Ruling Expands Retaliation Remedies

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    The Michigan Supreme Court's recent Occupational Health and Safety Act decision in Stegall v. Resource Technology is important because it increases the potential exposure for defendants in public policy retaliation cases, providing plaintiffs with additional claims, say Aaron Burrell and Timothy Howlett at Dickinson Wright.

  • A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President

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    For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Opinion

    Big Oil Climate Ruling Sets Dangerous Liability Precedent

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    The recent Maryland court dismissal of Baltimore's case seeking to hold BP responsible for climate damage mischaracterized the city's injuries as divorced from the conduct that caused them, and could allow companies that conceal the dangers of their products to escape liability, says Randall Abate at George Washington University Law School.

  • Opinion

    3rd. Circ. Got It Right On Cancer Warning Claims Preemption

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    The Third Circuit's recent, eminently sensible ruling in a failure-to-warn case against Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, holding that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts state law claims, provides a road map that other courts should adopt, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • 5 Ways To Confront Courtroom Technology Challenges

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    Recent cybersecurity incidents highlight the vulnerabilities of our reliance on digital infrastructure, meaning attorneys must be prepared to navigate technological obstacles inside the courtroom, including those related to data security, presentation hardware, video playback and more, says Adam Bloomberg at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • The State Law Landscape After Justices' Social Media Ruling

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent NetChoice ruling on social media platforms’ First Amendment rights, it’s still unclear if state content moderation laws are constitutional, leaving online operators to face a patchwork of regulation, and the potential for the issue to return to the high court, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • When Trauma Colors Testimony: How To Help Witnesses

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    As stress-related mental health issues continue to rise, trial attorneys must become familiar with a few key trauma-informed strategies to help witnesses get back on track — leaning in to the counselor aspect of their vocations, say Ava Hernández and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Series

    Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.

  • What Cos. Need to Know About Battery Labeling Law

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    With new labeling requirements for button cell battery packaging taking effect in September, manufacturers and importers must review compliance, testing procedures, and necessary paperwork as the consequences of noncompliance can lead to costly penalties and supply chain woes, says Aasheesh Shravah at CM Law.

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