Abbott Hit With $53M Verdict Over Baby Formula Harms

By Celeste Bott

A Cook County jury on Thursday awarded a total of $53 million in damages to four mothers claiming Abbott Laboratories' preterm baby formula contributed to their babies' development of a serious and often fatal gut condition, in the first of such claims to go to trial in Illinois.

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McKinsey Settles Liability For $125M In Purdue Ch. 11

By Emily Lever

Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has agreed to pay $125 million to former client Purdue Pharma LP to settle potential claims related to its work advising Purdue on the sale and marketing of opioids, tying up another loose end in the nearly seven-year-old Chapter 11 case.

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Merck Beats 295 Zostavax Suits Over Missed Deadlines

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge has tossed 295 cases against Merck & Co. Inc. in the multidistrict litigation alleging its Zostavax shingles vaccine caused the disease, with the court reasoning that the plaintiffs' inactivity doomed the cases.

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Judge Says Poultry Enviro Deals In 20-Year Suits Fall Short

By Elaine Briseño

An Oklahoma federal judge has rejected a bid by the state and several poultry companies to enter consent decrees in their two-decade-old dispute, finding the agreements did not go far enough to address pollution of the Illinois River Watershed.

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W.Va. Town Says Waste Co. Leaked PFAS Into Water Supply

By Mike Curley

The city of Weirton, West Virginia, and its water utility are suing Arcwood Environmental affiliates in Ohio federal court, saying Arcwood has been incinerating waste containing forever chemicals, which have made their way into the city's water supply via the Ohio River.

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Walmart Sued Over 'Plant-Based' Milk With Additives

By Corey Rothauser

Walmart misrepresents its Bettergoods line of almond, oat and soy milks as "Plant-Based," even though the labeling shows inorganic and synthetic ingredients such as vitamin A palmitate, which "naturally occurs in liver, fish and dairy products ... not plants," a class action by consumers says.

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Clinic Charged Patients For Faulty Mammograms, Suit Claims

By Jonathan Capriel

A West Virginia clinic provided "worthless" mammograms to hundreds of patients for more than two years, according to a proposed class action filed in federal court which seeks refunds and other damages in excess of $5 million.

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Chinese Vape-Maker Seeks Narrow Discovery In Battery Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

The Chinese manufacturer of Geekvape is asking to limit discovery in a lawsuit seeking to hold it liable for burns a man suffered when the battery for his vape exploded while in his pocket, arguing that what the plaintiff asked for was too broad.

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Philip Morris, RJR Keep Win In Widower's Death Suit

By Mike Curley

A Massachusetts appeals panel Thursday refused to reinstate a suit from a widower against Philip Morris USA Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. over the death of his wife from COPD, saying he hadn't properly preserved his arguments for tolling the statute of limitations.

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Pest Co. Can't Eradicate Workers' Suit Over Tobacco Fees

By Patrick Hoff

Pest control company Rentokil can't escape a proposed class action alleging it unlawfully charged tobacco users more for health benefits without providing a reasonable way to avoid the fee, with a Pennsylvania federal judge rejecting the company's argument that decade-old regulations were invalid.

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Drivers Say GM, Bosch Can't Ditch Chevy Cruze Fraud Claims

By Linda Chiem

Drivers told a Michigan federal judge that General Motors and Bosch cannot dodge the remaining fraud claims in long-running litigation alleging the companies deceptively marketed Chevrolet Cruze vehicles as clean vehicles when they were actually outfitted with emissions-cheating software.

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Trade Secrets Suit Is A 'Far-Flung Conspiracy,' Law Firm Says

By Adam Lidgett

A Georgia law firm wants a Nevada federal court to throw out a lawsuit accusing it of stealing trade secrets from litigation lead generator Archetype Capital Partners, calling the whole case "a far-flung conspiracy."

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Rider Blasts Uber Bid To Admit Atty Ads In NC Bellwether Trial

By Hayley Fowler

Uber should not be allowed to introduce evidence that a rider in North Carolina saw attorney advertisements before she sued the ride-hailing giant claiming she was sexually harassed by her driver, the passenger said, arguing it has "no relevance to any issue" in her upcoming trial.

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LA Cannabis Edibles Maker Settles Prop 65 Warning Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

A Los Angeles cannabis-infused edibles producer has agreed to pay $70,000 to end a Proposition 65 lawsuit accusing the company of deliberately hiding the state-required warning with a peel-back product label, with most of the money going to the plaintiff's lawyer.

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Brief

Neb. Utility Allowed To Join Power Line Project Approval Fight

By Keith Goldberg

A Colorado federal judge has allowed Nebraska's largest electric utility to back the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in litigation seeking to undo the agency's fast-track approval of the utility's 226-mile high-voltage transmission project.

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Weighing The Practical Implications Of SC Kids' Privacy Law

South Carolina's recently enacted Age-Appropriate Code Design Act includes a unique provision: a private right of action for certain violations, but its practical effect remains uncertain, as courts and litigants grapple with complex questions of standing, causation and the definition of actionable harm, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

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Opinion

Time To Fix The Accountability Gap In Freight Logistics

In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport, the U.S. Supreme Court must resolve an urgent question: whether freight broker selection in trucking accidents is categorically protected — meaning unreasonable safety decisions are insulated from liability — or subject to accountability under traditional negligence principles, says Amanda Demanda at Amanda Demanda Injury Lawyers.

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Series

Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

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DLA Piper Partner Rejects Pregnant Atty's Account Of Firing

By Pete Brush

The DLA Piper partner who fired a pregnant associate said she did so lawfully, telling a Manhattan federal jury her former employee was "in over her head" and disputing that the associate raised pregnancy bias concerns on a termination call.

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6th Circ. Won't Revisit EFAA Ruling Against Adams & Reese

By Patrick Hoff

The Sixth Circuit said it won't reconsider its ruling that a law barring mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment cases kept a former Adams & Reese LLP paralegal's sex harassment and disability bias suit in court, concluding that the firm's objections were already considered.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen the owner of an oil tanker stuck in the Strait of Hormuz sued by an energy company and an insurer, law firm Boodle Hatfield LLP and two Serle Court barristers sued by a group of Winston Churchill's great-grandchildren, and Welsh Water hit with a fresh class action suit over polluted rivers.

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Calif. Atty Avoids Sanctions For Filing Bogus Citations With AI

By Matt Perez

A California attorney has avoided sanctions over his use of artificial intelligence for a filing in a civil rights case, which resulted in false citations.

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Another Gov't Atty From Vt. Joins Stris & Maher's Team

By Jack Rodgers

A former civil chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont has joined Stris & Maher LLP's practice as a partner, the firm announced Friday.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Other states might follow the lead of California and break with President Donald Trump's policies in implementing guardrails for state agencies to contract with AI companies. And after three individual indictments last month for selling banned tech to China, Supermicro has hired Munger Tolles & Olson LLP to conduct an independent investigation, assigned its general counsel to lead an internal compliance review, and shaken up its compliance leadership.

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NJ Justices Won't Review Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Cases

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court's order booting the Beasley Allen Law Firm from multicounty litigation in the Garden State over Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder, according to an order made public Friday.

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Conn. Justices Block Agency's Bias Probe Into Atty Licensing

By Brian Steele

Because citizens blocked the legislature from reviewing court decisions when ratifying the state's 1818 constitution, a Connecticut human rights agency has no power to investigate alleged bias in attorney licensing decisions, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday in a unanimous opinion.

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Airline Worker Asks To Expand Sanctions Row In Bias Case

By Emily Brill

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant who was fired after sending her union's president pictures of aborted fetuses is pushing for additional remedies in a sanctions dispute stemming from her long-running religious discrimination lawsuit against the airline, from which she received $800,000 after winning a jury trial in 2022.

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Trump Taps Personal Atty For 2nd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced on Friday evening he's tapping Matthew Schwartz, his attorney in the New York hush money case, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

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