WHO 'Changed The Rule' To Find Talc-Cancer Link, Jury Told

By Craig Clough

A Johns Hopkins epidemiologist told a California jury Thursday considering bellwether claims that Johnson & Johnson's talc products caused deadly ovarian cancer in three women that a World Health Organization agency's recent reclassification of talc as being probably carcinogenic only came about because it "changed the rule" over what evidence it considered.

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Roundup

Recall Recap: Steamer Burns, Grill Brush Wires

By Emily Field

In the inaugural Recall Recap, Law360 takes a look at suits that have been filed so far this year over recently recalled products, including several suits over millions of Weber grill brushes recalled for wires that can come loose during use — and in one case, got stuck in a man's pancreas. Other recall-related actions include suits over Bissell and another brand of household steam cleaners and an air bag safety defect in Honda Odysseys.

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J&J Gets Trial Win In Oklahoma Talc Mesothelioma Case

By Mike Curley

An Oklahoma jury has cleared Johnson & Johnson in a suit from a woman who alleged that she contracted mesothelioma because she was exposed to asbestos-containing talc products made by the company and its affiliates.

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3M, DuPont Lose PFAS Forum-Shopping Sanctions Bid

By Hailey Konnath

A Montana federal judge Thursday declined to sanction Connecticut municipalities for moving firefighter turnout gear PFAS claims to his jurisdiction after roughly two years of litigation on the East Coast, ruling that consolidation of the claims "regardless of district" is "beneficial to all parties."

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Freight Brokers, Uber Lose Key Cases

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's green light of negligent hiring claims against freight brokers in highway crash cases and an adverse verdict against Uber in the sexual assault multidistrict litigation lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Justices Urged To Probe Post-Mallory Forum-Shopping Flood

By Linda Chiem

Legal advocates said Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Mallory ruling unleashed a wave of forum-shopping by plaintiffs lawyers using states' business-registration laws to sue out-of-state companies, and that the justices should take up the case again to stop litigants from unconstitutionally interfering with interstate commerce.

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Illinois Nears Frontier AI Safety Law With Audit Mandate

By Rae Ann Varona

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is set to sign into law a landmark bill requiring artificial intelligence developers to undergo annual third-party audits and provide transparency reports, the governor announced on social media Wednesday, the same day the bill received a unanimous vote in the Illinois House of Representatives.

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FCA Seeks High Court Review Of 9th Circ. Arbitration Loss

By Caroline Simson

Fiat Chrysler will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision refusing to send a class action over allegedly defective Jeep and Dodge headrests to arbitration, saying the justices must resolve whether a court or an arbitrator determines if a nonsignatory can enforce an arbitration clause.

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Wash. Tribes, River Group Fight FERC Hydro License

By Joyce Hanson

The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and nonprofit Columbia Riverkeeper have each sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the Ninth Circuit over the agency's issuance of a license for a hydroelectric project license.

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5th Circ. Won't Rehear Deepwater Prostate Cancer Suit

By Mike Curley

The Fifth Circuit has denied an en banc rehearing of a worker's toxic tort suit against BP Exploration & Production over prostate cancer he alleges he developed because of exposure to crude oil during cleanup of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.

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NC AG Can't Litigate Environmental Case, Biz Groups Say

By Abigail Harrison

The North Carolina Supreme Court should step in to prevent Attorney General Jeff Jackson from enacting his own policy vision — and subordinating agency regulation — through his ill-conceived environmental lawsuit, according to an amicus brief.

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CFTC Seeks To Join Kalshi Fight Over Rhode Island Ban

By David Steele

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked a Rhode Island federal judge to join Kalshi in its suit against the state of Rhode Island on Thursday, extending the commission's campaign to assert its regulatory authority over prediction markets.

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Series

Studying Foreign Languages Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Studying Italian and Japanese has shown me that learning a new language can benefit a legal career in several ways, including by demonstrating the importance of approaching problems from a fresh perspective and the value of practicing patience with colleagues and clients, says Anna King at Genworth Financial.

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Florida High Court Adopts AI Policy For Lawyers

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday amended the state's rules to require those filing court documents to check any artificial intelligence-generated content for accuracy, and allow for sanctions if the content contains errors.

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Goldstein Says Bad Jury Instructions Warrant New Trial

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein said that the prosecutors who convicted him on 12 tax and mortgage fraud charges in February are now contradicting arguments they made at the end of his trial in their attempt to deny him a bench acquittal or new trial.

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King & Spalding Blocked From Exiting $300M Fraud Lawsuit

By Brian Steele

King & Spalding LLP and Lennon Murphy & Phillips LLC can't withdraw from representing clients in consolidated litigation over an alleged $300 million stock swindle, a Connecticut state court judge has ruled, saying the firms' motions ahead of a June trial lack good cause.

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Fla. Court Refers Atty To Bar Over Bogus Case Citations

By Madison Arnold

A Florida state appeals court has referred an appellant's attorney to the state's bar for disciplinary proceedings after filing a petition that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence and "raises frivolous arguments, misstates the law, and cites non-existent case law."

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Parents Demand 'Bad Faith' Sanctions In Camp Mystic Case

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic in Texas' Hill Country should be sanctioned over "bad faith" conduct in litigation over flooding deaths last summer, including purported misrepresentations to courts and regulators and an alleged remark by one of its attorneys to a plaintiffs' lawyer that he would "burn in hell," a state court has been told.

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Trump Considers Tech Entrepreneur For DOJ Grants Post

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump appears poised to nominate a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur for a top U.S. Department of Justice post that oversees grants and criminal justice programs.

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Dem Sens. Ask DOJ To Preserve Trump-IRS Settlement Docs

By Jack McLoone

Two Democratic Senate leaders asked the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve any records related to the settlement of President Donald Trump's suit against the IRS in a letter published Thursday, signaling that further investigations may be coming.

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Ex-Fla. Chief Justice Fred Lewis Dies At 78

By Carolina Bolado

Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, who spent two decades on the bench of the Florida Supreme Court, has died at 78, the court announced Thursday.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Gupta Wessler's Deepak Gupta

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

In the decade and a half since starting his own firm, Deepak Gupta has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has won matters in state high courts from coast to coast, and has become a mainstay in federal appellate courts while building his plaintiff-side litigation boutique into a sought-after juggernaut.

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