Michelin Owes $220M In Deadly Car Crash Suit

By Mike Curley

A New Mexico state jury has issued a $220 million verdict against Michelin North America Inc. in a suit alleging one of its tires was defective and led to a head-on collision that killed three members of a Texas family.

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Yale Hospital Hit With $32M Baby Formula Death Verdict

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut judge has hit Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital with a nearly $32 million verdict over the death of a premature baby, finding doctors failed to obtain either informed consent, or any consent, before feeding the infant a diet fortified by a product produced from cow's milk.

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Formula Suits An 'Undue Burden' On Cook County, Panel Says

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois appellate court Friday agreed with Abbott Laboratories that 23 lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn of important risks associated with infant formulas and caused premature babies to develop necrotizing enterocolitis should not have been filed in Cook County, where the infants at the center of those cases were not born and have never lived.

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Social Media MDL Judge Warns Attys Against Flooding Docket

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation over claims that social media is addictive warned counsel for the plaintiffs Monday that she'd sanction them if their 17,000 pages of exhibits they plan to submit in response to defendants' summary judgment motions "[litter] the docket with irrelevant documents."

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Groups Say Texas Food Labeling Law Must Be Blocked

By Mike Curley

A group of food industry associations are urging a Texas federal judge to block a section of the state's new Make Texas Healthy Again Act, saying the section is preempted by federal law because it requires them to put false and misleading information on the labels.

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Texas AG Says Sony, Other TV-Makers 'Watching You Back'

By Rae Ann Varona

The Texas attorney general Monday sued five television manufacturers, including Sony, Samsung and LG, claiming in new lawsuits filed in Texas state court that the companies "are watching you back" and unlawfully harvesting and selling viewers' data.

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Ohio Gov. To Designate Synthetic Kratom Extract Illegal Drug

By Jonathan Capriel

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is looking to immediately ban synthetic kratom compounds while simultaneously seeking to either ban or heavily regulate the active ingredient in "natural kratom," citing serious public health concerns.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Litigation in Delaware's Court of Chancery sprawled from a dispute over control of banana plantations along Africa's Congo River to a fight over the late musician Prince's estate last week. Along the way, a court ruling rejected a motion for a quick decision favoring Blue Bell Creameries director and officer calls for liability releases in a tainted ice cream saga that dates to 2015.

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Brief

Rust-Oleum Settles Misleading Paint Coverage Claims

By Celeste Bott

Paint manufacturer Rust-Oleum Corp. has agreed to resolve proposed class claims in Illinois federal court that were brought by customers who accused the paint manufacturer of misleading them by advertising its "2x" spray paint line as providing twice the coverage of other general-purpose paints.

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Sig Sauer Says Defect Plaintiff Intentionally Shot Himself

By Jonathan Capriel

It was careless trigger discipline after "a heated domestic dispute," not a defect, that caused a Kentucky man's P320 pistol to discharge into his leg, according to gunmaker Sig Sauer Inc., which urged a federal court to allow eyewitness testimony to be admitted into a products liability trial.

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Groups Challenge FERC's Texas Natural Gas Project Approval

By Elaine Briseño

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was hit with a lawsuit on Monday over its approval of a natural gas project in Texas, with the Sierra Club, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network and the city of Port Isabel, Texas, alleging the agency used a flawed analysis to assess the polluting effect of the project.

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Tapping Into Jurors' Moral Intuitions At Trial

Many jurors approach trials with foundational beliefs about fairness, harm and responsibility that shape how they view evidence and arguments, so attorneys must understand how to frame a case in a way that appeals to this type of moral reasoning, says Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

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Series

The Law Firm Merger Diaries: Integrating Practice Groups

Enacting unified leadership and consistent client service standards ensures law firm practice groups connect and collaborate around shared goals, turning a law firm merger into a platform for growth rather than a period of disruption, says Brian Catlett at Fennemore Craig.

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Former DLA Piper Associate Alleges Ex-Partner Raped Her

By Lynn LaRowe

A former Boston-based DLA Piper associate on Monday launched a state lawsuit alleging she was raped at the firm's Delaware office by a former partner purportedly known for heavy drinking and inappropriate workplace conduct toward female subordinates.

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Bonus Spotlight

Elsberg Baker Exceeds, Cohen Ziffer Matches Atty Bonuses

By Tracey Read

Trial boutique Elsberg Baker & Maruri PLLC announced Monday that its associates will earn up to $226,250 in extra cash this year.

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'Hardworking' 9th Circ. Senior Judge Sandra Ikuta Dies At 71

By Hailey Konnath

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta of the Ninth Circuit, who has been semi-retired since early November, died on Dec. 7 at the age of 71, exactly one month after assuming senior status, according to the Federal Judicial Center.

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ABA Flags AI Fears: Making Attys 'Worse At Their Jobs'

By Steven Lerner

The erosion of skills for junior associates, deepfakes as evidence in court and the lack of technical knowledge in law firms were among the top fears and challenges listed by the American Bar Association in a new report about artificial intelligence in the legal profession.

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Ex-US Attys Say Pardons, Loyalty Demands Hurt Rule Of Law

By Adrian Cruz

A bipartisan group of former U.S. attorneys spoke publicly Monday on their concerns regarding the direction the U.S. justice system has taken since the start of the second Trump administration and the potential risks that may pose to the rule of law.

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Arbitration Ruling Stands In Morgan & Morgan Class Action

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge said Monday she won't backtrack on her decision to send a malpractice lawsuit from a former client of Morgan & Morgan PA to arbitration, once again rejecting his arguments that his proposed class claims were exempt from an agreement to arbitrate disputes.

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Atty Seeks To Block Law Banning Fee-Sharing With ABS Firms

By Emily Sawicki

The attorney challenging a California law that blocks fee-sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonlawyers has petitioned for enforcement of the law to be suspended before it is set to go into effect on Jan. 1.

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Judge Won't Boot Bondi-Appointed Prosecutor In LA

By Emily Sawicki

A federal judge has refused to reconsider his ruling disqualifying Bill Essayli from holding the role of U.S. attorney but allowing him to serve as the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, finding that Essayli's appointment by U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi is valid.

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Judge Willing To Take 'Heat' For Blocking ICE Arrest, Jury Told

By Nate Beck

A Wisconsin judge was willing to "take the heat" for using a staff hallway to usher an unauthorized immigrant out of her courtroom, a federal jury heard Monday, as a defense attorney argued she can't be found guilty by association just because someone in her courtroom tried to flee immigration agents.

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