Rising Star: Napoli Shkolnik's Maria Fleming

By Emily Field

At Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, Maria Fleming's work on leadership committees in the massive litigation over the opioid epidemic on behalf of Ohio counties hard-hit by addiction helped secure millions of dollars in settlements to abate the crisis and won her a place among the product liability attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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AGs Want Meta's Privilege Claims Reviewed In Bellwether Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

During a break in a jury trial Monday over states' claims Meta hid social media's harm, states' counsel urged a California federal judge to require Meta to re-review all of its attorney-client privilege designations, arguing that "it seems actually logically impossible" that Meta described the wrong standard in only a single document.  

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Instagram Wants Teen 'Sessions,' Not Time, Tenn. Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

Instagram's top data scientist told a Tennessee jury Monday that the company's goal is to increase the amount of "sessions" by teens, not their raw amount of time in the app, though he admitted the latter metric has been on the rise.

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Social Media Giants Denied Pause Of Calif. Kids Algorithm Law

By Emily Field

A California federal judge on Friday again refused to block the Golden State law that bars social media companies from using algorithmic feeds to deliver content to children without parents' consent, telling Meta, Google and TikTok that predictive algorithms that show "interesting" content aren't protected free speech.

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Galindo Law Files For Ch. 11 After Camp Lejeune Fee Fight

By Ben Zigterman

A Houston-based personal injury law firm sought bankruptcy relief on Monday with more than $50 million in liabilities after a mass tort litigation marketing company sued for over $9 million in fees related to finding potential victims of water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

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EPA, States Defend Cleanup Deal In Talc Co. Whittaker Ch. 11

By Clara Geoghegan

The government, joined by California and Montana, is defending a proposed settlement in former talc supplier Whittaker Clark's New Jersey Chapter 11 case, saying a group of personal injury creditors' objection mischaracterized the $16.5 million deal.

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DHS Must Face Bias Suit Over Candidate's Ayahuasca Use

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security can't escape a lawsuit alleging it unlawfully nixed an applicant's job offer because her religious practice includes consuming the psychoactive tea ayahuasca, a Florida federal judge ruled Friday, rejecting the agency's assertion that the court can't review its hiring decisions on national security grounds.

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Tribal Opioid Suits Against Sacklers Slated For $175M Exit

By Joyce Hanson

Dozens of Native American tribes have asked an Ohio federal court to dismiss their lawsuits against members of the Sackler family, which owns bankrupt opioid maker Purdue Pharma, based on a settlement agreement that will pay $175 million to the tribes over 16 years.

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'So What?': Albertsons Judge Skeptical Of Wash. Opioid Suit

By Ben Adlin

A Washington state judge considering Albertsons' mid-trial motion to dismiss allegations it fueled the state's opioid epidemic told lawyers for the state Monday that while they might have shown the pharmacy chain failed to implement an adequate monitoring system, she's still skeptical the company's conduct actually caused the overdose crisis.

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Taylor Farms Sued Over Tainted Lettuce At Chicago Taco Bell

By Celeste Bott

Taylor Farms failed to adequately test, inspect and safeguard iceberg lettuce later linked to a multistate Cyclospora outbreak, alleges a Chicago man who says he became seriously ill after eating the company's lettuce at Taco Bell.

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Pa. Court Backs Lowe's Win In Lawnmower Injury Suit

By Mike Curley

A Pennsylvania appeals court sided with Lowe's Home Centers LLC and MTD Products Inc. on Monday in a suit alleging a defective lawnmower caused a man's injuries when he slipped while mowing, finding that his failure to warn claim was doomed by his own admission he didn't read the posted warnings.

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Mass. Retailers Sue To Block Kratom Sales Emergency Ban

By Julie Manganis

Four Massachusetts store owners have asked a judge to find that the state's public health commissioner exceeded his authority with a one-year emergency ban on the sale of all kratom products set to take effect this week.

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Fiat Chrysler Brings Defective Headrest Suit To Justices

By Caroline Simson

Fiat Chrysler is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a circuit split over whether an arbitrator or a court should decide the proper venue for a dispute involving a nonsignatory to an arbitration agreement, in a proposed class action over allegedly defective Jeep and Dodge headrests.

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FCA, Parts Co. Say Seat Defect Claims Fall Short Of RICO

By Mike Curley

FCA US LLC and Lear Corp. are urging a Texas federal judge to throw out the latest complaint in a proposed class action alleging a defective seat height adjuster presents a danger in rear-end collisions, saying the fact that no plaintiff alleges this defect actually manifested dooms the suit and its racketeering claims.

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Residents Ask To Drop SpaceX From Data Center Noise Suit

By Isaac Monterose

A proposed class of Mississippi residents told a federal court that they are OK with SpaceX exiting their lawsuit, which accused a trio of companies led by Elon Musk of causing a public nuisance with the noise from power generators at three AI data centers.

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Interference Cross-Claims Tossed In Pot Sale Contract Suit

By Mike Curley

A Los Angeles judge has thrown out several interference cross-claims in a contract dispute over cannabis product distribution rights, finding that distributor Broadway Alliance hadn't sufficiently alleged that Stella Farms deliberately sabotaged its relationships with third parties.

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Calif. Takes Trump Admin Pipeline Fight To 9th Circ.

By Keith Goldberg

California has asked the Ninth Circuit to review a district court's rejection of its bid to block the Trump administration's reopening of a controversial coastal oil pipeline, which a judge said was a valid use of federal emergency authority under the Defense Production Act.

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NY Bill Would Boost Litigation Risk For Cosmetics Cos.

The Beauty Justice Act, now pending in the New York Legislature, would not only present compliance challenges for companies making cosmetics and personal care products, but could also be used by private plaintiffs to bring consumer fraud, false advertising, toxic exposure and product liability claims, says Kadeejah Kelly-Previl at Faegre Drinker.

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Legal Center Says DOJ Is Stonewalling Fund Records Request

By Jared Foretek

A voting rights nonprofit is accusing the U.S. Department of Justice of stonewalling a request for records on the Trump administration's attempted "anti-weaponization fund," claiming that the agency has spent the summer unlawfully ducking a Freedom of Information Act submission.

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Attys Ask Court To Toss Suit Alleging They Stole 1,000 Cases

By Spencer Brewer

Multiple attorneys asked a Texas federal court to toss claims that they conspired to hijack 1,000 cases filed by hurricane survivors who had hired and built cases with a different firm, claiming the firm that brought the suit failed to plead a viable RICO claim.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week saw a wave of lawsuits involving corporate oversight, take-private deals, financing transactions, bankruptcy fallout, stockholder voting rights and disputes over control.

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