Tylenol Maker Seeks 2nd Circ. Relook In Autism, ADHD Suits

By Rae Ann Varona

Tylenol maker Kenvue and several retailers have urged the Second Circuit to revisit its decision overturning a district court's exclusion of expert testimony for plaintiffs who claim prenatal exposure to the over-the-counter pain reliever causes autism and ADHD, saying the appeals court improperly restricted the trial court's "gatekeeping role."

Petition attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Attys Must Arbitrate $8 Oil To Fight $625K Sanction: 9th Circ.

By Jeff Overley

Class action lawyers slapped with six-figure sanctions for suing Walmart Inc. based on erroneous purchase information can't yet challenge the discipline, the Ninth Circuit ruled, suggesting they may first need to arbitrate grievances over an $8 bottle of avocado oil.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Abbott Can Move Baby Formula Death Suit Out Of Illinois

By Y. Peter Kang

An Illinois state appeals court on Friday ordered the dismissal of a product liability suit alleging Abbott Laboratories' Similac formula caused a premature Florida infant's fatal case of necrotizing enterocolitis, finding the case belongs in Florida rather than Chicago's Cook County.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

TikTok Let Minors See Harmful Content, Texas Judge Finds

By Jonathan Capriel

Texas scored significant wins in its lawsuit accusing TikTok of exposing children to harmful content while misrepresenting the app's safety, with a state judge ruling that the social media company violated state law by misleading consumers about its content-moderation practices and the effectiveness of its "restricted mode" feature.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Amazon Sued By Injured Survivor Of Fatal Miami Plane Crash

By David Minsky

An airline contractor on Friday sued Amazon and several others in Florida state court, alleging negligence for serious injuries he suffered in a fatal crash earlier this month in which a cargo plane skidded off the runway at Miami International Airport and hit his work van. 

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

3M Wants Conn. Firefighter PFAS Suit Moved To Different MDL

By Aaron Keller

3M Co. has asked to peel PFAS "forever chemicals" claims by Connecticut firefighter unions and several individuals away from a recently empaneled Minnesota multidistrict litigation containing claims by municipalities who purchased firefighting turnout gear, arguing the unions' and individuals' allegations instead belong in an ongoing South Carolina MDL.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Exploding Home Sauna Suit Clears Damages Concerns

By Jonathan Capriel

A New Jersey woman will get to proceed with her product liability lawsuit claiming an at-home sauna spontaneously exploded, after a federal judge accepted Friday her argument that a jury could award her tens of millions of dollars, so the amount in controversy would not fall below the statutory minimum.

3 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Qdoba Sued Over Jalapenos Tied To Salmonella Outbreak

By Gina Kim

Fast casual Mexican restaurant chain Qdoba and Coast Citrus Distributors were hit with a proposed negligence class action in California federal court Thursday by two customers who allege they fell ill after consuming food containing jalapeno peppers supplied by the defendants that they say were contaminated with salmonella. 

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Volvo Averts EV Defect Suit Over Kansas Buyers' NJ Claims

By Emily Field

A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday dismissed a proposed class action brought by a Kansas married couple alleging that the rear auto brake and dashboard drive display features in certain Volvo electric vehicles are defective, finding there's no connection to the Garden State aside from the automaker's corporate headquarters.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Lemonade Gets Final OK For $10.5M Data Breach Settlement

By Mike Curley

A New York federal judge has granted final approval to a $10.5 million settlement to end consolidated claims that Lemonade Inc. negligently exposed 190,000 people's driver's license numbers to cybercriminals.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DC Circ. Probes DOT Authority To Withhold Calif. Funds

By Jared Foretek

A panel of D.C. Circuit judges grilled a Trump administration attorney Friday over the U.S. Department of Transportation's move to slash California's federal highway funding because of the state's commercial driver's licensing rules for nondomiciled drivers, wondering whether the agency had any authority to take the drastic measure.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Solar Contractor, CBRE Unit Blamed In $1B LA Building Fire

By Gina Kim

Lineage Inc., which owns a massive cold-storage facility in Los Angeles that caught fire in June, has sued a commercial solar operator and a CBRE Group subsidiary in California state court, blaming the incident on their negligence in reenergizing a defective rooftop solar array before critical safety checks were completed. 

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NRC Targets Red Tape In Broad Overhaul Of Reactor Regs

By Keith Goldberg

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday unveiled a proposed overhaul of its nuclear reactor licensing and oversight regulations, the agency's latest step to implement an executive order directing it to refocus on encouraging new nuclear power development.

Proposed Rule attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Process Flaws Doom Group Home's $13.4M Death Appeal

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut assisted-living facility failed to preserve or brief several issues that underpinned its appeal of a $13.4 million judgment over the death of a resident, an appellate panel held Friday in upholding a trial court victory for the man's mother.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Retailers Must Navigate State Innocent-Seller Law Patchwork

States' innocent-seller statutes can shield nonmanufacturing retailers from product liability claims to varying degrees, and by building the evidentiary record strategically throughout discovery, companies can improve their chances of obtaining summary judgment — but it is essential to stay abreast of the rapidly evolving policy environment, say attorneys at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Attorneys Using AI May Have Ethical Duty To Redact Docs

The trajectory of legal ethics guidance in recent years strongly suggests that as redaction technology becomes more accessible, the failure to use it when uploading highly confidential materials into artificial intelligence tools will become increasingly difficult to defend as reasonable, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

What Trial Teams Should Know About AI Jury Research Tools

Using artificial intelligence for jury research is quickly becoming part of the litigation consulting landscape, and can be a useful part of a case assessment toolkit — but litigators must understand what these systems are built to measure, and what conclusions can reasonably be drawn from their output, say Bill Kanasky and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Greenberg Traurig, Eckert Seamans Hit By Data Breaches

By Ryan Boysen

Greenberg Traurig LLP and Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC have publicly revealed that they've been hit by data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents U.S. law firms have suffered this year.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Midterm Wins Could Help Dems Probe Trump's BigLaw Deals

By Courtney Bublé

If the Democrats take back one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, a big item on their oversight agenda will be to step up ongoing investigations of the deals that nine major law firms cut with the Trump administration last year.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trial Errors 'Crippled Goldstein's Defense,' 4th Circ. Hears

By Jeff Overley

Appellate luminary Tom Goldstein unveiled a sweeping and forceful critique aimed at erasing his felony fraud convictions, telling the Fourth Circuit that prosecutors were hell-bent on convicting him "no matter the facts or law," disregarded a star witness "incompetence" and benefited from a trial judge's "inexplicable" rulings.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

In-House Atty Org. Says Rival Ripped Off Data For AI Tool

By Andrea Keckley

The Association of Corporate Counsel alleges in Delaware federal court that its competitor used the nonprofit's proprietary materials to train its artificial intelligence tool Lloyd and "brazenly promoted its Lloyd product by showing the public that ACC materials could be accessed via Lloyd."

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Interview

ABA Cyber Task Force Co-Chair Eyes AI Education Boost

By Allison Grande

With the legal industry presenting a more and more enticing target for cyberattacks, it's becoming increasingly important for practitioners to know how to best protect clients' data and most effectively use emerging artificial intelligence tools — a task that the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force is well positioned to assist with, its incoming co-chair recently told Law360.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Personal Injury Firm Beats Atty's Bid For 'Birth Justice' TM

By Adam Lidgett

A former associate at a personal injury and medical malpractice law firm can't register in her own name a trademark for birth-injury legal services that she helped develop before and during her employment with the firm, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

AI is driving a significant gap between in-house legal departments' budgets and the cost of their workloads, according to a new study. Speaking of gaps, a new Law360 Pulse report on women in law found that men still make up 71% of law firm equity partners and 63% of nonequity partners. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Elias Law Group LLP and Stinson LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Missouri cannot use a newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »