Expert Analysis

• FDA Classification Setback Bodes Well For Wound Care Cos.

  

  A Georgia federal court's recent decision in MiMedx v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration constrains the FDA's analytical framework for classifying certain wound care products as biological products, carrying important ramifications for manufacturers seeking to avoid heightened regulatory requirements, say attorneys at Hyman Phelps.

• How AI Could Help Judges Spot Their Own Biases

  

  In close cases where there’s room for discretion, artificial intelligence could challenge judges’ implicit biases by running counterfactual tests at scale — but any judicial use of such tools would need guardrails, say Arnold Peter at Peter Law and Nancy Rapoport at University of Nevada.

• State Of Insurance: Q3 Notes From Pennsylvania

  

  Pennsylvania courts issued several noteworthy insurance decisions last quarter, offering practical guidance for insurers evaluating public policy coverage disputes, drafting umbrella policy language and defending litigation involving claim file discoverability, says Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey.

• NHTSA Vehicle Recorder Rule Highlights Crash Data Protocols

  

  An amended rule from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will soon require vehicle event data recorders to capture more information about crashes — but to turn that data into evidence, attorneys, claims professionals and fleet managers must properly obtain and preserve it after an incident occurs, says Andrew Haling at Pathway Law.

• How To ID And Respond To 5 Types Of Misleading Witnesses

  

  Witnesses can mislead fact-finders using a variety of tactics — from strategic amnesia to manufactured ignorance — but lawyers can learn how to identify and expose this testimony to come out on top, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.

• Online Presence Complicates Defamation's Public Figure Test

  

  Recent defamation cases demonstrate that online presence can affect how courts distinguish between public and private figures, so litigants should consider several questions when evaluating potential claims and defenses where public figure status may affect the litigation, such as whether there is a connection between the plaintiff's public activities and the alleged defamation, say attorneys at Brown Rudnick.

• Navigating Criminal Liability Under Calif. Worker Safety Law

  

  A new California law mandates agency investigation across several types of workplace safety incidents, eliminates prior discretion and imposes unprecedented parallel criminal investigations, but employers can take steps to manage the heightened enforcement risk, say Stacey Geis at Crowell & Moring and Karen Tynan at Ogletree.

• 3 Strategies To Reduce AI Sycophancy In Legal Work

  

  The tendency of generative artificial intelligence models to tell users what they want to hear can reinforce attorneys’ confirmation bias when testing the strength of arguments, and it can’t simply be prompted away — but a few practices can help mitigate it, says Michael Ott at Ice Miller.

• NFL Coverage Ruling Sets Limits On Long-Tail Claim Defenses

  

  A New York appellate court's recent decision — holding that National Football League players who sustained neurological injuries had suffered multiple occurrences for insurance coverage purposes — may also be used to limit insurers' efforts to declaim coverage for other long-tail injury cases, including sexual abuse claims, say attorneys at SDV Fenchurch.

• 2nd Circ. EFAA Ruling Shifts Employer Litigation Strategy

  

  In Diaz-Roa v. Hermes Law, the Second Circuit recently held that, under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, employers can't carve out nonharassment claims and send them to arbitration, which has implications for discovery, litigation costs and resolution strategy in EFAA-covered disputes, say attorneys at Krevolin Horst.

• How Viral Accusations Can Test Employers' Discipline Policies

  

  The employment fallout that appears to have followed a former Cornell University student's sexual assault lawsuit against seven fraternity members underscores that although employers often have freedom to fire employees over accusations, they must still make a defensible decision, says Michael Elkins at MLE Law.

• PFAS Ruling Extinguishes A Policyholder Path To Coverage

  

  Following an Ohio federal court's recent ruling in Fire-Dex v. Admiral Insurance, policyholders whose PFAS exposure is concentrated in workplace products will see bids for coverage fail under the occupational-disease exclusion, giving insurers a defense well suited for the category of claims that has been most resistant to pollution exclusions, say attorneys at Benesch.

• AG Watch: Minnesota Takes Action To Secure Child Safety

  

  Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has built one of the most aggressive and structurally coherent child protection enforcement programs in the country, targeting consumer-facing sectors that his office has concluded prey on minors, such as tobacco and nicotine, social media platforms, and artificial intelligence, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

• Series

  Being In The Peace Corps Made Me A Better Lawyer

  

  When I served in the Peace Corps, the people of the West African village where I was stationed helped me acclimate to my new surroundings and enabled me to develop problem-solving, teamwork and empathy skills that have bolstered my legal practice far beyond the ability to offer technical advice, says Brian Bewley at McGuireWoods.

• 5 Ways Trial Attys Can Build Mental Health Counseling Skills

  

  Studies demonstrate that many attorneys are not equipped to respond adequately to trauma exposure, but trial lawyers can build several key skills drawn from mental health counseling into their interactions with clients and colleagues, from cognitive reappraisal to boundary setting, says Alexandra Echsner-Rasmussen at Aylstock Witkin.