Product Liability

  • July 18, 2025

    Suit Says Mazda's Sensors Missed Motorcyclist In Blind Spot

    Mazda Motor Corp. manufactured its CX-5 SUV with a defective blind spot monitoring system that failed to warn its driver that there was a motorcyclist in the lane he merged into, according to a lawsuit filed by a Pittsburgh-area family that claims the biker suffered life-altering injuries.

  • July 18, 2025

    Off The Bench: Latest NASCAR Win, Trans Athlete Fights Ban

    In this week's Off The Bench, Michael Jordan's racing team fails to bounce back right away from a tough defeat in its battle with NASCAR, a transgender woman fights a last-minute expulsion from a college women's track and field event, and a football player sees his window to playing an extra college season slammed shut by the NCAA and the Seventh Circuit.

  • July 18, 2025

    Cannabis And The Courts: A Midyear Litigation Review

    In the first half of 2025, lawsuits taking aim at state hemp restrictions, putative residency criteria in cannabis licensure programs and the federal policy that keeps users and convicted sellers of pot from lawfully owning guns were all briefed in multiple appellate courts across the country.

  • July 18, 2025

    Cannabis Edibles Maker Accused Of Hiding Prop. 65 Warnings

    A California resident is suing a Los Angeles cannabis-infused edibles maker, claiming its peel-back product labels deliberately hide the state-required Proposition 65 warning at the time of purchase, in the second private enforcement action filed by the plaintiff this year.

  • July 18, 2025

    Acreage And Verano Seek Dismissal Of THC Potency Suits

    Cannabis giants Acreage and Verano this week urged Illinois federal judges to dismiss a pair of putative consumer class actions alleging the companies sold products with unlawfully high levels of the psychoactive cannabinoid THC.

  • July 18, 2025

    2nd Circ. Shields Official From NRA's Free Speech Suit Again

    A Second Circuit panel has said National Rifle Association's First Amendment lawsuit cannot survive a motion to dismiss because the former New York official accused of pressuring financial institutions to cut ties with the organization has qualified immunity.

  • July 17, 2025

    FDA Signs Off On Juul E-Cig Products After 5-Year Review

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday gave Juul the green light to market five e-cigarette products, although the FDA noted that the long-awaited authorization "does not mean these tobacco products are safe, nor are they FDA-approved."

  • July 17, 2025

    FDA Warns Firms Over Illegal Kratom Product Marketing

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned seven companies — including a California company facing a proposed class action — that they are illegally marketing products containing a potent kratom-derived compound, in letters that indicate intensified federal scrutiny of the opioid-like supplement.

  • July 17, 2025

    Facebook Whistleblower Calls Meta Discovery A Smear Job

    Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on Thursday urged a California federal magistrate judge to limit Meta's discovery in multidistrict litigation over claims that social media is addictive and harmful to children's mental health, saying many of their requests are irrelevant and merely seek to smear her name.

  • July 17, 2025

    Exxon Can't Escape Suit Over Benzene-Related Death

    Exxon Mobil must face claims that its benzene-containing products caused a former gas station and industrial worker's fatal cancer, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, finding the statute of limitations on his widow's claims started when he was diagnosed and not when he was exposed to the chemicals.

  • July 17, 2025

    Tesla Driver In Fatal Crash Regularly Ignored Autopilot Alerts

    The Tesla driver who killed a woman in a crash in Florida Keys had regularly ignored warnings from the autopilot software to engage with the vehicle and would stop the car to reset the autopilot rather than drive without, a vehicle accident reconstruction expert told jurors Thursday.

  • July 17, 2025

    Norfolk Southern Blames Quarry For $2.1M Sinkhole Costs

    Norfolk Southern has sued the current and former owners of a Philadelphia-area quarry for more than $2.1 million, alleging Wednesday that their decades of mining operations opened up a sinkhole that caused a 2023 train derailment.

  • July 17, 2025

    Chevron, Syngenta Can't Get Paraquat Mass Tort Out Of Philly

    A Pennsylvania state judge called a request from Chevron and Syngenta to move several paraquat weedkiller cases out of the Philadelphia court's mass tort system for purported greener pastures "daft," defending the system as specifically designed for such litigation.

  • July 17, 2025

    Omaha Tribe Leads Nebraska In Cannabis Legalization Push

    The Omaha Tribe of Nebraska is now the first Indigenous nation in the state to legalize and regulate medical and recreational cannabis use on tribal lands, putting it ahead of the state currently embroiled in litigation over voter-approved ballot referendums on the issue.

  • July 17, 2025

    PE Firm Is Denied FDA Docs For Defense In Deal Challenge

    An Illinois federal court on Wednesday denied a request from private equity firm GTCR BC Holdings LLC to force the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to produce more than a decade's worth of medical device approval applications as the firm fights a merger challenge from enforcers.

  • July 17, 2025

    J&J Loses Bid To DQ Beasley Allen From Talc MDL Committee

    A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday denied Johnson & Johnson's bid to remove the Beasley Allen Law Firm from the plaintiffs steering committee in the multidistrict talc litigation but said that changes would be made to the committee's structure.

  • July 17, 2025

    Amazon Attys Jump To Crowell & Moring In San Francisco

    Crowell & Moring LLP has expanded its litigation resources in its San Francisco office with the addition of two former in-house attorneys for Amazon, who bring more than 30 years of combined experience to advise clients on product liability claims.

  • July 17, 2025

    US Bank, NetSpeed Must Help In Conn. Atty's ID Theft Probe

    A Connecticut state court judge has directed U.S. Bancorp and internet service provider NetSpeed to provide documentation to an attorney who is alleging his identity was stolen and used to open fraudulent bank accounts.

  • July 17, 2025

    6th Circ. Says Axed Expert Reports Doom Hip Implant Suit

    The Sixth Circuit has sided with a medical device maker in a lawsuit brought by a man who alleged a component of his hip implant was faulty due to a manufacturing defect, saying the lower court correctly excluded his experts for their lack of knowledge about the surgery or the company's manufacturing processes.

  • July 17, 2025

    Iowa Church Says DEA Can't 'Pocket Veto' Drug Exemption

    An Iowa church is asking the D.C. Circuit to force the Drug Enforcement Administration to rule on an application it filed more than six years ago for a religious exemption to use a psychedelic in its services, saying the DEA shouldn't be allowed to "pocket veto" the application and leave the church hanging.

  • July 16, 2025

    Expert Calls Tesla Autopilot Defective For Lack Of Geofencing

    An expert on autonomous systems told jurors Wednesday in a wrongful death suit over a fatal Florida Keys crash that Tesla's autopilot system is defective because the company allows the autopilot to be engaged on roads for which it is explicitly not designed.

  • July 16, 2025

    Hims & Hers Brass Face Suit Over 'Knockoff' Wegovy Sales

    Executives and directors of telehealth company Hims & Hers Health Inc. have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit in California federal court accusing them of allowing the company to exploit its now-terminated partnership with Novo Nordisk to sell "knockoff" versions of Novo's weight loss drug Wegovy,.

  • July 16, 2025

    Penske Tells 5th Circ. To Ax Freight Broker Negligence Case

    Trucking services giant Penske Logistics LLC and an affiliate told the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday that the family of a man killed in a 2018 Texas collision cannot revive their wrongful death suit seeking to hold Penske liable for negligently hiring the unsafe motor carrier that caused the accident.

  • July 16, 2025

    9th Circ. Tosses Atty-Farmer's Suit Over USDA Organic Label

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule allowing farm collectives in the U.S. and other countries to be certified as "organic" under one certificate and not inspected annually, tossing an attorney-turned-Oregon hazelnut farmer's suit alleging Turkish growers were defrauding the system.

  • July 16, 2025

    US Fights NY's Bid To Move Climate Superfund Suit Upstate

    The federal government is urging a Southern District of New York judge not to transfer its lawsuit challenging the state's climate change Superfund law to the Northern District, where it would join similar litigation filed by several Republican-led states.

Expert Analysis

  • Looking Back At 2024's Noteworthy State AG Litigation

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    State attorneys general across the U.S. took bold steps in 2024 to address unlawful activities by corporations in several areas, including privacy and data security, financial transparency, children's internet safety, and other overall consumer protection claims, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Opinion

    No, Litigation Funders Are Not 'Fleeing' The District Of Del.

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    A recent study claimed that litigation funders have “fled” Delaware federal court due to a standing order requiring disclosure of third-party financing, but responsible funders have no problem litigating in this jurisdiction, and many other factors could explain the decline in filings, say Will Freeman and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.

  • Liability Risk For AI In Medical Devices Demands Greater Care

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    As regulators push for legal reform surrounding artificial intelligence and cases implicating product liability for AI in medical technology continue to rise, manufacturers must adapt and implement new strategies to accommodate evolving risks, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • 5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2025 And Beyond

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    In the year to come, e-discovery will be shaped by new and emerging trends, from the adoption of artificial intelligence provisions in protective orders, to the proliferation of emojis as a source of evidence in contemporary litigation, say attorneys at Littler.

  • NY Plastic Pollution Verdict May Not Bode Well For Other Suits

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    The dismissal of New York state's public nuisance complaint against PepsiCo over pollution of the Buffalo River with the company's single use plastic bottles may not augur well for similar lawsuits filed by Baltimore and Los Angeles County, although tort law varies from state to state, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • Defense Strategies For Addressing Conspiracy-Minded Jurors

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    As conspiracy theories continue to proliferate and gain traction in the U.S., defense attorneys will need to consider ways to keep conspiracy-minded jurors from sitting on the jury, and to persuade them when this isn’t possible, say consultants at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • 7 Ways 2nd Trump Administration May Affect Partner Hiring

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    President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will likely have a number of downstream effects on partner hiring in the legal industry, from accelerated hiring timelines to increased vetting of prospective employees, say recruiters at Macrae.

  • Trump, Tariffs And Tech: The Right To Repair In 2025

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    The "right-to-repair" movement has helped make it easier for independent repair shops and consumers to repair their devices and vehicles — but President-elect Donald Trump's complicated relationship with Big Tech, and his advocacy for increased tariffs, make the immediate future of the movement uncertain, say attorneys at Carter Ledyard.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection

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    Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Opinion

    Section 230 Debates Will Continue, With Or Without TikTok

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    Regardless of whether TikTok is forced to shut down in the U.S. in the coming weeks, legal disputes will continue over social media platforms' responsibility under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for harms allegedly caused by content shared on their apps, says Carla Varriale-Barker at Segal McCambridge.

  • When Judging Product Label Claims, Follow The Asterisk

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    A recurring question in false advertising class actions is whether misleading or ambiguous statements on a product's front label can be cured by information on the back label — but recent decisions from the Ninth Circuit suggest that a front-label asterisk can help alert consumers to seek further clarification, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Complying With Seasonal Product Labeling Requirements

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    Though the holiday season is in the rearview, many seasonal alcohol products remain in the market, and producers should ensure that their labels comply with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's additional requirements for such products, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • How Trial Attys Can Wield Amended Federal Evidence Rules

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    Trial lawyers should assess recent amendments to four Federal Rules of Evidence and a newly enacted rule on illustrative aids to determine how to best use the rules to enhance pretrial discovery and trial strategy, says Stewart Edelstein, former litigation chair at Cohen & Wolf.

  • Series

    Exercising On My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While I originally came to the Peloton bike for exercise, one cycling instructor’s teachings have come to serve as a road map for practicing law thoughtfully and mindfully, which has opened opportunities for growth and change in my career, says Andrea Kirshenbaum at Littler.

  • 5 Drug And Device Developments That Shaped 2024

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    The last year saw significant legal developments affecting drug and device manufacturers, with landmark decisions and regulatory changes that require vigilance and agility from the industry, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

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