Product Liability

  • July 15, 2025

    Texas Cities Cite Gov't Immunity In Farmers' PFAS Suit

    Governmental entities led by Fort Worth submitted a brief to a Texas federal court Tuesday supporting their immunity in managing wastewater operations in connection with a proposed class action from farmers who claim their lands were contaminated by toxic chemicals.

  • July 15, 2025

    Monsanto Beats Roundup Suit After Expert Report Failure

    Monsanto Co. has defeated a Knoxville, Tennessee, resident's $5 million lawsuit that claimed his 30-year exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused him to develop cancer, after a federal judge ended the litigation due to the man's failure to provide an expert witness supporting his claim.

  • July 15, 2025

    Roku Attacks Mich. AG's Standing In Child Data Privacy Suit

    Michigan's attorney general lacks the authority to assert privacy claims on behalf of millions of Great Lakes State residents, Roku Inc. said Monday in a bid to narrow a lawsuit accusing the streaming platform of illegally collecting and sharing children's data.

  • July 15, 2025

    11th Circ. Says Big Rig Driver's Fire Risk Was 'Obvious'

    The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday upheld an early win for truck manufacturer Daimler Truck AG in a suit from a Georgia driver who was badly burned in a crash with a Daimler-manufactured truck, ruling that the "open and obvious" risk of a fire in a high-speed collision doomed his failure to warn claim.

  • July 15, 2025

    NYC's Suit Against Flavored E-Cig Sellers Can Continue

    A Manhattan federal judge on Monday rejected a bid by eight vape wholesalers to toss an action brought by New York City alleging the companies flooded the city with flavored e-cigarettes in violation of federal, state and local law.

  • July 15, 2025

    Ohio Justices Asked If Product Liability Law Covers Uber, Lyft

    An Ohio federal judge has asked the state's Supreme Court to weigh in on whether the Ohio Product Liability Act annuls claims against Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. over a car accident involving their apps even though those apps don't fit the definition of a "product."

  • July 15, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Risk Of Harm Justifies Disarming Pot User

    The Third Circuit has found that illegal drug users, including cannabis users, can be disarmed if their use is determined to increase the risk that they could pose a physical danger while possessing a gun, while finding that individual inquiry is necessary.

  • July 14, 2025

    Top Data Privacy & AI Developments Of 2025: Midyear Report

    The rise and rapid fall of a federal proposal to ban states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade and an uptick in activity from data privacy enforcers in states across the country dominated headlines in the first half of 2025, and attorneys are expecting these areas to continue to grab attention in the coming months. 

  • July 14, 2025

    Vape Groups Urge 4th Circ. To Stall NC E-Cigarette Law

    Vape interests are urging the Fourth Circuit to temporarily stop North Carolina officials from enforcing a law that could prevent the sale of many types of e-cigarettes in the state, claiming the statute was pushed by "Big Tobacco" company Reynolds American Inc. and targets products that help people quit smoking.

  • July 14, 2025

    Group Urges 11th Circ. To Ditch 'Radioactive' Mosaic Road

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should not have approved The Mosaic Co.'s request to use radioactive phosphogypsum in road construction at a Florida fertilizer facility, the Center for Biological Diversity told the Eleventh Circuit.

  • July 14, 2025

    Nipple Cover Co., Customer Agree To Drop False Ad Suit

    The woman behind a lawsuit accusing Cakes Body LLC of making reusable nipple covers that don't live up to their "grippy, not sticky" representations has quietly dropped her proposed class claims against the company in California federal court.

  • July 14, 2025

    Exxon's Climate Change Skepticism Is Protected, Court Told

    Exxon Mobil Corp. was engaging in "core political speech" protected by the First Amendment when it made public statements that Connecticut's attorney general has alleged misled consumers about its business practices' contribution to climate change, the company told a state court Monday.

  • July 14, 2025

    Fans Settle With NFL's Commanders In Railing Collapse Suit

    NFL fans suing the Washington Commanders for negligence over injuries they sustained from a collapsing stadium rail have reached a settlement with the team following a Fourth Circuit ruling that could have landed the plaintiffs in arbitration.

  • July 14, 2025

    Victim's Family Says Tesla 'Set Stage' For Fatal Fla. Crash

    The family of a woman killed in a Florida Keys crash told jurors Monday that Tesla Inc. "set the stage" for a reckless driver to plow into the woman's vehicle by overhyping its autopilot software's capabilities despite knowing of vulnerabilities in the program.

  • July 14, 2025

    Law Student Burned At Mass. Frat Party Sues Everclear Maker

    A Boston University exchange student who suffered third degree burns after 190-proof Everclear was poured near open fire at a fraternity party that created an explosive fireball sued the product's manufacturer in Massachusetts federal court Sunday, arguing it dangerously markets the product for wide range of uses near flammable sources.

  • July 14, 2025

    Insurer Seeks $1M Coverage Cap Over 175 Silica Suits

    An insurer for a manufacturer of countertops told a New York federal court that only one primary environmental liability policy it issued applies to roughly 175 lawsuits seeking damages for exposure to silica, pointing to "deemer provisions" relating to coverage for "progressive or indivisible" bodily injury.

  • July 14, 2025

    Feds Argue Trump's Energy Orders Should Not Be Blocked

    The federal government is fighting an effort to block President Donald Trump's fossil fuel-boosting executive orders that was filed by youths alleging U.S. energy policies harm their future by exacerbating climate change.

  • July 14, 2025

    Amazon Aims To Flush 'Greenwashing' Toilet Paper Suit

    Amazon.com Inc. is asking a Washington federal court to throw out a proposed class action alleging it "greenwashed" its toilet paper products by misleading consumers about the source of wood for the products, saying the plaintiffs can't read their subjective expectations into the labeling.

  • July 14, 2025

    Mazda Slams 'Frivolous' Filings In Tossed Oil Burning Suit

    Mazda Motor of America Inc. is threatening sanctions against the leader of a now-dismissed proposed class action alleging it sold vehicles with an oil burning defect, saying he is retreading since-debunked arguments and misstating facts in his bid to revive his case.

  • July 11, 2025

    6th Circ. Tosses Arbitration Denial In FCA Minivan Fire MDL

    A Michigan federal judge flubbed it when he denied Fiat Chrysler's bid to push into arbitration some of the plug-in hybrid minivan drivers who claim in multidistrict litigation that their vehicles could spontaneously explode, the Sixth Circuit ruled Thursday, saying the judge tipped the scales against the automaker by raising arguments the drivers hadn't mentioned.

  • July 11, 2025

    5th Circ. Cites Expert Errors In Rejecting BP Spill Sinus Claims

    The Fifth Circuit has ended a cleanup worker's toxic tort lawsuit against BP Exploration & Production Inc. claiming he suffered sinus issues from cleaning up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, saying his experts' testimony, some of which was riddled with errors, was properly ejected by the trial court.

  • July 11, 2025

    Ethiopian Airlines Case Settles '2 Minutes' Before Last Hearing

    A Chicago damages trial set for a man who lost his immediate family in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash can be taken off the books because his case settled "literally two minutes" before his final pretrial hearing, attorneys told an Illinois federal judge Friday.

  • July 11, 2025

    Courts Face Early Push To Expand Justices' Injunction Ruling

    In the two weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed federal judges' ability to issue universal injunctions, Trump administration attorneys have begun pushing to expand the decision's limits to other forms of relief used in regulatory challenges and class actions. So far, judges don't appear receptive to those efforts. 

  • July 11, 2025

    Cannabis Industry Group Praises Hemp Ban In Spending Bill

    A cannabis industry trade group has applauded a U.S. Senate committee's adoption of language in a federal appropriations bill that would ban consumable hemp-derived products with THC, while hemp industry stakeholders are seeking to use a one-year delay to amend a policy they say would kill the market.

  • July 11, 2025

    3rd Circ. Revives Benicar MDL Fees Suit Against NJ Law Firm

    The Third Circuit on Friday revived a proposed class action against Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman LLC attorneys that claims they took excessive fees from plaintiffs' settlements in multidistrict litigation over the blood pressure drug Benicar, remanding the dispute for the district court to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the case.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Opinion

    Aviation Watch: How Court Nixed Boeing Plea Deal Over DEI

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    A Texas federal court's rejection of the plea agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Boeing over the 737 Max aircraft gratuitously injected the court's views on diversity, equity and inclusion into a case that shouldn't have been a criminal matter in the first place, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Top 10 Legal Issues This Year For Transportation Industry GCs

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    General counsel must carefully consider numerous legal and policy challenges facing the automotive and transportation industry in the year to come, especially while navigating new technologies, regulations and global markets, says Francesco Liberatore at Squire Patton.

  • Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

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    Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Consultants Should Be Aware Of DOJ's Potential New Reach

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent first-of-its-kind settlement with McKinsey & Co. indicates not only the DOJ's more aggressive stance toward businesses' potential criminal wrongdoings, but also the benefits of self-disclosure and cooperation when wrongdoing becomes apparent, says Dom Caamano at Kibler Fowler.

  • Product Safety Issues In 2024 Highlight Need For Vigilance

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    A look at some of the medications and foods that led to significant class actions last year demonstrates the need for robust regulatory systems and proactive measures to protect consumers from defective and harmful products, says Jennifer Taylor at the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin.

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