Product Liability Law

Takata says up to 40M more air bags must be recalled; Hawaii sues on consumers’ behalf

Adding to the largest recall in U.S. auto safety history, Japanese manufacturer Takata Corp. on Monday said it was recalling an additional 14 million air bags in vehicles in this country because of defective inflators. The auto part manufacturer told Reuters that up to 40 million air bags would need…

May 18, 2016 10:30 AM CDT

State AG sues companies that bought structured settlements from lead-paint victims

The Maryland attorney general filed suit against Access Funding and other finance companies this week, contending that they had taken advantage of vulnerable victims of lead poisoning by purchasing their structured settlements at less than fair-market value. Intended to provide a steady stream of income over a period of years,…

May 13, 2016 1:30 PM CDT

Lawyer with reality star wife will have to produce net worth documents in misappropriation suit

Plaintiffs suing Los Angeles lawyer Thomas Girardi will get access to documents showing his personal net worth after arguing he made his finances a matter of public interest through his wife’s star turn on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. U.S. Magistrate Judge Frederick Mumm ruled Girardi will have to…

May 12, 2016 10:01 AM CDT

Fertilizer plant explosion and fire that killed 15 in Texas in 2013 was intentional, feds say

A 2013 explosion and fire at a Texas fertilizer plant that killed 15 people, injured some 300 more, leveled many of the surrounding buildings and sparked calls for regulatory reform was the result of an intentional act, federal officials say. After an extensive investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms…

May 11, 2016 3:05 PM CDT

Jury awards $55M to woman who claimed Johnson & Johnson talcum powder caused her cancer

A Missouri jury verdict of $72 million earlier this year in a landmark tort case blaming talcum powder for an Alabama woman’s ovarian cancer death wasn’t just a fluke. A second St. Louis jury on Monday awarded $55 million on Monday against Johnson & Johnson in another talcum powder case,…

May 3, 2016 2:15 PM CDT

Plaintiffs in California asbestos cases feel they’re being questioned to death

Grainy video shot last August shows 75-year-old Nader Kordestani lying in a padded recliner at his home in Calabasas, California, near Los Angeles. Off camera, a defense lawyer asks him whether it's true his health is failing.

Apr 1, 2016 3:20 AM CDT

In first GM ignition-switch case to go to verdict, jury awards zip, saying defect didn’t cause crash

Both sides proclaimed victory Wednesday after the first jury verdict in a General Motors ignition-switch case. That’s because the jury, while finding a 2007 Saturn Sky unreasonably dangerous because of an ignition-switch defect, also found that the defect did not cause the plaintiff driver to lose control on an icy…

Mar 30, 2016 3:20 PM CDT

Johnson & Johnson unit is settling cases over morcellators used in hysterectomies, lawyer says

A unit of Johnson & Johnson that sold laparoscopic power morcellators used to cut a woman’s uterus into small pieces that could be extracted through a tiny incision is settling cases over a number of hysterectomies, a plaintiff’s lawyer says. The problem is, if a woman has undetected cancer, the…

Mar 22, 2016 4:30 PM CDT

Court says state AG can’t retain private law firm to pursue possible case against opioid makers

New Hampshire’s attorney general can’t simply hire a private law firm to pursue a potential case against pharmaceutical companies that market opioids, unless the governor and state lawmakers agree, a state-court judge ruled last week. However, Attorney General Joe Foster is mulling a possible appeal and Gov. Maggie Hassan also…

Mar 17, 2016 3:05 PM CDT

St. Louis jury says J&J must pay $72M to family of dead woman in landmark talcum powder cancer case

The first case to go to trial among some 1,200 claims currently faced by Johnson & Johnson alleging a link between its talc-containing products and cancer obviously did not turn out the way the pharmaceutical giant would have wished. After three weeks of trial and five hours of deliberation, a…

Feb 23, 2016 2:15 PM CST

Self-driving cars will soon be street-legal, and California is getting a jump on regulating them

As any fan of rock ‘n’ roll’s hot rod genre can attest, cars have been an essential element of California culture for more than a century. So it’s only fitting that California is at the center of the growing movement to give cars, trucks and other motor vehicles the technology…

Feb 5, 2016 8:30 AM CST

New evidence of possible plaintiff fraud derails GM bellwether case; voluntary dismissal is filed

A real-estate agent who contacted General Motors last week has derailed a bellwether case against the automaker over an ignition switch defect. A notice of voluntary dismissal (PDF), with prejudice, was filed on Friday after GM sought to add the real-estate agent and a forensics technology expert as witnesses. The…

Jan 22, 2016 7:39 AM CST

‘Lion of the trial bar’ Joe Jamail dies at 90

Houston personal injury lawyer Joe Jamail, famous for his $10.5 billion judgment against Texaco in 1985, has died at the age of 90. Jamail represented Pennzoil in the case against Texaco, which alleged Texaco interfered with Pennzoil’s deal to buy part of Getty Oil, the New York Times reports. The…

Dec 28, 2015 7:09 AM CST

DLA Piper to close Tampa office

DLA Piper will close its Tampa, Florida, office early next year. The closing was confirmed in a prepared statement Tuesday from firm spokesman Josh Epstein, the Daily Business Review reports. The firm will transfer its Tampa lawyers and support staff to its Miami office, where it has excess space, the…

Dec 22, 2015 4:50 PM CST

NYC is sued over new salt-warning rule

New York City is being sued over a new rule requiring chain restaurants to put salt-shaker icons on menu items that contain high levels of salt. The National Restaurant Association suit, filed Thursday in state court in Manhattan, contends that city health regulators overstepped their legal bounds by enacting the…

Dec 4, 2015 5:05 PM CST