Methylene chloride, also known as dirchloromethane [osha.gov], is a volatile, colorless liquid with a chloroform like odor. Historically, it has been used in various industrial processes, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing,…
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/ Environmental Law, Health, Toxic Torts
The use of special interrogatories given to juries to render verdicts has been said to be “admittedly fraught with many pitfalls in the potential conflicts between the general verdict and the interrogatories,” and is “nothing…
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/ Civil Procedure
On April 17, 2024, the EPA signed a final rule to designate PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund. The designation…
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/ Civil Procedure, Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
On March 18, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule to prohibit ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos. Chrysotile asbestos, also known as “white asbestos,” has several current uses, such as a…
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/ Administrative Law, Labor & Employment Law, Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
The risk of a large verdict has always been a major factor in any litigation. In recent years, the potential for a punitive damages instruction reaching a jury and a consequent verdict has grown as well.
US juries have not…
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/ Civil Procedure, Law Practice Products & Services
The recent decision by the Sixth Circuit in Hardwick and a review of the law from various jurisdictions supports the challenges that Plaintiffs face in proving standing for class certification in PFAS lawsuits. Late in 2023, the…
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/ Civil Procedure, Environmental Law, Personal Injury, Toxic Torts
Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings filed a lawsuit in late October against 14 defendant chemical companies for manufacturing and sale of fire-fighting foams that contained PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” used…
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/ Civil Procedure, Environmental Law, Toxic Torts, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
Reaffirming Delaware’s position on medical monitoring claims apart from its neighboring states, the Delaware Supreme Court answered a question certified to it by the Third Circuit ruling that there must be a manifestation of…
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/ Civil Procedure, Personal Injury
On Friday, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Albany County issued an Order that has effectively placed the long-anticipated rollout of New York’s legalized marijuana market on hold.
In Fiore v. New York State…
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/ Administrative Law, Business Organizations
THOUGH APPLIED RARELY, A RES IPSA INSTRUCTION ON A JURY CHARGE CAN SPELL DISASTER.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled recently that a trial court abused its discretion by including a res ipsa loquitur instruction on a jury charge…
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/ Civil Procedure, Personal Injury
For over a decade, talc litigation has been a staple of mass toxic tort practices around the country and persists today. For those who are unfamiliar, talc is a naturally occurring mineral rock mined from the Earth that can…
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/ Civil Remedies, Health, Toxic Torts
On Tuesday, June 27, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the highly anticipated opinion in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. (U.S. 2022) considering whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure
A more than $15 million award for noneconomic damages in a wrongful death suit prompted the Texas Supreme Court’s recent plurality opinion in Gregory v. Chohan, __ S.W.3d __, No. 21-0017, 2023 WL 4035886 (Tex. June 16, 2023)…
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/ Civil Procedure, Personal Injury
The Delaware Supreme Court heard arguments on June 14, 2023, on a question certified to it from the Third Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, as to whether medical monitoring claims can be made in Delaware without proof of any…
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/ Civil Procedure, Personal Injury, Toxic Torts
Earlier this year, the news was rampant with misleading stories that New York became the first state in the union to ban certain laundry detergents for containing 1,4-Dioxane after a third-party lab conducted testing on certain…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Environmental Law
