WASHINGTON – In the latest annual report of “Judicial Hellholes” released today by the American Tort Reform Association, Pennsylvania courts have taken the No. 1 ranking for the second consecutive year – due to high-dollar mass tort verdicts, expanding medical liability litigation and a lower reliability standard for expert witness evidence, among other issues.
MEDIA (Legal Newsline) - Drug distributors facing about 50 opioid lawsuits in Pennsylvania have asked the judge overseeing the litigation to order sanctions against plaintiffs for repeatedly refusing to honor deadlines to turn over evidence including information about how state and local governments have handled the opioid crisis they blame on the drug industry.
HARRISBURG – A landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the concept of specific jurisdiction in 2017 did not guide the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, when it affirmed a $12.85 million damages award in a pelvic mesh injury matter against a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary.
PITTSBURGH – A Pittsburgh attorney says that a recent decision in a Louisiana federal court has resurrected the potential for defendants facing litigation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to claim that the law is unconstitutional in its entirety.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a ruling which will permit Pennsylvania to count mail-in ballots submitted up to three days after Election Day on Nov. 3, in a deadlocked decision of 4-4.
The Navient Corporation blasted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in an Aug. 18 legal filing, claiming the federal agency’s lawsuit against the company “suffers from a basic failure of proof.”
PHILADELPHIA – Bayer Pharmaceuticals announced Thursday that it agreed to pay $1.6 billion to settle almost all litigation in the United States based upon claims that its Essure birth control tool injured women who used it.
WASHINGTON – According to one Washington observer, the Philadelphia-based American Law Institute needs to remain true to its mission of distilling and clarifying law, or else strongly consider whether it is appropriate to have judges as members of its ranks.
PHILADELPHIA – Oral arguments in the extended standoff between the Sherwin-Williams Company and a Pennsylvania county hoping to use private lawyers to sue it over lead paint will take place today before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
SCRANTON – The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is fighting an order that would allow one of its former staffers to testify against it in Pennsylvania federal court.
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Legislation clarifying that the American Law Institute’s controversial insurance liability Restatement does not constitute law or public policy if it conflicts with established federal, state or case law overwhelmingly passed in Kentucky but was vetoed Tuesday by Gov. Andy Beshear.
PHILADELPHIA – Legislation stating the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of Liability Insurance does not constitute law or public policy if it conflicts with established federal, state or case law recently passed in the states of Utah and Kentucky.
PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia-based American Law Institute continues its work on a Restatement meant to give legal clarity to the arena of consumer contracts - a project that has been put on the back-burner and serves as a "litmus test" as to how the influential group will be perceived, a member says.
PHILADELPHIA – Recorded conversations prove a Pennsylvania man who has filed dozens of lawsuits is intentionally taking advantage of a federal law to extort settlements from defendants, says one of the companies he has targeted.
PHILADELPHIA – According to a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, public nuisance cases filed by two Pennsylvania counties against manufacturers who provided lead-containing paint for use in housing developments were properly remanded to state court for a lack of jurisdiction.
HARRISBURG – According to a new ruling from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the state’s Fair Share Act is not supposed to apply strict liability lawsuits such as asbestos cases, so verdicts will be evenly divided among multiple defendants rather than split according to the percentage each defendant is found liable.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has concurred with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in ruling that abiding by state and federal design standards for aircraft components without federal pre-emption is permissible.
PHILADELPHIA – After a Philadelphia jury rendered a staggering $8 billion punitive damages verdict at the end of a recent trial surrounding anti-psychotic drug Risperdal in October, the judge who presided over the trial reduced the verdict to $6.8 million on Friday.
