Down It Goes! Illinois Prejudgment Interest Struck Down – What To Do Now
5/31/22
By: Jonathan Schwartz and Patrick Eckler Judge Marcia Maras of the Circuit Court of Cook County struck down as violative of the Illinois state constitution, PA 102-0006, which permits prejudgment interest in personal injury and wrongful death cases. This ruling is of great significance for those with cases that predate the statute’s effective date, July…
Georgia Governor Reinstitutes Non-Party Apportionment
5/23/22
By: Sharon Horne and Sangeetha Krishnakumar Georgia’s “non-party fault statute,” codified at OCGA § 51-12-33, was passed by the state’s General Assembly as part of tort reform efforts in 2005. This statute provided for non-party apportionment as an option in applicable cases. The intent of this code section was, ostensibly, to allow the defendant to…
2/23/22
By: Michael Freed The Supreme Court of Georgia heard oral argument last week in General Motors LLC v. Buchanan. This highly watched appeal arose from a trial court’s denial of General Motors’s motion for protective order seeking to prevent its CEO from being deposed in a product liability case. The Court of Appeals of Georgia…
COVID afflicted cases have incubated long enough
2/10/22
By: Wayne S. Melnick and Carlos Fernández Recently, we examined one of the first rulings about the Georgia Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders and their effect on a case’s statute of limitations. In Owens, the Middle District of Georgia determined the addition of 122 days to every cases’ statute of limitations was “simply unreasonable.” The court’s…
1/28/22
By: Paul Piantino III, Esq., Kaitlyn Grajek, Esq. and Julia Bover, Esq. On December 31, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Act, (the “Act”). It takes effect immediately and applies to all pending civil actions in the State of New York. The Act amends CPLR 3101(f), a discovery…
Pennsylvania Superior Court clarifies standard for upholding exculpatory clauses
1/14/22
By: Sean Phelan In the recent case of Keystone Specialty Services Co. v. Ebaugh, No. 1289 WDA 2020 (Pa. Super. Nov. 22, 2021 Olson, J., Nichols, J., and Collins, J.) (Op. by Collins, J.), the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the entry of summary judgment in favor of landlord Defendants in a breach of contract and…
Purdue Pharma has potential to upend common channeling-and-release practice in bankruptcy courts
1/4/22
By: Travis Knobbe For the most part, the nuances of bankruptcy law go unnoticed by our colleagues who do not frequent the bankruptcy courts. Some issues we deal with, however, have broad application to the practice of law generally. Consider, for example, how a coverage attorney analyzing various claims filed against the manufacturer of an…
11/4/21
By: Edward Solensky Jr. In Jeter v. Sam’s Club, 2021 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 919 (App. Div. May 17, 2021), the New Jersey Appellate Division rejected a plaintiff’s argument that the trial court erred in ruling that the mode of operation doctrine did not apply to the facts of her case. Specifically, plaintiff contended defendant’s knowledge that…
Proposed amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702
11/2/21
By: Jacob E. Daly The federal judiciary’s Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules has proposed two significant amendments to Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which governs the admissibility of expert testimony. These amendments would change Rule 702 as follows (additions are underlined; deletions are lined through): A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge,…
5/17/21
By: Kevin Kenneally and William Gildea The United States District Court, District of Massachusetts (Hillman, J.), recently held that Plaintiffs must affirmatively plead and prove that there is a safer alternative product design in order to maintain defect claims against the product manufacturer. Ducat v. Ethicon, Inc., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72793 (D. Mass., April…
Wrongful Death Versus Survival In California
12/11/18
By: Matthew Jones There are many differences between a wrongful death action and a survival action. A wrongful death action may be filed by the personal representative of the decedent’s estate or the decedent’s surviving spouse/children. A survival action may be filed by the estate’s personal representative or the decedent’s successor-in-interest. The determination of whether…
Protecting In-House Correspondence from Disclosure: The Troublesome “CC”
11/28/18
By: Jake Carroll Commercial disputes present complex issues of causation—what caused the accident, who is responsible, what is impacting company revenue. But before the dispute even arises, in-house attorneys are frequently copied on correspondence with team members and employees evaluating and offering opinions on causation, performance, and potential costs. Then, when the dispute or accident…