As of January 30, 2023, Governor Hochul vetoed the New York State Grieving Families Act, which would have overturned century-old law that bars plaintiffs in wrongful death suits from recovering damages to compensate them for...more
Harris Beach attorneys Abbie Eliasberg Fuchs, Bradley M. Wanner and Daniel R. Strecker review and analyze key judicial holdings and legal developments in New York, the federal arena and across the country that have affected...more
1/16/2023
/ Causation ,
Certiorari ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Daubert Standards ,
Discovery ,
Evidence ,
Expert Testimony ,
Foreign Corporations ,
Mass Tort Litigation ,
Nursing Homes ,
PA Supreme Court ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Popular ,
SCOTUS
Personal injury attorney, George Constantine, and orthopedic surgeon, Andrew Dowd, were convicted by a Manhattan federal jury on Friday, December 16, for knowingly profiting from a $31 million personal injury litigation scam....more
The overlap of social media, celebrity endorsement, and cryptocurrency have long been viewed as a potential breeding ground for regulatory and litigation liability. The proliferation of cryptocurrency and the lack of...more
On November 15, 2022, the CEO of FTX and various alleged celebrity endorsers were sued in Florida federal court by Edwin Garrison, an FTX investor. In the complaint, Garrison alleges that FTX engaged in the unlawful sale of a...more
On October 7, 2022, New York’s Appellate Division, Fourth Department issued its critical decision in Antonella Ruth v. Elderwood at Amherst, et al., CA 22-00069 regarding whether the repeal of the Emergency or Disaster...more
On August 18, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a bill amending Section 2801-d of New York’s Public Health Law to expressly provide the legal representative or estate of a nursing home resident the right to bring a...more
New York’s Litigation Coordinating Panel (the “Panel”) granted plaintiffs’ request to establish a coordinated proceeding for COVID-19 cases against nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and similar healthcare facilities....more
In Corby Kuciemba, et al. v. Victory Woodworks, Inc., the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the California Supreme Court to evaluate if employers have an enforceable legal duty to non-employees for non-employees’...more
The Second Department of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division issued two decisions in Phelps-Vachier v. Genovese Drug Stores, Inc. and Milazzo v. Best Mkt. on claims of spoliation of evidence.
Both Phelps...more
Mass tort defendants frequently defend lawsuits in venues like Los Angeles County, California, which are favored by plaintiff firms due to their plaintiff-favorable law and propensity for large verdicts. In a recent decision...more
New York’s Court of Appeals sided with defendants in three recent decisions in cases alleging violations of New York Labor Law Section 240(1). New York’s Labor Law maintains particularly high standards for defendants that are...more
The Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure unanimously approved several amendments on June 7, 2022, to clarify Federal Rule of Evidence 702—the federal standard for admissibility of expert testimony. See Daubert v....more
In the rapidly moving world of digital assets, specifically non-fungible tokens (NFTs), we begin to gain some clarity on their future. Creators and regulators alike have speculated about when and how NFTs will be regulated. A...more
When defending litigation in one state, mass tort defendants must consider other jurisdictions’ rules. For example, while some states generally prohibit a plaintiff from using a defendant’s discovery deposition as part of...more
At the beginning of 2022, New York state enacted the Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Act (“CIDA”), imposing significant new burdens on defendants in civil ligation. We outlined the original provisions of the law in an...more
A California appeals court permitted a Los Angeles County wrongful death lawsuit for COVID-19 “take-home” liability to proceed. The plaintiff claims that plaintiff’s employer’s negligence resulted in plaintiff’s transmitting...more
The New York State Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Act is now in effect. The Act amends CPLR 3101(f), governing disclosure of insurance policy information by defendants and similarly situated parties such as third-party...more
We previously wrote about a federal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation denying exclusion of Plaintiffs’ specific causation expert and granting Defendants’ motions for summary judgment in a toxic tort suit arising...more
Last year, Harris Beach wrote about a federal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation to deny Defendants’ motions for summary judgment in a toxic tort suit arising from occupational exposure to ortho-toluidine...more
An amendment to Rule 30(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”) that took effect on December 1, 2020 requires attorneys to meet-and-confer regarding the subject matters of an organization’s oral deposition....more
Causation is one of the most frequently litigated issues in asbestos litigation, and the Appellate Division, First Department's April 9, 2020 decision in Nemeth v. Brenntag, 2020 NY Slip. Op. 02261 (Apr. 9, 2020, 1st Dep’t)...more
A New York federal court recently issued a recommended decision denying Defendants’ motions for summary judgment in a toxic tort case involving workplace exposure to ortho-toluidine (“o-toluidine” or “OT”), an aromatic amine...more
In times of national public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers and distributors of products are often called to the frontlines of battle to create, supply, and administer the tools necessary to combat...more
The New York Court of Appeals has just erected “new and impossible barrier[s]” for defendants to obtain summary judgment in personal injury cases arising under New York’s Labor Law. On February 18, 2020, the Court of Appeals...more