In December 2024, we reported on a City of St. Louis, Missouri jury verdict in favor of baby formula manufacturers in a lawsuit claiming their specialized infant formulas for premature babies caused an infant to develop...more
The inadmissibility of hearsay is well-established. “‘Hearsay’ is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at [a] trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” If...more
In Hemphill v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the defendant “did not forfeit his confrontation right merely by making [a] plea allocution arguably relevant to his theory of defense.” The Court rejected the attempt...more
Vermont Supreme Court offers guidance on admissibility of social media content - By now it is not particularly controversial that a litigant’s social media content is discoverable. See, e.g., Lewis v. Bellows Falls...more
Most experienced asbestos trial lawyers will shout, “Depositions live forever!,” suggesting that evidence produced in one case at one time and in one state may live to influence the outcome in many cases for decades to come....more
IN RE: IPR LICENSING, INC., - Before O’Malley, Newman, and Taranto. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Summary: Establishing a motivation to combine two references for an obviousness determination in an IPR...more
In Orange County Water District v. The Arnold Engineering Company (D070763), the Fourth Appellate District examined the criteria for evaluating the reasonableness of a parties’ denial of requests for admission (RFA’s) based...more
The Ninth Circuit’s decision not to grant en banc rehearing in Sali v. Corona Regional Medical Center should all but guarantee that the issue of expert testimony at the class certification stage is heading to the Supreme...more
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has lowered the bar when it comes to the type of evidence plaintiffs need to present in order to have their claims certified as a class action. The federal appeals court panel ruled that...more
In the spring of 2014 I tried a case to a jury in one of the circuit courts in the Richmond, VA metropolitan area. I represented a truck driver and his corporate entity in a lawsuit that had been filed against him by a young...more
The Tennessee Court of Appeals, in Anderson v. Poltorak, No. M2015-02523-COA-R3-CV, filed December 29, 2016, has held that, although the plaintiff’s three (3) convictions for child pornography strictly qualified under Rule...more
Just because you know what your excluded evidence would have shown does not mean that the trial court knows and, as importantly for appellate purposes, that the appellate court can glean from the record the substance of the...more
With a judgment handed down on 12 May 2016 (Case T-669/14, Trioplast Industrier AB v. European Commission), the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) dismissed an action brought by Trioplast Industrier AB (Trioplast...more
The Illinois Appellate Court recently affirmed a finding for a plaintiff individual, upholding the circuit court’s conclusion that defendant Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Sears) violated the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business...more
On October 28, 2015, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division Six, published its opinion in Margaret Batten v. Long Beach Memorial Hospital, B260916, in which it determined that a self-procured medical-legal report...more