Litigation

What Does It Take To Allege A Cause of Action In California State Court?

Posted on July 08, 2009
About six weeks ago, the US Supremes issued their pleading decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ___ U.S. ___ (May 18, 2009, No. 07-1015). The Wall Street Journal quotes those ubiquitous "legal experts" as saying Iqbal may be the most important...

New Article on MMSEA / MSP Compliance

Posted on July 07, 2009
The focus of this blog is usually California legal matters. However, because the issue seems so important to everyone in the product liability defense world (and the tort world in general), CalBizLit put up a post and a a white...

California: We May Be Broke, But We've Joined the Twenty-First Century

Posted on July 06, 2009
As I posted here two and one half years ago, despite California's status as the home of Silicon Valley, the birthplace of Google, Amazon.com, Intel, Yahoo, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, McAfee, Intuit, Symantic and scores of other companies that used silicon...

Still More Chemicals Up For Proposition 65 Listing

Posted on June 30, 2009
Now we all got a good chuckle over the Proposition 65 Cancer Identification Committee's recent action in listing marijuana smoke as a carcinogen (see: Proposition 65 Now Protects Stoners. As they say, however, "but seriously folks . . . ."...

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Cal Supremes Put Another Bullet in The Unfair Competition Law

Posted on June 29, 2009
In a post here last May, I talked about the California Supreme Court's decision in In Re Tobacco II Cases (2009) 46 Cal.4th 298, suggesting that in that decision, the Supremes might have enlarged the field of potential litigation under...

Proposition 65 Now Protects Stoners

Posted on June 21, 2009
Dude. Two and one half years of CalBizLit, and finally, our first marijuana story. I go away for a three day weekend and what happens? California's Cancer Identification Committee lists marijuana smoke as a carcinogen. Twelve months from now, look...

More on Removal -- Not Always Protection Against Big, Big Verdicts

Posted on June 18, 2009
I blogged last week on whether removal to Federal court was the best idea for defendants in product liability cases, the short version being, generally, yes. But it isn't a panacea. Pierson v. Ford Motor Co., 3:06-cv-06503-PJH was a crash-worthiness....

Well That Sure Didn't Take Long: OEHHA Adding 30 Chemicals To Proposition 65 List

Posted on June 17, 2009
CalBizLit blogged here and here about the suit by Sierra Club and others to force expansion of the Proposition 65 list of carcinogens and reproductive / developmental toxicants. As discussed, the Alameda County Superior Court ruled in April and May...

More Misuse of Discrimination Laws, Major League Baseball Division

Posted on June 15, 2009
Last November, CalBizLit reported here on an unreported appellate decision favoring the Los Angeles Angels involving Mothers Day mom's only give-aways. Short version: Angels give tote bags to moms on Mothers Day, lawyer with too much time on his hands...

Removal In Product Liability Cases -- Always A Good Idea?

Posted on June 11, 2009
Like about 42 kajillion other people, I'm a member of Linked-In. I'm also a member of a number of groups, including DRI and several groups dedicated to product liability issues. I'd just written a post on the "common wisdom" when...

Arbitration: Maybe The Common Wisdom Isn't Always So Wise

Posted on June 10, 2009
Here are some elements of the "common wisdom" about arbitration: Arbitration is good for defendants, bad for plaintiffs; This is particularly so in employment cases, where arbitration removes a case's "high-end" (i.e., "runaway") risk; It's better for defendants to have...

More About The Smelly Bentley: Court of Appeal Finds Trial Court Was Required to Impose Terminating Sanction For Discovery Abuses

Posted on June 09, 2009
Earlier today, I posted about the Court of Appeals' decision in Doppes v. Bentley Motors, Inc. (June 8, 2009) ___Cal.App.4th___ (GO39922), There, the Court held that the trial court had jurisdiction to award 7% pre-judgment interest in an action under...

Breaking News: Pre-trial Interest Awardable for Smelly Bentley Automobile

Posted on June 08, 2009
As CalBizLit has discussed previously, consumer warranties in California are governed by the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, California Civil Code section 1790 and following. The act requires manufacturers, or their California designees, to correct consumer product nonconformities within a reasonable...

Medicare Liens and Personal Injury Settlements -- What Every Insurer and Self-Insured Company Needs To Know

Posted on June 03, 2009
There is a sleeper issue out there involving Medicare liens in personal injury settlements. While it isn't a strictly California issue, it's going to have a big impact on the defense and settlement of some product liability and other personal...

Court of Appeals Affirms Exclusion of Junk Science In Mold Case

Posted on June 01, 2009
CalBizLit has lamented on many occasions the facts that (a) California is not a Daubert jurisdiction, and (b) even our version of the Frye test (known in these parts as the Kelly test) has limited application, being available only to...

Adams Nye MMSEA White Paper Coming Soon

Posted on May 31, 2009
The whole world of settling personal injury cases involving Medicare beneficiary plaintiffs is on the verge of getting turned on its head by the ?Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007,? known by the less-than mellifluous acronym ?MMSEA.? Stand...

Sierra Club v. Schwarzenegger / California Chamber of Commerce v. Schwarzenegger: Trial Court Orders ACGIH Reproductive Toxins Added to Proposition 65 List

Posted on May 27, 2009
CalBizLit blogged here on May 15 about the consolidated cases involving the Sierra Club and quite a number of other public interest organizations and unions, the California Chamber of Commerce and the State of California. The public interest organizations and...

Modesto Perchloroethylene Verdict: Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose, Sometimes You Win And You Lose

Posted on May 20, 2009
And I guess sometimes it's all a matter of perspective. There's been a five month mega-trial in SF Superior in a groundwater pollution case filed by the City of Modesto (in California's central valley) against Dow Chemical, PPG Industries and...

Cal Supremes Decide In Re Tobacco II Cases -- Major UCL Case

Posted on May 18, 2009
The decision in In Re Tobacco II Cases (May 17, 2009) ___Cal.4th___ (S147345) just hit the internets about ten minutes ago. CalBizLit won't have time for analysis for a few hours, but at first blush, the decision looks like a...

The UCL After In Re Tobacco II Cases -- Are We Right Back Where We Started?

Posted on May 18, 2009
Let's review briefly for those who haven't had the privilege of dancing in the UCL mosh pit: Long ago, there was California's Unfair Competition Law, or "UCL," which allowed any person to bring suit seeking an injunction or other equitable...

You Like The Proposition 65 List Now? Wait 'Til You See It With Still More Chemicals

Posted on May 15, 2009
Early this month, CalBizLit received a number of press releases concerning a Proposition 65 case in Alameda County Superior Court, generally stating as follows (from the NRDC's press release): The Alameda Superior Court has ruled that California?s landmark ?right-to-know? and...

Nine Votes. That's Nine Votes. On Every Question.

Posted on May 12, 2009
Unlike the federal courts, where verdicts must be unanimous, California courts require that in Civil cases, 3/4 of all jurors agree. That's Code of Civil Procedure section 618. In most cases of any consequence, we use "special verdicts" -- a...

This Just In: California Law Doesn't Allow Product Liability Claims By Plaintiffs With No Damages

Posted on May 08, 2009
Company manufactures product. Consumer buys, and uses, and gets intended result. Then, company recalls product from retailers (but not consumers) for failure to comply with standards (in this case, industry and FDA GMPs, or good manufacturing practices)...

Dole Banana Workers' Contempt Hearing Set For This Friday

Posted on May 07, 2009
Like practically every other California law blogger, I've put up a number of posts on the bizarre goings on in the Los Angeles Superior Court DBCP cases brought by supposed Nicaraguan banana plantation workers against Dole, many of which were...

When Can A Disqualified Class Representative Conduct Discovery To Find a Better Plaintiff? Muddy Waters Get Murkier

Posted on May 04, 2009
A recurring scenario in post-Proposition 64 Unfair Competition Law cases has been this: the plaintiff files a UCL case on behalf of all persons allegedly injured by the business practice in question; and it becomes clear that he or she...

"To A Reasonable Medical Certainty" -- Legal Standard, Or Urban Legend?

Posted on May 01, 2009
CalBizLit has been to tons of medical and other expert depositions where someone, usually a co-defendant counsel, has asked a series of questions along the lines of "Now Doctor, can you say to a reasonable medical certainty that . ....

Not Hard To See That Coming (Dole DEHP Litigation Department)

Posted on April 24, 2009
L.A. Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney dismisses two cases by Nicaraguan banana workers against Dole because of attorney misconduct. Per Bloomberg.com: ?What has occurred here is not just a fraud perpetrated on this court, but a blatant extortion of the...

Cal Supremes Dismiss Review in Buell-Wilson Mega-Dollars Case Against Ford

Posted on April 23, 2009
CalBizLit has followed this long strange trip here, here and, for a long summary of the procedural history, here. Short version: jury awards $122M in compensatories and $246M in punitives. Courts chip away at the verdict as it bounces up...

This Really Is Ridiculous

Posted on April 22, 2009
Although I usually represent defendants in tort, consumer and business litigation, CalBizLit.com is not a tort reform site. CalBizLit believes in the civil courts and the jury system. CalBizLit thinks that while there are occasional aberrant, and even shocking, results...

Dole Fraud Hearing Begins

Posted on April 22, 2009
I've blogged here and here about the Dole DBCP cases in Los Angeles. First, six Nicaraguan filed workers tagged the company for $3.2 million, claiming sterility from exposure to this nematocide while working in the fields. Plaintiffs were awareded punitive...

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