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April 08, 2026
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah federal judge ruled that an expert retained by a woman suing her doctor and his medical group for medical malpractice during her pregnancy that she alleges resulted in brain injuries to her child may opine on standards of care but is unqualified to offer an opinion on what caused those injuries; the judge also denied a separate motion to exclude testimony from three other experts on the costs to care for the child after finding that any late disclosures of evidence regarding those costs are unprejudicial and do not warrant exclusion.
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April 08, 2026
DETROIT — A Michigan federal judge agreed to grant the United States summary judgment in a personal injury case stemming from a vehicle accident with a mail truck after finding that the man’s claims are impermissible under the Michigan’s No-Fault Act and that testimony from his expert is inadmissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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April 03, 2026
SEATTLE — A commercial automobile insurer on April 2 voluntarily dismissed DoorDash Inc. from the insurer’s lawsuit asking a Washington federal court to declare that it has no duty to defend or indemnify for an underlying wrongful death action alleging that its insured fatally shot a man while he was driving his vehicle as a paid delivery driver, noting that DoorDash has stipulated that it is not a covered entity under the Allstate policy.
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April 02, 2026
DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan has granted the U.S. government permission to file an interlocutory appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the lower court’s denial of the government’s motion to dismiss the Flint water crisisFederal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit pursuant to the discretionary function exception (DFE) related to sovereign immunity. The judge also gave the government permission to appeal a separate ruling denying its bid to dismiss the case under the FTCA’s private liability requirement related to what is called the Good Samaritan doctrine, saying that immediate appellate court review is appropriate.
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March 30, 2026
BOSTON — The widow of a smoker who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and esophageal cancer filed a first amended complaint in Massachusetts federal court against two tobacco companies and two retail companies after previously stipulating to dismissal of another tobacco company, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful death and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
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March 26, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California state court jury on March 25 returned a verdict ordering Meta Platforms Inc. and YouTube LLC to pay $6 million in damages, comprising $3 million in compensatory damages and $2.1 million in punitive damages against Meta and $900,000 against YouTube, in a suit alleging that the social media platforms “breached their duty” to the plaintiff by failing to warn of “the risks associated with using the platforms” that led to “addiction.”
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March 26, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A U.S. magistrate judge in Kansas on March 25 amended a protective order governing the use of AI tools in chemical injury litigation, stating that any party that wishes to use an AI tool in connection with discovery materials must, prior to using the tool, provide written notice of its intent to use the tool because submission of discovery materials to an open AI tool may violate U.S. data privacy laws as well as strict disclosure rules under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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March 23, 2026
GULFPORT, Miss. — An eye doctor retained as an expert for a woman who says she was injured after falling inside a Hobby Lobby store can testify on what caused an eye injury and future treatments that are needed because her testimony meets the admissibility standards under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Mississippi federal judge ruled March 20.
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March 23, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Several individuals whose family members were treated during the COVID-19 pandemic with and allegedly died as a direct result of certain countermeasures such as hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin on March 20 filed a notice of appeal in a Washington federal court seeking review by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the lower court’s ruling that the family members had not plausibly alleged that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was applying an incorrect standard for eligibility for Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program (CICP) benefits.
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March 20, 2026
JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi appeals court found that a lower court properly awarded a driver and his employer summary judgment in a negligence case after finding that the conclusions reached by an expert retained by the estate of a woman killed in a car accident were speculative.
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March 20, 2026
ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Supreme Court found that a trial court did not err in sustaining a forklift manufacturer’s summary judgment motion because the court did not abuse its discretion in finding that an expert retained by a man who claims that he was injured by the machine was properly excluded as inadmissible, disagreeing with a divided lower appellate court that found that the expert’s exclusion was an error.
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March 18, 2026
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge declined to exclude dueling accident reconstruction experts in a pending bench trial because each expert meets the admissibility standards under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. and the judge can address specific concerns during the trial.
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March 18, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge set an initial status conference in a case brought by a smoker with lung cancer and her husband against three tobacco companies and a local retailer for allegedly causing her addiction to cigarettes, which the tobacco companies recently removed to federal court on the grounds that the retailer was fraudulently joined.
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March 17, 2026
DETROIT — An economic expert retained by the estate of a man who died while incarcerated can testify as to the loss of the man’s future financial support and loss of his household services but cannot opine on the family’s entitlement to the loss of his future earning capacity, a Michigan federal judge ruled.
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March 16, 2026
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge agreed that testimony from experts retained by a man who claims that he was injured when he fell while loading his belongings into a trailer does not meet the admissibility standards under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993).
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March 13, 2026
BOSTON — A Massachusetts Appeals Court panel on March 13 vacated due to improper jury instructions a state court jury’s defense verdict rejecting all claims against a tobacco company brought by the widower of a smoker who started smoking around age 10 and died at age 65 from lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
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March 12, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The Judicial Council of California agreed to coordinated proceedings of an initial batch of 10 actions against ChatGPT alleging product liability and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
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March 12, 2026
SAN DIEGO — Parties involved in a multidistrict litigation of cases that allege that chemotherapy ports were defective and caused a multitude of injuries agreed to which type of cases will be selected for bellwether cases, according to a joint statement filed in a California federal court.
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March 11, 2026
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana federal judge on March 10 denied a liquor liability insurer and a bar owner insured’s stipulation to dismiss with prejudice the insurer’s lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying negligence action arising from a fatal shooting at the insured’s bar, noting that to the extent the parties seek to dismiss the insured’s appeal of the judge’s grant of the insurer’s motion for summary judgment, they must seek relief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 11, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A woman’s California unfair competition law (UCL) action alleging that interactions with ChatGPT led to a murder-suicide threatens to waste court resources and produce piecemeal litigation duplicative of a recently consolidated state court action, OpenAI entities say in a March 10 motion urging the federal court to dismiss the case or stay it while the state court suit proceeds.
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March 11, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Four adults representing seven minor bellwether plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the U.S. government over groundwater contamination from a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base filed their opening brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging a $598,633.15 damages judgment won by all 17 bellwether plaintiffs in the litigation. The appellants say that they seek “correction of clear doctrinal and analytical error” and that the appeal is not “a quarrel over dollars.”
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March 10, 2026
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — The same day a liquor liability insurer told a Montana federal court that a bar owner insured fully satisfied a judgment including a $160,088 attorney fees award, the parties on March 9 filed a stipulation to dismiss with prejudice the insurer’s lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying negligence action arising from a fatal shooting at the insured’s bar.
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March 10, 2026
LAS VEGAS — A split Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the award of fees by a lower court after a jury awarded damages in a case arising from a head-on car crash, finding that though a pretrial offer listed nonparties as defendants, it was clear that the pretrial offer was for the defendant/appellant.
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March 09, 2026
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge ruled that experts retained by a woman who fell in a resort’s parking lot can testify about her projected future economic losses, rejecting efforts by the resort to find their testimony inadmissible.
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March 09, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — An equipment rental company has reached a confidential settlement with the parents of two brothers who were killed when an aerial lift used to repair cell phone towers tipped over; the agreement came a week after a judge in a Delaware state court denied motions for summary judgment filed by the other defendants and ruled that an expert on conscious pain and suffering could testify.