In Illinois federal court, United Airlines customers objected to the airline’s attempt to dismiss their suit with a claim that a force majeure event forced flight cancellations. The lead plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, initially filed in April 2020,…
In late October 2020, the Department of Justice filed claims against the technology giant, Google, alleging violations of antitrust laws. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses Google of unlawfully holding a…
A divided 11th Circuit Appellate Court recently ruled that incentive awards in class actions are unlawful. The ruling reverses a district court’s previous approval of a settlement agreement for Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC , including incentive fees for this…
Purdue Pharma, makers of opioid painkiller OxyContin, recently reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), pending the approval of the bankruptcy court. The agreement is an important step towards resolving a long legal battle over the drugmaker’s…
Hackers were able to access customer account information, including controlling trades and account funds. Given the sensitive information at stake and the delay in addressing the severity of the hack, the company could soon face lawsuits from impacted users and…
The first COVID-19 era jury trial in New Jersey stalled after the defense raised concerns about screening potential jurors via videoconference. But after review from the state appellate court, there was no issue found in the protocols used in the…
In late September 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit declined to embrace a novel form of settlement class known as a “negotiation class.” The class had been proposed as an attempt to consolidate opioid lawsuit settlement…
On September 30, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published answers to frequently asked questions concerning an employer’s obligation to report hospitalizations and fatalities resulting from work-related cases of COVID-19. Since the early days of the pandemic, OSHA…
In early October 2020, drugmakers Pfizer and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals were named in a pair of patent infringement lawsuits, filed in California and New York respectively, claiming the companies used patented technology in the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines and…
A Maryland plaintiff was stripped of a medical malpractice damages award of nearly $1 million after her expert witness was disqualified for failing to meet the requirements of Maryland Code 3-2A-04(b)(4). In an unreported opinion for Brenda Brown v. Falik…