“While the number of cars on the road has steadily increased over the past several decades, the rate of fatal accidents has gone down significantly. In large part, this decrease is due to advancements in life-saving technology, most notably, airbags,” writes Richard P. Console, Jr. in The National Law Review.

“According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), between 1987 and 2017, airbags saved over 50,000 lives. Of course, airbags are only effective when they work correctly. While there are several reasons why an airbag may not deploy, the most common reason is that the airbag was defective.”

“If a driver or passenger is injured in a motor vehicle accident in which the airbag did not deploy, they may be entitled to monetary compensation through various sources. Of course, if another driver caused the accident, an accident victim can pursue a claim against that party. However, there may be other claims, as well. One often overlooked claim is a product liability claim against the manufacturer of the vehicle or the manufacturer of the airbag, or both.”

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“Daimler said on Thursday it has reached agreements costing nearly $3 billion to settle civil investigations by U.S. regulators and lawsuits from vehicle owners stemming from a long-running probe into software to cheat diesel emissions tests,” report David Shepardson and Emma Thomasson in Reuters Environment.

“The settlements in principle address civil and environmental claims tied to 250,000 U.S. diesel passenger cars and vans in the United States and include claims from the Environmental Protection Agency, Justice Department, California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Attorney General’s Office.”

“The German carmaker said it expects the costs of the settlements with U.S. authorities will total $1.5 billion, settling with owners will cost about $700 million and ‘further expenses of a mid three-digit-million EUR (euro) amount to fulfill requirements of the settlements.'”

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“As employees increasingly transition back into the physical workplace, employers have begun to grapple with whether and how to deploy COVID-19 diagnostic testing as a return-to-work solution. Many employers want to avoid extended employee quarantine or isolation requirements that prevent their employees from returning to the office for weeks and disrupt their operations. But is this potential solution legal? And is it effective?” ask Danielle M. Bereznay, Michael S. Arnold, Corbin Carter in Mintz’ Insights Center.

In this post they discuss practical considerations for employers to consider for a return to work COVID-19 testing strategy.

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“Bayer recently announced its intent to settle all Roundup, dicamba drift and Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) water litigation cases between $10.1 and $10.9 billion. The company says this settlement is not an admission of fault, but rather a cost-effective way to end the ‘distraction,’ reports Sonja Begemann in AG Web’s Business.

“The decision to resolve these cases was driven by our desire to bring greater certainty to the farmers we serve every day,” says Liam Condon, Bayer president of the crop science division.”

“These, and all our products, bring to growers and other users around the world the ability to help them economically and sustainably produce a healthy crop.”

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“Class actions present significant risk, because a certified class exposes a class defendant to class-wide liability,” warns James Bogan III of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP in JD Supra.

“Most defendants agree to settle rather than face the risk of a class verdict. But sometimes a class defendant will roll the dice, hoping it will prevail either at trial or on appeal. In a recent case, Bahamas Surgery Center, LLC v. Kimberly-Clark Corporation, …, the class defendants did just that. Although the district court entered judgment against the class defendants in the amount of $24 million, they were ultimately saved on appeal by a split panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“By way of background, Bahamas Surgery Center, LLC (Bahamas), sued Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KC) and Halyard Health, Inc. (Halyard), for fraud, asserting that KC and Halyard misrepresented the efficacy of surgical gowns in terms of blocking the spread of pathogens. Bahamas presented evidence that the surgical gowns had been labeled as compliant with a specific standard going to that efficacy – the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Liquid Barrier Level 4 standard – when in fact the gowns did not meet that standard.”

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“Shares of San Diego-based chipmaker QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) rocketed over 15% Thursday after the company topped analysts’ fiscal third quarter expectations and announced that it had come to a settlement agreement with Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Qualcomm reported adjusted earnings of 86 cents per share on sales of $4.89 billion, with the wireless chip producer benefiting from the nation’s 5G cellular rollout. Analysts had expected earnings of 72 cents per share on revenues of $4.8 billion,” reports Timothy Smith in Investopia’s Company News.

“Moreover, Qualcomm said that the settlement – which includes money owed from previous quarters and a global patent-licensing agreement – will add about $1.8 billion to its top line and $1.38 in earnings per share during the current quarter. “With the signing of the Huawei agreement, we are now entering a period in which we have multi-year license agreements with every major handset OEM,” Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told investors, per MarketWatch.”

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“In recent weeks, because of the remoteness of our work forces, we have seen an increased incidence of abusive written communications between employees. It’s fair to say that we all have certain frustrations with our current situation, but in the past, when we all worked in the office or plant together, we could often work out those frustrations through face-to-face conversation. In face-to-face conversations, it is more difficult to say rude or abusive things to other employees. Unfortunately, a similar social barrier does not seem to be present when employees write emails or text messages,” warns Thomas H. Wilson in Vinson & Elkins’ Insights.

“In the recent General Motors case, the facts indicated that the employee in question, over the course of several meetings, used profane language toward managers, threatened them, and played loud, explicit music on his phone to interrupt the conversation. The administrative law judge, citing to the Board’s prior rulings on these types of communications, found that General Motors’ discipline against the employee—namely, a series of suspensions—constituted an unfair labor practice. The current Board overturned that opinion and the prior cases that supported it in its decision.”

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“Holland & Knight is facing a lawsuit alleging that it failed to prevent the transfer of more than $3 million to a fraudster’s account in Hong Kong,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s News.

“The lawsuit, filed in June in Utah state court, was removed to federal court this week, the American Lawyer reports.”

Holland & Knight is accused of failing to investigate after the fraudster intercepted emails regarding a stock sale, posed as the seller, and instructed the law firm to wire $3.1 million from the stock buyer to another account. The new fraudulent account was identified as Wemakos Furniture Co. Limited.”

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“Italian supercar maker Ferrari has lost the trademark rights to the world’s most expensive car and arguably the most iconic car in its storied history, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO,” reports Michael Taylor in Forbes’ Transportation.

“Though the Ferrari 250 GTO only cost US$18,000 in the United States when they were new, one of them set a new record for the world’s most expensive car in 2018 when it sold privately for US$70 million.”

“Ferrari lost its trademark to the shape of the 250 GTO by falling foul of the European Union Intellectual Protection Office’s (EUIPO) ‘Use It Or Lose It’ rules.”

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“For years, Johnson & Johnson has vowed to appeal each talc verdict it lost, and the company cited a ‘fundamentally unfair process’ and ‘multiple errors’ when jurors in St. Louis ordered the company to pay $4.69 billion to 22 women with ovarian cancer,” reports Eric Sagonowsky in Fierce Pharma’s Pharma.

“Now, an appeals court has reduced that award—but only to $2.11 billion, thanks to J&J’s ‘outrageous’ and ‘reprehensible’ defense of the product.”

“J&J brought 10 arguments in appeals, but the court found that plaintiffs ‘proved with convincing clarity that defendants engaged in outrageous conduct because of an evil motive or reckless indifference.'”

“After reviewing the arguments, the judges found that J&J ‘discussed the presence of asbestos in their talc in internal memoranda for several decades; avoided adopting more accurate measures for detecting asbestos and influenced the industry to do the same; attempted to discredit those scientists publishing studies unfavorable to their products; and did not eliminate talc from the products and use cornstarch instead because it would be more costly to do so.'”

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“Following a jury verdict win on January 24, 2020 of $85.23 million in a damages-only re-trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California (the “Court”), the Court ruled late yesterday on all post-trial motions and entered final judgment in favor of WiLAN, maintaining the full jury verdict and denying Apple’s motions for retrial or lowering the damages award (the “Final Judgment”),” was reported in WiLAN’s news.

“The Court also awarded WiLAN an additional amount of $23.75 million in pre-judgment interest. The total award in the Final Judgment stands at $108.98 million and WiLAN is entitled to post-judgment interest from June 16, 2020 until the date this Final Judgment is satisfied. In addition, as indicated in the Court’s Final Judgment, there are additional royalties for products which Apple released during the pendency of the litigation that will have to be accounted for separately.”

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“Amazon faces increased competition scrutiny even as the pandemic sends its retail business skyrocketing,” reports in Isobel Asher Hamilton in Business Insider.

“Investigators in two US states, California and Washington, are reportedly gearing up to launch antitrust probes into Amazon over whether it uses its marketplace to favor its own products over those of third-party sellers.”

“In addition to being individually scrutinized, Amazon is being folded into more general national antitrust investigations into big tech. Axios reported Saturday a House tech competition probe has written to the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook requesting they testify in July. The letters sent by the committee reportedly contained reminders that subpoenas could be used to compel CEOs to testify and provide documents.”

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“Two decades after Florida reached a landmark legal settlement with tobacco companies, an appeals court is slated to hear arguments Tuesday in a dispute about more than $100 million in payments,” reports News Service of Florida in Florida Politics.

“R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. wants the 4th District Court of Appeal to overturn a ruling that said the company is responsible for making payments to the state related to four brands of cigarettes: Salem, Winston, Kool and Maverick.”

“R.J. Reynolds was part of the 1997 settlement in which cigarette makers agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the state because of smoking-related health costs and, in exchange, received liability protections. An R.J. Reynolds parent company in 2015 sold the four cigarette brands to ITG Brands, LLC, which was not part of the settlement. As a result of the sale, R.J. Reynolds contends it is no longer responsible for making payments linked to the four brands.”

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SmileDirectClub (SDC) “sued NBC in Tennessee federal court seeking more than $2.85 billion. The teledentistry company claims the network made more than 40 false and misleading statements in a February 2020 broadcast of NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt, including that SDC-affiliated doctors aren’t involved in treating patients, that the company’s platform amounts to “do it yourself” dentistry and that it flouts state and federal regulations,” reports Ashley Cullins in The Hollywood Reporter’s Labor.

“SmileDirectClub also alleges NBC was aware of the inaccuracies because the company had sent hundreds of pages of documents about its treatments, made senior officers available for questions, and offered to arrange interviews with dentists, orthodontists and patients. It also alleges that it told the network ‘dental trade associations and organizations have orchestrated a campaign to discredit SDC and, therefore, had a motivation to publish false information about SDC, including regarding the safety of treatment’ and says reporter Vicky Nguyen had a conflict of interest because her husband is an anesthesiologist at a brick-and-mortar oral surgery practice that competes with SDC.”

“SDC is suing for defamation and violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.”

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“Apple will have to face a lawsuit claiming the tech giant fraudulently concealed decreased demand for iPhones, leading to tens of billions of dollars in shareholder losses,” reports Ryan J. Farrick in Legal Reader’s Lawsuits & Litigation.

“According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers trimmed the lawsuit’s scope substantially. But she maintained that shareholders may still sue Apple over Tim Cook’s comments about the iPhone’s robust performance during a November 1^st analyst call.”

“The lawsuit takes particular issue with Cook’s claim that the iPhone was faring well in China through the fourth quarter of 2018, even though sales were struggling due to political tensions.”

“In her ruling, Gonzalez Rogers found it ‘implausible’ that Apple’s chief executive would not know that iPhone demand was dropping in China—especially when, days after the call took place, Apple instructed its largest manufacturers to slow iPhone production.”

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A $5B lawsuit “accuses Google parent company Alphabet Inc. of quietly amassing data about what people do online and what sites they visit while in the private browser mode, ” reports Andy Meek in BGR’s Tech.

“Google promises consumers that they can ‘browse the web privately’ and stay in ‘control of what information [users] share with Google.’ To prevent information from being shared with Google, Google recommends that its consumers need only launch a browser such as Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox in ‘private browsing mode.’ Both statements are untrue.”

“In fact, the language in the suit continues, when users take either or both of those steps, the company ‘continues to track, collect, and identify their browsing data in real-time, in contravention of federal and state laws on wiretapping and in violation of consumers’ rights to privacy.'”

“The size of the proposed class of plaintiffs this action could include numbers in the ‘millions,’ according to the suit, which also seeks at least $5,000 in damages per user for violations of California privacy laws as well as federal wiretapping statutes.”

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“A Biglaw firm finds itself the defendant in a lawsuit over an issue a lot of folks feel right now — late rent,” reports Kathryn Rubino in Above the Law’s Biglaw.

“According to the lawsuit, filed in Illinois, the Biglaw firm of Jenner & Block is behind on its rent for the firm’s Chicago office. Landlord Hart 353 North Clark LLC, affiliate of global real estate investment management firm Heitman LLC, said in a lawsuit filed May 20th in Cook County Circuit Court the firm owes $3,726,415.74, plus late fees and interest, for its 416,000+ square feet of office space.”

“But not so fast, the firm contends their lease provides an out. Randy Mehrberg, co-managing partner, that the firm’s partners are availing themselves of a provision in their lease agreement that provides rent abatement if the space cannot be used as intended. And he assures everyone this rent dispute is not a harbinger of financial troubles for the firm.”

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Agreement ensures funds will benefit victims of opioid epidemic 

 TYLER, Texas – A landmark agreement between the Texas Attorney General’s office and a group of Texas counties and cities impacted by the country’s opioid epidemic paves the way for future settlement money to be directed to rural communities battling the crisis, lawyers with Tyler-based Martin Walker said Friday. 

 “This agreement is historic in that combining efforts with the Texas Attorney General’s office strengthens our position immensely and gives us one united and powerful voice,” said Martin Walker attorney Reid Martin. “But it also allows us to learn the lessons of settlements past. After the Big Tobacco settlement in the 1990s, we saw that many of the funds never made it to those who needed it most. This agreement will prevent that from happening. We know that the money will go to fund opioid addiction treatment, help impacted communities and ultimately save lives.” 

The Martin Walker legal team represents 29 counties in opioid litigation in Texas, most in east and northeast Texas. 

Under the agreement announced by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, state and county representatives will be included in all negotiations currently underway with opioid drug distributors and manufacturers. In the event of a settlement, the agreement creates an allocation structure that guarantees state and local governments will each receive a 15 percent share of the funds. The remaining 70 percent will be administered by the Texas Opioid Council to be dispersed to treatment programs operated by 20 regional health care partnerships across Texas. 

“This agreement is the result of years of hard work, and we are proud to see that our own Smith County has held a leadership role in the negotiations,” said Martin Walker attorney Jack Walker. “This agreement ensures that Tyler’s medical facilities, which serve all of East Texas, will get the funds they need to help in the fight against opioid addiction.”  

 Martin Walker PC is a Tyler-based law firm with significant trial expertise representing individuals and businesses in high-stakes litigation, including medical malpractice, catastrophic injuries involving 18-wheeler accidents, oilfield injuries, wrongful death, and product liability.

For more information visit Martin Walker Law

“Investors suffering losses from Bayer’s Roundup legal woes are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, as the German conglomerate is said to be nearing a final settlement that could put tens of thousands of lawsuits behind it,” reports Angus Liu in FiercePharma’s Pharma.

“Bayer has reached verbal agreements with a large proportion of about 125,000 U.S. plaintiffs who allege Roundup causes cancer as part of a $10 billion plan to end all legal claims around the weedkiller, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations.”

“Wrapping up the legal battle at $10 billion would be a win for Bayer, as it has lost $30 billion in market value since the Monsanto buyout, through which it inherited Roundup.”

“So far, Bayer has lost all three trials that ended with combined $191 million in damages, though the company is still fighting them in appeals court.”

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“In a landmark acknowledgment of the toll that content moderation takes on its workforce, Facebook has agreed to pay $52 million to current and former moderators to compensate them for mental health issues developed on the job. In a preliminary settlement filed on Friday in San Mateo Superior Court, the social network agreed to pay damages to American moderators and provide more counseling to them while they work,” reported Casey Newton in The Verge’s Tech.

“Each moderator will receive a minimum of $1,000 and will be eligible for additional compensation if they are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or related conditions. The settlement covers 11,250 moderators, and lawyers in the case believe that as many as half of them may be eligible for extra pay related to mental health issues associated with their time working for Facebook, including depression and addiction.”

“In September 2018, former Facebook moderator Selena Scola sued Facebook, alleging that she developed PTSD after being placed in a role that required her to regularly view photos and images of rape, murder, and suicide. Scola developed symptoms of PTSD after nine months on the job. The complaint, which was ultimately joined by several other former Facebook moderators working in four states, alleged that Facebook had failed to provide them with a safe workspace.”

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