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California’s Proposition 65 has become a poster child for ineffective and counterproductive over-warning.  You know what we are talking about.  Prop 65 is the voter-enacted law that requires businesses to warn Californians about significant exposures to chemicals that allegedly cause cancer or birth defects.  See Cal. H&S Code § 25249.5 et seq.  A decent idea

We write today with an update on a case applying the defense of illegality (or “in pari delicto”) to cut off product liability claims under Kansas law.  Messerli v. AW Distributing, Inc. is the sad case of someone who passed away, allegedly as a result of inhaling intoxicating fumes (or “huffing”) from computer

We often marvel at how plaintiffs’ attorneys find new ways to sue businesses, including under RICO.  Take for example the ever-increasing number of “MSP” plaintiffs that we are seeing in the published opinions.  We see plaintiffs called MSP Recovery, MSPA Claims, MSP Series, MSP-MAO, etc., and we are told that many or all of them

We observed oral argument the other day in a case that could have a significant impact on potential liability under California tort law for pharma companies and all other innovators.  In Gilead v. Superior Court, No. A165558 (Cal. Ct. App. First Dist.), a panel of the California Court of Appeal is considering whether a

We don’t see the defense of illegality much in the product liability space, but when a plaintiff’s claims arises from his or her own illegal behavior, the illegality defense can be a powerful tool.  We mention this now because a district court in Kansas recently applied the illegality defense to dismiss a case based on

We do not often see state court opinions strongly endorsing federal preemption, or even weakly endorsing federal preemption.  That is why we took notice last week when the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Medicare Act expressly preempted state common-law and statutory claims against a health maintenance organization and a healthcare plan administrator.  Most