Photo of Stephen McConnell

A chunk of our family recently relocated to Indiana, a lovely state that spawned prominent Americans such as Orville Redenbacher, Eli Lilly, Larry Bird, David Letterman, Michael Jackson, and James Dean, and that possesses fine covered bridges, a suddenly fearsome college football team, and a remarkable library that houses, among other things, the original manuscripts

Photo of Bexis

Today’s guest post is by Reed Smith‘s Jamie Lanphear. Like Bexis, she follows tech issues as they apply to product liability litigation. In this post she discusses a pro-plaintiff piece of legislation recently introduced in Congress that would overturn the current majority rule that electronic data is not considered a “product” for purposes

Photo of Bexis

In what we view as a game-changing submission, on September 3, Lawyers for Civil Justice filed a 20-page analysis of no fewer than nine third-party litigation funding (“TPLF”) contracts that, one way or another, have become public.  This analysis rips away the veil of secrecy that has surrounded TPLF, analyzes why and how specific TPLF

Photo of Bexis

Almost ten years ago Bexis argued that the Federal Rules were technologically out-of-date and proposed a number of topics that would benefit from rules-based codification.  One of those topics involved machine learning – specifically use of predictive coding in ediscovery.

That didn’t go anywhere, but on May 2, 2025, the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules proposed language for a new rule – Fed. R. Evid. 707 – addressed to the impact of artificial-intelligence-generated evidence in the courtroom.  Here’s the proposed language:

Rule 707. Machine-Generated Evidence

When machine-generated evidence is offered without an expert witness and would be subject to Rule 702 if testified to by a witness, the court may admit the evidence only it if satisfies the requirements of Rule 702 (a)-(d).  This rule does not apply to the output of basic scientific instruments.

Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, Agenda Book, at Appendix B, page 75 of 486 (June 10, 2025).  This proposal is the product of three years of research and investigation.  Id.

Continue Reading Federal Judicial Conference Evidence Rules Committee Releases Possible New Rule Pertaining to Artificial Intelligence
Photo of Steven Boranian

The district court’s order applying Michigan law and dismissing one plaintiff’s complaint in the Tapezza MDL may be the last of a dying breed.  The court faithfully enforced Michigan’s statute providing a presumption of non-defectiveness for FDA approved drugs and dismissed the plaintiffs’ case.  But alas, Michigan repealed that law effective February 13, 2024, thus

Photo of Lisa Baird

A long time ago, in a mass tort far, far away, the plaintiffs’ lawyers were not content with collecting plaintiffs from within the US.  They also brought a putative product liability class action in federal court in the U.S. on behalf of European plaintiffs.  As a result, your bloggers learned a little bit (a very