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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • January 09, 2026

    Man Seeking To Add COVID Vaccine To Vaccine Injury Table Appeals Standing Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man who sought an order forcing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT) so he could be compensated by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) filed a notice of appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 8 after a District of Columbia federal judge granted the government’s motion to dismiss for lack of standing, having found that an act of Congress was a necessary step to adding a vaccine to the VIT.

  • January 09, 2026

    Expert’s Testimony Properly Excluded As Unreliable, 9th Circuit Rules

    PHOENIX — An expert retained by a plaintiff in a product liability case to prove causation was properly excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 after the district court judge found his testimony to be unreliable, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 8, affirming a summary judgment award for the manufacturer of a portable camping fire device.

  • January 09, 2026

    Ky. High Court: Factual Parts Of Hospital’s Fall Analysis Exempt From Disclosure

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky trial court erred when it required a hospital to produce factual portions of a root cause analysis following a patient’s fall as that information is privileged, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate panel’s writ prohibiting a trial court from enforcing its discovery order as to those portions of the document.

  • January 08, 2026

    Insurer’s Rescission Bid Denied In Coverage Dispute As To Underlying Litigation

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment seeking rescission of policies due to a purported material misrepresentation in a policy application and a determination that the insurer has no duty to defend in underlying personal injury litigation involving a property owner and a property manager, finding “that there was no misrepresentation” in the application and that there is no dispute that a duty to defend is covered under the policies.

  • January 08, 2026

    Judge Refuses To Dismiss Insurer’s Suit Arising From Injury At Cryotherapy Facility

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California refused to dismiss an insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that its business owners liability insurance policy’s professional services exclusion bars coverage for a patient’s underlying action alleging that she was injured at a cryotherapy facility while receiving medical treatment from the insured, also denying the insured’s motion to dismiss the insurer’s claim seeking reimbursement of the $275,000 it paid to settle the underlying action on its insured’s behalf.

  • January 05, 2026

    Nevada High Court Affirms Ruling Finding Claim To Now-Insolvent Insurer Excluded

    LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling finding that a truck driver’s claim for work-related injuries to the trucking company’s now-insolvent insurer was excluded by a workers’ compensation exclusion clause, finding that the driver failed to show that he was an independent contractor and that the workers’ compensation claim related to his injuries was denied.

  • January 05, 2026

    Experts Cannot Opine On Negligence Theories Not In Complaint, Judge Holds

    OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on Jan. 2 held that testimony from an expert retained by employees of Union Pacific Railroad Co. (UPR) who sued for injuries they sustained during their employment is limited “to the three theories of negligence enumerated in the operative complaint.”

  • December 23, 2025

    Mich. Appeals Court Says No Error In Excluding Nurse’s Standard-Of-Care Testimony

    DETROIT — A Michigan trial court did not err in excluding standard-of-care testimony from an expert in a medical malpractice case after finding that it was “too general and too unconnected to accept,” a divided state appeals court held in affirming in an interlocutory appeal.

  • December 23, 2025

    Federal Judge Finds No Error In Magistrate Judge’s Ruling On Expert Testimony

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge refused to reverse a decision by a magistrate judge that excluded one expert on police policies to testify in case alleging that police violated a man’s constitutional rights during an arrest but allowed another to testify, finding that nothing in the order is “clearly erroneous or contrary to law.”

  • December 22, 2025

    Testimony From Experts For Man Killed In Construction Accident Limited

    PITTSBURGH — Experts retained by the estate of a man who died of injuries from a workplace accident allegedly caused by a faulty cement mixer can testify on how certain design elements “could have caused [the man’s] injury, but not whether they did,” a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge said in partially granting two motions to exclude.

  • December 22, 2025

    Minnesota Jury Awards $65.5 Million For Talc-Related Mesothelioma

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury on Dec. 19 awarded a 37-year-old woman and her husband more than $65.5 million for peritoneal mesothelioma she developed after exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc.

  • December 22, 2025

    Ky. High Court: Fact Issue Exists Concerning Whether COVID Immunity Law Applies

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Finding that evidence of gross negligence in the treatment of a nursing home resident who died during the pandemic that would nullify immunity under the Kentucky COVID-19 immunity statute had been alleged sufficient to create a question of material fact, a split Kentucky Supreme Court reversed the judgment of a state appellate court upholding a trial court grant of summary judgment in favor of a nursing home and staff members.

  • December 22, 2025

    Dietitian Can Testify In Negligence Case On Nutritional Need Standards

    BILLINGS, Mont. — A dietitian retained by the estates of residents who died while at an assisted living facility can testify on how assisted living facilities should monitor residents' nutritional status and needs, a Montana federal judge held, rejecting the facility’s efforts to exclude her testimony.

  • December 19, 2025

    Engineering Expert’s Testimony Limited In Product Liability Case Against Hyundai

    LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge agreed to limit testimony from a mechanical engineering expert in a car accident case but largely denied the motion to exclude filed by a car manufacturer.

  • December 19, 2025

    Former Police Officers Sue City Agency For Brain Cancer From Radioactive Waste

    PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia police officer and his wife, as well as the administrators for the estates of two police officers, have individually sued a city agency alleging that it is liable for causing brain cancer because the agency developed a former ammunition arsenal that contained depleted Uranium-238 and radium and made the facility commercial property that housed the office for the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit.  Former officer Joseph Cooney contends in his complaint that he is entitled to punitive damages for the agency’s “wanton” conduct that caused his glioblastoma multiforme.

  • December 19, 2025

    Parents Of Deceased Teens Sue Meta, Instagram, Alleging Sextortion Led To Deaths

    WILMINGTON, Del.  — Parents of two teens whose deaths were purportedly related to sextortion on the social media platform Instagram filed a wrongful death suit against Instagram LLC and its owner, Meta Platforms Inc., in Delaware state court, asserting that their teenage sons died after Meta “provided unfettered access” to “predators” on Instagram pretending to be young girls who enticed their sons into sending “compromising pictures” and then threatened to send those pictures to friends and family if the teens did not pay with money or gift cards.

  • December 19, 2025

    Parties Settle In Suit Alleging Uber Breached Duty Of Care To Murdered Driver

    SEATTLE — A rideshare company and the estate and survivors of one of its drivers have reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought as a result of the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.

  • December 18, 2025

    Insurers, Reinsurers Seek Indemnification From Jet Manufacturer For Fatal Crash

    SAVANNAH, Ga. — An air carrier and its aviation insurers and reinsurers filed a complaint in a Georgia federal court seeking contribution and indemnification, alleging that the manufacturer of a business jet involved in a fatal crash is responsible for millions of dollars in hull, crew and passenger death settlements that the carrier and its insurers and reinsurers were compelled to pay.

  • December 17, 2025

    Alabama High Court Grants Mandamus To Hospital In Birthing Injury Suit

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Depositions pertaining to newly alleged acts and omissions in a medical liability suit over a mother and baby’s injuries sustained while giving birth should have been stricken by a trial court because they related to amended claims that were untimely pleaded, an Alabama Supreme Court majority ruled, granting the defendants’ petitions for writs of mandamus to reverse a trial court’s denial of their motion to strike the depositions and dismiss the untimely claims.

  • December 16, 2025

    5th Circuit Grants Rehearing, Says No Jurisdiction Over Battery Maker In Vape Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 15 granted a South Korean battery-maker’s petition for rehearing, withdrew its opinion finding jurisdiction over personal injury claims against the company for injuries caused by a vape explosion, and issued a new opinion finding no jurisdiction after a Seventh Circuit opinion in a similar case led it to go “hunting” for previously unreviewed jurisdictional facts.

  • December 16, 2025

    JPMDL Creates Separate Track For GLP-1 Eye Injury Cases In Pa. Federal Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Dec. 15 agreed to centralize cases alleging that the use of glucagon-like peptide-I receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medications caused permanent vision loss in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania but found that the cases should be separated from cases in an MDL alleging gastrointestinal injuries.

  • December 16, 2025

    Disposition For Insurer Affirmed In Dispute With Estate Over Misrepresentations

    DETROIT — A Michigan appellate court affirmed a lower court’s ruling granting summary disposition in favor of an insurer in a dispute with surviving children and the estate of a woman who died in a car accident, finding that the lower court did not err in granting the insurer’s motion for summary disposition because the decedent’s children are ineligible for survivor benefits due to the decedent’s misrepresentations in the policy application.

  • December 16, 2025

    Florida Unfair Practices Claim Not ‘Fraud’ In Zyn Marketing Suit, Judge Rules

    MIAMI — Addressing an issue that was recently a matter of first impression before the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a Florida federal judge denied a motion by the companies that manufacture and sell Zyn nicotine pouches to dismiss a putative class claim accusing them of deceptively marketing Zyns in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), saying the claim doesn’t sound in fraud and is not subject to federal particularity requirements.

  • December 11, 2025

    Judge Finds Experts Can Testify On Injuries, Limitations After Car Accident

    INDIANAPOLIS — An expert who was retained by a man who was injured in a car collision to testify about the man’s disability and limitations cannot opine on medical causation, an Indiana federal judge ruled in finding that most of the expert’s testimony, as well as the testimony of two other experts, is admissible.

  • December 11, 2025

    Man Sues Dupixent Makers, Says Drug Caused Him To Develop Rare Cancer

    NEWARK, N.J. — A man who alleges that his use of Dupixent, a prescription medication used for the treatment of asthma and inflammatory skin conditions, caused him to develop cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), a rare type of cancer that affects white blood cells called T cells, or T lymphocytes, sued the manufacturers in a New Jersey federal court.