The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made major headlines this week when it granted approval for the first genetically engineered animal intended for human consumption. Dubbed AquAvantage salmon, the fish are designed to reach harvest maturity much faster than their non-genetically modified counterparts. The approval has many consumers leery…
In a recent case filed in the Northern District of California, Gyorke-Takatri v. Nestle USA, Inc., the court concluded that a party to a class action case who seeks removal to a federal court must offer sufficient admissible evidence to show that there is an adequate jurisdictional basis for removal. The underlying…
A recent investigative report from the New York Times suggests that many contracts that consumers sign on a regular basis include severe and harsh provisions that effectively abolish the consumers’ rights to combat unfair and deceptive business practices. Most of these contracts are lengthy, complex, and difficult to understand, discouraging consumers…
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) has released a statement indicating that it has fined Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata $200 million for mishandling the recall of its airbag inflators, which have been linked to at least seven deaths of Americans. On May 19, 2015, the United States Department of Transportation…
Earlier this month, a California federal court dismissed a class action lawsuit seeking to recover damages from the makers of Jim Bean, claiming that the company violated state consumer protection laws by labeling some of its whiskey and bourbon products as “handcrafted.” Dating back to the 1820s, bourbon is a…
While a number of states are moving to legalize the use of cannabis, manufacturers of products containing marijuana may not be entirely clear when it comes to understanding how product liability rules will apply to them. In the recent case of Flores v. LivWell, Inc., two marijuana consumers sued the defendant, claiming…
Earlier this year, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a proposed class action based on the plaintiffs’ failure to meet a number of the four required elements of class certification. In Karhu v. Vital Pharm, Inc., the defendant manufactured and marketed a dietary supplement intended to…
Each year, roughly 35,000 to 40,000 individuals sustain serious injuries while using table saws. Due to the nature of how these products are used, one of the most common types of injuries involves the operator’s fingers, hands, and arms. In the recent case of Ingram v. Sears, a man from Alabama filed a…
In Guttmann v. Nissin Foods (USA) Co., Inc., a California federal court dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the defendant had engaged in false advertising regarding the safety of its noodle products, based on the presence of trans fat in the product. More specifically, the plaintiff indicated that he had…
In a recent case, the California Court of Appeal for the Second District upheld a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a defendant pipe manufacturer on the basis that the plaintiff’s exclusive remedy was through the workers’ compensation system. In Melendrez et al. v. Ameron International Corp., one of…