The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled last November 2011 that the State of Minnesota could proceed with its claim against Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., the California firm that designed the Minnesota bridge that collapsed in 2007, killing 13 and injuring 145 others. The State’s claim against Jacobs Engineering Group (Jacobs) is based on the fact that […]

In an attempt to protect consumers from the dangers of defective medical devices, the U.S. Senate recently proposed draft legislation that would require manufacturers to conduct ongoing safety studies of medical devices even after the device has obtained the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The legislation was drafted, in part, as […]

Litigation pending over BPA in plastic bottles has hit a major roadblock. Last month a Missouri federal court denied class certification for the plaintiffs’ claims over the use of bisphenol A in baby bottles and sippy chips. The plaintiffs’ claims were part of multidistrict litigation pending in a federal court in Missouri. Multidistrict litigation, or […]

Healthcare and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) recently issued a recall of approximately 12 million bottles of its popular pain reliever, Motrin, due to concerns that the Motrin IB pills may not dissolve and begin working as quickly as intended, resulting in delayed pain relief, as the pills approach their three-year expiration date. The […]

With the new year came new laws, including a new California car seat law that requires children to use a booster seat until they are age 8 or 4 feet, 9 inches tall. The previous California law only required children to remain in car seats until they were 6 years old or weighed 60 pounds. […]

Have you ever rented an apartment for yourself or one of your kids and wondered if all your rights are being protected and respected when moving into a new apartment? The relationship between a landlord and renter is based on trust and respect. Yet many people feel that their landlord took too long to fix something in their unit or that they have been scammed out of their security deposit at the end of the lease.

The Chicago Tribune recently reported on a lawsuit arising from a bizarre set of circumstances, but which raised an interesting legal issue. The facts in the case, Zokhrabov v. Jeung-Hee Park. (2011 WL 6823803), are decidedly gory and tragic. On September 13, 2008, 18-year-old Hiroyuki Johowas struck by an Amtrak train traveling approximately 70 miles […]

In an earlier post, we outlined a number of new Illinois laws that recently went into effect with the start of 2012. One of those laws requires that everyone in a vehicle buckle up, including backseat riders. Previously, backseat riders over 18 were exempt from the requirement to use a seatbelt, but effective January 1, […]

Did the NCAA fail to protect student-athletes from concussions and their repercussions? According to a lawsuit filed in September 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by two former college football athletes, it did. The class action lawsuit claims that the NCAA turned a blind eye to coaches who instructed […]

Spin Master, a Canadian toy manufacturer, has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle claims with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regarding the import and sale of Aqua Dots, which is a banned hazardous substance. Aqua Dots are popular colored arts and crafts beads that stick together when sprayed with water to form […]