Tort and Products Liability
Tort litigation remains a core component of the Litigation Center’s docket. The Litigation Center has filed in myriad cases resisting efforts to distort tort and products liability doctrines beyond their proper limits, to circumvent constitutional and statutory limits on outsized damages awards, and to use discovery tactics to force settlements of even meritless cases.
The public nuisance doctrine, causation, the criteria for class certification, and the legal standards governing expert testimony are some of the many recurring issues we have briefed in state and federal courts across the country.
Latest Content
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files amicus brief urging District Court to dismiss lawsuit targeting constitutionally protected speech and exceeding scope of traditional public-nuisance liability.Georgia Supreme Court: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Georgia Supreme Court to hold that products-liability statute of repose begins running at plaintiff’s first-ever purchase of product at issue.Colorado Court of Appeals: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Colorado Court of Appeals to reject medical monitoring as a tort claim or remedy without present physical injury.Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Pennsylvania Supreme Court to grant review and hold that franchisors are not vicariously liable for the torts of franchisees and their employees.Georgia Supreme Court: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Georgia Supreme Court to hold that state’s statutory cap on noneconomic damages applies to wrongful death actions. The Chamber previously filed an amicus brief supporting review.Georgia Supreme Court grants review of decision holding the state’s statutory cap on noneconomic damages inapplicable to wrongful death actions. The U.S. Chamber filed a coalition amicus brief supporting this outcome.North Carolina Supreme Court: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging North Carolina Supreme Court to grant petition for review, vacate punitive discovery sanctions, and discourage the practice of litigation-by-sanction.Maine Supreme Court: Decided
View CaseMaine Supreme Judicial Court rejects public-nuisance claims because plaintiffs did not allege “special injury” distinct from the general public’s harm. The U.S. Chamber filed a coalition amicus brief supporting this outcome, urging the court to reject public-nuisance liability for the sale of lawful products.U.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Maine Supreme Court to reject public-nuisance tort liability for the sale of lawful products.Pennsylvania Superior Court: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Pennsylvania Superior Court to overturn or significantly reduce unconstitutionally excessive punitive-damages award.Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reject cause of action for corporate veil piercing allowing untimely claims against dissolved business entity.U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: Decided
View CaseNinth Circuit denies rehearing en banc, leaving in place panel decision holding that businesses have a tort duty to protect app users from the unreasonable risk of crimes committed by third parties. The U.S. Chamber filed an amicus brief urging the court to grant rehearing and reject such a duty.U.S. Chamber files amicus brief urging Ninth Circuit to grant rehearing en banc and hold that businesses do not have a tort duty to protect app users from the risk of crimes committed by unaffiliated third parties. The Chamber previously filed an amicus brief in this case.Illinois Supreme Court: Decided
View CaseIllinois Supreme Court denies motion for supervisory order, leaving in place lower-court policy allowing joint trials of dissimilar tort claims. The U.S. Chamber filed a coalition amicus brief urging the court to overturn that policy.U.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Illinois Supreme Court to block joint trials of multiple plaintiffs’ dissimilar tort claims.U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: Decided
View CaseNinth Circuit affirms exclusion of expert testimony based on insufficient factual analysis and lack of comparative data, decertification of class action, and grant of summary judgment to defendants. The U.S. Chamber filed an amicus brief supporting this outcome.U.S. Chamber files amicus brief urging Ninth Circuit to affirm district court’s exclusion of expert testimony based on insufficient factual analysis and lack of comparative data.Illinois Supreme Court: Decided
View CaseIllinois Supreme Court denies motion for supervisory order, leaving in place lower-court policy allowing joint trials of dissimilar tort claims. The U.S. Chamber filed a coalition amicus brief urging the court to overturn that policy.U.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Illinois Supreme Court to block joint trials of multiple plaintiffs’ dissimilar tort claims.Illinois Supreme Court: Decided
View CaseIllinois Supreme Court denies motion for supervisory order, leaving in place lower-court policy allowing joint trials of dissimilar tort claims. The U.S. Chamber submitted a coalition amicus brief urging the court to overturn that policy.U.S. Chamber submits coalition amicus brief urging Illinois Supreme Court to block joint trials of multiple plaintiffs’ dissimilar tort claims.U.S. Supreme Court: Resolved without decision
View CaseU.S. Supreme Court dismisses writ of certiorari as improvidently granted, declining to address whether post hoc expert speculation can be substituted for particularized factual allegations of falsity and scienter. The U.S. Chamber filed an amicus brief supporting the cert. petition.U.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Supreme Court to prevent securities-fraud plaintiffs from circumventing the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act by substituting post hoc expert speculation for particularized factual allegations of falsity and scienter.Ohio Supreme Court: Decided
View CaseOhio Supreme Court holds that Ohio Product Liability Act abrogates all common-law public-nuisance claims arising from the sale of a product. The U.S. Chamber filed a coalition amicus brief supporting this outcome, urging the court to reject the plaintiffs’ radically expansive theory of public-nuisance liability.U.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Ohio Supreme Court to reject radically expansive theory of public-nuisance liability for the sale of lawful products.U.S. Supreme Court: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files amicus brief in support of neither party urging Supreme Court to enforce traditional principles of proximate causation and secondary liability.Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals: Pending
View CaseU.S. Chamber files amicus brief urging the Intermediate Hawaii Court of Appeals to overturn unconstitutionally excessive civil fine untethered to alleged harms.U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit: Decided
View CaseSixth Circuit decertifies class action and holds that if challenged expert testimony is material to a class certification motion, the district court must demonstrate the expert’s credibility under Daubert. The U.S. Chamber filed a coalition amicus brief urging this outcome.U.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging Sixth Circuit to hold that a court must conduct a full Daubert analysis of expert testimony before considering it at class certification.New Jersey Superior Court: Decided
View CaseNew Jersey Appellate Division rejects products-liability claims, holding that plaintiff’s experts did not offer reliable evidence of causation. The U.S. Chamber filed a coalition amicus brief urging the court to dismiss the claims.U.S. Chamber files coalition amicus brief urging New Jersey Appellate Division to reject duty to recall product before government recall order.