The Collateral Source Rule After Howell: Medical Damages in California PI Cases
The California Supreme Court's decision in Howell v. Hamilton Meats changed the measure of recoverable medical damages in personal injury c…
Category
Case Law & Settlements
Appellate decisions, verdicts, and notable settlements from California courts.
Social Media MDL, $604M Broker Verdict, and SCOTUS Ruling Reshape PI Practice
A Los Angeles jury returned a $6 million verdict in K.G.M. v. Meta Platforms and Alphabet Inc. on March 25, 2026, the first JCCP 5255 bellw…
Gharraee v. Trader Joe's: When the Clerk Rejects Your E-Filed Notice of Appeal
A California Court of Appeal decision from August 2026 held that local rules barring e-filed notices of appeal conflict with California Rul…
Prejudgment Interest in PI Cases: CCP 3291, Offer Timing, and Maximizing the Recovery
A defendant who rejects a reasonable settlement offer and then loses at trial may owe years of pre-verdict interest on top of the damages a…
Spoliation Sanctions in PI Litigation: Adverse Inference, FRCP 37(e), and Terminating Sanctions
When a defendant destroys evidence after litigation is reasonably anticipated, plaintiff counsel can seek adverse inference jury instructio…
Section 230 Dismissed: 2,200 Social-Media MDL Cases Clear for Trial
The Ninth Circuit's August 10 ruling in California et al. v. Meta Platforms (MDL 3047) dismissed Section 230 interlocutory appeals, clearin…
Dog-Bite Strict Liability: The Recent Appellate Clarifications on Section 3342
Civil Code 3342 reads like an open-and-shut strict liability rule, but the appellate record is full of exceptions that decide cases. Here i…
Social Media Algorithm Liability: Section 230, MDL 3047, and the Product Defect Theory
Courts are actively litigating whether Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act bars product liability claims against social media com…
The Ninth-Fifth Circuit Split on FDA Vaping Authority and Its Product Liability Impact
The Ninth and Fifth Circuits reached opposite conclusions in August 2026 on whether the FDA can deny e-cigarette product applications using…
Mallory v. Norfolk Southern at Three Years: Using Corporate Registration Jurisdiction in PI Forum Selection
The Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern upheld Pennsylvania's registration-based general jurisdiction statute, ope…
Government-Defendant Immunity: Where the Cracks Are Widening
Public-entity defendants still open with a wall of statutory immunities, but the California Supreme Court has spent recent terms trimming t…
Bad-Faith Verdicts Are Reshaping First-Party UM/UIM Disputes
First-party UM/UIM bad-faith claims used to settle quietly for policy limits plus a nuisance premium. A run of recent verdicts and the way…