Toxic torts
Being Small in a Supersized World: Tackling the Problem of Low-Level Exposures in Toxic Tort Actions
Low-level toxic tort claims are challenging traditional tort notions of injury and causation. Low-level exposures form the basis of claims in both environmental contamination cases and toxic product liability actions and may involve...
Setting the Bar for “Injury” in Environmental Exposure Cases: How Low Can It Go?
On May 16, 2012, ELI convened a panel of experts to provide an overview and analysis of the tension between regulatory and common-law standards for injury in the context of toxic tort litigation. The speakers discussed and debated...
Genomics and Toxic Sustances: Part I--Toxicogenomics
Advances in genomics, the study of the structure and function of our genetic make-up, are fundamentally transforming toxicology, the science of how toxic substances affect our bodies. These changes will inevitably spill over into the...
"Two Strikes and You're Out!": How to Prevail in Daubert Challenges
In 1992, Drs. Arnold Schecter and Daniel Teitelbaum, two highly qualified scientists, testified that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), together with certain dioxins and furans that were PCB derivatives, could have accelerated cancer in...
The Need for Jurisdictional and Structural Class Action Reform
This discussion is adapted from comments which Lawyers for Civil Justice, a nationwide coalition of defense and corporate counsel working to improve the civil justice system, requested that I submit to the Civil Rules Advisory Committee...
Medical Monitoring: The Evolution of a Cause of Action
Editors' Summary: The law surrounding medical monitoring claims is relatively new and unsettled, but the uncertainty of the law has not stopped tort litigants from increasingly asserting such claims when seeking recovery for toxic...
Multimedia Exposure Modeling in the Courtroom
Editors' Summary: The increasing number of toxic tort lawsuits in the courts today causes litigants to use a vast array of scientific methodologies and exposure models, which in turn add to the already high level of confusion among...
Separating the Scientist's Wheat From the Charlatan's Chaff: Daubert's Role in Toxic Tort Litigation
Editors' Summary: In the wake of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., it has become increasingly important for the judicial system to discern the reliability of scientific evidence offered by experts in toxic tort cases. In...
The Artification of Science: The Problem of Unscientific "Scientific" Evidence
Editors' Summary: The absence of a certain threshold for admitting scientific information into evidence permits many courts to admit as scientific evidence the testimony of experts that does not meet scientific standards for...