Articles

Supreme Court tells Ninth Circuit to protect First Amendment rights

June 28, 2018 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Last year, the Ninth Circuit rejected cell phone retailers' First Amendment claim challenging the City of Berkeley's ordinance requiring the retailers to display posters and other large documents warning against unsafe cell phone usage and including the city's advice about "how to use your phone safely." The retailers' trade association, CTIA, peti ...

Articles

Warning! First Amendment rights under attack!

February 06, 2018 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The Federal Communications Commission set a safety standard for cell phone (radiofrequency – RF) radiation fifty times greater than necessary to ensure that users are not exposed to harmful amounts of radiation and requires manufacturers to provide information about safe phone usage in their user manuals. This wasn't good enough for Berkeley, Cal ...

Articles

Texas Supreme Court : No tort liability for intentional misuse of a Genie lift

May 08, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Today, the Texas Supreme Court held in Genie Industries v. Matak that when people intentionally misuse a product in a way that is obviously dangerous, the manufacturer is not liable for the injuries that inevitably result from that intentional misuse. PLF filed an amicus brief in the case. The case arose when a church in Texas hired two electricia ...

Articles

Workers’ comp, bulk suppliers, and expanded tort liability

March 19, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Flavio Ramos worked as a mold maker, machine operator, and laborer for Supreme Casting & Pattern, Inc., which manufactured metal parts through "a foundry and fabrication process," from 1972 to 2009. During this time, the industrial processing of raw materials created fumes from molten metal and dust from the plaster, sand, limestone, and marble ...