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      The Hastings Law Journal has published CCL President Robert S. Peck's article, The Coming-Products Liability Revolution, originally presented as a paper at a symposium sponsored by the Pound Civil Justice Institute and the UC Hastings Center for Litigation and the Courts last November in San Francisco.

      Peck's article discusses how connected products, sometimes referred to as "smart" products, remain connected to manufacturers, who provide updates and maintain extensive control over the products even while in the consumer's possession. Old notions that products must be fit for use at the time they leave the manufacturer's or retailer's hands no longer make sense. Instead, Peck suggests that a form of strict liability must attach to injuries caused by products and relies on a long history of tort law to demonstrate why evolving concepts of liability accompany innovative technological advances.  

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     In his latest post on the Appellate Advocacy Blog, CCL President Robert S. Peck discusses a court's rejection of a brief for violating its rule against excessive footnoting. Many courts and judges look askance at footnotes, but some of the practice's harshest critics used them in opinions regularly. Peck's advice and description of the problem can be read at Too Many (Foot)notes.

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     In decisions issued today, the First and Ninth Circuits continued to adhere to prior decisions that held that no federal issue justified removal of state and municipal climate-change cases to federal court and holding that the cases should be returned to state court.

      The new decisions involved cases brought respectively by the state of Rhode Island and the city and county of Honolulu. In the Rhode Island case, the First Circuit denied the defendant oil companies' motion for rehearing, finding no reason to reconsider its decision from earlier this year. In the Honolulu case, a new panel heard the oil companies' arguments and found the case belonged in state court. Earlier Ninth Circuit panels had made similar rulings in cases brought by various California counties and cities.

      In both cases decided today, CCL filed amicus curiae briefs urging the result issued by the courts on behalf of the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and thee International Municipal Lawyers Association.

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