On October 24, 2025, Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied motions to dismiss in a high-profile challenge to asbestos trust data-retention policies, allowing asbestos defendants’ claims to proceed past the pleading stage.
Oklahoma has now joined many other states creating specialty business courts to handle complex business litigation. Senate Bill 632 creates two new specialized business courts, which will be located in Oklahoma County and Tulsa County. Oklahoma’s Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, is authorized to appoint a judge for an eight-year term for each location from a list of three candidates provided by the Speaker of the House.
Since the passage of Senate Bill 328, there has been a movement calling on Illinois Governor Pritzker to veto Senate Bill 328. Advocates for the veto include the American Tort Reform Association, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, and the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. Forty-seven House and Senate Republicans joined the call on June 17, 2025, by filing a lawsuit in Sangamon County, Illinois, Tony McCombie, et al vs. Emmanuel Chris Welch in his Capacity as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and Don Harmon in his Capacity as President of the Illinois Senate, Case No. 2024MR000281 (Seventh Judicial Circuit Court, Sangamon County, 2025), challenging the constitutionality of the manner in which the legislation was passed.
Senate Bill 328, as amended, makes significant changes to the law governing jurisdiction in Illinois, which would change Illinois from a specific jurisdiction state to a general jurisdiction state for actions that allege injury or illness resulting from exposure to a toxic substance. Per the Uniform Hazardous Substances Act of Illinois, “toxic” is defined as “any substance (other than radioactive substance) which has the capacity to produce bodily injury or illness to man through ingestion, inhalation, or absorption through any body surface.” Senate Bill 328, with end of session amendments, passed both chambers as of June 1, 2025. Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign the legislation into law.
As an update Georgia Governor Briam Kemp signed into law Senate Bill 68 and Senate Bill 69 on April 21, 2025.
The Georgia Assembly passed sweeping tort reform on Friday, March 21, 2025. Governor
Brian Kemp had announced his tort reform package on January 30, 2025. The Georgia Senate subsequently passed two bills, Senate Bill 68 on February 21, 2025, and Senate Bill 69 on
February 27, 2025. A committee substitute to Senate Bill 68 was debated at length on March 20, 2025, in the Georgia House, which eventually adopted the substitute and sent the legislation directly to the Georgia Senate. On March 21, 2025, after another lengthy debate, the Senate adopted the House version of SB 68. Senate Bill 69 remains in committee in the House.
On February 26, 2019, in Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f)’s 14-day deadline to request permission to appeal a district court’s order regarding class certification cannot be equitably tolled. The Supreme Court’s opinion left open the possibility that the 14-day deadline
The Supreme Court of Missouri recently issued an important decision in Norfolk Southern Railway Co. v. Dolan, holding that Missouri did not have personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state corporation registered to do business in Missouri that was conducting “substantial and continuous” business in Missouri, where an alleged injury to a resident of another state arose due to conduct outside of Missouri.
Earlier this week the Supreme Court issued its decision in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, No. 14-1146, affirming the Eight Circuit’s decision to not disturb a jury verdict against Tyson where the district court permitted the jury to draw an inference of class-wide liability based on representative or statistical evidence.