Legislative & Judicial Updates

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The Texas Supreme Court’s recent decision in Werner Enterprises, Inc. v. Blake (No. 23-0493) clarifies proximate causation in personal injury cases ensuring an appropriate bar for proving the causation element of a negligence claim. The Court reversed a nearly $90 million jury verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, hinged on a holding that the substantial factor element of proximate causation was not met in a deadly collision where a vehicle carrying the plaintiffs lost control on an icy road, crossed a wide median into oncoming traffic, and collided with an 18-wheeler operated negligently by the commercial truck driver. “Proximate cause is not established merely by proof that the injury would not have happened if not for the defendant’s negligence,” but rather also requires “proof that the defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing the injury.”  Werner Enterprises, Inc. v. Blake No. 23-0493, 2025 WL 2239275, at *1 (Tex. June 27, 2025).

On August 15, 2025, Governor Pritzker signed Senate Bill 328 into law, effective immediately. The bill makes significant changes to the law governing jurisdiction in Illinois, namely changing 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. 

On July 23, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote, granted the Trump Administration’s request to stay a permanent injunction that had ordered the reinstatement of three Democratic CPSC Commissioners: Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka Jr. (the “Commissioners”), after the Administration fired them from the independent agency without cause.

In May 2025, the Supreme Court of Washington overruled previous precedent regarding the deliberate intent to injure exception related to workers’ compensation immunity for employers, finding that an employee may sue its employer for latent disease injury if they can establish the employer had actual knowledge that latent diseases are “virtually certain” to occur. Cockrum v.
C.H. Murphy/Clark-Ullman, Inc., 569 P.3d 287, 289 (Wash. 2025). In Cockrum, the Plaintiff is a living mesothelioma claimant (“Plaintiff”), who filed suit against his employer as a premises defendant (“Defendant”), alleging that they deliberately intended to injure him by exposing him to asbestos without proper warnings or protections while he worked as a laborer at their facility from 1967 to 1997. He further argued that Defendant had actual knowledge that injury was certain to occur from asbestos exposure but willfully disregarded that knowledge by continuously exposing him to asbestos without proper warning or protection. Specifically, he alleged exposure to asbestos while working in the environmental lab, where he tested samples for asbestos without any protective gear.

Background

On June 23, 2025, Judge Matthew J. Maddox of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland denied a motion by President Donald J. Trump and other officials (“Defendants”) to stay his order reinstating three Democratic CPSC Commissioners: Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka Jr. (the “Commissioners”). The motion, filed on June 16, 2025, sought to pause the court’s injunction, prohibiting any action to effectuate the Commissioners’ removal, while the case is appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Prior to the district court’s decision, Defendants filed an emergency motion for a stay with the Fourth Circuit on June 17, 2025, which was denied on July 1, 2025. The next day, the Trump Administration submitted an application to the U.S. Supreme Court for an administrative stay and a stay pending appeal.

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. 

Georgia Senate Bill 68, signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp on April 21, 2025, introduces significant changes to the state’s civil litigation landscape. Most notable is the implementation of a mandatory 90-day stay of discovery after a litigant files a motion to dismiss. This provision takes effect on July 1, 2025, and allows defendants to challenge the validity of a case without the immediate burden of discovery, potentially saving time and resources if the motion is successful.

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.

Relevant History

On December 29, 2023, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board instituted an emergency regulation to address occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica. This regulation addressed additional safety requirements for businesses involved in cutting engineered stone, improved monitoring for workplace sites, and increasing the ability for workers to report non-compliant employers. These emergency regulations became permanent in February 2025.