A “ticking time bomb” is how some describe ARC-made airbag inflators. They may be distinct from the infamous Takata airbag inflator, yet they are equally dangerous to people traveling in a vehicle equipped with one. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) recalled the ARC inflators after consumers died from injuries caused by the defective auto part. Plaintiffs’ lawsuits over ARC inflators have been consolidated in a class action. The firm’s Demet Basar has been appointed co-lead counsel for the ARC Airbag multidistrict litigation (MDL). She will bring her knowledge and expertise about large and complex litigation as she helps guide the process for class members.

Demet has nearly 30 years of experience in class action litigation and MDLs that will benefit the plaintiffs as they seek justice. Most recently, she served as co-lead counsel with the firm’s Dee Miles in a class action that secured a $287 million class settlement for 6.5 million class members in the Toyota fuel pump litigation. Demet is the sole lead counsel for the national Rock ‘n Play Sleeper class action and previously served as co-class counsel with Dee Miles in the dangerous Toyota Sienna sliding doors class action. Demet has represented individual and corporate investors seeking recovery in securities fraud class actions. Earlier in her career, she co-chaired her previous firm’s Madoff Recovery Litigation Task Force in class actions surrounding the Bernie Madoff-operated Ponzi scheme. Demet brought her leadership experience to many other national litigations.

Judge Eleanor L. Ross is overseeing the class action. She noted in her order appointing the class leadership that Demet and the other eight lawyers appointed have extensive experience, are heavily invested in developing potential claims and are supported by their firms with resources “to vigorously prosecute this action through trial and appeal.”

The Danger

The ARC inflator is a pressurized metal canister that contains different components or pieces. Like other airbag inflators, ARC inflators use highly compressed gas and a secondary propellant, a fuel that undergoes a chemical reaction to create a forceful movement such as an explosion. This process fills the airbag cushion with air during a crash. ARC inflators suffer from a two-part problem – a flawed process used to fuse or join the different components and an extremely unstable secondary fuel.

Flawed Process

A friction welding process using heat and rotation fuses the different pieces of the ARC inflator. This process is flawed because it poorly joins the airbag inflator parts and creates excess weld flash that may block the ventilation holes. Once the inflators explode, broken pieces of the inflator, or shrapnel, are thrust forcefully throughout the vehicle cabin, potentially injuring or killing those in the vehicle.

Unstable Fuel

Despite ammonium nitrate’s dangers revealed during the Takata airbag ordeal, it is often used as the secondary propellant in ARC inflators. This highly unstable chemical compound has proven to explode violently when exposed to changing temperature phases and moisture. While the ARC inflators attempt to prevent exposure to moisture, experts question if the extreme pressure made worse by the excess weld flash could enhance the power of the explosion.

The ARC Automotive Class Action

Lawyers in the firm’s Consumer Fraud & Commercial Litigation and Personal Injury & Product Liability Sections have teamed with other firms nationwide to represent the class. Beasley Allen lawyers working on this case, in addition to Demet, are Dee Miles, Clay Barnett, Tom Willingham, Mitch Williams, and Dylan Martin.

Class members filed suit against ARC Automotive, Kia Corporation and Kia America, Inc. (KIA), Hyundai Mobis Co., LD, and Mobis Parts America, LLC (Mobis), among other parts makers. ARC is a global manufacturer that produces airbag inflators for automotive airbag products for many leading vehicle makers, including Kia, FCA (formerly Chrysler), Hyundai, General Motors, and Ford, among others.

The plaintiff class alleges that all defendants have known about the dangers and cite seven events involving ARC inflators, including two where vehicle occupants were killed. The plaintiffs also claim that ARC covered up its use of ammonium nitrate.

The class represents those owning or leasing vehicles nationwide that are known to have used ARC inflators. Safety experts say vehicle owners and those leasing vehicles are often unaware that their vehicle has an ARC airbag inflator. The plaintiffs say they would not have purchased or leased the affected vehicles if they had known they were equipped with a dangerous airbag part.

The class action is In re ARC Airbag Inflators Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3051, Case No. 22-CV-03285-ELR, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

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Users of social media products like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube/Google began filing lawsuits against social media companies last summer because social media addiction has caused a mental health crisis among our youth. Our Social Media Litigation Team, led by Joseph VanZandt, is honored to stand with brave clients against these companies.

Joseph’s leadership in the litigation has expanded beyond our firm’s efforts. On Feb. 28, Judge Carolyn Kuhl, who is overseeing social media lawsuits in California state court, appointed Joseph as co-lead counsel of the Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding (JCCP) for the plaintiffs. The JCCP is similar to a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in that similar cases are combined under the management of one court – in this case, a California state court.

Additionally, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers appointed Joseph to the Plaintiffs Steering Committee Leadership for the federal Social Media MDL consolidated in the Northern District of California, Oakland.

Joseph is from our Montgomery office and works in our Mass Torts Section, representing parents and youth against e-cigarette and social media companies. He brings broad leadership experience to the litigation after serving on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the national JUUL MDL. Joseph helped lead the JUUL litigation to a favorable outcome for plaintiffs, reaching four global settlements with some defendants to date. He also helped lead the teams selecting cases for bellwether trials in national JUUL and Xarelto MDLs.

About Social Media Litigation

The social media lawsuits accuse the companies of knowingly taking advantage of young people to increase the companies’ profits. The plaintiffs also allege that the defendant companies failed to protect young users who are more likely to develop unhealthy behaviors and mental illness due to the content and marketing tactics used on social media.

The firm’s Social Media Litigation Team desires to help our clients and others struggling with injuries caused by social media use. If you or a loved one is struggling with injuries, including social media compulsion, disordered eating, depression, body dysmorphic disorder, multiple periods of suicidal thoughts, severe anxiety, self-harm, and a reduced desire or ability to sleep due to social media addiction, we can help seek justice for these injuries. We have the experience and resources to represent clients nationwide in social media litigation while never losing sight of the individual. Contact us for a no-cost consultation.

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The Black community uses hair relaxers linked to uterine, endometriosis, and ovarian cancers more than any other race in the U.S. For instance, research shows uterine cancer death rates are highest among non-Hispanic Black women. This population is also more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive uterine cancer subtypes. So, makers of these products have further increased the danger for women who are already at a higher risk of uterine cancer and the other types of cancers.

This potentially deadly combination of factors is one reason our firm and others have filed hair relaxer lawsuits. Navan Ward, a member of our Hair Relaxer Litigation Team, was appointed by Judge Mary Rowland, the federal judge overseeing the national hair relaxer multidistrict litigation (MDL), to serve on the Plaintiff Executive Committee. Navan will lend his extensive leadership experience as he helps guide the litigation for the plaintiffs.

Navan practices in our Atlanta office and focuses on litigation involving medical devices and medicine. He has served on numerous leadership committees for similar mass litigation. Navan is also a leader outside the courtroom, serving as the Immediate Past President of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) and a Founding Executive Committee Member of Shades of Mass, which helps increase the representation of lawyers of color in mass tort litigation leadership.

Our Hair Relaxer Clients

Plaintiffs allege the defendant companies knew their hair relaxers contained toxic chemicals that could cause cancer. Yet, for decades, they failed to warn women of these risks. Our Hair Relaxer Litigation Team continues investigating cases involving women who regularly used hair relaxers and developed uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and endometriosis after years of using hair relaxers.

Our clients include:

• A Georgia man whose wife died from uterine cancer linked to her prolonged use of hair relaxer products.
• A New Jersey woman whose longtime use of hair relaxer products led to her being diagnosed with uterine cancer and endometriosis.
• A Michigan woman whose extensive, longtime use of hair relaxer products has been linked to her diagnosis of uterine cancer and endometriosis.
• An Illinois woman whose regular and prolonged exposure to hair relaxer products has been linked to her uterine cancer diagnosis.
• A South Carolina woman whose uterine cancer and endometriosis diagnosis have been linked to her decades-long use of hair-relaxing products.

If you or someone you love developed any of these health conditions after using chemical hair straighteners or hair relaxers, we can help you seek justice. Contact our Hair Relaxer Litigation Team today for a complimentary, no-cost consultation.

About the Hair Relaxer Litigation

The lawsuits have been filed against companies making, selling and marketing hair relaxers, including L’Oréal, Softsheen-Carson, McBride Research Laboratories, Luster Products, Inc., Godrej Consumer Products, Strength of Nature, LLC, and Dabur USA.

The MDL, which combines numerous similar cases for litigation, has been consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Lawsuits have also been filed in Georgia and Illinois state courts.

The post Hair Relaxer Litigation Gains Leadership With Navan Ward’s Appointment appeared first on Beasley Allen.

Owners of Honda and Acura vehicles and those leasing them are suing the company because of a problem with Honda’s Idle-Stop System. It is a defect the customers say Honda knew about but did nothing to make work. The defect causes the vehicles’ engines to turn off under certain conditions and won’t allow the engine to restart. The vehicle is stalled and unable to move, increasing the risk of injury.

It is what happened to our client Hamid Bolooki who filed a class action last June in California federal court. On Feb. 21, Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who is overseeing the class action against Honda, appointed Clay Barnett as interim co-lead counsel to help guide the litigation process for the plaintiffs.

Class plaintiffs include those who own or lease 2016-2020 Honda Pilots, Odysseys, Acura TLXs and Acura MDXs with the faulty Idle-Stop feature.

Clay is based out of our Atlanta office and works in our Consumer Fraud & Commercial Litigation Section, where he specializes in automotive defect class actions nationwide.

Clay has developed solid mechanical skills through many years of hands-on vehicle and vessel restoration, and nearly a decade of amateur road course racing in a racecar he maintains. This unique perspective and knowledge help Clay quickly identify defects and prosecute product defect class actions in a way few others can in this area of law.

He has developed defect theories for numerous automotive class actions to benefit our clients and other plaintiffs in class actions against Ford, General Motors (GM), Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen, to name a few. In October 2022, Clay co-led the trial team that secured a $102.6 million verdict against GM. GM had produced engines with defective piston rings, causing heavy oil consumption, engine wear and tear, increased safety risks and reduced vehicle value.

Our firm has the experience and resources to represent clients nationwide in automotive defect class actions while never losing sight of the individual.

More about the Honda Idle-Stop Defect and Class Action Litigation

The Problem

The Idle-Stop feature in the affected Honda models often fails to restart the engine when the driver releases the brake, causing the unexpected stranding events. Drivers have experienced engine restart failure in dangerous situations, including when merging into fast-moving traffic and navigating busy intersections.

The affected vehicles include 2016-2020 Honda Pilots, Odysseys, Acura TLXs and Acura MDXs.

What is the Idle-Stop System?

The Honda Idle-Stop System is a fuel-saving feature. It turns off the vehicle’s gasoline engine when the computer detects that the vehicle is stopped and idling in gear, such as at a stop light or in a line of traffic. When working correctly, the Idle-Stop feature restarts the engine as the driver releases the brake pedal, allowing the vehicle to move again.

Honda Idle-Stop Class Action

Consumers who own or lease vehicles with the defective feature began filing complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2015. They described the dangers caused by the flawed part. They also claim that Honda knew about the problem but did nothing to fix the defect.

In service records and messages to dealerships, Honda admitted that the feature was defective. Yet, it continued selling vehicles without telling customers about the defect. It also failed to recall vehicles with the dangerous defect. 

We filed the class action in June 2022 in the U.S. District Court of California’s Central District, alleging:

• Those who purchased or leased the affected vehicles did not know they were paying for a vehicle with a significant and dangerous defect.
• Honda violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices and Magnuson-Moss Warranty Acts.
• Honda committed breach of warranty and fraudulent concealment/omission and was unjustly enriched by selling and leasing the dangerous defective class vehicles.
• Our client, Mr. Hamid Bolooki, seeks to represent a nationwide class and Florida subclass of consumers who purchased or leased a Honda vehicle affected by the Idle-Stop defect.

The post Clay Barnett Will Help Lead Honda Class Action For Plaintiffs appeared first on Beasley Allen.

Seventeen Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. attorneys have been selected to the 2023 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers list.

Those named to the prestigious list include:

• Jere Beasley, Founding Attorney
• Greg Allen, Lead Products Liability Attorney
• Andy Birchfield, Mass Torts Section Head
• LaBarron Boone
• Kendall Dunson
• Graham Esdale
• Chris Glover, Managing Attorney – Atlanta
• Larry Golston
• Rhon Jones, Toxic Torts Section Head
• Ted Meadows
• Tom Methvin, Managing Attorney
• Dee Miles, Consumer Fraud Section Head
• Leigh O’Dell
• Cole Portis, Personal Injury Section Head
• Dana Taunton
• Navan Ward, Jr.
• Frank Woodson, Managing Attorney – Mobile

Lawdragon 500 recognition is a distinct honor given by one of the most respected groups in the profession. The Lawdragon editorial team selects honorees through research and submissions, considering criteria such as top verdicts and settlements and leadership roles in class actions.

This year’s Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers list consists of attorneys representing individuals who have been injured or killed from accidents, medical misdiagnoses and more. Others advocate for clients harmed by opioid use, 3M earplugs and Camp Lejeune toxic water supplies.

Lawdragon also specially recognized the lawyers included in its Lawdragon Hall of Fame. Beasley Allen’s Jere Beasley and Greg Allen were inducted into the Lawdragon Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2021, respectively.

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Wyatt Montgomery, a lawyer in our Personal Injury and Product Liability Section and based out of our Mobile, Alabama, office, filed a premises liability lawsuit against a vacation rental company, its property management company and a property owner on behalf of a renter seriously injured while he and his family were vacationing at a beach house rental property.

The premises liability lawsuit alleges that the renter was leaning against the railing on the back deck of the beach house when the railing collapsed, causing him to fall to the ground. He sustained severe and permanent injuries because the defendants did not take adequate measures to protect the occupants from well-known and foreseeable risks.

Wyatt brought the lawsuit under Alabama law, which follows common law negligence principles in premises liability cases. Vacation rental companies, property management companies and property owners owe a duty to business invitees to keep their properties in a reasonably safe condition. Because the renter was a business invitee, the defendants owed him a duty to ensure dangerous property conditions would not harm him. Further, the defendants should have warned the occupants that the deck railing needed repairs.

The renter brought negligence and wantonness claims against the defendants because the property was unsafe. The renter also alleged negligent and wanton failure to warn of the dangerous deck condition.

When investigating premises liability claims, lawyers must check who owns and maintains the property. Often, a property owner hires a management company or other third party to maintain the property. The hire can be made contractually or simply by common practice. By ensuring all proper parties are discovered, lawyers can hold all responsible for injury and/or damage accountable. Through comprehensive investigation and discovery, lawyers can also be sure that insurance companies fully compensate clients.

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Mike Andrews, Cole Portis and Dana Taunton recently worked with Birmingham lawyer Doug Roy to secure a $7 million settlement for a widow whose husband died from an on-the-job injury. The settlement, believed to be the largest ever reached for a single defendant in the Anniston, Alabama, federal court, brings much-needed relief to the family of Eugene Falconer. We believe the evidence showed that Mr. Falconer would be here today if it weren’t for the defendants’ actions.

Nothing will bring Mr. Falconer back. Still, we believe this settlement clearly demonstrates that if companies do not take steps to protect workers like Eugene Falconer, they will be held accountable.

Mike Andrews

On the day he was injured, Mr. Falconer was working in Bessemer, Alabama. He was operating a roll-off cable hoist truck with an automatic tarping system that used hydraulic arms to lift the tarp and cover the truck’s load.

Our investigation produced evidence that the truck and its tarping system were dangerously flawed. One of the defendants designed pins that work as attachment points without any mechanism to lock and secure them when the hydraulic arms are engaged.

In this case, the tarping system had controls placed outside the driver’s side of the truck, behind the cab, and directly underneath the hydraulic arms. The location of these controls puts the operator in a “zone of danger” directly below the system’s moving arms.

When the tarping system malfunctioned, Mr. Falconer was at the controls underneath one of the overhead hydraulic arms. The failure caused the hydraulic arm to topple down and forcefully strike Mr. Falconer. He survived the blow but suffered in a hospital bed for more than a year before succumbing to the injuries caused by the defectively designed and installed machinery.

We also discovered that the hydraulic system was installed without following the installation manual, as the controls were placed in the zone of danger. Incredibly, no standard for the consistent installation of the hydraulic controls exists. Instead of a safe, uniform standard, the placement of the controls is left to the installer’s judgment on any given day. It was admitted that positioning the controls in another location would have eliminated the deadly threat that ultimately ended Mr. Falconer’s life.

Additionally, the defendants failed to conduct a “failure modes and effects analysis” (FMEA) even when they knew the potential dangers of the hydraulic arms. Such an analysis would have shown the likelihood of a failure like the one that occurred and the severity of the resulting injuries to the operator.

Katrina Falconer’s complaint alleged that the defendants “designed, manufactured, built, assembled, installed, inspected, sold and/or distributed the subject truck and the tarping system” and that the equipment was “unreasonably dangerous and defective.” She also asserts that the defendants negligently designed the system and failed to adequately warn users, including Mr. Falconer, about the machinery’s risks of injury and death.

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On Aug. 10, 2022, President Biden signed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA), which created a legal framework for victims of toxic water contamination at Camp Lejeune to pursue litigation against the federal government. Feb. 10, 2023, is a monumental date for service members and others affected by Camp Lejeune’s contaminated water because this was the first possible day that the CLJA’s provisions allowed for an impacted individual to file a civil suit.

Specifically, the CLJA requires those impacted to first file an administrative claim to start the process. The Act then requires a claimant to wait for a six-month period after filing the administrative claim before the claimant can file a civil action. This six-month period allows the Department of the Navy to review the claim and offer resolution through settlement offers. After six months, if the department has not offered a settlement or the claimant rejects a settlement offer, the claimant can then file a lawsuit in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

While national advertisements may mislead impacted claimants to believe they only need to sign up to receive a successful resolution, we expect litigation to play a crucial role in this action. In fact, many of these cases’ successes will hinge upon litigation. Our lawyers have worked tirelessly to protect clients’ rights by filing administrative claims on a rolling basis since the fall of 2022.

More than 20,000 administrative claims have been filed with the Department of the Navy, including many filed by our firm. Just five days after Feb. 10, the date when the first possible lawsuit could be filed, approximately 100 Camp Lejeune-related lawsuits were filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina – the court system set by statute to resolve all of these CLJA claims.

Details about the structure of the litigation continue unfolding, and we will keep our readers updated. For more information about the Camp Lejeune litigation, check out the webinar our legal team hosted earlier this month.

The post Camp Lejeune Litigation Enters Second Stage – Filing Lawsuits appeared first on Beasley Allen.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers in a national multidistrict litigation (MDL) against some of the world’s largest social media platforms filed a master complaint on Feb. 14, meeting a deadline set by federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, Calif. Beasley Allen lawyer Joseph VanZandt is one of the lawyers appointed to the Plaintiffs Steering Committee leading this landmark case, which currently includes 133 personal injury claims.

The lawsuits allege that Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube analyze users’ personal data and employ algorithms to manipulate minors and keep them addicted to the product. Social media companies designed their products to work much like a drug. Using the products deliberately affects dopamine levels in youth, the lawsuits allege. Consequently, the products have caused minors to develop anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, suicide, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and other severe mental and physical health difficulties.

In addition to prioritizing master pleadings and setting a deadline for the master complaint, Judge Gonzalez-Rogers also set deadlines of April 17, 2023, for the defendant’s motions to dismiss and June 30, 2023, for all oppositions and replies.

Litigation will continue to the discovery phase if plaintiffs overcome the defendant companies’ motion to dismiss the initial claims. Additional families can join the lawsuit, adopting the allegations contained in the master complaint.

While the defendants can brief certain legal issues, the judge discouraged filing motions involving Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and the First Amendment. Lawyers for the defendants had sought to advance an argument that the complaints should be tossed under the CDA, which gives internet companies immunity from the actions of third parties.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gonzalez v. Google could potentially narrow the social media companies’ immunity under Section 230 of the CDA. The High Court’s ruling in the case will clarify and establish standards for the level of immunity social media companies currently enjoy under the Act. The decision could also weaken the anticipated defense strategy in this case and significantly impact future social media litigation.

The lawsuits in the social media MDL are not about third-party involvement as much as they are about the defendant companies’ own actions. Joseph likens the social media cases to those he brought against the vape maker JUUL, which developed and marketed highly addictive nicotine products targeting minors. Those cases recently resulted in four major global settlements.

The discovery is being stayed in the social media addiction MDL pending master pleadings and motion practices. Yet, Judge Gonzalez-Rogers has ordered some defendants to provide documents they previously produced in connection with other investigations conducted by state attorneys general and international authorities. Another Case Management statement was submitted on March 3.

All of the defendants in this case also face a multitude of personal injury lawsuits consolidated for litigation in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles. In California, lawsuits combined and tried together are known as Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings (JCCP), similar to a federal MDL. In addition to the federal MDL, Beasley Allen is honored to represent plaintiffs in the California litigation. Judge Carolyn Kuhl is presiding over the Social Media JCCP. An initial hearing in that litigation took place on Feb. 17.

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