In the March issue of California Lawyer, Partners Mark Berry and Pamela Roberts participated in a roundtable discussion on Product Liability. The panel discussed the effects of May’s California Supreme Court’s ruling, In re Tobacco II Cases (46 Cal. 4th 298 (2009)) which has set off a host of controversies over class certification, California’s Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17200- 17210), and Proposition 64 (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17203). Other topics discussed included the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332 (d), 1453, 1711-1715), the operative standard for admissibility of evidence in California (People v. Kelly, 17 Cal. 3d 24 (1976))/Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (1923)), the federal standard (the Daubert test, so called because of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993)), and the delay in getting mass-tort cases to the courthouse.
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