Ethan Schiff News Today

Exclusion clauses are a common feature of agreements of purchase and sale and other commercial contracts. While often subject to negotiation, parties sometimes proceed with standard form exclusion clauses that may inject uncertainty into what claims or implied statutory obligations are excluded from the parties agreement. In the event of a later dispute, the scope and import of the exclusion clause will be of considerable importance.

In product liability class actions, general causation i.e., a products propensity to cause alleged injuries is often a threshold issue to establish liability if general causation cannot be established, no class members claim is viable. This concept is distinct from and precedes specific causation i.e. whether the product caused a particular injury. Because specific causation often cannot be determined in common, to certify a class action, plaintiffs may need evidence of a methodology to prove ge...