A team of Schiff Hardin attorneys compiled the chapter on “Recent Developments in Toxic Torts and Environmental Law” for the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal published in the winter of 2015 (Vol. 50:2) on the evolving landscape of the environmental and toxic tort areas of law. The Schiff team was led by partners Edward Casmere, Joshua R. More, and J. Michael Showalter. The article covers new court decisions, proposed and final regulations, and interpretations of regulations in ten areas: class actions, medical monitoring, asbestos, hydraulic fracturing, emerging product regulations and tort claims, punitive damages, the Resource Conservation Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act.
Key subjects covered in this update include developments regarding duties owed and causation standards in asbestos-related personal injury claims; the Environmental Protection Agency’s first rule regulating carbon emissions from existing power plants; decisions regarding apportionment of harm at Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act sites; and hydraulic fracturing related litigation activity—an area that is expanding beyond traditional environmental claims into the toxic tort arena.