Your Legal Guide Predicts Stormy Legal Climate for 2010

With 2010 fast approaching, Your Legal Guide's editors looked into the distance and spotted a hailstorm of legal activity on the horizon. From texting-related car accident claims to lawsuits stemming from popular social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, the legal landscape promises to be bristling with activity in 2010. The issues below will blow into the new year backed by strong tailwinds.

Toy Safety

Toys and other children's products have been making headlines because of choking hazards, dangerous lead paint levels and other safety issues. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), between 2006 and 2008 there was an average of 229,600 emergency room visits a year for toy-related injuries. Earlier this year, safety concerns prompted Stork Craft to recall a staggering 2.1 million cribs and Kolcraft more than 1 million play yards. The CPSC has mounted an aggressive safety and awareness campaign in response, including federal limits on lead in paint that are among the most stringent in the world. As additional hazards and products are identified, expect personal injury lawsuits concerning toy safety to be a top product liability issue in 2010.

Driving While Texting

It should come as no surprise that driving-while-distracted behaviors such as eating, talking on the phone and texting increase the risk of car crashes. According to a recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008 almost 6,000 people were killed and more than half a million people injured in police-reported crashes involving at least one form of distracted driving. Furthermore, a new study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute finds that texting while driving is the most dangerous of all cell phone behaviors, with the risk of crash as much as 23.2 times higher. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have already banned texting while driving, and many legal analysts have likened texting-while-driving accidents to those caused by driving under the influence (DUI). As a result, we expect to see increased lawsuits in this important and rapidly developing area of personal injury law in 2010.

Social Media

It's hard to imagine that just a few years ago, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media were not a part of our everyday vernacular. Today, Facebook, the leading online social media site, boasts more than 250 million users, and more than 20,000 hours of video are being uploaded to You Tube every minute. We may be more connected than ever, but all this sharing is raising questions and triggering lawsuits related to privacy, defamation, libel, third party trademark use, phishing, hijacking, blackmailing, wrongful termination and many other issues. Expect to see lots of tweeting about social media and the law in 2010!

Layoff Lawsuits

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 15.4 million people were unemployed in November 2009 - up from 7.4 million at the start of the recession in December 2007. But do more layoffs mean more lawsuits? The answer appears to be yes. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, age-discrimination allegations alone increased 29 percent in 2008 over the previous year. We expect to see more class action lawsuits under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires 60 days' advance notice of layoffs. Lawsuits have already been filed against high-profile companies like Fortunoff, Lehman Brothers Holdings and Lend America. Allegations of gender-, disability- or race-based discrimination, contract violations, harassment and unpaid severance should also be a big part of recession-related employment lawsuits in 2010.

Bankruptcy Boom

In the past, people in serious financial trouble considered bankruptcy a last resort, largely because of the harmful effect to their credit and the negative stigma associated with filing. Following the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005, a law designed to make it even harder to file, the numbers hit historic lows. However, with record numbers of foreclosures and consumers drowning in debt, bankruptcy filings are on the rise. In fact, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts is reporting more than 1.4 million bankruptcy filings for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2009, and we expect this trend to continue into 2010.

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