Articles by Dan Levine

Judge Finds Evidence That Tesla, Musk Knew About Autopilot Defect

A Florida judge found “reasonable evidence” that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and other managers knew the automaker’s vehicles had a defective Autopilot system but still allowed the cars to be driven unsafely, according to a ruling. Judge Reid Scott, …

Tesla Wins First US Autopilot Trial Involving Fatal Crash

Tesla on Oct. 31 won the first U.S. trial over allegations that its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to a death, a major victory for the automaker as it faces several other lawsuits and federal investigations related to the same …

Tesla Aware of Autopilot Steering Malfunction Before Fatal Crash: Lawyer

An attorney suing Tesla over a fatal accident cited an internal safety analysis conducted by the company that showed it knew about a steering malfunction in its Autopilot driver assistant feature about two years earlier. The disclosure came during closing …

Tesla Engineer Defends ‘Full Self-Driving’ Name at Crash Trial

A Tesla engineer in court on Wednesday rejected a lawyer’s suggestion that the company named its driver-assistant feature “Full Self-Driving” because it wanted people to believe that its systems had more abilities than was really the case. The electric-vehicle maker …

Eli Lilly Settles New Jersey Whistleblower Allegations Over Manufacturing Practices

Eli Lilly and Co. and a former employee agreed to settle a lawsuit in which the worker claimed she was terminated after pointing out poor manufacturing practices and data falsification involving one of its blockbuster diabetes drugs, according to court …

Plaintiffs’ Attorney Cites ‘Experimental Vehicles’ in Tesla Trial Over Autopilot Fatality

The lawyer representing victims of a fatal crash of a Tesla Model 3 car in his opening statement in court on Thursday blamed the company’s Autopilot driver assistant system, saying that “a car company should never sell consumers experimental vehicles.” …

Tesla Braces For Its First Trial Involving Autopilot Fatality

Tesla Inc. is set to defend itself for the first time at trial against allegations that failure of its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to death, in what will likely be a major test of Chief Executive Elon Musk’s assertions …

U.S. Court Rejects J&J Bankruptcy Strategy for Thousands of Talc Lawsuits

A U.S. appeals court on Monday shot down Johnson & Johnson’s attempt to offload tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products into bankruptcy court. The ruling marked the first major repudiation of an emerging legal strategy with the …

Koch Industries Gets $2.5B in Dividends From Unit That Offloaded Asbestos Liability

Industrial conglomerate Koch Industries received nearly $2.5 billion in dividend payments last year from its Georgia-Pacific unit, which had spun off a subsidiary that took on its liability from asbestos litigation and then filed bankruptcy to limit lawsuit payouts, according …

Special Report: Corporate Chiefs Dodge Lawsuits Over Sexual Abuse, Deadly Products

Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction landed him in prison. Allegations of serial sexual abuse cost him his career and his movie studio. His company went bankrupt and later settled legal claims by about 50 women. But one group of …