Evidence & Admissibility
Why are toxic tort experts excluded, and what did the 2023 amendment to Rule 702 change?
Federal Rule of Evidence 702 was amended effective 1 December 2023 to state the proponent’s burden in the text of the rule and to direct attention to what an expert concludes, not only to the method used. This describes the amendment, what the Advisory Committee said it was correcting, and the exclusion patterns that recur in toxic tort matters; it is not advice about any motion and predicts no outcome.
Statutory Framework
Who pays for a contaminated site cleanup under CERCLA?
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act names four categories of potentially responsible party at 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a), and any one of them can be made to pay the whole cost of cleanup — strict, joint and several liability that does not ask who was at fault, only who fits one of the four categories, unless a defendant can prove the harm is capable of division.
Exposure & Pathway Analysis
What is vapor intrusion, and when does it become a legal problem?
Vapor intrusion is the migration of volatile chemicals from contaminated soil or groundwater into the air inside a building above it. The federal framework for assessing it is guidance rather than a binding rule, and its screening values are deliberately conservative triggers for further work — not health limits and not cleanup standards.
Property, Community & Class Claims
Can neighbors recover for property value loss near a contaminated site?
In some states yes and in others no, and the dividing line is usually whether contamination physically reached the claimant's own parcel. This page explains what the law requires and what evidence the claim needs; it does not estimate any loss, which is a separate discipline.
Contaminants & Exposure Media
What is the federal drinking water standard for PFAS?
The only PFAS limits enforceable nationally on 15 September 2026 are the maximum contaminant levels the Environmental Protection Agency published on 26 April 2024, and two proposals published on 20 May 2026 would narrow them. Nothing in those proposals has been finalized and the 2024 rule is also under review in the D.C. Circuit, so every number below carries a date.
Causation & Health Effects
How do courts decide whether a chemical caused a disease?
American courts split the question in two and decide them on different evidence: whether the substance can cause the disease at all, and whether it caused this person’s disease. This is a description of the framework and of what named decisions have held, not an opinion about any substance, any claimant or any pending matter.