Among the challenges facing product manufacturers in the 21st century are recognizing and managing the legal threat posed by multiple, individual product liability lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions.

If you need to research gun control issues, check out The Violence Policy Center (VPC) at <i>www.vpc.org.</i> The VPC, based in Washington, DC, is a national nonprofit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The VPC examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related deaths and injuries. As a gun control think tank, the VPC analyzes a wide range of current firearm issues and provides information to policymakers, journalists, public health professionals, grassroots activists, and members of the general public.

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Bankruptcy has emerged as a dominant avenue for resolving mass product liability cases and, in particular, asbestos liability cases. Plaintiffs already have filed hundreds of thousands of asbestos claims, with many experts surmising that the peak of asbestos litigation is not yet in sight. Asbestos encompasses a family of naturally occurring fibrous materials that have superior insulation and tensile strength properties. Manufacturers began to exploit the flame-retardant and insulating properties of asbestos in heavy industrial use in the 1940s and incorporated asbestos into as many as 3000 products by the early 1970s, when industrial usage peaked. From automotive applications, such as gaskets and brakes, to home uses, such as roof shingles and attic insulation, the use of asbestos for commercial applications proliferated throughout most of the 20th century and still continues today at a decreased rate. The United States still consumes approximately 16,000 metric tons of asbestos each year.

Highlights of the latest product liability cases from around the country.

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Employers face many challenges stemming from the fact that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects alcoholic employees from discrimination, including, in some instances, requiring an employer to provide reasonable accommodations to the employee. The ADA also protects drug addicts, as long as the employee is no longer actively engaged in the use of illegal drugs.

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You think your company has a good case. From what you can gather, the allegations that your company stole trade secrets from a rival are completely unfounded. But then you enter discovery. Your opposition requests a whole host of e-mails ' predictable these days. That's when you realize you have a problem. It soon becomes clear that, although the case should have been defendable, it is more financially sound for the company to begin negotiating a settlement. Sound far-fetched? These kind of scenarios are happening more and more with today's proliferation of e-mail and the corresponding lack of corporate electronic records retention policies.

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How can an employer protect its workplace from the often harmful effects of employee drug and alcohol abuse, avoid accusations that it is discriminating against an employee because of a purported addiction disability, and, at the same time, help an employee who was once a valuable and productive contributor to become so again? The answer may lie in a carefully crafted "Last Chance Agreement."

For the fourth consecutive year, the American Corporate Counsel's annual meeting was the site of a survey measuring Chief Legal Officer (CLO)'s top concerns…