Insights

Washington – January 11, 2023: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2023: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 11th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in litigation that are playing out in specific jurisdictions around the globe. 

In July 2018, a New York State trial court in Burdick v. Tonoga, Inc., 60 Misc. 3d 1212(A) (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2018), certified four classes of plaintiffs in a suit against Tonoga Inc. (d/b/a Taconic) for soil and groundwater contamination and medical monitoring involving perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The case is the first lawsuit involving PFOA contamination in New York State in which a class has been certified, and may be a harbinger of similar toxic tort class actions in the future.

As 2023 rolls in, what changes can government contractors expect? What will be the focus of the US Government? How should contractors prepare?

An August 2017 letter from seven US Senators to the House Appropriations Committee urged the Committee to support programs that addressed per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are being detected in drinking water sources across the nation. The letter went on to indicate the DoD was conducting preliminary site inspections and that “DoD officials had suggested that clean up costs could reach as high as $2 billion.” In a March 2018 DoD report, one DoD official noted that there are more than 400 military sites with known or suspected PFAS contamination. And in the most recent Defense Appropriations bill, Congress authorized up to $20 million for the Air Force to make payments to reimburse local communities for the cleanup of PFAS contamination due to Air Force- and National Guard-related activities.