A (relatively) long time ago in a state not so far away, the Michigan Legislature enacted the Michigan Product Liability Act. It contained a provision providing the manufacturers of FDA-approved drugs with immunity from product liability absent the application of two narrow exceptions. A challenge to the constitutionality of the provision soon followed and the
This guest post is by Kevin Hara, an associate at Reed Smith and relatively frequent contributor to the Blog. Here, he discusses two recent favorable procedural developments in further appeals from two really awful decisions by intermediate courts of appeals. As always, our guest posters are 100% responsible for what they write – due
Happy birthday, Christopher Plummer. The great Canadian actor turns 88 today, and seems as vibrant as ever. What a marvelous career Plummer has had. He is a preeminent Shakespearean actor. We saw him play Iago to James Earl Jones’s Othello on Broadway 35 years ago. Of course, most people remember Plummer as Captain Von Trapp
We have a guest post today, from Luther Munford of Butler Snow. He’s been doing some thinking about how something analogous to the “two schools of thought” medical malpractice doctrine should apply to medical product liability cases. As always with out guest posts, our posters deserve 100% of the credit, and any blame, for
A lot of us attended the annual ACI Drug & Medical Device Litigation Conference in New York City last week. One of the messages sent loud and clear from the initial client round table panel is that our clients don’t like surprises, and it is helpful to them to know information about potential litigation possibilities
Those of us who practice in the mass tort space spend vast portions of our professional lives dealing with our opponents’ experts. In our minds, we seek only to enforce the dictates of the Federal Rules and of the United States Supreme Court (and their esteemed state counterparts); to wit, to ensure that experts are
This guest post is by Reed Smith‘s Matthew Jacobson. It discusses the FDA’s recent guidance on the hot topic of 3D printing as a manufacturing practice for regulated drugs and medical devices, but not biologics (at least not yet). As always with our guest posts the author is 100% responsible for the content.
The defendants in the Eliquis MDL have turned somewhat of a preemption hat trick. The latest order is In re Eliquis (Apixaban) Prods. Liab. Litig., No 17-md-2754 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 29, 2017), where the district court dismissed twenty-four cases newly transferred into that MDL. We will explain why in a moment, but first a little
Today Time Magazine announces its Person of the Year. The publisher called us a week or so ago to say we were PROBABLY going to be named Man (Person) (Blog) of the Year, but we would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. We said “probably” is no good and took
We update our cheat sheet devoted to ediscovery for defendants differently than the others. Because of the broad nature of the topic – these cases arise in a wide variety of non-drug/device contexts – other personal injury, employment, civil rights, occasionally even criminal litigation. That means we have to research them separately to find what