Defendant manufacturers of FDA-approved Class III medical devices generally do pretty well with preemption motions, as our PMA Preemption Score Card (now with well over 500 decisions) demonstrates. Conley v. St. Jude Medical, LLC, ___ F. Supp.3d ___, 2020 WL 5087889 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 28, 2020), is one of these, but some aspects of
In what’s a bit of a mixed bag decision, the ultimate takeaway from Bird v. Globus Medical, Inc., 2020 WL 5366300 (E.D. Calif. Sep. 8, 2020) is that the complaint was generally lacking. So, plaintiff is going to get a second chance. Meanwhile, we can take a look at just what wasn’t up to
Not long ago we brought you a report from the False Claims Act (“FCA”) front on how the government was doing with its attempts to prune back some of the worst abuses of FCA litigation – particularly the advent of “professional relators.” In that earlier post, we discussed the two major approaches that courts
That’s how Maryland’s highest court chose to characterize its gradual move from Frye to Daubert – a drifting process. Like the way the ocean drifts ashore as the tide is rising. Creeping a little higher, each wave covering and absorbing a little more of the beach. As it slowly inches toward your chair where you’re
The order of operations can matter. Back in elementary school, you may have learned a mnemonic about somebody’s aunt to help you remember the right order for doing certain math problems. In computer programming, engineering, auto repair, surgery, and a myriad of other endeavors, you can get very different results if you take the same
The Covid-19 lockdown period is approaching the six-month mark, from mid-March to mid-September. Throughout the spring and summer we have been reading old novels with convoluted plots and surprise endings. Today we take a look at an old case, though only from a prior decade, not a prior century. If the case is convoluted, it
As we write this, it is a glorious Labor Day Monday in the suburbs of Philadelphia. We are pleased to confirm that the Drug and Device Law Rock Climber retrieved her dogs last week, though not before we rushed to the vet one last time, this time to address the Pom’s allergic skin reaction to
What follows is another “guest post” by our blogger-in-training Dean Balaes. This one concerns remote corporate Rule 30(b)(6) depositions and a recent decision addressing them.
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In many respects, COVID-19 has created (to use the overused term) a new normal for the legal profession. When California became the first state to issue a stay-at-home order
It’s hard to believe, but fully five months after COVID-19 was officially declared to be a “pandemic,” it’s still extraordinarily difficult to get oneself tested – particularly if one is not already sick or exposed. Maine has been one of the most successful states in reducing the virus’ spread, with the third lowest rate of
We often say, as we said last week, that this blog is not designed to do plaintiffs’ work for them. Thus, we are a heckuva lot more likely to trumpet pro-defense rulings than wrong ones. Still, it is important to know the problem areas out there, and today’s case displays one of them. It