This post sort of got away from us.  We started with the proposition that our prescription medical product clients frequently move to dismiss cases, and thus seek to get courts to take judicial notice of FDA-related documents in product liability litigation involving their products.  Judicial notice in cases involving FDA regulated products can be of great assistance on pleadings-based motions (Rule 12(b)(6) and judgment on the pleadings) because judicial notice is an exception to the usual limitation of such motions to what plaintiffs plead – or, equally importantly, fail to plead – in their complaints.  Not only do judicially noticeable documents fill in facts that plaintiffs deliberately omit, but they can also defeat contrary factual allegations that the documents establish are untrue.  This is an important exception to the Rule 12 mantra that challenged allegations are to be taken as true.  Instead, allegations in a complaint are not credited where contradicted by judicially noticeable documents.  E.g., Fuqua v. Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, ___ F.4th ___, 2025 WL 3072794, at *4 (10th Cir. Nov. 4, 2025); Jeffery v. City of New York, 113 F.4th 176, 179 (2d Cir. 2024); Clark v. Stone, 998 F.3d 287, 298 (6th Cir. 2021); Massey v. Ojaniit, 759 F.3d 343, 353 (4th Cir. 2014); Kaempe v. Myers, 367 F.3d 958, 963 (D.C. Cir. 2004); Sprewell v. Golden State Warriors, 266 F.3d 979, 988 (9th Cir. 2001).  So judicial notice can overcome contrary pleadings.Continue Reading Getting Noticed – Receiving FDA-Related Judicial Notice