The definitive source for intelligent commentary on the law that matters for drug and device product liability cases
This is a defense blog. Are we biased? Yes, we are. We come by that bias honestly, via temperament, principle, and client loyalty. We are happy to report on defense wins. If we report at all on plaintiff wins, it will be grudgingly and typically accompanied by heaping helpings of regrets and criticisms.
Have we…
If it’s Wednesday, it’s plainly time to talk about removal. Today’s case, In re Depo Provera Prods Liab. Litigation, 2025 WL 3252445 (N.D. Fla. Nov. 13, 2025), upholds one of the defense bar’s favorite procedural maneuvers,snap removal. The case was snapped in California, in the Ninth Circuit, and transferred to the Multidistrict Litigation in…
If you are of a certain age and are presented with a trio of items, we bet you sometimes add “Oh My” to the end of the list, as in Lions, and Tigers, and Bears-Oh My. Or, you think of other things that come in threes, such as the past and the present…
[This post is not from the Reed Smith side of the blog.]
Litigation is a game. It is a game with real stakes and broad implications, but it is nonetheless a game played according to certain rules. As in all games, the participants—plaintiffs and defendants alike—try to maximize their advantage within those rules.
In litigation…
Today’s case is not a drug or device case, but a COVID nursing home case. We are not blogging on the underlying substance of the case but rather on plaintiff’s motion to remand after a snap removal. The case – Carroll v. Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services – is pending in the Western District of Pennsylvania. …
We looked back over the blog and it’s been over one year since we posted on snap removal. Last spring and summer, we reported on new pre-service removals almost monthly. So, we decided to poke around a bit and see if there was anything going on outside the drug and device law space. We found…
Here is another post from our junior blogger-in-training, Dean Balaes. He tackles one of the blog’s favorite subjects, removal before service to bring our readers the skinny on the first case where a plaintiff attempted to interpose a COVID-19 objection to snap removal, unsuccessfully. Since other plaintiffs might try the same thing, that makes…
We have always puzzled over why pre-service removals are the least bit controversial. We are referring to what are known as “snap removals,” or removals to federal court before any forum defendant has been served. They are one way to comply with the removal statute’s forum defendant rule. It’s pretty simple: Even when you have…
The passage of time can change our collective perception of what is normal and accepted. By way of a somewhat contrived example, back in 1989, there was a popular cross-over rap song called “Just a Friend” by Biz Markie. It was catchy, entertaining, and a contrast to so-called “gangsta rap” that scared the Parents Music…
Defendants know that the quickest way to level an uneven playing field is to… well… sprint. And few procedural tools reward nimble defense work quite like snap removal—the perfectly valid act of removing a case to federal court before the forum defendant is served. Plaintiffs call it gamesmanship. We call it reading the statute. Yet…