We have mentioned before on occasion rulings in the pretrial phase of the Kugel Mesh Hernia Repair Patch Litigation, MDL No. 1842 (D.R.I.). But we haven’t talked much about the litigation, maybe because we had a hard time figuring out how they made mesh out of kugel, until we learned that the mesh is

We previously wrote in less than glowing terms about the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division’s decision in Kendall v. Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., slip op. (N.J. Super. A.D. August 5, 2010). We explained that “the court essentially ruled that, due to the defendant’s adequate and extensive warnings about other risks (birth defects and suicide),

We defense lawyers enjoy reading lengthy opinions that analyze key defense issues and rule in our favor. But it can be more satisfying to read a short opinion in favor of the defense on an issue we care about. Short opinions usually show that the law on a particular point is settled. Rounds v. Genzyme

If you surveyed lawyers of all stripes involved in tort litigation, you would probably find that the overwhelming majority hate insurance companies. Plaintiffs’ lawyers, of course, hate them because insurance companies won’t give them all the money they want. Defense lawyers who seek coverage for claims against their clients hate it when insurance companies deny

We have written before about the virtues of Lone Pine orders, which require plaintiffs to produce elementary evidence supporting their claims, usually some prima face evidence of exposure, injury, and causation. These orders provide an excellent tool to eliminate the cases filed in any mass tort by people just hoping to cash in without having

Anybody with a pulse, a computer, and a connection to the internet has heard the warnings: be careful what you post on Facebook, MySpace, and other social network sites. That blow-by-blow account of your victory in the Tenth Intramural Beer Pong Championship can come back to haunt you. Those pictures of you clothed only with

Some lawyers in the East Coast and West Coast – you know who you are – tend to be dismissive of decisions from the middle of the country, referred to with disdain as “flyover country.” In our experience, the assumptions of the superiority of the coastal courts and the inferiority of landlocked courts are unwarranted.

Sometimes repeated litigation concerning a particular product can help establish legal standards applicable to all cases, especially if many people received the product and try to bring suits. Plaintiffs try one theory after another; courts reject most of those theories; and the resultant mosaic of decisions forms a comprehensive picture of which claims are viable