Not too long ago, we tried to extrapolate from a doctoral thesis on quantum dots to lessons for litigation. That “[q]uantum dots are between one-billionth of a meter and one-hundred-millionth of a meter in size” emphasized that “appreciating the scope and scale of what is being discussed can be critical.” In the spate of litigation
New California Ranitidine Litigation Order Makes A Huge Mess Of Everything
This is from the non-RS side of the Blog.
We admit that the use of “everything” in our title may be excessive. The order in In re Rantidine [sic] Cases, JCCP 5150 (Cal. Super. Ct. Sept. 15, 2025) (“Cali Ranitidine”), slip op. here, did not cause climate change, poverty, hunger, air
The Fourth Circuit Rejects Attempts To Avoid And Invalidate The Vaccine Act
As we have riffed on before, staying apolitical when discussing the science and law implicated by our posts can be harder than one might expect. That has become increasingly true with regard to litigation over alleged injuries from vaccines, to say nothing of vaccine mandates for public health. It was not terribly
Design Defect Claims Preempted In GLP-1 MDL
The day before this post went live there was a retirement ceremony for Judge Jon P. McCalla, the federal district judge for whom we clerked three decades ago. After serving as an Army officer in the Vietnam War, Judge McCalla got his J.D. from Vanderbilt and clerked for Judge Bailey Brown of the Western District
FNC Dismissal Of A Case With A Foreign Plaintiff Reversed On Appeal
In law school, many students struggle with the distinctions between personal jurisdiction, venue, and forum non conveniens (aka, FNC). In the real world of product liability, FNC is definitely viewed as a less effective tool in the defense litigation toolbox than the other two. Part of the reason is that the showing required for a
Proponents Of Expert Opinion Testimony Bear The Burden To Establish Admissibility, Right?
This is from the non-Butler Snow side of the Blog.
Readers of the Blog know that we believe in strictly applying the requirements of Federal Rules of Evidence 702 and 703. Long before the 2023 amendments to Rule 702 were a twinkle in the advisory committee’s collective eye, we were pounding the proverbial drum that
A Major Expert Reset In Delaware
This is from the non-Dechert and non-RS side of the Blog.
We recently attended a successful Ph.D. thesis defense on the seemingly narrow issue of trap states in quantum dots. This was held in a dark wood-paneled room in a large science building on the campus of a research institution generally known by a short
Ranitidine Appeal After A Defense Verdict Falls Flat In Illinois
This is from the non-Dechert and non-RS portion of the Blog.
We used to post about defense wins in litigation over both branded and generic ranitidine fairly often. The MDL in the Southern District of Florida systematically knocked down all of plaintiffs’ theories based on the lack of legal support (e.g., preemption) and lack of
For The Longest Time
When you write a few hundred or more posts for a legal blog devoted to the somewhat niche subject of drug and device product liability law, you look for themes or hooks to keep both the writer and presumptive readers engaged. The themes may be fairly obvious based on the date of the post, the
Medical Device Manufacturers Are Not Health Care Providers, Right?
For the decades that we have been handling drug and medical device product liability cases, it has been a given that we wanted to make it clear that our clients did not provide medical care or healthcare directly to patients. For one thing, unauthorized practice of medicine would be bad. Also, when dealing with prescription