Every time we think about addressing ghostwriting as a recurrent plaintiff-side jury distraction in drug/device product liability litigation, we get earwormed by “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” Whether one prefers the Johnny Cash or Outlaws version of the song – or one of who knows how many other covers of the song (originally
More Adventures in Personal Jurisdiction – Has Pennsylvania Fire Already Been Extinguished?
Bexis recently filed a personal jurisdiction amicus brief in Pennsylvania – ground zero in the battle over general jurisdiction by “consent” due to a foreign corporation’s registration to do business in the state (technically, commonwealth). As is readily apparent from our 50-state survey on general jurisdiction by consent, most states reject such an expansive reading
Guest Post – Some Good News from California for Companies with Self-Insured Retentions.
We know that most of our clients, manufacturers of prescription medical products (for purposes of this post), if they have insurance at all, have coverage that is subject to large self-insured retentions (“SIRs”). While the Blog doesn’t usually follow insurance matters, the decision discussed in this guest post is very good news for insureds
Learned Intermediary Rule – Back to the Future
By now, the learned intermediary rule is so well established that new opinions addressing core learned intermediary issues, as opposed to applying the rule to specific fact patterns, are relatively uncommon. The last one of those we covered was the Seventh Circuit’s prediction that Wisconsin would adopt the learned intermediary rule, almost a year ago
Guest Post – Even a No-Deal Brexit Will Not Erase Prior, Adverse CJEU Precedent
Today, Reed Smith is hosting a client roundtable in London, “Identifying and Mitigating Risk in a Changing Global Economy,” for life sciences clients. In light of that, we thought it would be a good idea to have a blogpost that’s relevant to what’s hot in the UK. Well, there’s nothing hotter on that side of
The Latest on Removal Before Service
Our recent post on “wrinkle removal” – that is, removal before service – case got us thinking. The opinion discussed in that post, Dechow v. Gilead Sciences, Inc., ___ F. Supp.3d ___, 2019 WL 5176243 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 8, 2019), was out of California, in the Ninth Circuit. That didn’t keep Dechow from citing
Guest Post – 510(k) Clearance of a Class II Device Can Be, as a Matter of Law, a Finding of No Potential Unreasonable Risk.
Today’s guest post, by Luther Munford of Butler Snow, engages in one of our currently favorite activities, that being informed speculation on what might be the consequences of a favorable Supreme Court resolution of its currently pending preemption appeal in Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht. We hope he’s right. As always, our
Supreme Court – The Excessive Fines Clause Applies to the States
Last week, in Timbs v. Indiana, ___ S. Ct. ___, 2019 WL 691578 (U.S. Feb. 20, 2019), the Court unanimously held that the Excessive Fines Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment applies to the states:
Under the Eighth Amendment, “[e]xcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
First Amendment Musings About Compelled Speech
Our recent post about the First Amendment decision in American Beverage Ass’n v. City & County of San Francisco, ___ F.3d ___, 2019 WL 387114 (9th Cir. Jan. 31, 2019) (en banc) (“ABevA”), holding unconstitutional a purported product “safety warning” was more than enough to set the old First Amendment juices flowing.
Direct To Prescriber Off-Label Communication Ethical Under New AdvaMed Guidelines
We’ve been waiting quite a while for the FDA to modernize its positions on the truthful off-label communications by regulated manufacturers. Under current First Amendment practice, the FDA’s positions are quite likely unconstitutional as both speaker- and topic-based restrictions on the truthful communication of scientific information. However, the best we’ve seen from the Agency to