This guest post was written by J.C. McElveen, of Jones Day. We thank him for the contribution:
In the late 1980s, members of the Havasupai tribe, an Indian tribe that lives at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, approached an Arizona State University anthropologist with whom the tribe had been working for several decades
Ideas For Voir Dire
We’re collecting here various thoughts for voir dire questions in drug or device product liability cases that we’ve stumbled across recently. Some of the questions are new and interesting; some are tried and true; all are worth considering before you pick your next jury.
First:
“Has your confidence in the FDA increased, decreased, or stayed
Closing The Arguments On Conte
As we reported yesterday, the California Supreme Court denied the petitions for review in Wyeth v. Conte. We’ve posted extensively on why we think Conte is a particularly dangerous expansion of tort liability because it simply ignores what product liability has been about for 50 years – that responsibility for product-related injuries follows
Conte v. Wyeth: Review Denied
In Conte v. Wyeth, a California appellate court held that the manufacturer of a brand name drug could potentially be held liable for an injury allegedly caused by the generic version of the drug.
Our earlier rant about that case was here.
Today, the California Supreme Court refused to review the appellate court decision.
Using The Internet To Improve Class Actions
One of your humble scribes — Herrmann — has teamed up with two co-authors to publish
“Making Class Actions Work: The Untapped Potential of the Internet,” 69 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 727 (2008), which is just hitting newsstands today.
In the article, Herrmann, his colleague Brad Harrison, and his former colleague (and now Dean
Welcome to the Blogosphere, Russell Jackson!
We’re pleased to see that Russell Jackson, of Skadden, has launched a new blog about consumer class actions and mass torts.
Russell’s columns in the National Law Journal have always been insightful, and we look forward to reading his new ideas on-line.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Russell!
How Much Should Judges Make?
In case you missed it, we’re providing this link to Adam Liptak’s article in today’s New York Times: “How Much Should Judges Make?”
Apparently, a couple of empirical studies suggest that judicial pay is unrelated to “the quantity and quality of the work judges produce.”
We’ll just stand aside and watch the
Wait! Blogging Works!
When Herrmann published a post last week saying that blogging doesn’t necessarily generate new business for lawyers, the blogosphere lit up like a Christmas tree. (The ornaments can be seen, among other places, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
The on-line community told us that, if our blog
The Role Of Inside Counsel In Deposition Preparation
We’re still feasting from our notes of the ACI Drug and Device Conference in New York last month. This post combines our thoughts with the ideas of one of the speakers at the conference. (We’re not sure if that person cares to be identified here, so we’re not naming him or her — but not
Second Circuit Agrees To Review Weinstein’s Zyprexa Class Certification
This just in:
The Second Circuit has granted Eli Lilly’s petition under Rule 23(f) to review Judge Weinstein’s decision certifying a class in the Zyprexa litigation.
Our earlier posts about Judge Weinstein’s order are here and here.
The entire text of the Second Circuit’s docket entry reads:
1/15/09 Order FILED GRANTING motion leave to