Rouviere has been a long and storied litigation. We have shared many parts of that story here (Zoom depositions during Covid), here (turncoat experts), here (reflections on Rambo litigation), and here (summary judgment on statute of limitations). After six years of litigation that ended in a summary judgment that was affirmed on appeal, we thought
Keeping the Horse Before the Cart
This is not the first time we have posted about Gallego v. Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. About six weeks ago we told you all about the excellent preemption decision that dismissed the entire case with prejudice except for a piece of the negligent design claim. On that, plaintiff was given thirty days to file
N.D. Illinois Adds a Track to the Preemption/Benzene Album
Admittedly, we sometimes feel like a broken record playing the same song over and over. But doesn’t everyone have that favorite album that they can put on a loop and never get tired of? (Prince’s Purple Rain; The Beatles 1967-1970; Elton John’s Two Rooms). For the DDL blog, that album would be
Stream of Commerce Jurisdiction Still Alive, But Hard to Establish Even in Difficult Forums
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
Not a drug or a device case, the recent personal jurisdiction ruling in In re: Hair Relaxer Marketing Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 2025 WL 1331791 (N.D. Ill. May 7, 2025), caught our attention because typically the Seventh Circuit is not a
Litigation Cannot Drive Science
Science and law share a common goal—getting at the truth; but their relationship can be shaky. In areas like medicine and products liability, courts need to rely on science, but courts should not make science or get ahead of science. Science is a methodical process that relies on testing, peer review, and replication. When science
Insurance Companies Lack Standing to Bring RICO Claims
Almost 15 years ago to the day, we posted the following question: why do third party payers and not patients bring RICO claims against drug and device companies for behavior that supposedly makes products cost too much? We were reporting on a case that dismissed the RICO claims of patients because they were indirect purchasers
Oregon Ignores Erie to Allow Failure to Recall Claim
We know that any federal court analysis that starts with Although the state has not recognized the duty . . . is going to be followed by a “prediction” of state law that instead creates unprecedented liability according to the federal court’s personal predilections. Which is precisely what the court did in CLF v. Coopersurgical
Fraudulent Joinder and PMA Preemption Deliver Knock Out in C.D. Cal.
There is a reason the one-two punch – a jab followed by a cross – is one of the most common sequences in boxing. It’s effective. The boxer uses his lead hand to throw a jab which has two objectives – to assess the distance between the fighters and if done correctly to lift his
Neither the Malfunction Theory Nor Res Ipsa Loquitur Excuses Failure to Offer Expert Evidence of a Manufacturing Defect
By their very nature, prescription only medical devices—particularly those that require surgical implantation—are complex products, the design and manufacture of which are not lay person knowledge. So, if you are going to claim such a device malfunctioned, you are going to have to prove it with expert evidence. This is a well-known legal concept. Yet
District of New Jersey Shuts Down Abusive Discovery in Allergan Biocell MDL
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
We live in a “producer-pays” world. Our discovery system gives plaintiffs a windfall by allowing them to demand production of millions of dollars’ worth of documents and data and to impose those costs almost entirely on defendants. Now think about that in MDLs. Plaintiffs