As mentioned last week, we’re having an odd moment in our practice when virtually all our cases involve feverish battles over whether the cases belong in state or federal court. Care to guess which side of the argument we’re adopting? (Hint: we prefer judges who will actually pay attention to dispositive motions and might even
Knee Implant Plaintiff Cannot Kick Case out of Federal Court by Fraudulently Joining Local Supplier
Today’s case, Clayton v. Zimmer United States, Inc., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 213345 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 29, 2025), marks two weeks in a row where we discuss good (for the defense) court decisions coming out of Ohio. Meanwhile, in our non-blogging-but-actually-paying part of our job, we’re on something like our fifth week in a
Fen-Phen Flashback
It feels like 20 years ago when we were doing almost monthly fen-phen diet drug trials in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The old timey-air-conditioning units in City Hall, along with subways rumbling underfoot, occasionally drowned out the testimony of plaintiff experts taking both scientific studies and internal company documents out of context. That
Ruff Day for Far-Fetched Canine Drug Case
Today’s case, Hartney v. Zoetis, Inc., 2025 WL 2924661 (D.N.J. Oct. 15, 2025), is about a canine medicine allegedly gone wrong. But lest you think the DDL blog has gone to the dogs, this case addresses issues such as preemption and learned intermediary that are key in cases with thumbed, supposedly sapient, biped plaintiffs.
Mind you
Yet Another Filshie Clip Defense Win
There is a documentary out on the actor Charlie Sheen and it reminded us that, long before the current denizen of the White House crowed about “winning,” that was a staple of many bizarre rants by Sheen.
We’re not ranting, whether bizarrely or sanely, but it is nice to post about yet another defense win
E.D. Louisiana Dismisses IVC Case on TwIqbal Grounds
This week we could not resist writing about a good result from an always interesting jurisdiction (Louisiana) involving one of our all-time favorite defense lawyers (Hi, Lori Cohen).
In McGuire v. B. Braun Med. Inc., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184172, 2025 WL 2689205 (E.D. Louisiana Sept. 19, 2025), the district court granted the defendants’ motion to
Filshie Clip Preemption Redemption
Don’t stop us if you’ve heard this before, because you have. (Here and here, for example). Wilson v. Coopersurgical, Inc., (S.D. Illinois Sept. 9, 2025), is yet another case from the Filshie Clip litigation illustrating the power of premarket approval (PMA) preemption. The defendant won dismissal on summary judgment after the case
Summary Judgment for Defense when Bair Hugger Plaintiff offers Insufficient Product Identification
Some litigations are gifts that keep on giving. A big chunk of DDL work product consists of commentary on a couple of mass torts. Maybe it is a version of the 80-20 rule, or how a huge percentage of crimes are committed by a relatively small group of career criminal recidivists. For a while, Aredia-Zometa
D. Delaware Dismisses Class Action in which Named Plaintiffs Alleged No Injury
Whenever we see a class action in which the named plaintiffs suffered no injury, we throw up our hands and think that the invention of class actions was a wrong turn in American legal history. But when we see a case like Klosowski v. FPG Labs, LLC, 2025 WL 2532500 (D. Del. Sept. 3
Ninth Circuit Holds that Drug’s “Pithy” Slogan was, in Context, not Misleading
It is not as if the Wednesday slot is reserved for flakey stuff, but we’ll confess a weakness for cases from the Ninth Circuit, where we clerked. A lot of craziness percolates up through federal courts out there. We also have a soft spot for cases that are not exactly in the product liability heartland