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We’ve written many blogposts kvetching about rulings in the Bair Hugger Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) out in Minneapolis.  See here, for example. The rulings on expert admissibility in the Bair Hugger MDL were particularly weak.  But surely the rulings would be much better in our home district of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, right? And

In the litigation strategy class we teach at Penn Law, we always set aside a few minutes to go over the Aristotelian rhetoric trilogy of logos, pathos. and ethos.  As you probably already know, logos is the persuasive value of an argument’s logic, pathos is the power of sympathy, and ethos refers to one’s character

Blair v. Abbvie Inc., 2025 WL. 57198 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 9, 2025), is, from the defense perspective, a favorable opinion dismissing (some with prejudice, some with leave to amend) all counts of the plaintiff’s complaint.   The opinion is a bit odd, in a semi, unintentionally-ironic sort of way, because it faults the plaintiff for

May the holidays treat you well.  We trust that none of you got burnt by any of the many hot things loitering around this time of year: yule logs, candles, figgy puddings, overloaded electrical outlets, and Aunt Sally’s line dancing after she downs a third eggnog. 

Today’s case is not exactly hot, but it’s got