A couple of weeks ago we compared New Jersey litigation with New Jersey food and decided we liked the food better. No aspersions were intended. After all, we grew up in New Jersey and still worship at the altars of Seton Hall Prep, Bruce Springsteen, and the New York football Giants. Anyway, we might need
Primary Jurisdiction Forecloses Lanham Act Challenging Medical Device Classification
The focus of this blog is on product liability cases, but every once in a while a case from another subject matter area tugs at our elbow, begging for attention. Today’s case, Kurin, Inc. v. Magnolia Medical Technologies, Inc., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184382 (S.D. Cal. Oct. 23, 2019), is an interesting – albeit
Plaintiff Cannot Defeat Diversity by Suing Local Hospital without Complying with Louisiana Med-Mal Requirements
Diversity jurisdiction has been on our minds a lot lately. Last week, we wrote about a plaintiff who unsuccessfully tried to steer under the $75,000 amount in controversy requirement. As John Adams said, “facts are stubborn things,” and the existence of medical bills in excess of $75,000 refuted the plaintiff’s remand motion and permitted the
Medical Bills Establish Amount In Controversy for Federal Jurisdiction
Hard to believe, but there are some plaintiffs who shun federal court. You all are as capable as we are of filling in the blank as to why that is so. Be that as it may, plaintiff attorneys have perfected all sorts of ways to avoid Article 3 judges and jury pools that draw from
Pharmacists in Maryland Owe No Duty of Informed Consent
Today is John Winston Lennon’s birthday. He would have turned 79 on this date but for a truly crazed assassin. Imagine stalking someone because of Catcher in the Rye! Lennon wrote many marvelous songs (we especially like his early stuff, such as “Hard Day’s Night,” “If I Fell,” and “Help”). But since this is the
ND Illinois Knocks Out Helmet Concussion Class Actions
The defense has done a good job of preventing class certification of drug and device mass torts. Individual issues of usage, causation, reliance, injury, etc. predominate over alleged common issues. It has gotten to the point where it is hard for drug and device hacks to find an interesting class cert decision. For that, we
Court Chooses New Hampshire Product Liability Law: Not-so-Granite Principles
This post is from the Reed Smith side of the blog only.
Yesterday was National Punctuation Day; it is a good time to administer a semi-colonic to turgid prose. Today we apply an exclamation mark to our unhappiness with judges whose choice of law principles seem not so, er, principled.
Last Thursday, Bexis commented on
Bair Hugger MDL Defendants Prevail on Daubert and Summary Judgment
Summer can be a good time to catch up on tv shows we missed the first time around (e.g., Dead to Me, Luther series 5, and Catch-22). It can also be a good time to catch up on cases we somehow failed to flag when they came out earlier in the year. We won’t beat
PML Valsartan Order
Few things raise our blood pressure as much as the MDL process. MDL stands for Multi-District Litigation, but the M might as well stand for Mutilating and the D for Distorting. One-sided discovery, wholesale parking of ‘shotgun’ complaints, made-up spoliation issues, and bellwether trial programs that produce results representative of nothing other than plaintiff lawyer
C.D. Illinois Rejects Spoliation Claim for Lack of Special Relationship
Last week, we found ourselves focusing on spoliation issues in two different cases, one at the front-end (an early case assessment) and one at the back-end (haggling over jury instructions). The Actos spoliation saga has made any sentient defendant antsy about these things. Thus, it is worthwhile to discuss Moore v. Abiomed, Inc., 20