We used to author occasional “There’ll Always Be Posner” posts, highlighting the latest ruminations of that lively, capacious intellect. But it is doubtful whether we will ever have occasion to pen another such post, since Judge Posner stepped down from the Seventh Circuit. But Judge Danny Boggs still sits on the Sixth Circuit, and he
Cannabidiol Product Liability Claims Go Up in Smoke
Every day our inbox overflows with legal news aggregation emails. Some of the items are useful. Some must have been authored by Captain Obvious. Some are irrelevant to our practice. We would have thought that comfortably residing in that last category are discussions of the burgeoning marijuana field. The “Week in Weed” and other such
Delaware Federal Court Rejects Innovator Liability
It’s tax week, so expect a lot of cases this week from that wonderful no-tax paradise, Delaware. With light traffic (iffy on I-95, to be sure), one can get from our office to Delaware in under a half hour. That’s a worthwhile trip for buying anything in triple or higher digits. It’s also a worthwhile
E.D. Michigan Dismisses Hernia Mesh Case for Lack of Safer Alternative
A product is not defective simply because someone was harmed by it. That seems a simple enough point. Courts often acknowledge it, though sometimes in a perfunctory, mumbling fashion. What gives teeth to the mumbling is when state law requires the plaintiff to show a safer alternative product. If really pressed, many plaintiffs cannot articulate
Puffery about Regulatory Compliance is Not a Material Misstatement
When the blog receives a case that is a bit off-center, involving odd facts or a different area of law, we grab it as our weekly writing assignment. If it’s a criminal matter, our claim is premised on our stint as a prosecutor. Today’s case is a securities class action, permitting us to relive our
What We are Giving Up for Lent
Today is Ash Wednesday and begins the 40 days (not counting Sundays) of Lent. Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word for Spring. For Christians, the 40 day period represents the time Jesus sojourned in the wilderness, resisting the temptation of Satan, and preparing his final ministry. Lent is a time for repentance, fasting, and
D. Mass. Misreads New York Law to Make Patent-Holders Potentially Liable for Pre-Market Testing
It’s hard to escape the suspicion that blue states are more pro-plaintiff and red states are more pro-defense, though that is not a hard and fast rule. There are parts of Alabama and Texas where it is hard for an out of state corporate defendant to get a fair shake. Delaware and West Virginia also
A Tangled Webb: Sham Affidavit Knocks Over Knee Implant Case
Roy Cohn would have turned 92 today, had he not died in 1986, a few weeks after being disbarred in New York. Cohn’s legal career was legendary. He was on the team that prosecuted the Rosenberg spy trial. He worked closely with Senator Joseph McCarthy. His clients included mafia figures, the owners of Studio 54,
Parts is Parts: BAAA Preemption Strikes Again
We’ve written several times (here, for example) about the Biomaterials Access Assurance Act (BAAA), 21 U.S.C. section 1604 et seq., and how it issues a get-out-of-litigation-free card to suppliers of raw materials and components. Today’s case, Connell v. Lima Corp. et al., 2019 WL 403855 (D. Idaho Jan. 30, 2019), supplies another
California Court Bounces Out-of-State Pradaxa Plaintiffs
Happy birthday, Bob Marley. (We mean the transcendent reggae singer, not the Maine comedian.) Now let’s get together and feel alright about another good personal jurisdiction decision, In re Pradaxa, No. CJC-16-004863 (Cal. Super. Ct. Jan. 31, 2019). The case strikes a blow against California litigation tourism. There were some awful decisions out of