Remember the days when saying things like no cutting, no backsies, no do-overs were the laws you lived by. Or when “calling” something actually gave you priority. When invoked, these rules of the playground were difficult to challenge. And if challenged, the rule-maker always had the option of the comeback position “times infinity.” Now you
This post comes solely from the Cozen O’Connor side of this blog.
Last week, the Judge in the Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) MDL threw out an over $140 million jury verdict. In re Testosterone Replacement Therapy Prods. Liab. Litig. Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111724 (N.D. Ill. July 5, 2018). It
Bexis has lots of opinions on what’s wrong with mass-tort (especially drug/device) MDLs. Heck, Bexis has even proposed amendments to the MDL statutes to correct the many severe problems that exist. Now, Congress has before it possible statutory changes (not holding our breath) and Civil Rules Committee is looking into the same problems. Maybe something
On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit was finally able speak to what’s been going on in a Dallas courtroom that has racked up over $1.7 billion—that’s billion—in jury verdicts over the last two years in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL. And the Fifth Circuit entered the room loudly. It ordered a new trial of the
A lot of time is spent in litigation on discovery. As tedious and non-exciting as it often is, cases can be won or lost depending on what happens during discovery. So, it’s not to be taken lightly. When we find ourselves arguing to the court about discovery, however, it is often without being able to
As we publish this post, lawyers in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL are gathering in the Bob Casey Courthouse in Houston or in coffee shops, breakfast cafés or law offices nearby awaiting the argument to come. At 10:00 a.m., the arguing starts. The Fifth Circuit will officially begin to consider whether to issue a
Posts on personal jurisdiction, or the lack of it, have been all over this blog ever since the Supreme Court decided Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court. Something similar happened three years ago after the Supreme Court decided Daimler AG v. Bauman. Together, these two decisions establish that federal courts are not empowered
This post comes from the Cozen O’Connor side of the blog.
Plaintiffs and defendants have now completed briefing before the Fifth Circuit on defendants’ appeal of the $498 million verdict in the second bellwether trial of the Pinnacle hip implant MDL. Obviously, there is a lot riding on this appeal. In March, we laid out
This post comes from the Cozen O’Connor side of the blog.
We’ve been following the Pinnacle MDL closely through the last two bellwether trials, starting with the news coming out of the second bellwether trial of particularly curious and prejudicial evidence being presented to the jury. Given that evidence, we expected a plaintiffs’ victory, an expectation that was borne out with a whopping $498 million verdict. It raised an immediate question: “What will the Fifth Circuit do?”
Well, we’re on our way to finding out. The defense recently filed their opening appellate brief. While it features the controversial evidentiary rulings, much more is in play. If you would like to take a look for yourself, here is the brief. Below are some of the key issues, along with a quick description of the defense’s arguments:
Design Defect Claim against DePuy (Brief at 20-29): Claim that all metal-on-metal hip implants are defective is not viable under Texas law because a wholly different product cannot serve as a safer design; design claim is preempted because the FDA approved metal-on-metal hip implants; and design claim fails under Restatement (Second) of Torts 402A comment k (adopted in Texas), which recognizes that products like implantable devices are unavoidably unsafe and therefore not defective if properly made and warned about.
Continue Reading Briefing Underway in Appeal of Half-Billion-Dollar Verdict in Pinnacle MDL