We published a 50-state survey on the widespread rejection of so-called market share liability back 2010, which we recently referenced in our post celebrating the demise of an “ultra processed” food strike suit in Pennsylvania. As that post discussed, one of the liability theories that failed was market share liability. That got us thinking that
Every good mystery needs a red herring. The suspicious houseguest. The gardener with the shaky alibi. The tanning lotion sitting quietly on the bathroom counter while the actual culprit — a chiropractor-prescribed anti-inflammatory cream applied minutes before the plaintiff’s collapse — walks right past the detectives without so much as a raised eyebrow. That is
News about the long‑running talc MDL has developed since, but the opinion we discuss today (In re Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Prods. Mktg., Sales Pracs., & Prods. Liab. Litig., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162870, 2026 LX 335455, 2026 WL 2111340 (D.N.J. July 22, 2026)) is worth a look. It is a prime
This makes two weeks in a row with vaccine cases. Last week we discussed yet another Constitutional challenge against mandatory vaccination. This week we look at Nguyen v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 2026 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1650 (U.S. Ct. Fed. Claims June 22, 2026), a federal circuit Vaccine Act compensation case. Such
This post comes from the non-RS and non-Dechert side of the Blog.
The great post-modern existentialist philosopher John Madden once said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have no quarterback.” This was not the result of a fanciful math equation where you (impermissibly) divide by zero. In American football, except on rare trick plays
A few weeks ago, we found ourselves underwhelmed by the court’s Rule 702 rulings in the Covidien Hernia Mesh MDL. Today, we can say much the same thing about its summary judgment decision. In In re: Covidien Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation No. II, 2026 WL 1555914 (D. Mass. June 2, 2026), the
Back in 2006, people were still carrying around Motorola Razrs, “YouTube” was barely a year old, and nobody had heard of an iPhone. That is when the device in Aceste v. Stryker Corp., 2026 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1215 (Lucas Cty. C.P. Feb. 4, 2016),was implanted. By the time the case was filed in 2015
If Rule 702 is supposed to keep unreliable expert opinions out, this decision raises a fair question: how many gaps are too many? In In re Covidien Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation, 2026 WL 1129617 (D. Mass. Apr. 27, 2026), the court considered a familiar lineup of expert opinions—general causation, specific causation, alternative design
The learned intermediary rule – that prescription medical product warnings are directed to (and written to be understood by) the professional medical personnel who prescribe them – is as close to unanimous as any tort doctrine that we know of. We keep a running tab on the 50 states, and the rule has support in
Scott v. Amazon.com, Inc., ___ P.3d ___, 2026 WL 468578 (Wash. Feb. 19, 2026), is one of those decisions that makes us go hmmm. Here’s why.
Scott involves very unfortunate facts, four people who, in separate incidents, committed suicide using the same chemical, which they all allegedly purchased using the defendant’s online sales