Today’s case originated in the pelvic mesh MDL pending in the Southern District of West Virginia. Approximately one year ago, the matter was transferred to plaintiff’s home jurisdiction in Florida. Accompanying the case upon transfer was defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment on four of plaintiff’s claims. Plaintiff abandoned three of those claims (strict liability
It’s a good day in suburban Philadelphia. The sun is shining, the snow is melting, Covid-19 cases are down nationwide, and we just got a text from the Drug and Device Law Rock Climber heralding a weekend visit (with the Irascible Rescue Pomeranian in tow). We are enjoying a welcome (if cautious) flash of optimism.
By now our beef with Multidistrict Litigations has become monotonous: plaintiff lawyers assemble enormous inventories of weak cases, then contort the bellwether pool to ensure that only their best cases go to trial. We remember an oral argument in front of an MDL judge in which we employed statistics to show that a representative MDL
We have a confession: we leave the TV on for the Drug and Device Law Little Rescue Dogs when we leave the house. A couple of days ago, they were watching Love It or List It when we left for the grocery store. When we returned, the screen was black. We are told that something
We have a long, 50-state survey post entitled “Don’t Forget About A Prescribing Physician’s Failure To Read Warnings,” about a subject as to which we feel strongly enough that we keep it updated on an ongoing basis. Its proposition is simple, and powerful: Under the learned intermediary rule, it is impossible to prove
People have long been fascinated by robots. Way before the term was coined in a 1920 play or Isaac Asimov popularized it, there were stories about machines that acted like living things. The droids of Star Wars universe are famed for the likeability and pluck. However, there is still the specter that some of those
The plaintiff in Blackburn v. Shire U.S., Inc., 2020 WL 2840089, at *1-2 (N.D. Al. June 1, 2020), claimed that the drug Lialda caused his kidney disease and his doctor would not have continued prescribing it to him if the warning label recommended detailed and more frequent monitoring for renal disease, instead of simply
Bexis has been writing amicus curiae briefs for the Product Liability Advisory Council (“PLAC”) for a long time. He was introduced to PLAC by one of the best lawyers he (or anyone, for that matter) ever met, Edward W. “Neddie” Madeira, Jr., who recently passed away. Fare thee well, Neddie, you are missed.
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We’re calling this a “quasi” guest post because the author, Reed Smith‘s Dean Balaes, is actually trying out to join our blogging team. This is his inaugural post, of what we hope will be many more. This particular post addresses the causation aspects of a case, Gayle v. Pfizer, Inc., ___ F.