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Lord knows, there are a lot of meritless MDLs.  Bexis’ and Michelle’s Bone Screw litigation, prompted by a televised CYA freak-out by then-FDA Commissioner David Kessler over an off-label use that had become the medical standard of care, was one, and it gave us Buckman.  Several MDLs against modern anticoagulants, such as Xarelto, are another example, since all of those second-generation drugs were safer than the older forms of blood thinners they superseded.  Currently, the Taxotere MDL – based on the dubious proposition that the plaintiffs cared more about hair loss than most effectively treating their breast cancer – and Zostavax – where not a single plaintiff can prove causation – come to mind.  Our colleagues defending other MDLS can also be excused for believing that their own litigation should be added to this list.

But for sheer factual baselessness, it would be hard to top the still-ongoing Avandia MDL, which somehow has managed to persist since 2007.  The Avandia litigation is infamously based on a purported increased risk that, over a decade ago, the FDA scientifically determined did not exist.  Briefly, a study erroneously found an increased risk of cardiovascular events with Avandia that led to both a boxed warning and additional studies.  The additional studies debunked that supposed increased risk and the FDA removed the boxed warning:Continue Reading Avandia Litigation – Is This Finally the End?

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In re Deepwater Horizon Belo Cases, — F.4th –, 2024 WL 4522690 (11th Cir. Oct. 18, 2024), is not a drug or device case. It is the Eleventh Circuit’s review of the Northern District of Florida’s exclusion of the plaintiffs’ general causation experts in a toxic tort exposure case arising from the

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Here is a brief and happy follow up to our stupid expert tricks redux post.  That post by Bexis involved a purported talc plaintiff-side expert who authored what could charitably be called a “junk science” medical article (now two such articles) on cosmetic talc causation of mesothelioma.  This “research” (we grin as we write that

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This post is from the non-Butler Snow side of the blog.

When you represent medical device manufacturers in product liability litigation, you will deal with allegations that a device broke or failed because of what it was made from, and you will encounter both experts and “experts” (scare quotes intended) in materials science. 

Materials science

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Whoever said “you get what you pay for” never deposed a plaintiff expert.  Most plaintiff experts we’ve encountered acquired their expertise – if that’s what you want to call it – not in any substantive area but, rather, in slinging junk science hash at juries with a straight, and maybe even solemn, face.  As if

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One of those experts was plaintiff himself—an emergency room doctor with a law degree.  We all know what they say about lawyers who represent themselves.  And that applies equally to doctors who try to act as their own causation experts.  Add to that destructive testing after telling defendant no product existed and four more unreliable

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This is our second go round with Vardouniotis v. Pfizer, Inc., Case No. 152029/2019 (N.Y. Sup.).  When we posted about the court’s decision on defendant’s motion to dismiss, we were resigned to shrug our shoulders and accept that “nothing’s perfect.”  It’s two years later and we’re still shrugging.

After the court allowed plaintiff’s negligence; gross