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Abuse of substantive law as a weapon to force settlement occurs so frequently in multidistrict litigation (“MDL”), that we’ve given it a name – “the MDL treatment.”  The linchpin of the MDL treatment is that plaintiffs are allowed to take way more liberties with state law than the Erie doctrine allows.  Readers can recall from our prior posts that both the Supreme Court and Third Circuit (to take the relevant example), view expansive federal court “predictions” of state law – and state tort law in particular – usurp the prerogatives of the states and are an abuse of power. Continue Reading CPAP MDL Overinflates Plaintiffs’ Claims

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This post is solely from the non-Reed Smith side of the Blog.

A court within the Fifth Circuit has held that the FDCA impliedly preempts unfair-competition and consumer-protection claims asserted by a drug manufacturer against a compounding pharmacy. Despite generally rooting for drug manufacturers, we are okay with the decision, Zyla Life Scis., LLC v.

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We can sum up the claim in Telebrands Corp. v. Luminas Int’l LLC, like this—hey court, it’s not fair that I’m following the FDA’s rules and my competitors are not, so you should force them to do so to even the playing field.  2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179285 (S.D. Cal. Jul. 12, 2023).  To

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We have often characterized preemption as one of the most powerful tools in product liability defense lawyers’ toolboxes.  It also gets utilized effectively by lawyers defending against a variety of consumer fraud cases about FDA-regulated products.  We have, for instance, covered a number of decisions where plaintiffs complained about a range of food labeling issues