New Jersey ain’t Florida and vice versa. Obviously, it’s warmer in Florida for more of the year and it never gets cold enough to snow. That could be a pro or a con. Florida has the second longest coastline among U.S. States which gives it a greater opportunity to have more highly rated beaches. But
Learned Intermediary
D. Nevada Dismisses Gardasil Vaccine Lawsuit

Happy Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you.
If all FDA approved medicines enjoyed the preemption protection that vaccines do, the DDL product liability litigation landscape would be leaner and less nonsensical. Flores v. Merck & Co., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46442 (D. Nev. March 16, 2022), shows why that is so.…
Not the Best Wisconsin Law Decision We’ve Ever Seen

A few years ago we did a couple of posts about the learned intermediary decision that arose from the Zimmer Nexgen Knee Implant MDL, and was subsequently affirmed by the Seventh Circuit Court of appeals. We designated the opinion In re Zimmer Nexgen Knee Implant Products Liability Litigation, 218 F. Supp. 3d 700 (N.D.…
Learned Intermediary – Not Just For Failure to Warn

Coming off Super Bowl weekend, we have commercials on the brain. The big game has given us some of the most iconic ads and mascots of all time. From Budweiser alone we have the Frogs, Wassup!, and the Clydesdales. This year’s ads were full of celebrities, but that’s nothing new. McDonald’s had the Showdown with…
Court Allows Fraud and Misrepresentation Claims to Proceed Despite the Learned Intermediary Doctrine

A federal court applying Florida law has refused to dismiss fraud and misrepresentation claims brought by a patient against a medical-device manufacturer, rejecting the manufacturer’s contention that such claims are categorically barred by the learned-intermediary doctrine.
It is perhaps telling that the decision, Pirlein v. Ethicon, Inc., Med. Devices Rep. ¶ 24,799 (S.D. Fla.…
Don’t Overlook “I Don’t Recall” Testimony

Today’s post is not about something cutting edge or controversial. It’s a don’t lose sight of the basics kind of post. Plaintiff bears the burden of proof on causation. In a prescription drug failure to warn case, that means plaintiff must demonstrate that a different warning would have changed whether the drug would have been…
More on a Great D.N.J. Decision Dismissing Two Plaintiffs’ Hernia Mesh Claims

We have promised ourselves that we will stream this week’s “This Is Us” episode when we finish this blog post. We love this series beyond reason, and we dread its imminent demise, notwithstanding the title’s grammatical transgression. (We generally condition any sort of allegiance on correct use of predicate nominatives.) We are struck, over and…
D. Maryland Dismisses Pelvic Mesh Design Defect and Failure to Warn Claims

Multidistrict litigations are big piles of wrong. Wrong incentives invite the wrong cases, the wrong rulings, and the wrong results. Plaintiff lawyers park weak cases in MDLs, counting on ultimately collecting money for cases into which they invested virtually no work. Courts encourage that dysfunctional conduct by doing everything possible to force settlements, even if…
Guest Post – Why These Minnesota Diehards Are Rooting for Wisconsin: Rennick and the Learned Intermediary Doctrine

Regular readers know that, after receiving a useful guest post on Iowa learned intermediary law, we asked our readers if they would like to prepare similar detailed arguments in favor of the LIR for other states in which there was no state-court appellate law. Here is one for Wisconsin. It’s authored by three attorneys from…
Eleventh Circuit Certifies Two Learned Intermediary Questions to Alabama Supreme Court

Today’s case is not new to us. A year and a half ago we were extolling the virtues of Blackburn v. Shire U.S., Inc., 2020 WL 2840089 (N.D. Al. June 1, 2020), for granting summary judgment where the testimony from plaintiff and his prescribing physician shot holes in proximate causation too large for a…