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Blair v. Abbvie Inc., 2025 WL. 57198 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 9, 2025), is, from the defense perspective, a favorable opinion dismissing (some with prejudice, some with leave to amend) all counts of the plaintiff’s complaint.   The opinion is a bit odd, in a semi, unintentionally-ironic sort of way, because it faults the plaintiff for

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There was a time when it seemed that half our posts were mixed bags of TwIqbal — product liability claims tested against the SCOTUS decisions in Twombly and Iqbal requiring pleadings to be substantive and plausible.  Then things settled down for a bit.  Did plaintiffs get smarter?  Did courts resume tolerance for bare bones complaints?

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This is from the non-Dechert part of the Blog.

Over the years, the Blog has had many, many posts related to the issue of whether Pennsylvania recognized any form of strict liability in product liability actions against prescription medical products.  In addition to the fact that several of the principal authors of the Blog have

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Today we discuss an excellent express preemption decision from the District of Arizona, Skinner v. Small Bone Innovations Inc., 2024 WL 3639296 (D. Ariz. Aug. 2, 2024).

This decision involved the Scandinavian Total Ankle Replacement device (“STAR”).  The STAR® Ankle is a Class III medical device subject to the Medical Device Amendments’ express preemption provision, 21 U.S.C. § 360k(a).  This was Plaintiff’s second bite at the apple:  The Court had already granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss but with leave to amend to attempt to state a parallel claim.  See Skinner v. Small Bone Innovations Inc., No. CV-23-01051-PHX-MTL, 2023 WL 6318014, at *6 (D. Ariz. Sept. 28, 2023).  After striking out in round one, Plaintiff fared no better in round two.Continue Reading Slam-Dunk Express Preemption Decision from the District of Arizona

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We have often characterized judicial options as mixed bags, and a recent example of such a mixed bag can be found in Muldoon v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130020 (N.D. Cal. July 23, 2024). The plaintiff claimed injuries from a ceramic-on-metal hip implant.  He alleged that friction and wear caused the

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Here are a couple of recent developments that we don’t want to let get stale.

Oglesby v. Medtronic, Inc., 2024 WL 1283341 (5th Cir. March 26, 2024), is an excellent, but unfortunately unpublished, affirmance of summary judgment under Texas law in medical device case.  Plaintiff brought various claims, and appealed the dismissal of two

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Before we dive into today’s case, Avrin v. Mentor Worldwide LLC, 2024 WL 115672 (C.D. Cal. March 15, 2024), we offer two preliminary observations:

1. We love to hear from our readers.  Sometimes we get emails commenting on a post.  Often, those comments arrive in the form of gushing reviews. That’s nice.  Less often

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As insightful and modest as the Blog can be, we are not infallible.  Every once in a while, two posts get written on the same decision, sometimes because we try to make sure a new post goes up every non-holiday weekday of the year.  Because of the aforementioned modesty, however, we are hesitant to deprive

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We’ve noticed a recent uptick in product liability lawsuits brought against over the counter (OTC) and other consumer products. (Shameless plug: we will be on a panel discussing such litigation at ACI in NYC on January 23-24.). These are products that do not require a prescription. Maybe plaintiff lawyers prefer cases without any pesky learned intermediary who