We commented about the King v. DePuy litigation several years ago because this was one of the cases where Pinnacle Hip plaintiffs tried and failed to use a turncoat expert. Well, this long-running (since 2013) – due mostly to execrable MDL management (8 years with no movement) rather than either parties’ fault – lawsuit
Sanctions
The Great Exhibit Dump and Sanctionable Shenanigans
This post comes from the non-Butler Snow side of the blog.
Today’s case gives us two cautionary tales. First, there are many ways to make friends with a court. Dumping thousands of exhibits onto its doorstep and saying, “You figure it out,” is not one of them. Second, taking documents stamped CONFIDENTIAL or HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL…
When the Plaintiff Destroys Evidence: Dismissal and Sanctions in the Age of Ephemeral Messaging
Today’s case is not a drug or device case. It’s not even a products liability case. But it does deal with sanctions against a plaintiff and his counsel for intentional spoliation of text messages—conduct that could (and undoubtedly has) taken place in prescription medical product liability litigation. So, we’ve added Pable v. Chicago Transit Authority,…
Don’t Say “Disingenuous”
Cordero v. Olson Assocs. P.C., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91994, 2025 WL1383217 (D. Utah May 13, 2025), is just another FDCA case. Except it is not the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that is in controversy, but, rather, the Fair Debt Collection Act. The plaintiff sued several defendants, including law firms, for allegedly unlawful debt…
A Not-So-Brotherly Shove
Four weeks ago, we posted concerning an MDL judge’s decision not to sanction a plaintiff lawyer for false representations concerning diversity jurisdiction. We disputed that acting in the client’s “best interest” was a good excuse and questioned whether MDL courts cut plaintiff lawyers more slack than they should. We also had a bit of a…
Playing The MDL Game
This time of year, many of us are focused on the NFL playoffs. For someone who watches the Super Bowl for the commercials or the halftime show, which team wins may not matter much. For those devoted to a particular team, however, there is one possible result that will be truly satisfying. The reality is…
Attempt To Buttress Expert’s Scant Reasoning Rejected On Appeal In Pelvic Mesh Case
Even The Most Lenient Of MDL Judges Has A Limit For Excusing Plaintiff Lawyer Neglect
Stop us if you have heard this before. One of the big problems with MDLs in the era of unchecked lawyer advertising, litigation funding, and the focus of MDL judges on mass settlement is that a high percentage of plaintiffs never have to do any heavy lifting between filing their cases and participating in some…
Illinois Court Imposes Sanctions for Invalid Precomplaint Discovery
Famous (and infamous) Illinois trial lawyer Clarence Darrow once said that he never wished a man dead, but had occasionally read some obituaries with great satisfaction. (That same quote is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain.)
We’re no Darrow. We’ve never saved a client from capital punishment, or discredited a former presidential candidate in a…
Florida Fee Fight Fascinates Fiscally Fickle Freelancers
We will not get into the details of why, but we have been thinking recently about the issue of mechanisms for shifting costs and fees. The European “loser pays” rules—into which we will not delve, either—are often cited as one of the reasons why there is so much less product liability and other personal injury…