There is a well-worn saying in electrical engineering — if you want to break a circuit, you can cut the wire or trip the breaker. Plaintiffs in several consolidated spinal-cord stimulator cases recently tried something more creative — they attempted to rewire the entire regulatory grid by suing the FDA itself, hoping to knock out
Few issues are as currently controversial as gender affirming care. For some people, the incongruence between gender identity and sex assigned at birth can cause clinically significant distress, recognized as “gender dysphoria” by the American Psychological Association. Treatment can come in various forms, such as social transitioning or medical intervention, which might include chemical treatments
Today’s case, Kouyate v. L. Perrigo Company, 2026 WL 591874 (W.D. Mich. Mar. 3, 2026), is the latest entry in the ever-growing pile of meritless benzene OTC class actions. This time, the target is acne treatments containing benzoyl peroxide (BPO), with the now-familiar allegation that BPO degrades into benzene during storage and shipping. If
Cannabis is big business, so it was only a matter of time before someone filed a consumer class action claiming that his cannabis was schwag. It happened in Illinois, where a judge in the Northern District promptly shot it down—not because the plaintiff’s theory was necessarily wrong, but because his theory of deception was a
As our slew of recent posts on standing demonstrate, plaintiffs’ lawyers continue their search for a version of federal jurisdiction that does not require anyone to have been hurt. This time, the vehicle was a box of band-aids—and the court declined to take the ride, dismissing the case in its entirety.
In Aronstein v. Kenvue
Happy new year, and welcome to 2026. While we may still be pondering the meaning of auld lang syne or waxing philosophical about the new year, we’ll quickly move on and get to work defending our clients. That’s what we do as defense hacks, and kudos to all of you for doing it so well.
We’ve written many times about plaintiffs who try (and fail) to plead injury by alleging hypothetical risks, speculative future harm, or buyer’s remorse untethered to actual loss. Today’s dismissal of a putative class action from the Northern District of California is a new year’s reminder that Article III and statutory standing remain stubbornly real requirements. Druzgalski v. CVS Health Corp., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 265766 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 23, 2025).
Continue Reading New Year, Same Old Standing Problems
There’s a saying that “everyone is entitled to their day in court.” Fair enough. But, to have your day in court, you have to have standing. While the requirements for standing vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, all courts require a plaintiff to have suffered an injury in fact. Afterall, the entire idea
We have seen a recent plague of purported class actions against various FDA-regulated OTC products that include allegations of contamination (usually benzene) that are purportedly supported by “independent laboratory” testing. Fortunately, we have also seen these cases dismissed one after another for a variety of reasons, including lack of standing. Today’s case is a great
Whenever we see a class action in which the named plaintiffs suffered no injury, we throw up our hands and think that the invention of class actions was a wrong turn in American legal history. But when we see a case like Klosowski v. FPG Labs, LLC, 2025 WL 2532500 (D. Del. Sept. 3
