Today’s guest post comes from our Reed Smith colleague Jamie Lanphear on a topic near and dear to the Blog’s heart: The new EU Product Liability Directive. As always, our guest posters deserve 100% of the credit, and any blame, for their posts. But, also as usual, our guest posters deliver the goods, so we
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Guest Post – Defendant Pitches A Shut Out And Hits A Home Run In Securing Summary Judgment In A Fosamax Case
By Bexis on
Here is another guest post by Reed Smith‘s Kevin Hara examining the exclusion of a couple of slapdash expert witnesses, and the resultant grant of summary judgment. Since it is summer time, it is only fitting that he does so using baseball analogies. As always, our guest posters deserve 100% of the credit (and…
Zantac Chronicles VII & VIII − Innovator Liability and Pharmacy Liability Tossed Again
By Bexis on
Today, we chronicle two more decisions from the Zantac MDL. Once again, kudos to this MDL transferee judge for outstanding willingness to tackle legal issues, and decide them, at an early stage of the litigation. Because we’ve gone through these issues before, here and here, we discuss these latest rulings in one post.
Chronicle …
The Myth of “Pre-Approval” Warning Claims
By Bexis on
Not long ago we pointed out, in our discussion of In re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation, ___ F. Supp. ___, 2021 WL 2865869 (S.D. Fla. July 8, 2021), that court’s pithy takedown, in a preemption situation, of plaintiffs’ widespread habit of seizing upon some factual variation and calling it a new “duty” that…
Door Still Shut to Parallel Violation Claims in Florida
By Michelle Yeary on
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
Today’s case – Bernasek v. Gatz, 2021 WL 2152968 (Fla. Cir. May 20, 2021) – doesn’t exactly break new ground. But it does support that all of the federal courts to rule on parallel violation claims under Florida law are getting it right. …
If It Walks and Talks Like a Duck . . .
By Michelle Yeary on
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
Shouldn’t you call it a duck? Apparently not in New Jersey. Primarily because New Jersey is still governed by one of our Bottom Ten decisions of 2012 — Cornett v. Johnson & Johnson, 48 A.3d 1041 (N.J. 2012). Today’s ducky decision was handed…
Gaming The System To Pursue Claims Against Generic Manufacturers
By Eric Alexander on
There are some basic rules for medical product liability litigation, at least as we—and the vast majority of courts—see it. One is that the manufacturer of the medical product that the plaintiff used and allegedly injured her is typically the right defendant. Part of what a potential plaintiff is supposed to do during the statute…
Preemption (and Some Other) Lessons from Amiodarone Litigation
By Bexis on
The advent of generic preemption in PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing, 564 U.S. 604 (2011) (“Mensing”), and Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett, 570 U.S. 472 (2013) (“Bartlett”), left plaintiffs who took generic drugs scrambling to invent bizarre, novel, and in some cases dangerous supposed causes of action. Before it went…
Washington Blocks Attempt to Dodge Generic Preemption Rules
By Michelle Yeary on
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
This blogger is just returned from Ireland where we toured castles and abbeys, drove through amazing landscapes on tiny roads with hairpin turns (can’t say enough about Connemara except that everyone should go), sang about Molly Malone and the Fields of Athenry, visited a…
Innovator Liability – Pandemonium Or Paper Tiger?
By Bexis on
Ever since innovator liability burst onto our consciousness a decade ago with the horrific decision in Conte v. Wyeth, 85 Cal. Rptr.3d 299 (Cal. App. 2008), we have had nightmares about the potential impact of this theory. After all: (1) over 90% of all prescriptions these days are for generic drugs, and (2) plaintiffs…