Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the second of the three defense verdicts in the test cases alleging that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism. Cedillo v. Secretary, HHS, No. 2010-5004, slip op. (Fed. Cir. Aug. 27, 2010). Although the Cedillo decision turns on the specific facts of
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Class Action Denial Federal Cheat Sheet
By Bexis on
Almost from the day this blog was founded, we’ve been arguing that class actions have no place in prescription medical product liability litigation. We’ve put up several posts containing lists of cases to that effect – but none of them were complete (or purported to be).
One of the things that we’ve often thought about…
Questionable Plaintiff Tactics Hammered In Florida
By Bexis on
It happened in a car case, but the same thing could just as easily have occurred in litigation involving drugs or devices.
The plaintiff filed a snap motion under a peculiar Florida statute (§69.081) to have a product declared a “public hazard” and not incidentally to avoid a federal court protective order. In a kangaroo-court…
Counting To Seven: New Federal Rules Change How Due Dates in Litigation are Calculated
By Bexis on
Charles R. Beans, of Goodman McGuffey Lindsey & Johnson, LLP, in Atlanta, contributed the following guest post. We thank him for his contribution, and present his words:
“Just another stupid thing that I done wrong.”
— Goldfinger, “Counting the Days” © 2000.
[Okay, okay. We started with lyrics from Goldfinger. But now…
The Volokh Conspiracy On Our Ethics Question
By Bexis on
We asked this morning why (1) it seemed ethical to offer into evidence an inadmissible document on the hope that opposing counsel wouldn’t object and the document would be admitted, but (2) it seemed less ethical to effect a late removal to federal court on the hope that opposing counsel wouldn’t object and the case…
Severing Med Mal Claims To Perfect Federal Jurisdiction
By Bexis on
Many plaintiffs’ counsel prefer to litigate cases in state court.
(Film at 11!)
Thus, to avoid having product liability cases removed to federal court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction, plaintiffs sometimes include in their complaints medical malpractice claims against treating physicians. The plaintiffs and their treaters are often from the same state, which means…
Federal Circuit Upholds “Reverse Payment” Patent Settlements
By Bexis on
Kevin McDonald and Larry Rosenberg of Jones Day contributed this guest post, for which we thank them. As always, since it’s a guest post, blame them, not us! (Yeah, yeah — they get the credit, too.) The views expressed in this post, as you would expect, reflect only the views of the authors, and not…
New Federal Rule of Evidence 502 – A Modest Improvement?
By Bexis on
This guest post was written by David B. Alden of Jones Day, who may know more about the attorney-client privilege than any other living human being. Because it’s Dave’s work, Beck and Herrmann are off the hook — they claim no credit for what follows.
Both Houses of Congress have passed Senate Bill No.…
More On Legal Questions And FDA Experts
By Bexis on
Sometimes it’s funny how an issue that we all know is out there sits for a long time and then, all of a sudden, it comes back at us from several different directions at once. The recent flurry of interest in the question of whether “FDA experts” – usually former FDA employees – can offer…
Federal Jurisdiction Over Attorney General Cases (Zyprexa)
By Bexis on
Someone at Pepper Hamilton wanted to send a copy of a recent Zyprexa decision to a reporter at The New York Times. But somehow the e-mail was misdirected to us instead.
(We thought that was funny. You guys at Pepper Hamilton have no sense of humor at all.)
One way or another, we…