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We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Plaintiffs will now regularly plead that their state law claims against device manufacturers run “parallel” to the FDA’s requirements and so are not preempted under Riegel v. Medtronic, 128 S. Ct. 999 (2008).
And we’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: We…
“Parallel” requirements.
That’s where they’re going to come after us. We know it. They know it.
Plaintiffs have no choice. Under Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 999 (2008), supposedly “parallel requirements” – alleged tort duties congruent with FDA requirements – are essentially the only thing the Supreme Court did not find preempted…
We started writing over the weekend about “Loopholes in Riegel,” and then went for a walk in the park. We said we might get back to you with the back half of that post.
This is not that post.
(This is also not a post for lay readers or dabblers in drug and…
Benzene-based consumer class actions are becoming almost routine. So are their dismissals on preemption grounds. It takes something a little different to make one stand out. The plaintiff in Leonard v. CVS Pharmacy, 2026 WL 986311 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 13, 2026), tried just that, invoking a res ipsa loquitur–type theory to plead “parallel”…
Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. Experts use it. Opposing counsel use it. Clients use it – and want their lawyers to use it too. It is becoming an increasingly standard legal research, drafting, and case strategy tool. But as a couple of our recent posts (here and here) have pointed out—AI is far…
As we have discussed more times than we like, the plaintiffs’ class action cabal, in conjunction with their running-dog Valisure “if it doesn’t have it, we’ll cook it until it does” “testing” laboratory, has targeted various products supposedly containing benzene contaminants. The result has been a plethora of no-injury class actions by plaintiffs who…
The latest medical device express preemption decision, Wieder v. Advanced Bionics LLC, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70645, 2026 WL 880370 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 31, 2026), comes out of the Southern District of New York and involves a Class III, PMA‑approved cochlear implant.
Fluid allegedly worked its way into the device and caused a short‑circuit and device…
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
They say it’s better to be lucky than good. But in Luckey v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc., 2026 WL 836122 (E.D. Ky. Mar. 26, 2026), plaintiff was neither.
This is a straightforward—and satisfying—PMA preemption decision involving a heart valve allegedly marketed to last at…
A chunk of our family recently relocated to Indiana, a lovely state that spawned prominent Americans such as Orville Redenbacher, Eli Lilly, Larry Bird, David Letterman, Michael Jackson, and James Dean, and that possesses fine covered bridges, a suddenly fearsome college football team, and a remarkable library that houses, among other things, the original manuscripts…
If ever there were a case that reads like a checklist for how not to plead around preemption, it’s Dunham v. Boston Scientific Corp., — F.Supp.3d–, 2026 WL 539533 (W.D. Mich. Feb. 24, 2026). Plaintiff alleged that his spinal cord stimulator—a Class III, premarket approved device—implanted to treat his chronic back pain caused him…