In what we view as a game-changing submission, on September 3, Lawyers for Civil Justice filed a 20-page analysis of no fewer than nine third-party litigation funding (“TPLF”) contracts that, one way or another, have become public. This analysis rips away the veil of secrecy that has surrounded TPLF, analyzes why and how specific TPLF
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Design Defect Claims Preempted In GLP-1 MDL
The day before this post went live there was a retirement ceremony for Judge Jon P. McCalla, the federal district judge for whom we clerked three decades ago. After serving as an Army officer in the Vietnam War, Judge McCalla got his J.D. from Vanderbilt and clerked for Judge Bailey Brown of the Western District…
Making Litigation Great Again -The Ten Best Prescription Drug/Medical Device Decisions of 2024
Another year down (and only one more to go for Bexis), and that means, in addition to dreidels, creches, and Santa Claus, it’s time for our annual top ten best prescription medical product liability litigation decisions. As we’ve pointed out before, for an opinion to be eligible for our annual top (or bottom) ten lists…
Brain Worms and Roadkill – The Ten Worst Prescription Drug/Medical Device Decisions Of 2024
We warned everyone, but there is no sense beating a dead horse (or bear, or whale). So we’re getting right to the unpleasant business of discussing the bottom ten worst prescription medical product liability litigation decisions of 2024. And we stress both “product liability” and “litigation.” Otherwise, we’d have to include Harrington v. Purdue…
Litigation Funding Discovery from Secondary Payor Troll
If you’ve been practicing in mass torts for any length of time, you’ve probably dealt with MSP Recovery. We’ve posted about this Medicare Secondary Payor Troll many times (most recently here). One of MSP’s typical litigation approaches is to claim it has assignments of rights from certain Medicare Advantage Plans and then assert claims…
What’s Past is Prologue
A little over two years ago, we wrote a post called What’s In a Name? discussing an attempt by two plaintiffs to hold Pfizer liable for fraud and misrepresentation based on an allegation that it was misleading to call the drug Chantix by its name if it was contaminated. That case, as we noted in…
Remote Depositions in MDLs 2.0
One of the blogposts that generated a lot of “Thanks, I needed that” responses from our readership was our 2022 post, “Remote Depositions in MDLs.” For that reason, we have updated it by adding references to additional MDL orders on that subject that have been entered since early 2022. We pay particular attention to MDL orders because, due to their stakes, every procedural jot and tittle is gone over with a fine-toothed comb. The “litigate everything” mentality in MDLs produces the most comprehensive consideration of issues that arise in remote depositions generally. We asked one of our crack legal assistants to look for additional MDL orders during this time frame to see what MDL transferee judges – advised by the parties – have had to say most recently about the conduct of remote deposition.Continue Reading Remote Depositions in MDLs 2.0
Malarkey − The Ten Worst Prescription Drug/Medical Device Decisions of 2023
Here we go again. The winter solstice is upon us. The days are short; the nights are long; and we have to rely on holiday lighting to keep the darkness – if not the cold – at bay. Speaking of cold and darkness, it is now time for us to look back upon the results…
CPAP MDL Overinflates Plaintiffs’ Claims
Abuse of substantive law as a weapon to force settlement occurs so frequently in multidistrict litigation (“MDL”), that we’ve given it a name – “the MDL treatment.” The linchpin of the MDL treatment is that plaintiffs are allowed to take way more liberties with state law than the Erie doctrine allows. Readers can recall from our prior posts that both the Supreme Court and Third Circuit (to take the relevant example), view expansive federal court “predictions” of state law – and state tort law in particular – usurp the prerogatives of the states and are an abuse of power. Continue Reading CPAP MDL Overinflates Plaintiffs’ Claims
A Whole Lotta Nuthin’
Growing up down in Georgia, Bexis used the phrase “a whole lotta nuthin’” frequently when encountering things (like the 1970s Underground Atlanta tourist trap) or people (like Lester Maddox, who governed the same way he rode bicycles) that didn’t impress him much. That’s the phrase that came to mind when we read In re E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. C-8 Personal Injury Litigation, ___ F.4th ___, 2023 WL 8183812 (6th Cir. Nov. 27, 2023). Indeed, the opening sentence of the du Pont opinion was: “Seldom is so ambitious a case filed on so slight a basis.” Id. at 81. And yes, du Pont was an appeal from yet another bizarrely pro-plaintiff MDL decision.Continue Reading A Whole Lotta Nuthin’