Florida courts are handling a lot of lawsuits. Lots and lots of lawsuits, and for a convergence of reasons. Backlogs from pandemic-related closures and delays. The highest per capita rate of federal court personal injury cases in the country by some measures. Claims over last year’s Category 4 Hurricane Ian. Recent tort law changes
Florida
This Failure-to-Warn Decision Isn’t Just Cosmetic

We defend drug and device manufacturers. Our cases involve drugs and devices. Not surprisingly, we tend to cite drug and device decisions. But there is no reason to ignore helpful decisions arising in other contexts. The case we report on today—Jimenez v. Holiday CVS, LLC, 2023 WL 4251176 (S.D. Fla. 2023)—is such a…
Professional Plaintiff’s Consumer Protection Claims Were Hard To Swallow

Long, long ago, when we clerked for a federal district judge, we handled more than a few prisoner cases. We have to confess that many of the ones we saw were humorous to us, because they alleged a range of perceived slights and personal affronts as violations of their constitutional rights. (As readers know, we…
Federal Court Calls Out—and Enjoins—Anti-Trans Bigotry

The case we discuss today, Doe v. Ladapo, 2023 WL 3833848 (N.D. Fla. 2023), appeared in our daily search results because it briefly addresses off-label use of prescription drugs. Invalidating a state statute that would have prohibited a particular off-label use, the court explained that “[o]ff-label use of drugs is commonplace” and the fact…
Mixson Somewhat Mixed, But We’ll Take It

The defendants in Mixson v. C.R. Bard, Inc., ___ F. Supp.3d ___, (N.D. Fla. Sept. 16, 2022) (“Mixson I”), and Mixson v. C.R. Bard, Inc., 2022 WL 7581737 (N.D. Fla. Sept. 23, 2022) (“Mixson II”), by no means won everything, but what they won was more important than what they didn’t, so we’re OK with the results.…
No Hospital Strict Liability in Key West (and the rest of Florida too)
Choice of Law Nixes Punitive Damages in Remanded Mesh Case

New Jersey ain’t Florida and vice versa. Obviously, it’s warmer in Florida for more of the year and it never gets cold enough to snow. That could be a pro or a con. Florida has the second longest coastline among U.S. States which gives it a greater opportunity to have more highly rated beaches. But…
Court Allows Fraud and Misrepresentation Claims to Proceed Despite the Learned Intermediary Doctrine

A federal court applying Florida law has refused to dismiss fraud and misrepresentation claims brought by a patient against a medical-device manufacturer, rejecting the manufacturer’s contention that such claims are categorically barred by the learned-intermediary doctrine.
It is perhaps telling that the decision, Pirlein v. Ethicon, Inc., Med. Devices Rep. ¶ 24,799 (S.D. Fla.…
Fla. Ct. of Appeal Refuses to Force Mayo Clinic to Treat Covid Patient with Ivermectin, etc.

Don’t stop us if you’ve heard this before, because we know you have. Plaintiffs cannot compel hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients with ivermectin.
A Florida appellate court recently joined courts in Delaware (we wrote about the Delaware case here), Michigan (here), New York (here), and Texas (here) in…
Court Tosses Claims Against Manufacturer and Distributor of a Generic Drug

Earlier this week a district court dismissed claims brought against the manufacturer and the distributor of a generic drug, holding that all of the claims were preempted by federal law and the several also failed under Florida law. The decision, Hernandez v. Aurobindo Pharma USA, Inc., 2022 WL 204401 (M.D. Fla. 2022), is long…