There is a well-worn saying in electrical engineering — if you want to break a circuit, you can cut the wire or trip the breaker. Plaintiffs in several consolidated spinal-cord stimulator cases recently tried something more creative — they attempted to rewire the entire regulatory grid by suing the FDA itself, hoping to knock out
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
There is a documentary out on the actor Charlie Sheen and it reminded us that, long before the current denizen of the White House crowed about “winning,” that was a staple of many bizarre rants by Sheen.
We’re not ranting, whether bizarrely or sanely, but it is nice to post about yet another defense win
2024 was a big year for blood and tissue shield statute decisions across the country (from Florida, California, North Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio). And it looks like we added Oregon to the tally this year, but we let Kentucky and Nelson v. Aziyo Biologics, Inc., 2025 WL 2045167 (E.D. Ken.
This is from the non-Butler Snow side of the Blog.
Readers of the Blog know that we believe in strictly applying the requirements of Federal Rules of Evidence 702 and 703. Long before the 2023 amendments to Rule 702 were a twinkle in the advisory committee’s collective eye, we were pounding the proverbial drum that
When you write a few hundred or more posts for a legal blog devoted to the somewhat niche subject of drug and device product liability law, you look for themes or hooks to keep both the writer and presumptive readers engaged. The themes may be fairly obvious based on the date of the post, the
We receive emails from readers fairly regularly. They are usually from other attorneys, sometimes friends or acquaintances sharing their points of view or expanding on things that we may have underplayed or overlooked. Although we don’t spend much time (or really any time) trying to predict when we might hear from others, we have noticed
Released in 1965 by the Miracles, “The Tracks of My Tears” is ranked by Rolling Stone as the “Greatest Motown Song of All Time.” Smokey Robinson’s lead vocals are pure silk, the harmonies ooze soul, and the guitar licks and strings tie it all together. The song and the Miracles helped spread Motown around the globe. Today’s decision about an artificial tears product won’t stack up against Smokey and the Miracles, but it hits a few chords worth sharing.
Continue Reading Tracks of My Tears – Narrowing of Economic Loss Class Claims in Kentucky
Law school exams are usually exercises in issue spotting. Buried within the fact scenarios are various legal issues. The student earns points by identifying those issues and discussing how they should be resolved. Sequence also matters. It makes sense to walk through threshold issues, such as jurisdiction, first.
Goins v. Saint Elizabeth Medical Center, Inc.
Bexis has already plugged the Reed Smith Life Sciences CLE programs this week, so we won’t replug — except to remind you that Rachel Weil and the drudge/author of this post will tomorrow discuss the taxonomy and tactics of warning causation. We talk in terms of taxonomy because there are so many interesting variations of the contents of the warning, the relevant audience, doctors who read, who didn’t read, who already know, and who would like to have known, as well as the rules and burdens of proof in jurisdictions around this great, over-warned country.
It turns out that Kentucky offers some good pro-defense law on warning causation but, then again, there is some weird, unnerving stuff courtesy of the Sixth Circuit. Tune in tomorrow for details. In the meantime, we (obviously) have a preference for clear rules, even though the muddy areas are (obviously) where good lawyers can make a difference and earn their money.
There’s nothing wrong with being obvious. In today’s case, Adamson v. Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 2022 WL 3448044 (W.D. Ky. Aug. 17, 2022), we get a blissfully clear and obvious ruling from a Kentucky court, and it is in our favorite legal area, preemption, to boot. The plaintiff in Adamson alleged that he suffered from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) — a serious disease that causes the top layer of the skin to die and shed — as a result of taking generic amlodipine besylate. If you are one of those folks wrestling with hypertension, you might have some familiarity with amlodipine.
The Adamson complaint included a messy mixture of claims for failure to warn, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, defective design, and breach of warranties. The defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that all the claims were preempted by federal law. The court agreed with the defendant, dismissed the complaint, and did not waste any time in doing so.
Continue Reading W.D. Kentucky Dismisses Amlodipine Claims on Preemption Grounds