For the decades that we have been handling drug and medical device product liability cases, it has been a given that we wanted to make it clear that our clients did not provide medical care or healthcare directly to patients. For one thing, unauthorized practice of medicine would be bad. Also, when dealing with prescription
medical malpractice
A Neat Diversity Removal/Fraudulent Joinder Twist

It is a truism in product liability matters that plaintiffs love state courts, whereas defense lawyers and our clients much prefer federal court. There are reasons for this. Twombly and Iqbal pleading standards are more rigorous than the pleading standards in many state courts. Federal judges often have fewer cases and more clerks than state…
There Is No Substitute: Arizona Law Does Not Permit FDA Warnings To Stand In For Expert Opinion

We reported last year on a case in which the Arizona Court of Appeals allowed FDA-approved drug warnings to define the standard of care for a physician’s informed consent. Why does that matter? Well, in most every jurisdiction, a plaintiff bringing an action for medical negligence has to produce expert opinion that the defendant breached…
Dentists As Product Manufacturers? Bet On It In Nevada

Personalized medicine is the wave of the future. Whether treating disease or prescribing medical devices (or both), medical practitioners are taking individualized patient characteristics into account more and more as they treat their patients. Cancer therapy can now be targeted at the genetic level, and some medical devices can now be created to match patient…
Odd Forum Non Decision Implicates Longstanding Choice Of Law Issue

Every now and then something happens that’s unique. It’s hardly unique for defense counsel to send us a case, with his/her client’s consent and invite us to blog about it – but only once in twelve years has that happened where the result was a loss. That decision was Mantgem v. Spinal Kinetics, No.…