We have been consistently critical of the MDL system for encouraging judges presiding over such massive aggregations to manipulate the applicable law to create settlement pressure on defendants. We’ve seen that with federal preemption, willingness to create novel state-law causes of action, choice of law, and trial consolidation of multiple plaintiffs.
New Jersey
New Jersey Dismisses Case Due to No Product Identification

We are six weeks into 2021 and for most, it stills feels a lot like 2020. We are starting to hear about restrictions being lifted or modified to allow for more . . . well more anything. But that’s happening just as almost the entire country is being overwhelmed by a polar vortex. Ice, snow,…
D.N.J. Dismisses Orthopedic Screw&Plate Case/We Dole Out Top Ten Entertainments That Helped Us (Temporarily) Forget COVID

We refuse to end the year on a bad note, so we’ll talk about a case that’s good – not good enough to make tomorrow’s top-ten list, but good enough to slam the door shut on 2020 with a reasonable amount of cheer.
Vicente v. Johnson & Johnson, 2020 WL 7586907 (D.N.J. Dec. 21,…
E-Gads – A Bad Gadolinium Preemption Case

We haven’t see too many of these. The reason for that is the gadolinium litigation is practically a textbook example of where federal law ought to preempt state-law product liability claims of all kinds—including both design defect claims and failure-to-warn claims. Just search gadolinium on the blog and you’ll find plenty of cases dismissed on…
Is This the Final Blow for the Accutane Litigation?

Last year we posted about two major decisions by the New Jersey Supreme Court finally chopping the Accutane inflammatory bowel disease (“IBD”) litigation down to size. Our post here contains links to all of our posts over the years on the Accutane litigation. The point of note is that to get to those two decisions…
New Jersey Gives PMA Medical Device Case the Cold Shoulder

t’s cold in New Jersey now. At the time this post hits the blog, it will be about 20 degrees, real feel 15 degrees in most of New Jersey. That’s too cold for this blogger. That’s an extra-large cup of coffee for the ride to work. That’s two-layers of clothing to walk the dog. That’s…
No Fourth-Party Payor Liability in New Jersey

In their unending quest to make a plaintiff out of everyone, some creative members from the other side of the “v.” have concocted a claim that we call “fourth-party payor” liability. Regular blog readers are certainly familiar with “third-party payor” actions brought – entirely for economic losses – by insurers, pension funds, and other organizations…
New Jersey Product Liability Act Knocks out Design Defect, Manufacturing, Warning, Warranty, and Fraud Claims Against IVC Filter

A couple of weeks ago we compared New Jersey litigation with New Jersey food and decided we liked the food better. No aspersions were intended. After all, we grew up in New Jersey and still worship at the altars of Seton Hall Prep, Bruce Springsteen, and the New York football Giants. Anyway, we might need…
New Jersey Finds Preemption in Breast Implant Litigation

While 2019 is solidly under way, we’re still catching up on a sizable number of favorable decisions to have come down right before the new year. That’s certainly not a complaint. We love a full plate of defense wins. So, for today’s post we’re reaching back a few weeks to tell you about a decision…
Accutane Litigation Goes Out with a Bang, Not a Whimper

It’s been a long road. Well after product liability litigation over Accutane and inflammatory bowel disease (“IBD”) had been thoroughly debunked everywhere else in the nation, such litigation lived on in New Jersey – for year after interminable year. First, a number of trials occurred, but literally every verdict for the plaintiffs was reversed on…