We just saw a commercial with the tag line, “Life is messy. Clean it up.” It’s true – life is messy, sometimes gloriously so. Rules get broken, scripts get torn up, best-laid plans are tossed aside by the winds of fortune. That’s why we like statutes of repose. They are bulwarks in a system in
Gather round brothers and sisters, and hear the word of the Texas Court of Appeals. Today’s sermon addresses the intersection of religion and regulation. Take out your hymnal, and turn to Hawkins v. State, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 7863 (Texas Ct. App., 14th Dist. Sept. 27, 2018). Consider the case of Mr. Hawkins, hereinafter
This guest post is by Reed Smith associate Lora Spencer, who (as you might suspect) calls Texas her home. In her first rodeo on the blog, she discusses a recent MDL decision that she thinks is a few pickles short of a barrel, and hopes it’s not a harbinger of things to come. Not
Sure, it was enjoyable to read In re DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., Pinnacle Hip Implant Product Liability Litigation, ___ F.3d ___, 2018 WL 1954759 (5th Cir. April 25, 2018) (“Pinnacle Hip”), to see plaintiffs’ counsel hoisted on their own petard of improper and prejudicial evidence and arguments. But there’s more to Pinnacle Hip
On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit was finally able speak to what’s been going on in a Dallas courtroom that has racked up over $1.7 billion—that’s billion—in jury verdicts over the last two years in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL. And the Fifth Circuit entered the room loudly. It ordered a new trial of the
Dating back to our Bone Screw days we have mostly pleasant memories of using surveillance to catch plaintiffs making phony claims. For a variety of reasons, a large percentage of the Bone Screw plaintiffs were workers’ compensation claimants. A bigger collection of malingerers, Munchausens, and phony fibromyalgias we’ve never encountered, before or since. This motley
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
Way back at the start of this year, we posted about a great preemption win on express warranty. Well, that case has worked its way through the appellate process and the Fifth Circuit unfortunately has reversed the decision. But, we aren’t going to rage
We’ve heard more about the constitutional “emoluments clause,” Art 1 §9, clause 8, this year than during the entire rest of our legal careers. But while it’s illegal for anybody working for the U.S. government to accept anything of value from a “foreign state,” that doesn’t make it illegal, unethical, or even particularly
In the annals of history, June 6 gets prime billing. That’s understandable, because the successful Normandy landings on D-Day (June 6, 1944), probably saved Western Civilization. (Or maybe that heroic endeavor simply preserved liberal democracy for another 75 years, now that we seem encircled by fanatics both home and abroad who view the Enlightenment
This post originates from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
A federal judge in Texas recently ruled that Texas law does not allow a claim for negligence per se based solely on alleged violations of the FDCA or FDA regulations. Monk v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72477, *21-23 (W.D. Tex