If the concept behind Multidistrict Litigations is centralized, efficient management of common issues in large numbers of lawsuits, with remand of trial-ready cases, then MDLs are less than successful on those grounds, and certainly not successful enough to justify the asymmetric discovery and bad rulings (or nonrulings) that come as part and parcel of the
Multidistrict litigations are big piles of wrong. Wrong incentives invite the wrong cases, the wrong rulings, and the wrong results. Plaintiff lawyers park weak cases in MDLs, counting on ultimately collecting money for cases into which they invested virtually no work. Courts encourage that dysfunctional conduct by doing everything possible to force settlements, even if
If drugs and medical devices undergo a product life cycle, so do drug and medical device litigations. We are currently laboring in the relatively early stage of a Multidistrict Litigation, where the court seems terrified of making any substantive decisions. We get no rulings. Rather, the parties are forced to listen to lectures about the
Like most of you, and like our co-bloggers (from whom you will hear similar laments this week) we are in the midst of “social distancing.” We have locked down our home, begun an indefinite period of working remotely, ordered a case of boxed macaroni and cheese, and fielded emails cancelling an inordinate number of long-awaited
Last week with dismay, we described the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s decision in Gross v. Coloplast Corp., et al., 2020 WL 264691 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 17, 2020). The Gross court (we are resisting the immature cheap shot) “predicted,” in the face of decades of contrary evidence, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would not
We love the unexpected. We loved standing up after what we thought was the finale of the fireworks show last night only to be left breathless by a stunning and unexpected encore. We loved walking in to a “quiet family dinner” for our recent advanced birthday to find the room filled with dear relatives and
We’re now into the New Year but aren’t completely done with the old one. The name of the first month of the year, January, is conventionally attributed to Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, gates, transitions, and doorways. (We say “conventionally” because some sources report that January is actually named after its tutelary deity, Juno.)