Defense of Mass Tort Claims, Class Actions, and Significant Product-Based Litigation
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Fourth Circuit’s decision to send a local climate change case against various energy companies. BP P.L.C. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, 141 S. Ct. 1532, 1533 (2021).
Baltimore’s Mayor and City Council sued various energy companies in Maryland state court alleging that the companies concealed the environmental…
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgement against a plaintiff who argued that a forklift was defective in design because it lacked a door. Petersen v. Raymond Corp., 994 F.3d 1224, 1225 (10th Cir. 2021).
Plaintiff allegedly injured himself while operating the Raymond Model 4200 stand-up counterbalance lift truck. The Raymond forklift has…
Just the facts, as Shook is involved in the litigation. But worth a read is In re Taxotere (Docetaxel) Prod. Liab. Litig., 994 F.3d 704 (5th Cir. 2021).
There the Fifth Circuit upheld the lower court’s decision granting defendant summary judgment in suit alleging the pharmaceutical company failed to warn that its lifesaving chemotherapy drug…
Your humble blogger had the privilege some years ago of serving as Legal Fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria. This unique organization was founded in the ruins of WWII to serve as a sort of “Marshall Plan of the Mind” and a critical element of recovery from the war. At our session (Lloyd…
A California judge overseeing the JCCP for diabetes drugs recently made a significant ruling, dismissing more than 500 claims in the coordinated proceeding that alleged the drugs were linked to pancreatic cancer. In Re Byetta Cases, No. JCCP4574, 2021 WL 2462800 (Cal.Super. Apr. 06, 2021). The Court made both evidentiary rulings regarding plaintiffs’ experts…
In a much anticipated decision, the Supreme Court unanimously (8-0 with 2 concurrences) decided that certain resident plaintiffs injured by products originally manufactured and sold elsewhere could sue in their home states a defendant which was a nationwide company if it “purposefully avail[ed] itself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum State.” Ford…
A federal court in Alabama recently issued an interesting decision on defendant’s motion to exclude plaintiff’s expert evidence in a medical device case. See Lowery v. Sanofi-Aventis LLC, 2021 WL 872620 (N.D. Ala. Mar. 9, 2021).
Plaintiff advanced claims based on the allegation that he suffered injuries after Defendant’s medical device, Synvisc-One, was injected into…
A federal court recently granted defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment in a case that originated in the pelvic mesh MDL pending in the Southern District of West Virginia and was then transferred to plaintiff’s home jurisdiction in Florida. Swintelski v. American Medical Systems, Inc., NO. 20-60410-CIV-CANNON/Hunt, 2021 WL 687202 (S.D. Fla. Feb. 22, 2021), …
The New Jersey Appellate Division recently released a ruling broadly allowing 510(k) evidence in medical device cases. Elizabeth Hrymoc, et al. v. Ethicon, et al., DOCKET NO. A-5151-17, 467 N.J.Super. 42 (Superior Court N.J., Appellate Division)(March 2, 2021). Shook played a role in the case as the firm filed an amicus brief for AdvaMed, the…
Patrick Jane is the fictional lead character of the TV series “The Mentalist.” Ably played by Simon Baker, the character used his skills of reading people, knowledge of people’s reactions, keen powers of observation and deduction, and prodigious memory to assist the police — all the while sipping his cup of tea. …
