We all know that the pandemic has impacted a number of aspects of litigation, especially trials, but what is going on with filings. In federal court, trial courts saw about 30% more pending cases as of June 30 than at the same time last year. The increase comes mostly from personal injury and product liability cases, according to the recent statistics from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
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Articles
Security for Judges an Important Issue
The federal Judicial Conference recently recommended a series of reforms to increase security for judges. This comes in the wake of the tragic attack at the home of a federal jurist in New Jersey.
The measures approved by the Judicial Conference:
- Seek legislation to enhance the protection of judges’ personally identifiable information, particularly on the
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Innovator Liability and Personal Jurisdiction
The short opinion in Stirling v. Novartis Pharm. Corp., 2020 WL 4259035 (Idaho Dist. Ct., July 13, 2020), comes at the intersection of personal jurisdiction rules and innovator liability claims. As readers will recall, plaintiffs who allege injury from ingestion of a generic version of a prescription drug cannot prevail on a failure to…
Class Certification Denied in Cryopreservation Litigation
Roy Hobbs returned to baseball after 16 years; Grover Cleveland returned to the White House after a four year hiatus, and Gen. MacArthur returned to the Philippines in 1944. Perhaps with less drama and certainly less fanfare, your humble blogger returns with today’s post on MassTortDefense.
A California federal judge recently denied the motion by customers of a San Francisco fertility clinic seeking class certification of their claims alleging that a defective storage tank damaged their embryos. The case, In Re Pacific Fertility Center Litigation, No. 3:18-cv-01586, 2020 WL 3432689 (N.D. Cal. June 23, 2020), is interesting for the court’s treatment of superiority and damages issues in the class context.
Pacific Fertility provides fertility services including egg and embryo cryopreservation. Cryopreservation involves preservation of tissue using cooling techniques. In 2018, there was an apparent incident where one of the storage tanks lost coolant for a period of time. At the time of the incident, the tank contained eggs and embryos from 600+Pacific Fertility customers. All these eggs and embryos were exposed to the temperature increase. Plaintiffs were notified, and eventually sued.
We will skip the procedural history up to the point where Plaintiffs sought certification of a class of: All individuals, and their reproductive partners, whose eggs or embryos were in Tank 4 at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco, California on the date of the incident.…
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American Tort Reform Foundation Releases Judicial Hellhole List
The American Tort Reform Foundation recently published its report identifying the top “judicial Hellholes” for 2015-16. The top (or bottom?…
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Hon. Arlin M. Adams- A brief tribute
Upon graduating from law school, I had the great privilege of serving as a law clerk to the Hon. Arlin M. Adams, who sat on the Third Circuit for near…
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Fairness in Class Action Litigation Bill Moving Forward
Earlier this year we posted about the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act when it was approved by the House Judiciary Committee. Our readers know …
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SHB A Finalist for Product Liability Department of the Year
The American Lawyer recently recognized Shook, Hardy & Bacon as a finalist in its Product Liability Litigation Department of the Year competition.…
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SHB Named a Product Liability Group of the Year
Proud to note that Law360 has named Shook, Hardy & Bacon among its 2015 Product Liability Practice Groups of the Year. For the 2015 Practice Group…
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Important Preemption Decision
Last week the Sixth Circuit issued a significant opinion in Yates v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., No. 15-3104, 2015 WL 8538119 (6th Cir.…
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