The countdown has begun towards the transformed European product liability landscape! The recently adopted European Union Product Liability Directive (PLD) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union today...more
We previously reported on the new EU Product Liability Directive (PLD) that will significantly overhaul the EU’s existing product liability directive to conform with the digital era and modern economy. The changes to the EU’s...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released their long-awaited final rule regulating ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from commercial sterilizers. The final rule comes after five years of development, over...more
Federal preemption can be a very powerful defense. For example, claims concerning Class III medical devices requiring pre-market approval are generally preempted by the Medical Device Amendments of 1976, 21 U.S.C. § 360c, et...more
This week, the European Union made a significant breakthrough towards its goal of overhauling the 40-year-old Product Liability Directive for the demands of the “digital” age and modern economy. To amend the directive, the...more
Fun fact: There are 23 holidays that can be celebrated today, December 1st. Some, like Rosa Parks Day and World AIDS Day, are solemn and serious. Others are silly and fun, like National Peppermint Bark Day and National...more
Americans love a good scare on Halloween. But, of course – with ancient castles, centuries of folklore, and actual Transylvania, our friends in the European Union know how to celebrate the spooky season just as well as we...more
Allegations of environmental concerns related to ethylene oxide (EtO) were initially limited to Sterigenics’ commercial sterilizer in Willowbrook, Illinois, then it expanded to other commercial sterilizers in Illinois and...more
On June 27, 2023, the United States Supreme Court decided Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 2023 WL 4187749, 600 U.S. ___ (June 27, 2023), a decision that likely will reinvigorate forum-shopping efforts by plaintiffs...more
On May 23, 2023, the European Commission formally published the new General Product Safety Regulation, which reforms a variety of product safety regulations for manufacturers doing business in the European Union (EU) and its...more
Under the timeline imposed by the EU’s Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers, the EU’s 27 member states were required to...more
3/2/2023
/ Class Action ,
Collective Redress ,
Consumer Fraud ,
Corporate Counsel ,
EU ,
France ,
Germany ,
Macedonia ,
Member State ,
Netherlands ,
Portugal ,
UK
On September 28, 2022, the European Commission adopted two proposals that adapt liability rules to the digital age, circular economy and the impact of global value chains. These proposals are related to (i) the Revised...more
In personal injury and wrongful death cases, the plaintiff bears the burden of proving medical causation, which almost universally requires testimony from a competent expert. Some plaintiffs offer testimony from forensic...more
It is not uncommon for an opposing expert to opine that the existence of injury alone implies negligence, nor is it unusual to find that such opinions are supported only by general reliance on “literature” with no discernible...more
How demanding is the causation standard in a California failure to warn claim when a learned intermediary testifies that he would have read and incorporated more stringent warnings if they had been available? Is the plaintiff...more
The Biden administration has made Environmental Justice a key component of its overall environmental agenda. EPA highlights EJ and civil rights in its draft strategic plan noting it will place a focus on “justice, equity, and...more
Consider this: What if plaintiffs could assert a cause of action for negligence without proving, or even pleading, any actual damages? And what if the remedy for this damage-free tort claim were disgorgement of profits...more
Lawyers continue to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we discussed in a previous post, for litigators this may involve participating in remote depositions as courts attempt to keep discovery moving. We also provided tips...more
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep many lawyers, clients and witnesses at home. As we discussed in a previous post, many courts are encouraging or requiring remote depositions, typically by videoconference, to keep...more
In the wake of two multimillion-dollar plaintiffs’ verdicts in Missouri earlier this year, a New Jersey court handed Johnson & Johnson a significant victory in the ongoing litigation over the alleged connection between...more
In June 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its final rule explicitly allowing the use of approved symbols, without accompanying text, on medical device and certain biological product labeling. The FDA...more