Law Brief®: David Pfeffer and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Legal Implications of Infrastructure Collapses
As federal agencies and states grapple with regulating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance its safety profile, and as businesses race to adopt AI for myriad purposes, it is important to recognize a general safety...more
Foley Hoag LLP publishes this quarterly Update primarily concerning developments in product liability and related law from federal and state courts applicable to Massachusetts, but also featuring selected developments for New...more
In Shears v. Ethicon, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated a judgment entered in favor of Ethicon and its parent company Johnson & Johnson following a jury trial in a pelvic mesh products liability...more
The number of cases involving so-called “nuclear verdicts” — that is, verdicts with awards of $10 million or more — have risen sharply, and many of those cases concern product liability claims. For large corporations, such...more
Women whose Paragard copper IUD broke during removal or while being implanted may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation for their injuries. Thousands of women who were injured by broken Paragard IUDs have...more
Crafting the perfect medical device is never an exact science—but a patient should never suffer because of defects in a product that was intended to improve their quality of life. Determining whether a device manufacturer or...more
The first bellwether trial in the nationwide litigation over the copper IUD Paragard is scheduled to go to trial in Georgia in October 2024. More than 2,200 lawsuits have been filed against Teva Pharmaceutical and...more
Federal health officials have received thousands of reports of women whose Paragard copper IUDs broke when they were being removed. Hundreds of women with broken Paragard IUDs have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of...more
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, October 21, 2022 - In this case, the plaintiffs Arnold and Ruth Pritt allege that Arnold Pritt (“Plaintiff”) was exposed to asbestos while serving in the...more
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, July 8, 2022 - In this asbestos matter, the defendant ViacomCBS Inc. (“Westinghouse”) moved for partial summary judgment as to Decedent Callen Cortez’s...more
During product development, it’s not unusual to discover certain failure points in a surgical robot’s design. For example, certain components, like nuts or bolts or screws, may become brittle when exposed to various...more
Whether an individual is purchasing a new car, a new television, or a new kitchen appliance, the company that makes those products isn’t the only manufacturer involved. In today’s global economy, most products are made by an...more
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division, March 3, 2022 - Plaintiff Jerome Gehant served in the US Navy from 1967 until 1970 on the USS America as a boiler technician. The plaintiff...more
Numerous products in our day-to-day lives incorporate or consist of software. The legal system, however, has been hesitant (at best) to bring software within traditional product liability regimes. Courts have grappled with...more
A series of recent rulings out of the Southern District of Texas in an inferior vena cava (IVC) filter case reflect how well-planned discovery can lead to a successful multipronged summary judgment motion and can effectively...more
This past March 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety communication that provides information and recommendations for patients who have or are considering a STAR (Scandinavian Total Ankle...more
Although “faulty” doesn’t necessarily mean “defective” or “dangerous,” product liability law does indeed hold manufacturers and others liable for producing dangerous products that cause injury. Product liability claims in...more
Recently, the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal opened the door to moving away from the consumer expectations test and adopting the risk-utility test for strict liability design defect claims involving complex...more
The Georgia Supreme Court recently issued a decision impacting all product liability cases in Georgia by finding that Georgia’s apportionment statute—O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33—applies to claims for strict product liability, and as...more
On October 7, 2020, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed a defense verdict in favor of a medical device manufacturer and in doing so approved of the trial court’s use of the risk-utility test and not the...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently reversed a district judge’s grant of summary judgment to a manufacturer in a product defect claim for an explosion at an ethanol plant. In Green Plains Otter Tail, LLC...more
For at least two decades, Pennsylvania law has recognized an exemption from strict liability for prescription drug manufacturers based on the state Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Restatement (Second) of Torts Sec. 402A...more
New York state's High Court has expanded the optional safety device exception to strict products liability to apply to equipment rental. ...more
In what has become an alarming trend in drug and medical device manufacturing, Smith and Nephew felt compelled to copycat other hip implant manufacturers and market a pair of dual modular hip stems. This trend is alarming...more