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Federal Preemption Hits Below The Belt, Stopping Common-Law Products Liability Claims For Pre- Market Approved Medical Devices, Dylan O. Malagrino
Federal Preemption Hits Below The Belt, Stopping Common-Law Products Liability Claims For Pre- Market Approved Medical Devices, Dylan O. Malagrino
Dylan Malagrinò
Recent cases have shown that federal preemption is a very powerful
defense for a pharmaceutical or medical-device manufacturer to use in
common law products liability litigation. A January 2008 decision by
the California Court of Appeals for the Second Appellate District (Seventh
Division) found that the rigorous federal pre-market approval process results
in federal preemption of common law tort claims for medical devices. In
doing so, this court made it nearly impossible for a plaintiff to bring a state
common law products liability action against a medical device manufacturer
Method To Bifurcate Class Actions For Common Determinations When Damages Issues Are Not Appropriate For Class Treatment, Dylan O. Malagrino
Method To Bifurcate Class Actions For Common Determinations When Damages Issues Are Not Appropriate For Class Treatment, Dylan O. Malagrino
Dylan Malagrinò
On October 1, 2007, the United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal
by tobacco companies and issued an order declining to review a 2006
Florida Supreme Court decision upholding the certification of a plaintiff
class of more than 700,000 smokers for a limited purpose (i.e., for the determination
of liability) and further holding that certain common liability findings
at trial can stand even after the decertification of the class for other purposes
(i.e., for the determination of compensatory damages). As a result, class
smokers may have a much easier burden to show they were misled by the
tobacco industry and …