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Tips and Strategies for Successful Mass Tort Management
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In a recent case pending in Hawaii state court, a husband and wife sued a tobacco company defendant for various claims related to its manufacturing and marketing of tobacco cigarettes, including strict products liability,...more
For over three decades, federal preemption of state failure to warn claims has served as a powerful defense in strict liability tort cases. Courts have consistently dismissed lawsuits challenging the adequacy of warnings for...more
On Jan. 6, a Pittsburgh jury concluded a month-and-a-half long trial involving a suit asserting that decedent Michaeleen Lee developed mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos-containing talcum powder products made by Johnson &...more
From the now decades old asbestos litigation to pharmaceuticals and product liability cases to the newly developing PFAS or “forever chemical” lawsuits, mass tort litigation has increasingly become the tool of choice by which...more
Georgia now has the privilege of being the No. 1 Judicial Hellhole according to the American Tort Reform Foundation. Below are a few of the current hot button issues....more
Mass tort defendants frequently defend lawsuits in venues like Los Angeles County, California, which are favored by plaintiff firms due to their plaintiff-favorable law and propensity for large verdicts. In a recent decision...more
A federal jury in Florida awarded $77.5 million in damages, including $72.5 million in punitive damages, to a former soldier who filed a claim alleging that his hearing loss resulted from defective 3M Co. earplugs. The case...more
The 3M earplug lawsuits keep moving forward. On November 15, 2021, the seventh bellwether trial in the ongoing 3M earplug injury litigation ended in a $13 million award in favor of the plaintiff. This jury award has other...more
In many product liability, mass tort, and consumer cases the gravest—and probably least predictable—risk is a runaway punitive damages award. Unlike compensatory damages, which are tied to the plaintiff’s actual injuries,...more
On Tuesday, a jury entered a verdict of $27.8 million against Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer AG’s Bayer Pharmaceuticals Inc. in the first state court trial out of the Philadelphia County Court of...more
As early as 1967, Judge Friendly worried about the phenomenon of punitive damages overkill in mass tort litigation. Fifty years later, the problem persists....more
Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Johnson & Johnson, has been embroiled in a mass tort MDL in Philadelphia for its anti-psychotic drug, Risperdal, for almost a year now. So far in 2015, the juries have split – two in...more
Last week, the coordinating judge for the Risperdal mass tort litigation released an opinion explaining why punitive damages claims are barred in the nearly 1,500 cases consolidated in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. ...more
In This Presentation: • Challenges of U.S. Courts • Specialized and Aggressive Plaintiff’s Bar and Contingency Fees • Jury Trials • Pretrial Discovery • Personal Jurisdiction • U.S.-Based Subsidiaries •...more