Every law student learns the same tidy hierarchy on day one of Torts. Negligence is harder to prove than strict liability, because strict liability does not require showing the defendant did anything wrong, only that the product itself was defective.
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More LifeVest PMA Preemption
We were saddened this week to hear about the passing of Dolly Parton. A prolific and wonderful songwriter, she was also a relentless force for good. A shining example of her goal of improving the world is her Imagination Library,
Plaintiffs Go 0-2 with High-Profile Loper Bright Arguments
Shortly after the Supreme Court decided Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024), we predicted that that the other side would attempt to use that decision “for nefarious purposes.” We chronicled their first, “meat-axe” attempt here, where
State of the States (Rankings, part 2)
Last week we reviewed our 2020-25 Best and Worst lists to see if any patterns emerged in terms of the federal circuits. Our tentative conclusions were that the Fifth Circuit is pretty defense-friendly and that the Third Circuit is pretty
Frozen Assets — E.D. Pa. Refuses to Let a Qui Tam Relator Turn a Shipping Glitch into a Fraud Verdict
We have all had the experience of ordering something online, watching the delivery truck icon crawl across the map for three days, and then opening the box to find everything is exactly fine. No harm, no foul, just a mildly
The Continuing Demise of Market Share Liability
We published a 50-state survey on the widespread rejection of so-called market share liability back 2010, which we recently referenced in our post celebrating the demise of an “ultra processed” food strike suit in Pennsylvania. As that post discussed, one
California Court Powers Up Preemption In Protein Case
The plaintiff in Kha v. Tilray Brands, Inc. tried to use California’s Sherman Law to do an end run around the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in a case involving hemp products, but it did not work. The district court
Buckman Limits Claims In A Commercial Case
The Supreme Court decided Buckman in the context of a fairly large product liability litigation about implanted medical devices. In the years that followed, the plaintiffs in drug and device product liability litigation tried a number of arguments to cabin
Home Field Advantage: How Connecticut Made it Easier to Plead a Filshie Clip Case
Every sport has that one venue where the home team gets every close call. Fenway in the late 2010s. Lambeau Field in a January snowstorm. Or, if you are a Baltimore Orioles fan — Yankee Stadium in Game 1 of
Personal Jurisdiction, Arbitration, and Class II Device Preemption in Michigan
Today’s case, Schmidt v. Dexcom, Inc., 2026 WL 2244106 (E.D. Mich. Aug 2, 2026), involves a glucose monitoring device (the “G6”) and a pretty bad day for the plaintiff—both in terms of how he somehow managed to get a needle