January 01, 2019
The life sciences industry will be keeping an eye on courtrooms around the country in 2019, watching to see how the U.S. Supreme Court decides a legal battle over patent protection for drugs and monitoring the fallout from federal prosecutors' decision to spike a False Claims Act case. Here are seven cases life sciences attorneys say they'll be following in the coming year.
January 01, 2019
Product liability attorneys are closely watching two appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court — one over Merck's osteoporosis drug Fosamax and another involving asbestos and maritime law — as well as the enormous multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis and suits alleging that Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Here, Law360 summarizes the top cases product liability attorneys will be following in 2019.
December 19, 2018
An Ohio federal judge on Wednesday cleared a bellwether suit in the multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis to move forward, largely signing off on a magistrate judge's recommendation.
December 18, 2018
The past year was a lively one on the multidistrict litigation docket as major MDLs over the opiate crisis and the Equifax data breach got up and running, while cases concerning a Monsanto weedkiller and a common hospital technology revved for early bellwether trials.
December 06, 2018
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Thursday denied a request from plaintiffs representing "opioid babies" — infants of mothers who were addicted to prescription drugs — to separate their suits into a distinct multidistrict litigation, ruling that their unique damages don't outweigh the inconvenience caused by such a separation.
December 04, 2018
An Ohio federal judge on Tuesday refused nearly two dozen Indian tribes' request to conduct further discovery of federal contracts so they can avoid being treated disparately from government entities in an ongoing opioid multidistrict litigation, ruling that the court has already identified cases that discuss the tribes' legal issues.
November 29, 2018
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation appeared disinclined Thursday to create a new MDL for "opioid babies" whose mothers used prescription narcotics, sharply questioning whether such a move would actually expedite the infants' suits.
November 21, 2018
A federal judge has shot down a bid from drug companies that sought to block local Ohio governments with bellwether cases in multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis from being able to recover damages at trial.
November 09, 2018
The Ohio federal judge overseeing massive multidistrict litigation over the nation's opioid crisis granted a request by lead attorneys for local governments to distribute market share data, from a federal database, of opioid sales to counties and other entities.
November 07, 2018
Lead attorneys for local governments suing over the opioid crisis on Wednesday told the Ohio federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation that since the U.S. Department of Justice does not oppose releasing market share data from a federal database of opioid sales, opioid makers and distributors have no grounds to oppose it either.