Last week’s decision in Carr v. Tillery, 2010 WL 92487 (7th Cir. Jan. 12, 2010), was not, strictly speaking, a product liability case. But it involves some key players in that field, and a very key location. And, truth be told, the case appeals to the voyeur within us.

The players are former partners in a plaintiff class action law firm that made a nice business out of hauling corporations (e.g., IBM, Pfizer, Xerox) into Madison (more…)

Supposedly, Einstein said that, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

If that’s the case, then these marketing-based class actions seeking refunds of the purchase price (or some fraction of it) for prescription drugs are at the Einsteinian extreme. As we’ve mentioned before, class certification in these sorts of cases has been denied again, and again, and again. We could add a lot (more…)

is a Counsel resident in the Philadelphia office of Dechert LLP. He is the author of, among other things, Drug and Medical Device Product Liability Handbook (2004) (with Anthony Vale). He can be reached at james.beck@dechert.com.
is a partner resident in the Chicago office of Jones Day. He is the author of, among other things,
(2006), and Statewide Coordinated Proceedings: State Court Analogues to the Federal MDL Process (2d rev. ed. 2004) (more…)