Wrongful death? Survival action? What’s the difference? Whether it stems from medical malpractice or an auto accident, negligence can unfortunately result in death. In most personal injury lawsuits, the plaintiff filing the lawsuit is the one that suffered some sort of physical injury. They are suing because they desire compensation…
If you are a plaintiff in a lawsuit, you are asking the court to do something for you. In most personal injury cases, you are asking the court to award damages in your favor, typically by way of the jury. Throughout the lawsuit, there will be other “lesser” things that…
Jurisdiction and venue often arise in the context of “forum shopping” when filing lawsuit. Unquestionably, it is better to file a lawsuit in some places compared to others and good lawyering requires careful consideration of venue and jurisdiction and the distinction between the two. In many jurisdictions, like Maryland and…
The American civil justice system allows for one type of recovery in personal injury cases: damages. Damages, or compensation, can manifest themselves in a few different forms in personal injury cases. People tend to throw around terms such as “general damages,” “special damages,” “non-economic,” and “economic” damages, so this post…
Discovery is the most important part of civil litigation (apart from the trial.) Discovery also tends to be the most expensive part of civil litigation. This is often a long and exhaustive process that entails most of the legwork in litigation. At the end of the day, though, discovery is…
Big changes are coming to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. A few of these changes make some pretty significant amendments to language in the discovery rules. Depending on how they are applied and interpreted, there is real potential for a reduction in the amount of information that can be…
Around 22 complaints involving power morcellators are pending in 16 different U.S. federal courts around the country. Plaintiffs are now requesting a federal judge to centralize proceedings for Multidistrict Litigation (MDL). [2017 update: there was at Ethicon power morcellator. It has already been dissolved. The cases that settled in the…
An interesting new piece of evidence recently came to light at a trial against Pfizer in Philadelphia. Internal memos suggest that Pfizer actually believed that Zoloft caused birth defects in pregnant women for years, perhaps providing the smoking gun that was missing in previous Zoloft cases. The News A jury…
Nearly 2,000 HeartWare Ventricular Assist Systems (VAS) are being recalled because of potentially faulty power supply connectors. The defect could lead to serious injury or death in the event that power failure causes the entire system to stop working. The Recall The FDA issued a Class I recall for certain…
AbbVie, manufacturer of the drug Androgel, recently asked a federal judge overseeing litigation against them to bifurcate expert discovery and summary judgment in pretrial proceedings. After rejecting the request, the judge then outlined a schedule for bellwether trials to move forward. AbbVie’s Request Low T Cases Moving Forward In the ongoing…