On December 20th, Judge Orrick, appointed plaintiff leadership for the JUUL MDL pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Appointed as Co-Lead Counsel were Sarah London (Lieff Cabraser), Dean Kawamoto (Keller Rohrback), Ellen Relkin (Weitz & Luxenberg) and Dena Sharp (Girard Sharp). Khaldoun Baghdadi (Walkup Melodia) and Leslie LaMacchia […]
Earlier this week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that the FDA has the authority to regulate e-cigarettes as “tobacco products”. Stating that e-cigarettes are “indisputably highly addictive and pose health risks, especially to youth, that are not well understood”, the Court also upheld a ban on […]
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) is expected to consider creating an MDL for the Zantac litigation at its upcoming hearing in early December. Considering that Zantac (ranitidine) has been on the market for decades and was so widely-used, the number of potential claimants is expected to be significant. Contrary to the recent FDA […]
JUUL’s legal woes continue to mount with the latest announcements that California and New York have filed suit against the e-cigarette company. On Monday, November 18th state Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced California had filed suit against JUUL for its marketing practices and failure to warn about exposure to chemicals linked to cancer, among other […]
Judge William H. Orrick held the Initial Status Conference for the Juul MDL on Friday, November 8th. Prior to that conference he stated that he had a “sense of urgency in moving this case forward. The allegations are very serious and raise significant public health concerns. My expectation is that all parties share this sense […]
Late last month Johnson & Johnson announced a voluntary recall of approximately 33,000 bottles of its baby powder after the FDA reported finding chrysotile asbestos in the product. While J&J maintains that “thousands of tests over the past 40 years repeatedly confirm that our consumer talc products do not contain asbestos”, it appears that the […]
Juul recently announced the departure of four senior executives, Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommer, Chief Finance Officer Tim Danaher, Chief Administrative Officer Ashley Gould and Senior Vice President of Advanced Technology David Foster. In addition, Juul will be laying off approximately 500 people, or about 10% to 15% of its workforce, by the end of […]
Earlier this week a Philadelphia jury awarded Tracy Reed-Brown over $33 million in her IVC filter case against Rex Medical LP. The award included more than $30 million in punitive damages, in addition to compensation for medical expenses and pain and suffering. Ms. Reed-Brown was implanted with an Option Retrievable Inferior Vena Cava Filter System […]
On October 25th Judge William Orrick issued Case Management Order No. 1 in the JUUL litigation consolidated in his court in the Northern District of California. The Order relates to an initial census, a concept also adopted by Judge M. Casey Rogers of the Northern District of Florida, who is handling the MDL relating to […]
Last week a jury in Philadelphia hit Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary with an $8 billion punitive damages verdict in a Risperdal trial. Nicholas Murray’s lawsuit alleged that, after being given Risperdal in 2003 at age nine for symptoms of autism, he grew breast tissue, a condition known as gynecomastia. J&J was […]
