On October 14, 2015, the United States Food and Drug Administration released a document providing draft guidance for animal studies used in medical device development and testing. In many lawsuits regarding defective medical devices, studies and guidance documents of this nature are used by the parties’ experts to testify about certain aspects of…
An Illinois Appeals Court recently confirmed that some plaintiffs in medical battery claims are required to include a certificate of merit at the same time that they file the initial lawsuit. According to one news source, this was the second appeals court to require the certificate in this type of…
In many class action cases, the defendant will attempt to render the action moot by offering a settlement to the lead plaintiff. Last month, the First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected one such attempt to moot in Bais Yaakov of Spring Valle v. ACT, Inc. In this case, the plaintiffs alleged…
Earlier this year, an Illinois appellate court decided a case holding that the time of accrual for a wrongful death action based on the legal theory of medical malpractice is the time of death, rather than the time the alleged negligence was discovered. In the case, Moon v. Rhode, the…
A local woman sued a surgeon recently after undergoing surgery to improve a condition involving her upper, or cervical, spine. The cervical spine is the portion of the spine located closest to the neck. The patient initially sought treatment from the doctor due to ongoing neck pain. According to the…
Earlier this year, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a proposed class action based on the plaintiffs’ failure to meet a number of the four required elements of class certification. In Karhu v. Vital Pharm, Inc., the defendant manufactured and marketed a dietary supplement intended to…
The automaker Hyundai recently announced that it is recalling a large number of midsize and compact cars sold in the United States. In total, the recall affects nearly 28,000 cars, including Elantras manufactured in 2010 and 2011, and Sonatas manufactured in 2009 and 2010. Hyundai’s Elantra and Sonata are two of…
In Saavedra v. Eli Lilly & Co., the plaintiffs brought suit against the manufacturer of the anti-depressant drug Cymbalta, alleging not that they overpaid for the product but that they were harmed because they received a product that had less value than what they expected to receive. The plaintiffs sought to…
According to a news report, a girl injured while boarding a city bus has sued the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and the bus driver for negligence. The girl is 16 years old. As a result of the accident, she required surgery to repair several fractures to her pelvic bones. In…
Each year, roughly 35,000 to 40,000 individuals sustain serious injuries while using table saws. Due to the nature of how these products are used, one of the most common types of injuries involves the operator’s fingers, hands, and arms. In the recent case of Ingram v. Sears, a man from Alabama filed a…