North Carolina Product Liability Lawyer Blog

I get calls from people who have been badly injured after surgery. If it’s straightforward surgery to repair a torn ACL, the question is whether the surgeon was negligent; if that turns out to be the case, the caller will have a claim for medical malpractice. But what if the surgeon is implanting a device:…

This is the question I get most often from people who have hired a lawyer but are not happy with the legal representation. Above almost everything else, good communication is the key to a healthy attorney-client relationship. I try not to be the kind of lawyer who doesn’t return phone calls. I don’t want any…

Seven years after filing suit, a North Carolina woman and her husband were awarded $68 million dollars for serious injuries caused by C.R. Bard’s defective pelvic mesh products. In 2009 Mary McGinnis was implanted with the Avaulta Solo Support System and Align Trans-Obturator Yrethral Support System, two pelvic mesh products manufactured and sold by C.R.…

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Favors are often exchanged among friends and family. But what most people don’t know, or don’t want to know, is that questionable “favors” are also exchanged in professional and business relationships. Over the years, there have been reports that favors, or benefits, are too often exchanged between drug…

Victims of C.R. Bard’s IVC filters got some great news two weeks ago. An Arizona jury in the first bellwether trial awarded a woman $3.6 million for injuries she suffered after Bard’s “G2” IVC filter broke into pieces in her inferior vena cava vein, requiring open heart surgery to remove the broken pieces. The plaintiff,…

As we get older, our bodies weaken, bones become sore, and joints break down. Hip and knee problems are common conditions of aging. In fact, in the past decade millions of Americans have had hip replacement surgeries. Unfortunately, some defective artificial hips have caused patients more suffering than their original hip ailments. For one recent…

Millions of Americans have stomach issues, many of which are related to heart burn and acid reflux. Thankfully, there are several medicines available over-the-counter and by prescription that prevent and relieve these discomforts. Some drugs that help with these stomach issues are called proton pump inhibitors. A proton pump inhibitor (PPI) is a medicine that…

Occasionally I get calls from people who tell me they are unhappy with their product liability lawyer and want to fire that lawyer and hire someone else. So should they? Let’s look at it. Injury Litigation Can Be Highly Stressful First, it’s important to recognize that litigation is stressful to the parties involved. Litigation involving…

As with so many other harmful drugs, the use of testosterone went off the rails when companies pushed the drug’s use for off-label purposes. Although testosterone replacement therapy was approved to treat just two specific conditions, companies eventually pushed their products to treat all kinds of other conditions, uses never approved by the FDA. According…

Have you ever had a problem with a medical device? If you want to bring state law claims against the manufacturer or a doctor, there’s an important legal concept you should know about: federal preemption. In a recent case, the court dismissed several of the plaintiff’s claims against Smith & Nephew, finding that the claims…