North Carolina Product Liability Lawyer Blog

You go to the doctor to get help, not to be hurt. And you take medicine to be healed, not to be harmed. However, some prescription drugs, like Actemra, may do the latter – hurt you instead of help you. If you or a loved one have rheumatoid arthritis, you may have been prescribed or…

As we saw in the previous post, the “Birmingham plaintiffs” submitted a 160-page Master Complaint in August 2017, alleging many Smith & Nephew misrepresentations that led to the introduction of an unreasonably dangerous product into the marketplace. In this post we continue our deep dive into the Smith & Nephew Birmingham Hip Master Complaint. (Part…

This is the story about the Smith & Nephew Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Device, the patients harmed by the metal-on-metal artificial hip, the lawsuits that followed, and the massive Master Complaint filed last August against Smith & Nephew. But First, How Do We Get to a “Master Complaint”? This is how product liability multidistrict litigation begins:…

If you have a specific type of leukemia—Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia, or Ph+ CML—you may have been prescribed the chemotherapy drug Tasigna (nilotinib). Tasigna offers promise for some patients and may even be associated with remission of their disease—but it’s not without risks. What’s more alarming, the drug’s manufacturer, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, may have…

This is my pitch: People who had to undergo revision surgery because their DePuy ASR artificial hip failed should be compensated for their injuries, even if the revision surgery occurred beyond the ten-year anniversary date of the original implant surgery. Let me admit the obvious: It’s a bit self-serving for me to argue this point.…

Are you one of the almost 5 million Americans who have had total knee replacement or arthroplasty? This surgery is intended to resolve chronic knee pain, often due to rheumatoid arthritis, and restore mobility and quality of life. But sometimes, knee replacements go all wrong. One recent example is the Depuy Synthes Attune artificial knee.…

It’s nice to see that I may be out in front of a national publication like The New York Times. For two and a half years I have been writing on the dangers of metal-on-metal artificial hips and the deeply-flawed 510(k) medical device approval process. On Saturday Jeanne Lenzer published a very informative piece in the…

In litigation, there are several harsh and punishing deadlines. The worst one is the statute of limitations (“SOL”). The SOL is a statute in state or federal law that limits the time you are allowed to file a lawsuit. In North Carolina, for example, the SOL for bringing a personal injury claim against a person…

The opioid epidemic in America is a national crisis. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recently reported that more than 64,000 people died in 2016 from drug overdoses, with the great majority of those deaths caused by opioids. The numbers for 2017 only look worse. Last month, I wrote about whether people affected by the…

There have been two major developments in testosterone replacement therapy litigation in the past week. Last Thursday Eli Lilly & Co., the maker of the testosterone product Axiron, announced to Judge Matthew Kennelly in Illinois that an agreement had been reached to settle claims by people injured by Axiron testosterone. In the second development, the…