Matthew Kelly
mkelly@smsm.com
Showing 3 posts by Matthew Kelly.
LIFE SCIENCES CLIENT ALERT: United States Supreme Court holds that the judge, not the jury, makes pre-emption determination in failure-to-warn pharmaceutical cases.
It is the role of the district judge—not the jury—to determine if the FDA would have approved a drug’s warning label that state law requires when deciding whether a failure-to-warn claim is pre-empted, the United States Supreme Court held on Monday. The unanimous decision provides clarity to the high court’s “clear evidence” standard it introduced over a decade ago in Wyeth v. Levine, and resolves a split between the circuit courts in how to apply the standard. More »
PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY CLIENT ALERT: Application of Judgmental Immunity in Illinois
Like other professional malpractice lawsuits, an Illinois plaintiff claiming legal malpractice against a former attorney must allege and prove that the former attorney owed the plaintiff a legal duty of care, that the former attorney breached that duty of care, that the plaintiff suffered an injury in the form of damages, and finally, that the former attorney’s breach of that duty proximately caused plaintiff’s claimed damages. Nelson v. Quarles & Brady, LLP, 2013 IL App (1st) 123122, ¶ 27. However, unlike other professionals, attorneys sued in legal malpractice lawsuits can assert an additional defense to shield themselves from liability—the Judgmental Immunity doctrine. Due to this common law doctrine, an attorney can seek the early dismissal of any legal malpractice claim where an unsatisfactory outcome/damages were allegedly caused by the former attorney’s good faith error in judgment in the underlying matter. More »
CLIENT ALERT: Supreme Court's Personal Jurisdiction Ruling Sounds Potential Death Knell to Plaintiff Litigation Forum Shopping
In a momentous 8-1 ruling handed down yesterday, the United States Supreme Court plainly limited the reach of state courts to assert personal jurisdiction over corporate defendants in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of CA, San Francisco County, et al. More »
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