Products and Toxic Tort Liability

Practice Highlights 

• Hundreds of jury trials on behalf of manufacturers across sectors, including: 
  • Automakers 
  • Tobacco product manufacturers 
  • Fortune 500 pharmaceutical manufacturers 
  • Leading chemical manufacturers 
  • Sports equipment manufacturers 
  • Aviation industry leaders 
• Broad mass tort/class action experience
  • 100+ class actions defended throughout the United States since 2008 
  • 100+ mass tort actions defended 
  • Coordinating counsel in nationwide pharmaceutical litigation 
  • Florida counsel in numerous MDLs, class actions, and consolidated mass tort cases

Key Matters 

• Obtained summary judgment for medical device manufacturer on preemption grounds; judgment affirmed by 11th Circuit in court’s first post-Riegel preemption decision
• Obtained defense verdict for aviation product manufacturer in wrongful death case brought by 5 plaintiffs arising out of engine failure and crash in Guatemala
• First successful removal to federal court of over 100 air crash claims under “mass action” provision of Class Action Fairness Act 
• Obtained defense verdicts on behalf of automobile manufacturer in multi-million dollar catastrophic personal injury trials
• Defended heater manufacturer in federal court case involving issue of whether manufacturer had duty to provide bilingual warnings
• Instrumental in shaping Florida product liability law 
  • Defeated class certification of Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practice Act and implied warranty claims in federal court cases involving claims against airplane part manufacturer and dental implant manufacturer; defense of automotive class actions has led to several appellate decisions making certification of such claims very difficult in Florida 
  • Clarified Florida law to limit claims of emotional distress to cases where plaintiff can prove the impact sustained was sufficient to create a physical manifestation 
  • Worked on committee redrafting Florida standard jury instructions and co-authored minority report to Florida Supreme Court opposing proposed changes to Florida product liability instructions 
  • Spearheaded effort to amend Florida law on crashworthiness in automotive product liability case, legislatively overturning the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in D’Amario v. Ford Motor Co., 806 So. 2d 424 (Fla. 2001) 
  • Trial and appellate counsel in two cases addressing the applicability of the fraudulent concealment exception to Florida’s statute of repose in product liability cases 
  • Obtained summary judgment on behalf of medical device manufacturer in Beale v. Biomet, 492 F. Supp. 2d 1360 (SD Fla. 2007), a case addressing whether Florida law recognizes direct-to-consumer advertising and other exceptions to the learned intermediary doctrine
• Unique team approach involves appellate/trial support attorneys from case inception through trial and appeal 
• Bilingual defense of hundreds of claims against U.S. manufacturers under laws of Latin American countries, including mass/class actions, management of cross-border mass tort claims, forum non conveniens issues involving Central and South American countries’ laws 
• Dedicated pharmaceutical and medical device team responsible for seminal Florida decisions affecting drug and medical device manufacturers: 
  • 11th Circuit affirmance of Riegel preemption of PMA-device claims against manufacturer, distributor, and sales representative 
  • Learned intermediary doctrine adopted as Florida law 
  • Application of learned intermediary doctrine where prescriber independently assesses risk and decides not to warn patient