New Supreme Court Decision Makes It More Diffcult For Georgia Lawyers To Sue Medical Device And Drug Companies In Product-Injury Claims

Last Wednesday the Supreme Court of the United States made it harder for injury and wrongful death victims to sue manufacturers of federally approved medical devices. This decision will also impact cases involving dangerous drugs. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the Estate of Charles Riegel could sue a company under state law over a medical device which had previously been cleared for sale by federal regulators. Under federal law, a company must prove the safety and effectiveness of a medical device before the United States Food and Drug Administration will approve it for the marketplace. In an 8 to 1 decision, the Court ruled against the Estate of the injured patient who suffered serious injuries when a catheter burst during a medical procedure. As a result of this Supreme Court decision, state lawsuits are barred to the extent that they might impose requirements that are different from federal requirements. In other words Federal law will prempt state law where the two are in conflict or different. Not surprisingly, the Bush Administration sided with the medical device industry, saying unfavorable state jury verdicts would force companies to alter product designs or product labels that had already gotten FDA approval. This case is bad news for people injured by defective medical devices. The fallout from last week’s Supreme Court decision in this case will no doubt be felt throughout the country. Attorneys with cases pending against device makers such as Medtronic, Stryker and Johnson & Johnson expect these companies to file Motions to Dismiss the lawsuits which are currently pending. Lawyers also are concerned that this ruling may prompt judges to dismiss product-injury lawsuits before injured plaintiffs can gain access to data that might prove that the companies used false or misleading data to get government approval to market the devices.