Products Liability

DRUGS AND MEDICAL DEVICES      RESOURCES

EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE

Arthur Chapman's Product Liability Practice Group is well known in the legal community. For over 15 years, the group has chaired the major annual seminar in product liability litigation in Minnesota and has published 15 editions of the most comprehensive book on product liability law in Minnesota. The practice group has extensive experience defending a broad range of lawsuits involving a wide variety of industries and products. The group's experience ranges from pharmaceutical and medical device litigation to agricultural and consumer products, from fire origin and cause litigation to mass tort and serial product liability claims.

NATIONAL AND REGIONAL COUNSEL (Top)

Arthur Chapman has served many companies as national or regional counsel in product liability litigation, including:

• Capital Safety Group - National counsel in fall protection product line
• McLaughin, Gormley & King, Inc. - National counsel in pesticide litigation
• Sandoz Nutrition Corporation (now Novartis) - National counsel in nutritional product litigation
• Bristol-Myers Squib - Regional counsel in silicone gel breast implant litigation
• Advanced Spine - Regional counsel in pedicle bone screw litigation
• L-Tryptophane Litigation - Defense liaison counsel
• GAF - Regional counsel in asbestos litigation

We have represented several other leading corporations on their product liability matters, including AGCO Corporation, Navistar International Transportation Corp., SouthCorp USA, Inc., Heidelberg Web Press, Inc., Maytag Corporation, Pass & Seymour, Inc., MiTek Industries, Inc., and West Bend.

LITIGATION MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT (Top)

Our firm utilizes sophisticated and unique computerized litigation support and case management systems, including proprietary software we have developed internally. These systems allow us, and our clients, immediate access to current information about the status of every lawsuit. By utilizing our computerized litigation support and case management systems, thousands of documents and many gigabytes of electronic data can be efficiently organized and analyzed through our document imaging program, through electronic manipulation in relational databases and by a sophisticated coding and abstracting system.

RISK MANAGEMENT

Our Products Liability Practice Group focuses on working with manufacturers to develop creative ways to minimize and avoid product liability litigation. We are available to consult with clients on their product literature, advertising, packaging, labeling and warranties. We also undertake product liability audits, assist in developing document retention policies and instituting national litigation programs.

DRUGS AND MEDICAL DEVICES (Top)

INDUSTRY-WIDE AND SERIAL PRODUCTS LIABILITY LITIGATION

For many years, Arthur, Chapman, Kettering, Smetak & Pikala, P.A. has served the interests of products manufacturers and their insurers as national or regional counsel responsible for coordinating large numbers of claims involving similar or identical products. Our nationally managed programs include corporations in the nutrition products, over the counter drugs, medical devices, consumer products, insecticides and pesticides, and safety products. In these industries, we have developed national or regional defense programs and successfully managed these with teams of local counsel throughout the country. Through aggressive and well-organized defense initiatives, these programs have been extremely successful both in reducing the company's high costs of defense as well as in curtailing the filing of new lawsuits.

We also serve as regional counsel in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota for several other serial tort programs including silicone breast implants, spinal fixation devices, L-Tryptophane, asbestosis claims, consumer appliances and agricultural products. Our attorneys are admitted to practice in each of these states, and we regularly defend and try cases in all these jurisdictions.

Our work for these clients has resulted in the development of systems for effectively and economically managing large volumes of products liability cases at one time. We have installed sophisticated and unique computerized litigation support and case management systems, including some proprietary software we have developed internally. These systems allow us, and our clients, immediate access to current information about the status of every lawsuit. Hundreds of thousands of documents and many gigabytes of electronic data can be efficiently organized and analyzed through our document imaging program, through electronic manipulation in relational databases and by a sophisticated coding and abstracting system. Often, massive databases can be efficiently incorporated into a strategic defense plan that allows cost-efficient focusing of the litigation onto the central issues, promoting a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the individual cases.

The precise organizational model to be established in any given instance is tailored to the needs of the particular client. Factors typically considered include the number of lawsuits that are anticipated, the resources available to the client or its insurer to manage the program internally, the complexity of the technical issues presented by the litigation, the volume of documents or electronic data that must be incorporated into the defense program, and the threat of class action or multi-district litigation.

Regardless of the relative sharing of responsibilities between client, claims professional, national counsel and local counsel, we manage all our national programs as team efforts with active participation by each of these constituents. The programs contain all of the following organizational parameters:

1. Strategic Defense Plan
2. Discovery-Liability and Causation
3. Documents and Document Retention Policies
4. Expert Witnesses
5. Protecting and Preparing Company Witnesses
6. ADR Procedures and Settlement Discussions
7. Emergency Response Plan Following Notification of Loss

ACKS&P PRODUCTS LIABILITY RESOURCES: (Top)

Minnesota Products Liability Manual - Table of Contents

Primer on Products Liability Law 2005 - Table of Contents

To be added to our newsletter mailing list or receive any of the above resources, please Contact Us.