Products Liability
For over four decades, major international clients have been turning to Sidley for comprehensive defense of bet-the-company cases. In the early stages of products liability litigation, Sidley saw the benefits of national coordination of every aspect of mass tort litigation such as experts, discovery, trial themes and company witnesses and was the first firm in the country to offer such a comprehensive approach. The firm has been involved in every type of mass products liability litigation and has developed an extensive network and databases of experts, local counsel, scientific literature, legal research and other resources necessary to match up with well-financed and networked plaintiffs’ counsel. The firm has tried, handled and/or appealed cases in nearly every state in the union as well as in every federal circuit.
Effective expert testimony is essential in mass tort litigation. Sidley was pursuing motions to exclude junk science used by plaintiffs’ firms years before the Supreme Court’s
Daubert decision. And when such dubious experts were not excluded, the firm was able to subject them to withering cross-examination made possible through its collections of testimony, literature and other resources needed to show the invalidity of such opinions. Many states have adopted
Daubert-like standards and the firm uses its experience and resources in state litigation along with techniques such as
Lone Pine case management orders to attack plaintiffs’ cases at their weakest point early in the litigation.
Our lawyers have also pioneered, and have years of experience in, all of the major issues and procedures to be encountered in modern mass tort litigation – medical monitoring, class actions, MDLs (state and federal), value protection programs, e-discovery, alternative dispute resolution, innovative settlements, preemption, international discovery, collateral regulatory proceedings and insurance coverage.
It is not enough to react to products liability crises when they occur; it is important to anticipate them, to plan for them and – above all – to take steps to avoid them. We assist clients at every stage in the process. When claims do occur, we work with clients to develop strategies for early disposition whenever appropriate. Our lawyers have worked closely with clients to provide assistance in dealing with the CPSC, OSHA, EPA, FDA and other regulatory bodies, prepare emergency action plans, critique chemical plant process safety plans and review insurance coverage. We assist clients in achieving compliance with regulatory schemes, in reviewing promotional material and in preparing documentation to communicate information about products to the professions and the public.
