Weitz & Luxenberg attorney and executive member of the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ) Ellen Relkin will speak at the Association’s 2018 Mass Torts Seminar. A program co-chair for the conference, Ms. Relkin will participate in the seminar’s panel on the implications of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent Accutane decisions.
The seminar is part of the three-day Meadowlands Seminar held from November 14 to 16 in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the Hilton Meadowlands Hotel. The mass torts program featuring Ms. Relkin takes place on Friday, November 16 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and focuses on New Jersey Law on Expert Evidence: What You Need to Know After the Accutane Decision.
In August, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that the federal Daubert evidence standard was consistent with New Jersey standards for judges to evaluate the methodology of scientific evidence before trial lawyers can present it to a jury and decided to incorporate some “Daubert factors” but not incorporate the full body of federal court Daubert case law.
Just last month, the New Jersey Supreme Court, in a companion decision, decided the issue of whether New Jersey law on the adequacy of drug warning labels or the law of the plaintiff’s home state governed. The Court found that for all cases filed in a New Jersey Multi-County Litigation, New Jersey Law governed. The Court then interpreted the meaning of the New Jersey statute that an FDA approved drug label is presumed to be adequate but that presumption can be rebutted. The Court crafted a new exception to this statute.
“These decisions can have a significant impact on the prosecution of cases against drug companies in New Jersey and need to be carefully analyzed,” said Ms. Relkin. “On behalf of my co-chairs, Lynne M. Kizis and Adam B. Lederman, I would like to thank the NJAJ for creating an important forum for attorneys to discuss the impact of this decision and how we will move forward with cases in the state.”
Ms. Relkin is co-chair of Weitz & Luxenberg’s Defective Drugs and Devices Practice Group. She has helped thousands of plaintiffs injured by defective medical products, including serving as lead/liaison counsel in the recent New Jersey Multi-County Litigation against the manufacturers of Stryker LFIT recalled cobalt chromium femoral head hip replacement implants.
Ms. Relkin, the State Delegate on the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association for Justice, was awarded the prestigious Gerald B. O’Connor Award by the Association earlier this year. She was also named one of the 2018 Top 100 New York Lawyers and a 2018 Top 50 New York Women Lawyers by Metro Super Lawyers last month.
Meadowlands Seminar attendees can attend panels with top legal experts discussing judicial perspectives on the evolved evidence standard, warnings law and choice of law and how the decisions apply to future mass tort and other cases in New Jersey.