Judge Marina Corodemus to Speak on Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Litigation Panel at ABA Section

Nov. 13, 2012 - PRLog -- ISELIN, NJ (November 13, 2012) – Judge Marina Corodemus (Ret.), managing partner at mass tort ADR firm Corodemus & Corodemus (ccesqs.com), will participate in a panel discussion on product liability and mass tort litigation at the American Bar Association Section of Litigation Pharmaceutical / Medical Device Regional CLE on November 16 at Boston Scientific in Natick, Massachusetts.

The panel, titled “Whose Witness is it Anyway,” will focus on the various legal, medical and ethical issues that may arise when contacting or retaining consultants, experts and treating / prescribing physicians in drug and medical device litigation, as well as mass torts more generally. Among other issues, the panel will address:

* Whether ex parte contact with a plaintiff’s treating / prescribing physician or defendant’s former employee / consultant is permissible, and if so, under what circumstances.  
* Whether the use of informal witness interviews of adverse witnesses is – or should be – appropriate.  
* Should counsel be permitted to retain or use a plaintiff’s treating / prescribing physician or defendant’s former employee/consultant as an expert, consultant or fact witness in a particular case or a mass tort litigation, more generally?
* When, and under what circumstances, does the sharing of expert witnesses make sense?
* Should counsel be permitted to retain consultants/experts to prevent their use by others in litigation?

Judge Corodemus will provide the court’s perspective and discuss how key bench decisions have shaped pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. She will also share firsthand experiences gained through three decades adjudicating pharmaceutical and medical device mass tort and product liability cases.
“Attorneys face an increasingly complex maze of issues when dealing with medical device and drug litigation,” said Judge Corodemus. “This panel will help them to address the concerns that often arise so that they can do their jobs effectively and with confidence.”

Judge Corodemus is a highly experienced ADR professional, providing mediation, arbitration and settlement negotiation services. The 2012 National Law Journal named her the No. 1 mediator in their “Best of” edition. She is a regarded special master for federal and state courts, handling class actions, mass torts, environmental contaminations, natural resource damages, products liability, consumer fraud and serious aggregate litigation. Judge Corodemus possesses more than a decade of experience on the bench as New Jersey’s sole Mass Tort Judge. She is a member of the ALI Aggregate Litigation Advisor Committee, sat on the Board and Executive Board of the Sedona Conference and is an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School in Newark, N.J. She has previously been honored with the Middlesex County Outstanding Lawyer Achievement Award and the NJ ICLE Outstanding Service Award.

In addition to Judge Corodemus, the panel will be moderated by Michael A. Tanenbaum, Esq. of Sedgwick, LLP and will include attorneys Timothy Pratt, EVP, chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary of Boston Scientific; Kelly Crawford of Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti, LLP and Vicki Maniatis of Sander, Sanders, Block, Viener & Grossman.

The workshop is sponsored by the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Subcommittees of the Products Liability Committee and the Mass Torts Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation. Additional information may be found via the ABA Section of Litigation’s website at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation.html.

Corodemus & Corodemus, L.L.C. provides alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services in general, mass tort, class action and multidistrict litigation (MDL) nationwide while achieving the highest ideals of justice, professionalism and quality service. The firm provides neutral ADR professionals, special masters and experts in arbitration, mediation and complex civil litigation management. The firm’s practitioners are free of bias, prejudice, conflict or restrictions, know the law, understand financial values, practice sound case management and apply common sense to the matters before them. For more information, visit www.ccesqs.com.