Congress considers bill that would eliminate preeption in medical device cases

Two days ago, the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee heard testimony on the Medical Device Safety Act of 2009, a bill that proposes to overturn the Supreme Court's 2008 ruling in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. which prevents patients injured by certain federally approved medical devices from seeking redress via state product liability suits. Not surprisingly the American Tort Reform Association adamantly opposes the bill while The American Association for Justice supports it. Here is a short list of the names and affiliations of the witnesses who testified before the House Subcommittee; and here is a link to the testimony given at the hearing. (Thanks to Drug and Device Law Blog for these links.) For a comment on some of the testimony in support of the bill by the PopTort Blog, go here.