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Craig Niedenthal

Craig is an attorney focusing on complex litigation, products liability and pharmaceutical litigation. He will teach a course about e-discovery and products liability at Solo Practice University®.

Craig received both his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from Tulane University. He was accepted into an honor’s combined BA-JD program at Tulane which allowed him to complete both his undergraduate degree and his law degree in a total of 6 years. He graduated from undergraduate and law school at Tulane with honors.

For the initial 18 years of his legal career, Craig worked as a lawyer representing automotive manufacturers such as Nissan, Honda and General Motors throughout the country in products liability litigation. Upon realizing his true calling was in helping those who had been injured and wronged, Craig began handling products liability cases and other complex litigation on behalf of plaintiffs. This has included cases against automotive manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. The ability to fight for someone who has had significant tragedy in their life and be able to provide them some hope for the future has been an incredible gift of this journey. Craig has had the privilege of representing parents who lost their child due to suicide caused by an anti-depressants, husbands and children who lost their mother due to the taking of a “bad drug”, and in one case, an entire family who lost 3 family members and were left with 2 family members severely brain damaged all in one car crash due to the complete lack of care shown by a corporation in accepting responsibility for dangerous conditions it was causing to the roadway.

Craig brings a different perspective to cases because he has handled cases from “the other side”. He knows how they view cases, what strategies they may try, and how they evaluate cases. It permits him to anticipate how they will react to certain claims and know the potential moves before they even happen. This experience on both sides also provides Craig with different thoughts on issues than other attorneys representing the injured and wronged because for the first 18 years of his practice, he handled complex litigation on behalf of corporate America.

Craig is licensed to practice in both Alabama and Florida. He has given seminars and presentations throughout the country on issues ranging from how to pursue a products claim against a pharmaceutical company to how to address issues of production of electronic discovery in complex litigation.

To learn more, visit the Niedenthal Law Firm website or read the Alabama Product Injury Lawyer Blog.

Syllabus – Introduction to Products Liability Litigation

  1. The Law of Products Liability
    1. Strict Liability
      1. Consumer Expectation v. Risk/Utility test
    2. Negligence
    3. Breach of Warranty
    4. Failure to Warn

 

  1. Pharmaceutical/Medical Device Litigation
    1. Suing Big Pharma
    2. Failure to Warn
    3. Manufacturing defect
    4. Learned Intermediary Doctrine
    5. MDL litigation
    6. FDA

 

  1. Auto Products Liability
    1. Crashworthiness
    2. NHTSA
    3. Component part manufacturers
    4. State of the Art
    5. Recalls and their effect on litigation

 

  1. Evaluating the potential products liability claim
    1. Evaluation of your client
    2. Research your product and product history
    3. Investigation
    4. Statute of Limitations and Statute of Repose Issues
    5. Product Modification in the workplace
    6. Is it worth the risk??

 

  1. Evaluating and Retaining Your Expert(s)
    1. What expert(s) will I need
      1. Auto Products Case
      2. Pharmaceutical/Medical Device case
    2. Sources for finding experts
    3. Ask the hard questions
    4. Money; how much will it cost?
    5. Start thinking of Daubert issues from the beginning

 

  1. The Complaint – Starting the Litigation
    1. Who do I sue?
      1. Auto Products Liability
        1. Suing the dealer
      2. Pharmaceutical/Medical Device Litigation
        1. Suing the Dr.
    2. Where and how do I serve?
      1. Service on Foreign Corporations
    3. What claims do I bring?
    4. Detailed nature of the Complaint

 

  1. Discovery
    1. Goals
    2. Written discovery
      1. RPs
      2. Ints
      3. RA
    3. Initial Corporate Representative Depositions

 

  1. Electronic Discovery
    1. Understanding general technology issues
    2. Initial disclosure requirements
    3. Deposition of MIS director
    4. Handling the production of electronically stored information (ESI)

 

  1. Motions and Other Legal Issues Arising During Litigation
    1. Protective Order on Confidential documents
    2. Work Product issues
    3. Motions to Compel Discovery
    4. Relevant products for purposes of discovery
    5. Taking Corp Rep Depo of Foreign Defendant
      1. Where
      2. How

 

  1. Testing and Evaluation of the Product
    1. Auto Products Liability
    2. Pharmaceutical Litigation

 

  1. Expert Depositions
    1. Prepping your expert for deposition
      1. Daubert Issues
      2. Testing your expert
      3. Defending your expert in deposition
    2. Taking the Defendant’s Expert(s) deposition
      1. Do I challenge or just get information and leave

 

  1. Pretrial Issues to Address
    1. Motions in Limine
    2. Preemption
    3. Causation in Pharmaceutical
      Litigation