Writing Defensively to Avoid Products Liability Litigation

Overview:   
Too often, documents created by companies in the ordinary course of business are used against them by plaintiffs in products liability cases.  Life sciences companies can be at risk, in particular, because of the amount and type of information that they are required to record as part of the regulated manufacturing process.  Hastily written documents, including emails, can undermine a company’s integrity and legal defense position.  By ensuring that employees are recording information appropriately and responsibly, a company can do much to reduce the costs and stress associated with document discovery during litigation.  This course is designed to teach participants to write defensively when creating documents.
 
How You Will Benefit:
This course provides participants with key information about basic products liability concepts and the documents that can negatively impact companies in litigation.  It discusses the techniques that employees can use to avoid creating the type of document that plaintiffs find useful and “best practices” for document management.

Course Outline:
The following will be covered in this course:

• Provides an overview of basic products liability concepts;
• Explains the discovery process and the important role that documents play in litigation;
• Describes how plaintiffs make use of documents created by life sciences companies to prove their cases;
• Discusses the factors that tend to contribute to the creation of damaging documents, sometimes referred to as “smoking gun” documents;
• Identifies the specific words and phrases that life sciences companies should avoid using altogether;
• Describes the techniques to use when drafting documents to avoid creating damaging documents;
• Examines case studies based on actual claims to illustrate how companies have been affected by damaging documents; and
• Asks participants to critique poorly drafted documents by identifying the writers’ mistakes and suggesting alternative approaches.

Who Should Attend:
Anyone who is responsible for writing or maintaining documents. This includes engineering, laboratory, manufacturing, QA/RA, and customer service employees, in particular.