header-logo header-logo

Product liability: inside out?

226376
Sarah Moore & Harry Wilkinson shed light on the underutilised ‘black box’ of product liability claims
  • Explanted medical devices are a critical but underused resource in product liability claims, offering valuable insights into device failure, patient outcomes, and potential legal evidence—yet 95% are discarded post-surgery.
  • Lack of awareness and confusion among clinicians and patients about ownership rights and consent procedures contributes to the low rate of explant analysis, despite the existence of the NHS Implant Analysis Service.

Explanted medical devices—including, for example, prosthetic hips, knees, or even breast implants—contain vital information which, if retained and analysed appropriately, can be a powerful tool in evaluating why an explanted device has failed. Interested parties include device manufacturers, clinicians, and patients. Information obtained through this analysis can facilitate improved product design, patient care and, in some instances, crucial causation evidence for patients who are seeking to hold manufacturers to account.

Yet, despite significant advances in the sophistication of explant analysis in the UK, and even the creation

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll