Fla. Federal Judge Explains Jury Instructions Following Defense Verdict in Somatics Shock Device Case

TAMPA, Fla. — Following a defense verdict, the judge who oversaw the trial in a lawsuit accusing Somatics LLC of failing to warn doctors that its electroshock therapy device causes permanent memory loss has explained his reasoning for presenting the case to the jury on a single claim of a strict liability warning defect.

In the June 12 order, Judge Tom Barber of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida explained that submission to the jury of negligent failure to test or to investigate as a separate legal theory in addition to failure to warn would be …