Legal Intelligencer, “Same Product, Same Experts, Three Courts-Divergent Outcomes Spotlight Experts’ Role in Products Liability Law,” 11-25-2025

Kaufman Dolowich’s Erik Sardiña, New Jersey Partner, and Eileen Ficaro, Philadelphia Partner, co-authored an insightful article for The Legal Intelligencer examining three federal courts’ conflicting rulings in a products-liability case involving a striker-fired pistol that allegedly discharged without the user’s intent in three separate lawsuits.

While all three courts agreed that the plaintiffs’ causation experts fell short under the federal rules of evidence on causation and permitted the same experts to testify as to the alleged design defects, they diverged sharply on what that meant for the viability of the claims. Two courts allowed the lawsuits to move forward despite the exclusion of causation testimony. One court ended the case entirely. Much of the difference turned on how each court understood the role of the jury, the complexity of firearm mechanics and the limits of expert methodology.

Mr. Sardiña and Ms. Ficaro noted that these three decisions collectively illustrate how appellate courts can converge in evidentiary analysis yet diverge dramatically in outcome. For litigants on both sides of products liability cases, the forum matters: in some circuits, exclusion of causation experts ends the litigation; in others, it merely shapes the presentation of evidence to the jury. 

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