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Archive for December, 2008

Wyeth May Have Ghostwritten Medical Journal Article

Posted in Government, Pharmaceuticals, tagged , , , on December 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The NY Times reports that Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, has raised questions about whether pharmaceutical giant Wyeth improperly ghost-writed a medical journal article disputing a federal study linking its hormone product Prempro to breast cancer in women.
Grassley has alleged that Wyeth had medical writing firms draft articles and then lined up doctors to put their [...]

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The American Rule, Can This Be Sacrificed to Insurance Company Profits?

Posted in Constitution, Courts, Miscellaneous, Trial lawyer, tagged , , , , on December 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

TortsProfBlog has a link to a WSJ article by Dan Slater about whether the U.S. should keep to the “American” rule in litigation mandating that each side pays its own costs or if we should switch to a loser-pays rule such as exists in the U.K.
The reaction of the plaintiffs’ bar is that adopting the “English” rule [...]

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Your Insurance Company Is Not Your Friend

Posted in Consumer, Government, Health Care, Miscellaneous, tagged , , , , , on December 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Check out this post by Ezra Klein, a young hotshot journalist at the American Prospect, entitled “Your Insurer Is Not Your Friend.” 
In a nutshell, he explains how the scaremongering tactics of Republicans and insurance companies when it comes to universal health care – warning that government and bureaucrats will come between you and your doctor – [...]

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Faces of Lawsuit Abuse: A Response

Posted in Consumer Law, Insurance, Media, Miscellaneous, Politics, Tort, Trial lawyer, tagged , , on December 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »

A few days ago, I posted a video that was recently released by the Chamber of Commerce entitled “Faces of Lawsuit Abuse” showing images of those who have supposedly suffered severe hardship as a result of so-called frivolous lawsuits.
The implication was of bankrupted individuals and ruined small businesses because of greedy trial lawyers. Of course, it was all [...]

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Music Industry to Stop Suing Individuals for Downloading Music

Posted in Consumer, Courts, Media, Miscellaneous, tagged , , on December 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The WSJ reports that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is set to drop its strategy of filing lawsuits against individuals who allegedly illegally download music from the internet. Instead it plans to work with internet service providers to discourage people from making illegal downloads, including slowing down their internet service.
This plan is a [...]

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Faulty Jury Instructions Warrant Retrial in Ford Explorer Rollover Case

Posted in Consumer, Products Liability, tagged , , , , on December 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »

A New Jersey Appeals Court ruled last week that the plaintiff in a rollover case involving a 2000 Ford Explorer who lost at trial will have a second bite at the apple since the trial judge gave improper instructions to the jury.
More specifically, the trial judge refused to give a limiting instruction that evidence of the [...]

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Dennis Quaid, Wife, Settle with Hospital in Heparin Overdose to Newborn Twins

Posted in Consumer, Medical Malpractice, tagged , , on December 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The AP reports that actor Dennis Quaid and his wife agreed to a $750k settlement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles which administered an overdose of heparin, a blood thinner, to their newborn twins.
Months ago, “60 Minutes” reported on this event, and my memory is that the labeling of the different dosages was not distinct and could [...]

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Mattel Settles Lead Paint in Toys Case

Posted in Consumer, Tort, tagged , , , on December 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The WSJ reports that Mattel and its Fisher Price unit have settled a case with 39 states for $12 million based on the importation of toys with lead paint from China.
Millions of Chinese-made toys were recalled because they contained amounts of lead that exceeded U.S. standards.

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Supreme Court Allows Lawsuit From Light Cigarette Smokers

Posted in Consumer, Tort, tagged , , , , on December 16, 2008 | 5 Comments »

In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court allowed a class action lawsuit to go forward brought by smokers of light cigarettes against Altria and its Phillip Morris unit for fraud.
The case was brought by Maine smokers under the state’s consumer protection law alleging they had been harmed by the tobacco company’s false statements that “light” [...]

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Mass. Supreme Court Places Restrictions on Some Foreclosures

Posted in Consumer, Housing, tagged , , , on December 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld a lower court injunction preventing subprime lender Fremont Investment & Loan from foreclosing on certain types of mortgage loans without first notifying the state attorney general and obtaining court approval.
The lower court had said that ”presumptively unfair” loans — the ones subject to the injunction – are those that meet four conditions:

An adjustable [...]

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