As reported on Legal Newsline: WILMINGTON, Del. – Johnson & Johnson has borrowed a page from the legal playbook pioneered by breast-implant manufacturer Dow Corning to try to consolidate thousands of talc lawsuits in a single federal court for resolution. The consumer-products giant’s strategy hinges upon the Chapter 11 bankruptcy Read more…
CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – As of Oct. 29, 2018, a medical sterilization firm called Sterigenics was in full compliance with state and federal regulations over its use of ethylene oxide, a carcinogen. Then on Oct. 30, it wasn’t. In an 18-page complaint filed that day, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan accused Read more…
HARTFORD, Conn. (Legal Newsline) – The Connecticut Supreme Court has said family members of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre can sue the manufacturer of the Bushmaster rifle used in the assault under a theory the company’s advertising violated the state consumer protection statute. The 4-3 decision by Read more…
A small group of highly paid experts, one of whom recently testified his firm has made $30 million offering mostly pro-plaintiff testimony, are the key ingredient for more than 10,000 lawsuits claiming talcum powder is laced with deadly asbestos, forming the tip of an inverted pyramid upon which the rest Read more…
An op-ed in Investors Business Daily by Lisa Rickard, president of the Institute for Legal Reform on an arcane but important topic. For nearly a century, the American Law Institute (ALI) has provided an invaluable public service to judges and policymakers by surveying the current state of the law and Read more…
New York’s specialized court for asbestos lawsuits could become a pivotal battleground for litigation over talcum powder as plaintiff lawyers seek to establish a record of wins in a court system known for liberal rules and big jury verdicts. Talc manufacturers Johnson & Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive and their wholesale suppliers Read more…
An old one of mine from Forbes.com that details tactics still used in the world of mass-tort advertising, as more recently described by veteran Kevin Pflug at Medium.com: Like millions of other people, Rachel Wright jumped on the Facebook wave in September, 2010. The Columbus, Ohio resident quickly accumulated more Read more…
As published on Legal Newsline: BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – The federal judge who unleashed a wide-ranging investigation into the fee practices of Labaton Sucharow was unimpressed by the class action firm’s agreement to install an ethics monitor and revamp its rules, saying he was more concerned about getting to the Read more…
My latest story on Legal Newsline: HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) – Harris County, Texas, considers itself a highly sophisticated government entity, with a population larger than 16 states and a territory larger than Rhode Island. Yet when it hired outside lawyers to represent it in lawsuits against the opioid industry, Harris Read more…
My latest Legal Newsline story on Forbes.com: Boulder, Colo., officials described it as a can’t-lose proposition when they voted to sue ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy for their alleged role in causing climate change. But now that federal judges on either coast have dismissed two of the most prominent climate lawsuits Read more…