Consumer Law

Inter Alia on the Internet – Saint Patrick's Day Edition

By Justinian Lane

I?m neither wearing green, nor planning on drinking green beer.  I?ll make up for it by listening to the new U2 album tonight.

• Lawyers defending an individual accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme want to resign due to nonpayment.  Apparently, the accused?s assets have been frozen.  If we?re going to seize the assets of suspected drug dealers, we should do the same to white collar guys, too.
• ?Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that patients can sue drug companies in state courts for harm caused by medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Congress ought to give patients the same right to sue makers of medical devices.?  So begins an op-ed at the NYTimes.  I agree.
• A man was ordered to pay $15 million dollars to his mother-in-law in connection with his wife?s death.  Two interesting points: First, he?s not a criminal suspect.  Second, I always note large verdicts in cases involving intentional torts because it?s so much harder for the tort reform movement to attack those.
• ?Insurers say they're useful allies in campaign to overhaul US health care, not villains.? I?m skeptical, but it is possible insurers can work towards a system that helps us all.  I think they should focus on making health care more ?high tech,? which will save money and lives.  Paper records scare me.
• Will tobacco companies in Flordia get ?free appeals?? Just like casinos make you put the money on the table before they let you bet, courts make appealing defendants prove they can satisfy a judgment before they?re allowed to appeal.  But a legislator in Florida wants to put a cap on the amount tobacco companies have to put on the table.  The legislator is concerned about putting big tobacco into bankruptcy.  Would that be such a bad thing?
• ?Mandatory arbitration is devastatingly bad policy?? So says none other than the Wall Street Journal!  But only because businesses would be taken to the arbitration table by Unions. The same article also claims that, ?We are not opposed to increased unionization of employees per se.?  Sure.
• Were blacks with good credit steered into loans with bad terms?  This will be a lawsuit to watch, if only to see what comes out in discovery.
• ?[Georgia] Senate Bill 57 requires loan brokers to make sure borrowers can repay the mortgage and prohibits brokers from getting bonuses for marketing high-interest loans.? Sounds like a good idea for Federal legislation?. although it?s sad you have to pass a law requiring brokers to verify ability to repay. 
• Our healthcare system sucks.
• I for one oppose the ?Kill Old People Cheap Act.?
• Interesting piece about reforming the discovery process.  It again floats the canard about e-discovery being a ridiculous nightmare.  Sorry, it?s not that bad.  If anything, searching through a million e-documents is easier than searching through a million paper docs.
• Grassley claims that businesses were ?calling the shots? at the FDA.  I believe it; the agency acts as if manufacturers are their customers. 
• Jim Copland gets it right and wrong about preemption.  He?s right that an injury compensation fund might have a lot of potential.  He?s wrong that every FDA decision is carefully considered.  I?d also suggest that an injury compensation fund should cover all injuries, and not just unexpected injuries.
• Great ? 21 ?peer reviewed? pain studies were completely faked.  Sounds like 21 more reasons to celebrate the decision in Wyeth v. Levine.
• ?I can tell you after almost seven years of doing this that it is very rare that a doctor will report another doctor?? Part of the ?wall of silence? that makes medical malpractice lawsuits so difficult.

Full post as published by TortDeform.com on March 17, 2009 (boomark / email).