Consumer Law

Crime and Punishment, U.S.-Style (Apologies to Dostoevsky!)

Posted on February 06, 2009
Inhuman prison conditions in U.S. facilities aren?t unique to Guantanamo. A federal judge in Louisiana has certified a class action on behalf juveniles abused at New Orleans' Youth Study Center. The case, first brought December 2007 by the Juvenile Justice...

Nancy Nord Has Got to Go - Today!

Posted on February 05, 2009
What?s it going to take to finally remove the disastrous Nancy Nord as acting head of the Consumer Project Safety Commission, and replace her with a new Chair who is competent, fair and honest and actually cares about consumers -...

Access Denied: The Fight for Corporate Accountability - This Friday at NYU

Posted on February 04, 2009
Are you a law student living New York City? What are you doing for lunch on Friday? New York University (NYU) law students and curious policy wonks will be attending the 32nd Annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair and lunching...

An Olive Branch to Small Business?Courtesy of American Express

Posted on February 03, 2009
In spite of a minor kerfuffle ThePopTort recently had with some of our small business friends, we?re happy to report that last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York handed small business a well-deserved victory. The case invalidated...

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Then We Add Dead Rat to the Peanut Butter, and Let It Bake Right In?

Posted on February 03, 2009
The argument that companies regulated by the FDA should be completely immune from lawsuits brought by sick and injured customers just gets weaker and weaker as more information becomes available about the salmonella-tainted peanut butter scandal. First, it turns out...

California?s Proposition 64: The Best Law Money Can Buy!

Posted on February 02, 2009
In 2004, bankrolled by $18 million from big oil, drug, and insurance companies (among numerous deep-pocketed others), California?s Proposition 64 passed by a comfortable margin. The law, which limits citizens? rights to file lawsuits under California?s Unfair Competition Law (UCL),...

Overzealous Police Apologize?With Gift Cards

Posted on January 30, 2009
What do you do if you?re a police lieutenant whose officers barge into a house without a warrant (looking for drugs and guns), terrorize the innocent occupants for two hours, brutalize a mom and 7 children, and then realize (woops)...

Ledbetter Law (Signed Today!) Shows America?s Being Led Better

Posted on January 29, 2009
We?ve talked about this law, and the absurd ruling by the U.S Supreme Court that made the creation of it necessary, but we would be remiss in not giving props to our new president for deliberately making this important piece...

The ?Safety Nanny? Responds

Posted on January 29, 2009
Well, well, well. Who knew our little post supporting the landmark Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) would generate so many, shall we say, riled-up comments. (Although being deemed a ?Safety Nanny? doesn?t exactly sound like a diss. I?d sure...

Doctors Seeing the Light? Nah.

Posted on January 29, 2009
It is wildly ironic and entertaining who?s been running to the courthouse to file lawsuits lately. For example, we had to chuckle at this item, about a Nevada pediatrician who is suing an insurance provider, claiming it cheated ?thousands? of...

How Scary Can the FDA Get???

Posted on January 28, 2009
We thought we had heard it all when we told you that a group of FDA scientists had written a letter to Congress several months ago, pleading for intervention due to ?serious misconduct? within the agency. Then the scientists wrote...

Justice Rights a Health Care Wrong

Posted on January 27, 2009
Every once in a while, a story comes along that thoroughly epitomizes why we think unfettered access to the civil justice system, particularly in cases involving reckless medical professionals, is so crucial. This is one.A little over a year ago,...

Chipping Away at Justice II: Workers? Comp. Woes With a Vengeance

Posted on January 27, 2009
Yesterday we told you about a Kentucky employee who was deemed ineligible for workers? compensation, despite contracting Parkinson?s disease after a 20-year exposure to a toxic chemical at his job. Unfortunately, today, we?re bringing you a kind of sequel...

Chipping Away at Justice: More Workers? Comp. Woes

Posted on January 26, 2009
For employees with obvious work-related injuries, forcing them into workers' compensation systems in this country, with paltry benefits and increasingly difficult eligibility standards, is bad enough. (See here, here, and here.) But for workers sick due to occupational exposure to...

Gimme Back My Toxic Toys!!!

Posted on January 23, 2009
There?s been some news lately about an incredibly important piece of bi-partisan legislation that passed last year to repair damage caused by a weak and underfunded Consumer Product Safety Commission (one result of which was the failure to prevent lead...

Peanut Butter, Lawsuits and the Nutty FDA

Posted on January 21, 2009
?We are inaugurating a President who campaigned on a platform of change, hope, and justice. I sincerely hope that Mr. Obama will be able to effect change in our food safety agencies and policies. In the meantime, hundreds of Americans...

Obama - A New Day

Posted on January 20, 2009
While there a many important civil justice issues in the news today, we?ll take a break from reporting on them just to recognize the obvious: that the most consequential, momentous civil justice development in eight years is happening today ?...

Economic Crisis? Let State Attorney's General Do Their Work!

Posted on January 19, 2009
We?ve blogged before about how years of corporate immunity in the financial world has led to disastrous results. In 2007, in a case called Waters v. Wachovia, the Supreme Court ruled that bank-owned mortgage lenders were no longer subject to...

Eli Lilly Settlement ? Watch Your Emails!

Posted on January 16, 2009
Some interesting details in The Legal Intelligencer today about Eli Lilly?s agreement to pay $1.42 billion ?including the largest criminal fine in history -- $515 million? and plead guilty to violating the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, settling charges for...

U.S. Civil Justice - Envy of the World

Posted on January 15, 2009
There are more suits against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others for detainee deaths at Guantanamo Bay, this one a wrongful death action on behalf of two prisoners who hung themselves after alleged physical and mental torture. (See our...

Ken Starr - He's Back!

Posted on January 14, 2009
Ever wonder what Ken Starr, the guy who wrote the report that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal ? has been up to lately? Well, in addition to defending California?s Prop 8, the gay marriage ban,...

Transportation Misery

Posted on January 13, 2009
Wanna know a great way to prevent plane crashes, horrific deaths and injuries, and, by the way, subsequent litigation? (Like the suits just filed in last month?s plane crash in Denver?) How about better government regulation? NPR did a story...

Jack Bauer, Torture and the U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on January 12, 2009
Between the return of Jack Bauer and ?24? last night and some pointed questions yesterday to Obama from George Stephanopoulos about torture policy and Guantánamo, torture U.S.-style was quite the topic of conversation over the weekend! Hey, why not invite...

Weird Science: FDA Scientists Write Another Letter

Posted on January 09, 2009
In yet another Orwellian story about a federal ?protection? agency skewing scientific results at the expense of public safety?FDA scientists have been letter-writing again?this time to the Obama transition team, pleading for help in reforming the ?fundamentally broken agency...

If Hypocrisy Made Your Nose Grow?

Posted on January 09, 2009
We?ve all heard the argument by drug companies who rail against juries for ?second-guessing? the ?expert? Food & Drug Administration, when unsafe drugs and devices end up on the market. Well, except when the jury?s on their side, apparently. Check...

Worse Than Rodney King?

Posted on January 08, 2009
The family of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old father, who was fatally shot by transit police on a San Francisco area subway platform early New Year's Day, has now filed a $25 million dollar lawsuit against Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)....

ThePopTort?s New ?Leaked Memo?

Posted on January 07, 2009
Many thanks to the Medical Technology Learning Institute for hosting a big drug company seminar later this month. We found out about it from the confidential ?leaked memo? below. (I don?t know who keeps sending us these things.)Although it sounds...

Come to the Hospital?Get Free Beer and Cigarettes!

Posted on January 06, 2009
Just when you thought hospital stories couldn?t get any stranger? Seven New York state hospitals are being sued by New York AG Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Eastern District Attorney Benton Campbell for allegedly operating a $50 million dollar scheme, which....

Clean Up Time Begins - Ledbetter and More!

Posted on January 05, 2009
Yes, it will soon be clean up time for the new Congress. Among the U.S. Supreme Court decisions that need fixing (in addition to Riegel v. Medtroic), is the Court?s decision in the Lilly Ledbetter case. The New York Times...

Hello

Posted on January 02, 2009
Welcome to The Pop Tort. Thanks for coming! Can we get you anything? Take your coat, perhaps? Remember, our home is yours. We?re here for all of your civil justice needs. By all means explore away and please chat amongst...

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