Consumer Law

Um... Maybe we should keep a running list of tort "reformers" in the new administration.

Posted on February 06, 2009
Sigh...: Obama puts another corporate stooge in at the DOJ. I just keep telling myself, ?He?s better than McCain, he?s better than McCain?? President Obama is continuing to fill the senior ranks of the U.S. Department of Justice with the copyright industry's favorite lawyers...

Is Obama's Office of Legal Policy Pick a TortDeformer?

Posted on February 06, 2009
From the LA Times: The likely nominee to head [The Department of] Justice's Office of Legal Policy, Mark Gitenstein, worked as a lobbyist for the [Chamber of Commerce] between 2000 and 2008, helping his firm earn more than $6 million in fees, according to federal lobbying records...

The tort reform movement is right. Lawyers are keeping needed drugs off the market.

Posted on February 05, 2009
The tort ?reform? movement often argues that personal injury lawyers and lawsuits keep needed drugs from reaching the marketplace.  It turns out they?re half right.  Lawyers are keeping drugs from the market, but it?s the pharmaceutical industry?s lawyers ? and not personal injury attorneys - that are doing it:   The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit in federal court in an attempt to block a deal in which a manufacturer of a brand-name testosterone-replacement drug paid three competitors to delay rolling out cheaper generic versions...

Attorney Brian Wilson Calls out the AMA

Posted on February 03, 2009
I?ve often complained about tort ?reformers? with a ?do as I say, not as I sue? philosophy; those who file multimillion dollar lawsuits of their own, but complain when others do.  Attorney Brian Wilson notes that you can now add the American Medical Association to that list of hypocrites: Sometimes seemingly unrelated events line up or intersect with one another and serve to prove a larger point...

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Shame on Who?

Posted on February 01, 2009
I thought I'd share this great post by my colleague, Mark Winston Griffith, cross-posted from DMI blog, and also published on Huffington Post. His insights into the importance of ensuring corporate accountability are easily as relevant to policies that affect our civil justice system as to policies affecting our regulatory system...

Memo to "Independent Women's Forum": You Probably Should Oppose Gender Discrimination

Posted on February 01, 2009
Unfortunately, Michelle Bernard, President of the so-called Independent Women's Forum, must have gotten the wrong memo about the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. There are so many flaws in the arguments she made during a recent Hardball "debate" with Cecille Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, that I almost don't know where to begin...

If you don't read any other blogpost today...

Posted on January 30, 2009
...this one, Obama's challenge = sorry record of Democratic deregulators, is well worth your time: President Obama?s pledge to bring back some meaningful regulation of the financial markets may be more difficult than he imagines. The reason: Senate Democratic leaders not only enabled the deregulation, they were cheerleaders...

You Ledbetter Recognize!

Posted on January 29, 2009
The first new law of the Obama administration advances the movement for access to the civil justice system! We've tracked Ledbetter v. Goodyear and the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act extensively, which is why it's so exciting to share the video below of Obama signing the bill into law! ...

NYT Op Ed: Time for FDA Overhaul

Posted on January 27, 2009
Back in December I aired my hopes that with a new year and new administration we'd see a new approach to regulation by the FDA and other agencies charged with protecting the public's health. The NYT editorial board agrees: The Obama administration will have to send a clear signal to the bureaucracy that the days of neglect are over...

Peanut Butter Situation Gets Stickier

Posted on January 26, 2009
Today we learned that the peanut plant at the center of the peanut butter salmonella outbreak has a checkered past. The death toll from this recent outbreak is now up to seven, with hundreds of illnesses reported, over 100 of which have resulted in hospitalization...

Ledbetter Law a soon to be reality!

Posted on January 23, 2009
I have been away from the blog all day and just itching to write this post! So... it's not exactly "breaking news" at this point in the day, but for those who somehow missed the big news, the Senate passed Ledbetter last night! Now it goes back to the house and then onward to the desk of Pres Obama for signage...

Equal Pay in the New Administration

Posted on January 22, 2009
A new, self-proclaimed feminist President pledges to support fair pay legislation. Now it is up to the Senate to do the same. On this month?s cover of Ms. Magazine, ?Superman Obama? rips open his shirt to reveal the message, ?This is what a feminist looks like...

Watch Ledbetter Law Senate Consideration NOW

Posted on January 22, 2009
Amendments, amendments, amendments. Not cool: CLICK HERE to watch it on CSPAN. UPDATE--5:55pm. Vote to be made any minute now. From the AP: WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congress is within reach of approving a wage discrimination bill that would mark a clear shift in attitudes toward labor issues with the inception of the Obama administration...

Slate Author Calls for Revival of Justice... For All, for a Change

Posted on January 21, 2009
What if this Slate article by Yale law professor Judith Resnik were among the mysterious contents of that envelope on President Obama's desk? You know, this one: (Photo by Eric Draper) Nope, it's a letter from Bush to Obama. Well, at any rate, Obama should take a look at what Resnik has to say...

In Saying 'Bye to Bush, Tort "Reform" Gets A Nod

Posted on January 20, 2009
Civil justice blogs aren't the only ones that "get it" when it comes to the failed rhetoric of tort "reform," and how this has affected far more than just the plaintiff's bar. Everyone around the web is reflecting on the inauguration--both as a celebration of the incoming pres and as a collective national hallelujah over the end of an era that has been marked by assault after assault on access to the courts, as well as other cherished rights and values...

A New Era of Responsibility?

Posted on January 20, 2009
"Greatness is never a given. It must be earned." In his inaugural address, President Obama certainly was off to a great start. Obama spoke about ushering in a new era of responsibility--to ourselves, to our nation, to the world, to the environment. The address spoke to both soul and political consciousness...

Mind the Justice Gap?

Posted on January 20, 2009
The NYT alerts us that drops in federal interest rates are dwindling already-scarce IOLTA funds, which are used to provide funding for legal aid. (Check out this info on Civil Gideon for more about how IOLTA works). Needless to say, tort "reformers" aren't too upset about this...

Some gallows humor regarding medical malpractice

Posted on January 20, 2009
If you?re not on LinkedIn, you probably should be.  (Feel free to add me to your network.)  One of the great features of the site is the ability to ask questions and get answers from a variety of people.  TortDeform contributor Lee Tilson asked a question about what he could do to help prevent malpractice from occurring in the first place, and one of the responses contained this bit of gallows humor: FACTS TO PONDER: (A) The number of physicians in the U...

Remembering a Drum Major for Justice

Posted on January 19, 2009
As many readers know, TortDeform is hosted by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. Originally called the Drum Major Foundation, DMI was founded by Harry Wachtel, lawyer and adviser to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the turbulent years of the civil rights movement...

Patient Safety? Check.

Posted on January 15, 2009
The debate about medical malpractice often centers around whether patients hurt by it should be able to ask for non-economic damages, or whether those awards should be capped at a certain amount. I've chimed in on this from time to time but maintained that paramount to any discussion about the health care system is the welfare of the people who go through it...

Obama's EPA Pick... Bold Promises, Will She Keep Them?

Posted on January 14, 2009
On the NYT Politics Blog, John Broder shares notes from Lisa Jackson's confirmation hearing today. She's slated to take over the EPA, and has a good amount of support behind her. If the agency priorities she listed during the hearing are any indication of what she'll be up to, she seems to be off to a good start in terms of restoring the agency to its original purpose...

Verizon wins the litigation lotto… but where are the “reformers?”

Posted on January 13, 2009
Attorney Brian Wilson took notice of the 33 million dollar default judgment Verizon got against a group of spammers and asks where the tort ?reform? advocates are: But here's what is newsworthy. If this were an injured plaintiff who sued Verizon and obtained the same result, we'd be reading press releases and quotes from groups like "The Institute For Legal Reform," a multimillion dollar wing of The Chamber Of Commerce, railing about how businesses are being held hostage by "lawsuit abuse" and how the tort system is a "litigation lottery" and other drivel...

Will legal system deliver justice to corporate malefactors? Eh, probably not.

Posted on January 13, 2009
In this LA Times piece Mike Hiltzik predicts that the financial big wigs whose greedy behavior sparked the economic crisis will face little heat from the legal system for their actions. An excerpt: "Justice? You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law...

Fair Pay Fixes Passed!

Posted on January 12, 2009
Talk about a running start. Congress opened this year with some groundbreaking stuff! On Friday the House passed 2 bills to address job discrimination (NYT). The first, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, corrects the terrible Ledbetter v. Goodyear decision...

Speaking of good articles...

Posted on January 02, 2009
While I'm at it giving kudos, I thought I'd add these two pieces explaining the benefits of the Employee Free Choice Act, which we've only mentioned briefly on TortDeform. First, Amy Traub (also of DMI) has a great post on DMIBlog, EFCA 101: How We Can Bail Ourselves Out...

NYT Op Ed calls for Civil Gideon

Posted on January 02, 2009
Happy New Year, and happy day! My wish for 2009: that it will be the year of Civil Gideon. Right now when budgets are being trimmed, cut, and scrutinized, advocates for the poor must continue to work hard demonstrating that adequate funding for legal services to the poor makes for sound policy, is economically smart, and also is just the right thing to do...

Commentary on the Vicki Iseman lawsuit

Posted on January 01, 2009
Vicki Iseman is the lobbyist who is suing the New York Times for $27 million dollars because it printed an article that purportedly implied she and John McCain were having an affair.  David Sugerman wonders whether the Chamber of Commerce will speak out against this lawsuit: Here's a report of a lawsuit by Washington D...

Here's some real health care reform: Civil Gideon for indigent patients

Posted on December 31, 2008
It's great that many states have charity care programs to help indigent patients receive urgent medical care when they can't afford it. Too bad many patients either don't know about these programs or are put through the ringer trying to make use of them, as this article explains: When Barbara Gamba went to Valley Medical Center in May 2007 with a gallbladder attack, she told everyone within earshot that she had no job and no health insurance...

Will tort “reformers” attack this $900 million dollar lawsuit like they did the $54 million pants lawsuit?

Posted on December 30, 2008
Remember the $54 million dollar lawsuit over lost dry cleaning?  The tort ?reform? crowd spilled barrels of ink over that lawsuit, suggesting that the whole system needed to be overhauled because of that lawsuit.  Now, the plaintiff in that lawsuit did have a legitimate claim, but the problem was he wanted grossly inflated damages...

New administration, new shot at consumer protection?

Posted on December 29, 2008
Here's to a New Year filled w/ safe products, effective government regulation, and corporate accountability! Hip hip! Okay, so that might not exactly have the pizzazz of other New Years toasts, but wouldn't it be nice to know that government agencies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Food and Drug Administration actually operated with the best interests and safety of consumers in mind? Raise your glasses, folks...

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