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Last Entry: November 04, 2020 at 05:16:00

Crime or Malpractice? In California, Both

Posted on February 27, 2008
The New York Times reports on the prosecution of a California doctor for allegedly hastening the death of a patient in order to retrieve his organs. According to the criminal complaint, the doctor "ordered excessive doses of morphine and Ativan,...

Dallas Cowboy Part of Suit Challenging Texas Caps

Posted on February 26, 2008
Ron Springs, a former Dallas Cowboy football player, is one of eleven named plaintiffs in a suit challenging Texas's 2003 damage caps, reports the AP via the NYT. Springs's suit alleges medical malpractice during surgery to remove a cyst that...

WSJ Editorial on AGs Outsourcing Legal Work

Posted on February 26, 2008
Yesterday's WSJ includes an editorial, "Lawsuit, Inc.," which addresses the practice of state attorneys general outsourcing lawsuits to private plaintiffs' attorneys. The editorial notes that the Mississippi Senate recently passed a bill that would require competitive bidding on such contracts...

Sebok on Riegel & Preemption

Posted on February 26, 2008
In his latest Findlaw column, Tony Sebok discusses the Riegel decision and how it may reveal the Court's approach to the remaining preemption cases on the Court's docket. In particular, Sebok finds clues in Justice Stevens's concurrence, and concludes that...

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Kent Argument

Posted on February 25, 2008
Ted Frank was there and summarizes. --BC

Nader on Tort Reform

Posted on February 25, 2008
With Ralph Nader's announcement yesterday that he is again running for president, I thought it might be a good time to link to a 1995 column he wrote on tort reform for Legal Times, reproduced on the 'Lectric Law Library...

Valdez Case: Closure Soon?

Posted on February 24, 2008
So suggests the Washington Post story today, covering the imminent Supreme Court argument (ScotusWiki page is here). --BC

Two Preemption Podcasts

Posted on February 23, 2008
The USSC's decision in Riegel v. Medtronic has inspired a lot of discussion. The Federalist Society posted a podcast of Richard Epstein's comments on Riegel here. The American Enterprise Institute hosted a conference on Thursday featuring Michael Greve (AEI), Cathy...

Peer Review Discovery in Bextra/Celebrex Litigation

Posted on February 22, 2008
Pharmalot has the editorial from Science. For a view on the other side (i.e., not panicked at the prospect of discovery into peer review), see my Nebraska Law Review article from last year. The SSRN draft is here; feel free...

Two States Consider Increasing Damages Caps

Posted on February 22, 2008
Colorado and Oregon are both considering increases to their damage caps. Colorado is currently debating a bill that would raise the cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases from $300,000 to about $450,000. The bill was voted out of...

Class Action Filed Against New England Patriots

Posted on February 22, 2008
It appears a class action has been filed in a federal court in Louisiana against the New England Patriots and Coach Bill Belichick, arising out of alleged videotaping prior to the 2002 Super Bowl XXXVI between the Patriots and St....

Updated: After Riegel

Posted on February 21, 2008
The Drug & Device Law Blog has a looking-forward post about what happens post-Riegel -- and, by implication, what happens after the rest of the preemption trilogy if, as seems at least possible, much state tort litigation related to FDA-approved...

Breaking: Riegel is Out, 7-1 for Preemption

Posted on February 20, 2008
The opinion is here [PDF]. Scalia wrote the majority opinion; Ginsburg dissented. There's some concurring in part going on too by Stevens. The opinion concludes that state common law claims based on medical devices that received premarket approval are preempted...

Colorado's Fault-Based Car Insurance System: Lower Premiums, But Higher Hospital Costs

Posted on February 20, 2008
The Denver Post reports on a study of Colorado's switch from a no-fault auto insurance system to a fault-based system: Two years after the insurance change in 2003, the average annual premium for a car dropped 10 percent to $827...

Kentucky Supreme Court Forms Mass Tort & Class Action Committee

Posted on February 20, 2008
Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert has appointed 12 Kentucky attorneys to a "Mass Tort and Class Action Litigation Committee." According to a press release, this committee "will determine whether current court rules for attorneys and judges provide...

Sebok Chastizes Oregon Supreme Court in Philip Morris Remand

Posted on February 19, 2008
In his latest FindLaw column, Tony Sebok addresses the Oregon Supreme Court's decision to again affirm a $79.5 million punitive damages award against Philip Morris following remand by the U.S. Supreme Court. As Sebok points out, "[t]he Oregon Supreme Court...

Judge Dismisses Defamation Claim Based On "American Gangster"

Posted on February 19, 2008
About a month ago, a group of retired federal drug enforcement agents sued Universal Pictures, alleging that they were defamed by a statement appearing at the end of the film "American Gangster." The statement said that Harlem heroin dealer Frank...

Because "Let's Keep Fecal Matter Out of the Slushees" is Insufficiently Convincing

Posted on February 18, 2008
Seen in a restroom in rural Arkansas: --BC

"Slanderous Kook: I'm a Slander Victim"

Posted on February 18, 2008
That's The Smoking Gun's headline, and it does a nice job of summarizing the story of Larry Sinclair, a Minnesota man who first made (unsubstantiated) allegations of doing various illegal things with Barack Obama and who has now sued Obama,...

Beef: It's What's For, Er, Being Recalled

Posted on February 18, 2008
You have presumably already read about the recall of 143 million pounds of beef, the largest recall of beef in history. The USDA said (in the same story linked to) that it believes that most of the beef has already...

CPSC Overhaul Agreement In Sight

Posted on February 17, 2008
So reports the Washington Post. The compromise measure would more than double the beleaguered agency's budget and add some additional powers. Consumers' groups appear generally supportive (with a significant dissent from Public Citizen), while the National Association of Manufacturers was...

McCain's Position on Tort Reform

Posted on February 16, 2008
Rush Limbaugh--no fan of John McCain--was asked by a caller to his show yesterday about McCain's position on tort reform. Limbaugh referred the caller to an assessment by The Club for Growth, an economically conservative interest group. Their summary is...

Vermont Seeking a Torts Visitor

Posted on February 15, 2008
Vermont Law School may need a visitor to teach Torts in fall semester 2008. This is a one-semester, four-credit class. If you are interested, please contact Vice Dean Stephanie J. Willbanks. Stephanie J. Willbanks Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and...

Solomon on "Judging Plaintiffs"

Posted on February 15, 2008
Jason Solomon (Georgia) has posted a piece on tort theory, Judging Plaintiffs, on SSRN. Here's the abstract: With its powerful account of the normative principles embodied in the structure and practice of the law of torts, corrective justice is considered...

Turner Apologizes to Cage

Posted on February 15, 2008
On Wednesday, Sheila posted that Nicholas Cage was suing Kathleen Turner for defamation in London's High Court based on a few sentences Turner wrote in her autobiography. Sheila also reported that, according to the New York Daily News, "If [Cage]...

A Sizzler Lawsuit in Arkansas

Posted on February 14, 2008
I've posted a number of times about incidents and litigation related to the Sizzler, a carnival ride built by Wisdom Industries. On Easter Sunday of last year, a seven-year-old boy was thrown from a Sizzler in Arkansas and died. His...

Arbitration Agreements a "Trend" in Health Care

Posted on February 14, 2008
My former hometown newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, published an article over the weekend about a growing trend in the medical profession: the use of arbitration agreements. According to the article: Legal experts say such attempts to channel potentially unhappy patients...

Record-Setting $28 Billion Punitive Damages Award Reversed Under Williams

Posted on February 12, 2008
The California Court of Appeals recently issued its decision in Bullock v. Philip Morris USA, where the jury originally awarded a land-mark $28 billion (yes - billion with a "B") punitive damages award against Philip Morris. The trial court reduced...

"The Pop Tort"

Posted on February 12, 2008
Eric Turkewitz alerts us to a new blog, The Pop Tort. The Pop Tort is run by staffers at the Center for Justice & Democracy, which in turn is a non-profit "consumer organization...working round-the-clock to fight [the tort reform] movement."...

Hilden Addresses Reputational Harm Online

Posted on February 11, 2008
Julie Hilden's Writ column (up now) addresses eBay's recent decision to disable sellers' comments on buyers, and starts a two-part discussion of reputational harm and remedies in the online context. --BC

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