Personal Injury Law

Federal preemption seeks to block consumer lawsuits

By Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.

Consumers beware... Your right to hold a company liable for injuries caused by products may be at risk if the Bush Administration is successful in using federal regulation to address this issue.

Limits on lawsuits have been ordered or proposed for drug labeling and packaging — one major issue that received widespread media attention was a case involving actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins, other issues being discussed include mattress flammability standards, school bus seating requirements, dietary sweeteners and roof-crush requirements in car rollovers.

There are 51 regulations being considered, of which, Food and Drug Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA were involved with 41 of the regulations.

Federal preemption is Washington's method to make lawsuit reform and unfortunately, the public is not aware of this bureaucratic loophole. Federal preemption is a method for federal law and regulation to trump state law. Why should the public be concerned? The rules of the game are different in federal court than state court. This is a major reason that corporations prefer the more restrictive federal courts to state courts when fighting liability and personal injury lawsuits against consumers.

Click here to read more from an AP story that ran on the Washington Post.com

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on May 16, 2008 (boomark / email).