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Class Action

Mass Tort Litigation Blog

Law professors discuss mass tort and class action lawsuits.

Post Frequency: 9.9/day

Last Entry: March 29, 2011 at 17:41:19

Williams Tobacco Case Back at U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on December 04, 2008
Article on Bloomberg.com -- Altria Punitive-Damages Case Divides U.S. High Court, by Greg Stohr. Here's an excerpt: A divided U.S. Supreme Court wrestled with a $79.5 million award against Altria Group Inc.?s Philip Morris USA unit in an Oregon smoker...

W.R. Grace's Asbestos Settlement

Posted on December 04, 2008
The Associated Press reports that W.R. Grace has agreed to pay up to $140 million to settle the Zonolite attic insulation asbestos cases. The article is available here. ECB

Beck/Herrmann & Beisner on New ALI Draft Principles of Aggregate Litigation

Posted on December 04, 2008
Beck/Hermann of Drug and Device Law summarize a letter from John Beisner (O'Melveny) commenting on the new ALI Draft Principles of Aggregate Litigation. Beisner's objections to class actions are all well made. I would add that pinning the claims of...

Marie Gryphon on Loser Pays

Posted on December 04, 2008
Marie Gryphon, Senior Fellow of the Manhattan Institute, has published a report entitled, Greater Justice, Lower Cost: How a "Loser Pays" Rule Would Improve the American Legal System. (H/t to Point of Law.) BGS

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Gardasil Litigation?

Posted on December 01, 2008
Reports and lawsuits are beginning to accrue regarding Merck's vaccine for cervical cancer, Gardasil. Merck has been lobbying states to mandate the vaccine for middle-school aged girls. Several academics have argued against making the vaccine mandatory in a recent issue...

Collective Redress in Europe

Posted on November 30, 2008
The Commission of the European Communities has just released its latest Green Paper on Consumer Collective Redress. It cites several current problems for consumers in Europe, one of which is a weak enforcement framework: 15. As a consequence of the...

Thanksgiving Humor - The Next Mass Tort Arising out of a Defective Product?

Posted on November 26, 2008
Click here to listen to a brief, quite funny, lawyer joke. ADL

Erichson Cited in 7th Circuit Opinion

Posted on November 25, 2008
Our own Howard Erichson's article Mass Tort Litigation and Inquisitorial Justice was cited in a forum non conveniens opinion by Judge Posner on October 28, 2008. See U.S.O. Corp. v. Mizuho Holding Co., --- F.3d ---, 2008 WL 4709846 (7th...

Avandia associated with increased mortality

Posted on November 24, 2008
The New York Times reports today that a new study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine found that Avandia (the drug also known as rosiglitazone) was linked to a higher rate of mortality than a similar drug sold under...

Parchomovsky & Stein on Torts and Innovation

Posted on November 14, 2008
Gideon Parchomovsky (Penn) and Alex Stein (Cardozo) have recently posted "Torts and Innovation" on NELLCO. The article will come out shortly in Michigan Law Review (107 Mich. L. Rev. 205 (2008)). You can find the link here. Here is the...

Brazil Vacates Tobacco Award

Posted on November 14, 2008
A press release by Souza Cruz, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco, indicates that a Sao Paulo Court of Appeals vacated an award against Souza Cruz and Philip Morris Brasil, a subsidiary of Philip Morris International. Here's an excerpt: The...

Issacharoff & Miller on Aggregate Litigation in Europe

Posted on November 11, 2008
Samuel Issacharoff (NYU) and Geoffrey Miller (NYU) have posted "Will Aggregate Litigation Come to Europe?" on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper considers Europe's experiment with aggregate litigation in light of American experience. European thinking on the topic appears...

WSJ on Asbestos Screenings in Michigan

Posted on November 10, 2008
The Wall Street Journal commented today in an editorial on problems involved with asbestos screenings involving a particular doctor in Michigan State Court. Here's an excerpt from Michigan Malpractice: One reason we know about the great silicosis legal scam is...

FDA Preemption of State Pharmaceutical Suits

Posted on November 10, 2008
Very interesting article in the ABA Journal -- The Pre-emption Prescription, by Terry Carter. The FDA has been increasingly moving to pre-empt state suits based on its approval of pharmaceutical labeling. I'm troubled at the prospect of a large, unwieldy...

Second Circuit Reinstates Bhopal Disaster Case Based on Water Pollution

Posted on November 05, 2008
Article on Reuters -- U.S. court reinstates Bhopal water pollution case, by Martha Graybow. Here's an excerpt: A lawsuit contending that thousands of people in India were exposed to polluted drinking water after the 1984 Union Carbide toxic-gas disaster in...

News from Wyeth v. Levine's Oral Argument

Posted on November 04, 2008
Legal commentators have already begun speculating about the upcoming Supreme Court decision in Wyeth v. Levine. After yesterday's oral argument, Tony Mauro of the Legal Times reports that "the case could be decided narrowly, giving little guidance about a broader...

Wyeth v. Levine Argument Was Heard Monday

Posted on November 02, 2008
Oral argument in the big preemption case of the Supreme Court Term, Wyeth v. Levine (06-1249) is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 3, 2008. The case concerns whether federal law preempts state torts claims imposing liability on drug labeling that the...

Libya Pays $1.5 Billion for Compensation of Victims of Pan Am 103 Terror Attack

Posted on October 31, 2008
Article on cnn.com -- Libya pays $1.5 billion to settle terrorism claims. Here's an excerpt: The United States has received $1.5 billion from Libya as payment for victims of terrorist attacks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress on Friday...

Mass Torts In China

Posted on October 31, 2008
For our readers interested in the recent spate of mass torts in China: When Calamity Strikes, Who Should Pay?

Fred Baron, 1947-2008

Posted on October 31, 2008
Fred Baron, one of the nation's leading mass tort plaintiffs' lawyers, died yesterday in Dallas. Founder of the law firm Baron & Budd, he played major roles in asbestos, MTBE, TCE, lead, and pesticide lawsuits, and was lead counsel for...

Issacharoff on How Last Term's SCOTUS Cases Fit Together

Posted on October 31, 2008
Samuel Issacharoff (NYU) has posted an article entitled Private Claims, Aggregate Rights on SSRN. The article does a great job of tying the three procedural cases from last term with larger complex litigation issues. And, like all of Issacharoff's work,...

Drug and Medical Device Litigation Conference

Posted on October 30, 2008
American Conference Institute is running its 13th Annual Drug and Medical Device Litigation Conference in New York on Dec. 9-11, 2008. Speakers include many of the leading defense lawyers in pharmaceutical and medical device product liability litigation, as well as...

Asbestos Litigation Conference in San Antonio

Posted on October 30, 2008
ALI-ABA is running a conference ominously entitled "Asbestos Litigation: Where Is It Going? When Will It End?" in San Antonio, Texas, on Dec. 4-5, 2008, with presentations by prominent lawyers and law professors including John Aldock, Patrick Hanlon, Deborah Hensler,...

Secret Settlements in Mass Tort Cases

Posted on October 30, 2008
James M. Anderson (RAND) has posted an article entitled "Understanding Mass Tort Defendant Incentives for Confidential Settlements: Lessons from Bayer's Cerivastatin Litigation Strategy" on SSRN. The abstract is below. Settlement agreements that require a plaintiff not to disclose or publicize...

U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Pharmaceutical Preemption Case

Posted on October 27, 2008
Article in the Wall Street Journal -- In Drug Case, Justices to Weigh Right to Sue, by Alicia Mundy and Shirley S. Wang. Here's an excerpt: For nearly a century, Americans have been able to sue drug companies for deaths...

Lawyers Involved in Kentucky Fen-Phen Settlement Disbarred

Posted on October 27, 2008
Brett Barrouquere of the Associated Press reports that the Kentucky Supreme Court disbarred William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham, Jr. from practice after mishandling money in the Fen-Phen settlement. The full story can be found here. ECB

Obesity Pill Pulled in Europe

Posted on October 24, 2008
Trista Kelley from Bloomberg.com reports this morning that European regulators have pulled Sanofi-Aventis, SA's obesity pill, Acomplia, citing concerns about its side effects. The FDA refused to approve the drug for sale in the U.S. because of these side effects,...

Arthur Miller to Join Milberg as Special Counsel

Posted on October 23, 2008
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has a post today that provides an update on the prosecutions of David Bershad and Steven Schulman. Milberg also announced yesterday that Arthur Miller would be joining the firm as special council. Here's an...

Andrew Morriss on Altria Group v. Good

Posted on October 21, 2008
Professor Andrew Morriss (U. Illinois; picture left) comments in a Federalist Society SCOTUScast on Altria Group v. Good, a preemption case that was recently argued in front of the United States Supreme Court. BGS

Kenneth Fineberg to Speak at Cardozo Law

Posted on October 20, 2008
On Wednesday October 29 at 6:00 PM Cardozo Law School in New York City is hosting a public lecture by Kenneth Fineberg. Kenneth R. Feinberg, Special Master of the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 and Managing Partner...

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