Consumer Law

The Insurance Profiteers

Posted on October 26, 2020
A few years ago, an article in Business Insider posed the age-old question, ?Is there such a thing as too much profit?? Or to put it another way, is it right that companies are allowed to do anything and everything...

I-Feel-Like-I?m-Fixin-To-Die-Small-Business-Rag

Posted on October 06, 2020
Long long before Tik Tok there was Woodstock, that 3-day music festival in 1969 featuring 32 acts before nearly a million people. In addition to all the peace and love at Woodstock, there were some serious protest performances. One sticks...

Calling All Real Housewives: Time to Condemn the Insurance Industry

Posted on September 14, 2020
Century 21, 2001. It survived. The Real Housewives of New York (RHONY) don?t always get it right but at least they try. Like the time they hosted an event to honor the work of our friend Bridie Farrell, a leader...

New York Hospitals Doing Harm

Posted on September 09, 2020
It?s hard to reconcile. Doctors live by an oath so well-known that we can all recite it: ?first, do no harm.? Their work through the worst of the pandemic in New York was utterly heroic. Yet when it comes to...

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NFIB Says, Once Again, that ?Lawsuits? Are of Small Concern For Small Businesses

Posted on August 14, 2020
Dunno, somehow we thought it might be different this year. Every four years, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which fashions itself as the nation?s largest small business lobby group (and indeed, it spends millions lobbying Congress and states...

Confidential Zoom Recording: The Five Families of Corporate Immunity

Posted on July 28, 2020
The following is a transcript obtained from a confidential source of a Zoom meeting held 2 p.m. on July 26, 2020, hosted by Senate Majority Leader ?Don Mitch? McConnell. Don Mitch: As you know, this is our regular weekly meeting...

The James Madison/Mitch McConnell Battle for the Nation's Health

Posted on July 17, 2020
Here?s a little ditty in honor of (and with apologies to!) the brilliant Lin-Manuel Miranda?s Cabinet Battle #2 from Hamilton, which of course, everyone can now catch on Disney Plus! Our inspiration? Yesterday's Wall Street Journal article outlining how Senator...

Medical Malpractice Insurance Magical Mystery Lore

Posted on June 19, 2020
Confused mixed messaging should be America?s top motto as we try to live (emphasis on that word) through a lethal pandemic. Trump pushed drugs that are harmful to COVID patients, according to his own FDA. Politicians in states now seeing...

Insurance Industry Low-Balling Lowlifes Carry On

Posted on June 08, 2020
Here?s an interesting factoid: 70% of insurance industry employees have attended ?on-line happy hours? since the pandemic?s start ? more than just about any other group in America. Honestly, if I worked in a morally bankrupt industry trying to take...

Immunity Backlash

Posted on May 18, 2020
Well that didn?t take long. Our last PopTort, Immunity Madness, focused on the push to immunize the nursing home industry from liability, removing the financial incentive for nursing home owners ? including for-profit companies ? to maintain safety. No sooner...

Immunity Madness

Posted on April 13, 2020
Frontline health care workers - our indefatigable, exhusted, terrified, sick and dying heroes - are dealing with a mind-boggling number of crises that are making their lives hell, all of which could have been prevented or at least minimized had...

Confidential Insurance Industry Transcript!

Posted on April 02, 2020
CONFIDENTIAL TRANSCRIPT April 2, 2020 ------------------------ COVID 19 MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT HOTLINE: Hello, how may I help you today? ANONYMOUS PROPERTY/CASUALTY INSURANCE INDUSTRY EXECUTIVE: Hello, I need help dealing with my anxiety because my industry is the worstest victim...

The Wal Mart Case ? Another Reason For More Women on the Supreme Court!

Posted on March 29, 2011
Reports are staring to come in about today?s Supreme Court oral argument in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, the case brought by women alleging massive, company-wide discrimination against the world's largest retailer. The issue is whether they can continue to sue...

Punishing Offenders Through the Civil Justice System - From Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to Today

Posted on March 25, 2011
Early twentieth century America, a time of great industrial expansion, was also a time of horribly unsafe working conditions. At the time, the laws on the books were unfair to injured workers and made it extremely hard for them to...

When All Else Fails? Taxes!

Posted on March 21, 2011
As we?ve noted before, Michigan is the only state in the nation that completely immunizes the drug industry for producing dangerous, unsafe FDA-approved drugs. Even the pro-business U.S. Supreme Court believes a law like this is a bad thing for...

The Hottest New Civil Justice Trend

Posted on March 17, 2011
Hey, wanna know what?s hot hot hot in state politics today? Handing power over to Corporate America to re-write a state?s judicial system, that?s what. In New York State, as we?ve noted, Governor Andrew Cuomo has given hospital lobbyists and...

Mr. Cuomo if you?re nasty

Posted on March 09, 2011
Yesterday, the Center for Justice & Democracy filed an ethics complaint with New York?s Commission on Public Integrity, asking them to investigate several key individuals on Governor Cuomo?s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT). As the complaint notes, the employers of these...

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid - Drug Companies Are Losing Their Patents!

Posted on March 07, 2011
Victims of unsafe drugs had better watch out because the Lipitor patent is out to expire. I know that might seem strange to say, but take our word for it. The drug industry never stops finding new ways to blame...

How Hospital Lobbyists and Execs Can Get Carte Blanche To Rewrite Your State?s Civil Justice System!

Posted on February 28, 2011
Here is our latest ?How To of the Day? submission to WikiHow: If you are a wealthy hospital executive or lobbyist and want to do something extra special for your members, like protect them when they kill or injure children,...

Huff Post Repost: Rich New York Hospital Execs To Use Brain-Damaged Babies As Political Bargaining Chip

Posted on February 22, 2011
Whatever has been going on behind the closed doors of Governor Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, loaded with self-dealing lobbyists and hospital executives who make Wall Street level salaries, it's time for New Yorkers to say - enough. Many have...

The Politics of ?Tort Reform? Gobbledygook

Posted on February 15, 2011
Your challenge: try to make sense of the following. But we will have no winners, at least not today. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee continues its mark up of H.R. 5 on Wednesday, a bill that would massively preempt state...

Meet Congress? Malpracticing Doctor, U.S. Representative Phil Gingrey

Posted on February 09, 2011
The New York Times is reporting today that former obstetrician, Congressman Phil Gingrey, (R-GA), one of the principal sponsors of the Draconian medical malpractice bill (H.R. 5) that is being marked up in the House Judiciary Committee TODAY, was himself...

Huff Post Repost: A Medical Liability Reform That Will Actually Work

Posted on February 09, 2011
On Wednesday, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee began marking up a bill (H.R. 5) that is a top priority for some in the new Republican House -- federalizing state medical malpractice laws by taking away the legal rights of sick...

The Business of Compensating Abuse Victims

Posted on February 08, 2011
Abuse victims sue to help rebuild their lives. As we pointed out in one of ThePopTort?s very first posts almost three years ago today, the National Center for Victims of Crime once wrote to us: "crime victims and their families...

Why All Mass Tort Victims Should Be Concerned About the BP/Feinberg Claims Set Up

Posted on February 04, 2011
Yesterday we covered the ruling by Judge Carl Barbier, the judge in the BP oil spill litigation, which slammed BP?s claims administrator, Ken Feinberg, finding him to be an agent of BP and not ?independent? as he had repeatedly claimed....

Courts Says No to BP's Secret Agent, Ken Feinberg

Posted on February 03, 2011
Late yesterday, in a strong rebuke to BP and the legal ethics of its embattled hired gun, Ken Feinberg, a federal judge ruled that it was misleading for Feinberg to call himself "neutral" or "independent" in administering BP's $20 billion...

Warriors of the Workplace

Posted on February 02, 2011
As if the Americans don?t have enough problems just finding jobs today, turns out when you get one, your problems may just be starting. We?ve covered some of Walmart?s more despicable workplace antics before. Now, the ?largest publicly traded U.S....

The Unlikely Victor Schwartz

Posted on January 31, 2011
I?m sure he won?t like this, but today we?d like to discuss the General Counsel for the American Tort Reform Association, Victor Schwartz. And it?s not what you think. Let?s just say that over the years, Victor has been among...

Guidant?s Government Payback

Posted on January 28, 2011
We are in an endless, circular debate in this country about medical tests and procedures (too many and why?) and lawsuits (too many and why?). The tale of Guidant?s Ventak Prizm 2 implanted defibrillator tells the story in many twisted...

Great ?Hot Coffee? Reviews ? Unless You?re a Defense Firm and Didn?t See It

Posted on January 27, 2011
As we noted a couple days ago, one of the truisms of the extreme right and its corporate backers is that they are incapable of making films that anyone wants to watch. Here?s another truism that I forgot to mention....

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