Consumer Law

Military Contractor Immunity ? And You Wonder Why the Deficit is High?

Posted on December 03, 2010
From burn pits to gang rapes to crashing planes into mountains during joy rides, there seems to be absolutely no limit to the unlawful behavior of military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan (not to mention the Gulf of Mexico). Now,...

All is Not Well in the Gulf

Posted on December 02, 2010
We don?t live in the areas directly hurt by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster so we try to be respectful of those who do as we cover this tragedy. (Check out this blistering editorial from Alabama?s Press-Register going after...

Dirty Companies Pay Up

Posted on November 24, 2010
We are glad to report that the residents of Spelter West Virginia may finally get some relief after living near a dirty zinc smelter for far too many years. DuPont has agreed to a settlement ?valued at $150 million? for...

Tort Lawsuits Dropping Like A Rock - Again!

Posted on November 23, 2010
Today?s post is about statistics. Hey, wake up, these are important! The National Center for State Courts has the best, most accurate state court statistics in America. (That's where most lawsuits are brought.) Gathering these are not so easy, since....

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Medical Malpractice Immunity for Florida?s Poor? Could You Be Next?

Posted on November 22, 2010
I was hoping to be a bit more uplifting this Monday morning of a holiday week, but an article caught my eye out of Florida over the weekend that unfortunately made me think about the Holocaust - well, specifically, that...

Steven Rattner?s Karma Comes Home to Roost

Posted on November 18, 2010
Last year, American financier Steven Rattner was appointed by President Obama to oversee the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies. Among his ideas was to recommend complete immunity for both companies, covering all product liability lawsuits involving the millions of cars then...

Tobacco and ?Tort Reform? Consultants Used By Health Insurers to Smear Health Care Reform and Sicko

Posted on November 17, 2010
When you think of health care and tobacco, I?m assuming what comes to mind are the shocking statistics, like ?every year in the U.S. over 392,000 people die from tobacco-caused disease, making it the leading cause of preventable death.? Plus...

Actually Pulling the Plug on Grandma: Seniors? Legal Rights Endangered While One in Seven Harmed in Hospitals

Posted on November 16, 2010
Here?s a great idea to solve the budget deficit. Let?s take Medicare patients, one out of seven of whom are killed or injured due to preventable errors in hospitals (according to an ?alarming? new HHS Office of Inspector General study),...

What do Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Pig Embryos Have In Common?

Posted on November 12, 2010
I can still remember that stink of ?formaldehyde? from 9th grade biology class. In some ways, the smell of that stuff was worse than the task of actually dissecting the frogs and pig embryos that swam it in. Yuk. Turns...

Deficit Reduction and Medical Malpractice

Posted on November 11, 2010
Nothing personal against former Sen. Alan Simpson and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, but have they been spending too much time at the medical marijuana clinic? You may have heard that they just released their deficit reduction...

Sprinkles of Civil Justice (With a Post Election Flavor)

Posted on November 10, 2010
So what do the civil courts have in store for us, post mid-term elections? Looks like a dash of new state hurdles here, a pinch of federal obstruction there. Let?s take a look at a few smidgens! First, Oklahoma's new...

Petit Jurors in Connecticut Honor the Jury System

Posted on November 09, 2010
Did you ever notice that among those who want to wipe out the civil jury system for medical malpractice and other personal injury cases, claiming that jurors are too unsophisticated, arbitrary or emotional to decide these cases, they never suggest...

AT&T Mobility vs. Concepcion and How the U.S. Supreme Court May Ruin the Movies

Posted on November 05, 2010
In January 2006, production started on the Oscar-nominated George Clooney movie Michael Clayton, a film about a corporation?s violent reaction to a class action lawsuit filed by sick people over health effects from one of its lethal pesticides. Of all...

Obama, Coal Mines and Maybe Some Hope?

Posted on November 04, 2010
The Wall Street Journal has an article today about the plight of the unions, post-midterm elections. It hardly needs to be said that the new Congress won't be spending much time improving the health and safety of workers, patients and...

Where Corporate Money Failed - Kilbride, Braley and 1082

Posted on November 03, 2010
Add us to the list of blogs doing election round ups today, but let?s say ours is a bit more exclusive. In addition to the big picture races, the impact of which on civil justice issues and the legal rights...

Don't Forget that Other Branch

Posted on November 02, 2010
Among the three branches of government, the judicial branch is probably the one NOT on everyone?s mind this election day, let alone tomorrow when the results starts sinking in. We just don?t want you to forget about the branch that?s...

ThePopTort?s Combined Halloween/Election Special ? We Can?t Say Much But ?

Posted on October 29, 2010
Or rather, we can?t say much because we actually respect the Internal Revenue Service that allows us to be a tax-exempt organization! We don?t ?electioneer? unlike some groups, who shall remain nameless (but if you really want to know). Anyway,...

Halliburton's Cement Failures

Posted on October 28, 2010
If you go down the list of Halliburton?s misdeeds at the website Halliburton Watch, there?s more than enough to be concerned about. Fraud, bribery, waste, abuse, faulty work and war profiteering at the company once led by Dick Cheney. (For...

Huff Post Repost: Here's Really Why Your Insurance Rates Go Up - and Then Don't

Posted on October 27, 2010
Please bookmark this post and come back to it in a year or so. I say this because our collective memory, and especially that of mainstream news organizations, can be pretty short sometimes. In case you haven't noticed, your liability...

The New #1 - Drug Industry Fraud

Posted on October 27, 2010
Did you ever notice how Americans have this obsessive need to be Number 1 all the time? This fact once made for a very amusing ?New Rule? on HBO?s "Real Time with Bill Maher," called America Isn't #1 (see clip...

Crude Justice in DC Tonight

Posted on October 26, 2010
If you live in the DC area, don't forget to attend a great event tonight hosted by the Alliance for Justice, featuring the film Crude Justice and a great panel discussion about the film and the important issues it raises:...

The Coble Family on Oprah ? Suing for the Right Reasons

Posted on October 26, 2010
Most of Oprah?s show yesterday, called ?The Worst Days Of Their Lives And The Miraculous Twist Of Fate? was spent on the story of California?s Coble family. You could hardly imagine a more tragic story than this. Several years ago,...

"Tort Reform" That Even the Texas Supreme Court Can?t Stomach

Posted on October 25, 2010
The Texas Supreme Court has been called a lot of things. Pro-business, certainly. Anti-consumer. Certainly anti-worker, particularly in light of its highly controversial decision Entergy vs. Summers. (See our earlier coverage here.) That decision ?allows plant owners to obtain immunity...

Baby You Can Drive My Car ? But I Wouldn?t!

Posted on October 22, 2010
(Please no offense Beatles fans!) It was just announced that ?Toyota is recalling 740,000 vehicles in the U.S. that may leak brake fluid.? This latest recall covers ?2004-06 Avalons, non-hybrid Highlanders and Lexus RX330, GS300, IS250 and IS350 models...

Huff Post Repost: Peter Orszag's Truly Bad Medical Malpractice Prescription

Posted on October 21, 2010
Today's New York Times carries a column by recently-resigned budget director Peter Orszag, which begins with Orszag complaining that the health insurance reform bill did not do enough to federally "reform" state medical malpractice laws. He argues that Congress should...

Football Helmet Injuries and NOCSAE Knuckleheads

Posted on October 21, 2010
How?s this for circular reasoning? The industry-funded group that is supposed to establish helmet safety standards won?t develop helmet safety standards because the industry is probably negligent for failing to establish adequate helmet safety standards...

Unsafe Formula, Dangerous Bottles and Other Real Baby Problems

Posted on October 20, 2010
I have an idea for the next E Trade baby commercial. How about, instead of the little tot checking his investment portfolios and researching stocks, he does something his fellow babies might actually benefit from - like calling on infant...

What "Tort Reform"? Texas Doctors Not Coming Back

Posted on October 19, 2010
Back in August we did two ?Medical-Malpractice: I Told You So? posts in a row (here, here). I really didn?t want to do another one, at least not so soon. Really. Curses, foiled again! This is important, though, because if...

Perversions of Freedom and Accountability, Sarah Palin and Supreme Court-Style

Posted on October 18, 2010
?Are you ready to fight for your freedoms?? yelled Sarah Palin to the right-wing Orange County, California crowd on Saturday! Just askin', but do we really need to fight for our freedoms here in the USA? Don?t we have a...

Medtronic Has a Heart After All

Posted on October 15, 2010
We have to say kudos to Medtronic Inc. and plaintiff?s lawyers for working out a $268 million settlement on behalf 8,100 victims of the company?s defective Sprint Fidelis heart defibrillator lead (wire) ? even though the company didn?t have to...

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