Not long ago we brought you a report from the False Claims Act (“FCA”) front on how the government was doing with its attempts to prune back some of the worst abuses of FCA litigation – particularly the advent of “professional relators.” In that earlier post, we discussed the two major approaches that courts
We begin with an update on the “visiting dogs’ health crisis.” All medications are finished, special diets are a thing of the past, and (dare we say it out loud) all canine digestive tracts seem peaceful. The chubby Pomeranian was relieved of about four inches of hair today at the hands of a
Plaintiffs’ experts do a lot of stupid things. We’ve dedicated whole posts to them – here and here, for example. Now we have another trick to add to their growing list of shenanigans – plaintiffs’ experts turn FCA relators. That’s right, two of plaintiffs’ experts from the DePuy Orthopedics hip implant litigation are trying
We’ve been reminiscing often lately about our days as a federal prosecutor. Part of that is pure nostalgia. Part of it is wondering about the road not taken. Part of it is explaining to others why the show Billions is so crazily unrealistic.
The Covid-19 lockdown has sent us scurrying through the streaming services in
We’ve long believed that False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases – particularly in the health sciences area – are out of control. Twenty-first century lawyers, and their solicitation techniques, have turned Abraham Lincoln’s Nineteenth Century law aimed at corrupt government contractors into its own form of corruption. Today’s FCA racket is complete with professional relators, deceit
When times are tough, attempted humor can fall flat. Opinions often add little. Fancy prose and witty turns of phrase count for little. Facts, for those whose preconceived notions allow them to be received as such, matter. The language of statutes—potentially powerful drivers of needed stability or change—should be easy to understand even without reference
Today’s guest post is by Corinne Fierro, Mildred Segura, and Farah Tabibkhoei, all of Reed Smith. These three are all part of the firm’s left-coast, techno side of the product liability practice, and bring our readers a recent appellate decision that addresses the intersection of 21st Century high technology and 20th Century
Last week with dismay, we described the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s decision in Gross v. Coloplast Corp., et al., 2020 WL 264691 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 17, 2020). The Gross court (we are resisting the immature cheap shot) “predicted,” in the face of decades of contrary evidence, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would not extend
Last term, in a case that the Blog completely ignored, the Supreme Court held that a provision of the Medicare Act, 42 U.S.C. §1395hh(a)(2), required the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) to subject all Medicare-related determinations “that establish[] or change[] a substantive legal standard” to formal notice-and-comment rulemaking. Such determinations explicitly include (as
Today’s case doesn’t involve prescription drugs or medical devices. But it is a circuit court opinion that we thought warranted bringing to the attention of our readers who deal with False Claims Act (“FCA”) claims. We’ve discussed FCA claims as an “awkward vehicle” in pharmaceutical cases here and we hold true to that belief. But,