Today’s guest post by Reed Smith associate Tim Carwinski addresses the broader possible ramifications of a recent Supreme Court decision, Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, 139 S. Ct. 710 (2019). This is one of those many cases that we saw something about, but it didn’t seem that pertinent to what we do, so we let
Forget the Reptile Theory; today’s topic is even more atavistic than that – what defendants can rely on when xenophobia and racism invade the courtroom. That kind of sub-reptilian gambit unfortunately still exists, and can play out in a number of ways.
Sometimes an appeal to prejudice is made via raw, frontal assault – often
Today is Ash Wednesday and begins the 40 days (not counting Sundays) of Lent. Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word for Spring. For Christians, the 40 day period represents the time Jesus sojourned in the wilderness, resisting the temptation of Satan, and preparing his final ministry. Lent is a time for repentance, fasting, and
Over 11 years ago the blog published a post called “Anatomy of a Mass Tort,” which endeavored to explain the life cycle of this type of litigation. We’ve decided to revisit and update that post, given the changes that have taken place over the intervening years.
And change it has. Our original post
We are on vacation this week. The aim was to stay in this hemisphere, yet get the feel of being in an old European city. Less air travel, but still with the overcharging and the hard stares in response to our dodgy foreign language skills. So with that hint, guess away as to our present
We’re not fans of dinner party chatter, especially when we’re berated for defending alleged corporate deviltry against widows and orphans. We’d just as soon find another corner of the room and another stiff pour of Lagavulin. But there is a point that seems to register with even our most self-righteous accusers: for every meritorious
Last week we discussed a federal court’s holding that mere fear of injury was not an actionable tort. In the run-up to the description of the case, we reminisced about the diet drug litigation, where many plaintiffs alleged heart valve injuries that had not yet manifested any physical symptoms. Those plaintiffs claimed they feared sudden
Is fear of injury the same thing as injury? The question answers itself. At least it should. They are not the same, and there are strong jurisprudential reasons for courts to throw out cases alleging mere fear of injury. We have a No Injury scorecard documenting a pretty clear court consensus that fear of injury
Bexis has lots of opinions on what’s wrong with mass-tort (especially drug/device) MDLs. Heck, Bexis has even proposed amendments to the MDL statutes to correct the many severe problems that exist. Now, Congress has before it possible statutory changes (not holding our breath) and Civil Rules Committee is looking into the same problems. Maybe something
Last week we attended our law firm’s partner retreat. In between circuits on the lazy river, there was talk of synergies, branding, cross-selling, diversity, technology, and, mostly, collaboration. You know – the usual stuff. That last point, collaboration, is really the predicate for all of the others. Collaboration today has a positive connotation of people