Last year the HHS Office of Inspector General issues a “Special Fraud Alert” (“Alert”) concerning “Speaker Programs” – more usually known as continuing medical education (“CME”). Since we believe that truthful commercial speech is First Amendment protected, seeing “fraud” bandied about like this caused us to take a look. We’re well aware that for years
Jurisprudence
Pro Se Xarelto Plaintiffs Shown the Door for Failure to Comply with Lone Pine Order
Reflections on Turning 65
Guest Post – Florida Adopts Practical And Fair Summary Judgment Standard
Today’s guest post is from Wendy Lumish and Daniel Rock of Bowman & Brooke. We sought them out because they wrote a successful amicus curiae brief in the case they discuss. That case is a major win for all Florida defendants, bringing Florida summary judgment practice into the Twenty-First Century. As always our guest…
Deposing Attorney’s Failure to File Appearance Does Not Preclude Use of Deposition to Support Statute of Limitations Defense
A couple of times in recent weeks we have discussed pelvic mesh cases where a central issue was whether the cases were time-barred by a statute of limitations or repose. (See here and here.) There is a reason why this issue crops up persistently. The pelvic mesh litigation started off as a mass tort…
A Pause for Lawyer Wellbeing
Last Saturday was World Mental Health Day. We hope you celebrated by getting outdoors in the very pleasant weather typical of early October throughout this beautiful country. We hope you also spent a few moments taking stock of your own mental wellbeing. Lawyers do not conduct such a self-assessment nearly enough. We are focused on…
And Now for Something Completely Different
Anyone remember Monty Python’s first movie, before anyone had ever heard of them? Along with the dead parrot and the Lumberjack Song, “And Now For Something Completely Different” featured a formally dressed man, sitting at an unexceptional desk, both of the sort you might find in a British law firm of the era (early…
Watch Your (Deposition) Language
Our ongoing tour of Famous Novels We Missed Along the Way has introduced us to some splendid prose. Thackeray and Trollope insert subtle judgments just beneath the surface of their narratives. They can teach us much about how to deliver an opening statement that is a powerful argument precisely because it does not sound like…
In Defense Of The Wrongful Acts Doctrine
Bexis has been an active member of the American Law Institute (“ALI”), particularly concerning the ALI’s ongoing projects involving the Third Restatement of Torts. Thus, regular blog subscribers have read about his adventures attempting to dissuade the law professors who draft these projects from pursuing their natural biases towards always increasing liability (more liability =…
Talking MDL Post-Remand Blues
On many occasions, we’ve remarked that in modern prescription medical product liability litigation MDLs, the main objective of both plaintiffs and their counsel is to file as many lawsuits as possible, and then to do the bare minimum possible to avoid dismissal. The idea is to run up the numbers, make the defendants spend huge…