Photo of Lisa Baird

No surprise, we are not fans of civil RICO.  We don’t like how it is misused by lawyers on the other side to convert run-of-the-mill pharmaceutical and medical device cases into class actions.  We don’t like that it carries the possibility of treble damages and attorneys’ fees.  We don’t like the elasticity of its terms. 

Photo of Steven Boranian

We often marvel at how plaintiffs’ attorneys find new ways to sue businesses, including under RICO.  Take for example the ever-increasing number of “MSP” plaintiffs that we are seeing in the published opinions.  We see plaintiffs called MSP Recovery, MSPA Claims, MSP Series, MSP-MAO, etc., and we are told that many or all of them

Photo of Bexis

We’ve discussed recently how a federal statute intended to allow suits against international terrorists has been misapplied as allowing suits against pharmaceutical companies.  While there’s still hope for that dangerous deviation to be rectified, another federal statute, the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) Act has been so widely abused that it is rarely, if ever used against its congressionally intended target – organized crime – in civil litigation.Continue Reading Another RICOdiculous Decision

Photo of Stephen McConnell

Last week, in the course of discussing a vaccine case, we mused over the misuse of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment.  Just for a moment we were back at U. of Chicago Law (and, as Dan Fogelberg sang, “felt that old familiar pain”). In 1984, our waist and forehead seemed smaller

Photo of Michelle Yeary

The Xarelto personal injury claims settled in 2019 after six bellwether trials all ended with defense verdicts.  What remained, until now, were several third-party payor (health insurers, “TPPs”) actions that have been dormant for almost six years.  Despite the passage of time, the motions before the court in 2021 were to dismiss under Rules 12(b)(6)

Photo of Eric Alexander

It has been a while since we saw a movie in a theater.  That is one aspect of the oft-discussed return to normality that appeals to us.  When we saw a trailer recently for The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to old HBO mainstay The Sopranos, it piqued our interest.  It even made us

Photo of Stephen McConnell

What a virile week we’re having. Tomorrow the blog will discuss a viagra product liability lawsuit. Today we reach back to a case from last March involving a battle between sellers of other male, um, performance products. Put all that together with last week’s post on cannabis and we are reminded of the scene from