When it comes to MDLs that concern a bunch of cases about a drug or device, they typically have a name like “In re [name of product(s)] Product Liability Litigation” or “In re [name of product(s) Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation.” In theory, the first group of MDLs involves, shockingly, product
Almost a year ago (how time flies!), we brought you our first Rico Madness post, regarding the cert petition in Medical Marijuana, Inc. v. Horn, and promised to keep you updated if the Supreme Court took the case. Well, they did and we are.
In our prior post, we noted that we are
We have often characterized judicial options as mixed bags, and a recent example of such a mixed bag can be found in Muldoon v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130020 (N.D. Cal. July 23, 2024). The plaintiff claimed injuries from a ceramic-on-metal hip implant. He alleged that friction and wear caused the
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.
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
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
Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, also called Independence Day, which is when Americans celebrate the independence of the North American colonies from Great Britain. We celebrate American independence on July 4 because the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on that date in 1776, although it was not signed until about a
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
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)
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