“String Of Fast-Food Suits Expected By End Of Year”

The plaintiffs’ bar regularly pooh-poohs efforts at legal reform (Mar. 11, Mar. 13) to prevent a shakedown blaming the food industry for obesity by noting that no anti-obesity lawsuit has succeeded yet. (For example, blogger-lawyer Evan Schaeffer claims that the publicity of obesity litigation is really a conspiracy of the defense bar to generate fees.) […]

The plaintiffs’ bar regularly pooh-poohs efforts at legal reform (Mar. 11, Mar. 13) to prevent a shakedown blaming the food industry for obesity by noting that no anti-obesity lawsuit has succeeded yet. (For example, blogger-lawyer Evan Schaeffer claims that the publicity of obesity litigation is really a conspiracy of the defense bar to generate fees.) A Lawyers Weekly USA puts the lie to this by talking to the plaintiffs’ bar; Trial Lawyers Inc. clearly thinks that obesity lawsuits are a profitable new business opportunity. (Elaine McArdle, “String Of Fast-Food Suits Expected By End Of Year”, Lawyers Weekly USA, May 10 (and can temporarily be found here); Laura Parker, “Legal experts predict new rounds in food fight”, USA Today, May 6; Alex Beam, “A super-size portion of half truths”, Boston Globe, May 11). As with the tobacco lawsuits, the strategy is to keep filing frivolous lawsuits until random chance assigns a sympathetic judge who writes an opinion that creates a precedent that opens the doors for future lawsuits–and John Banzhaf and other plaintiffs’ lawyers claim that has already happened.

One Comment

  • Stick the fork in and be done with it.

    There are some days that I think we’re doomed. That as a society we’ve passed the point of no return and it’s all downhill from here. It might take a decade or five before someone actually gets around to sticking the fork in, but it&#…