Educator: please don’t bring lawyers to parent-teacher meetings [Ron Clark, CNN] Steve Brill: what I found when I investigated NYC teacher “rubber rooms” [Reuters] “The Six Dumbest Things Schools Are Doing in the Name of Safety” [Cracked] School waterfall liability [Lincoln, Neb. Journal-Star]
As predicted: “Dodd-Frank Paperwork a Bonanza for Consultants and Lawyers” [NYT]
New class action law in Mexico includes loser-pays provision [WSJ]
Newt Gingrich candidacy revives memories of his 1995 call for death penalty (with “mass executions”) for drug smuggling [NYT archive via Josh Barro; see also @timothy_watson "Sounds kinda like Shariah Law to me.")
"Cy pres slush fund in Georgia under ethics investigation" [PoL]
Dan Snyder drops suit against Washington City Paper [WCP, Wolfman/CL&P, Adler, earlier here, here, etc.] More reactions to TSAer’s lawsuit threat against columnist/blogger Amy Alkon [Treacher, Balko, Bader]
Jury declines to credit testimony about when victim took Children’s Motrin [Beck]
Mississippi high court strikes down widely noted $7 million lead paint verdict in Sherwin-Williams vs. Gaines [AP, Freeland, LNL, opinion]
“Is suing the bar a new drunk driving trend?” [NJLRA]
Truth through intimidation? U.K.: “Chronic fatigue syndrome researchers face death threats from militants” [Guardian] Nanotechnologists are target of Unabomber copycat [Chronicle of Higher Education]
Even before federal raid on Gibson, Lacey Act scared owners of vintage instruments: “I don’t go out of the country with a wooden guitar.” [Eric Felten/WSJ, AW, PoL, Trevor Burrus/Cato]
Dear NYT contributor Bakan: getting your kids’ attention may not require overthrowing world corporate economy [Nancy French, NR "Home Front"] More: Sullum.
Google paid dearly in smartphone deal for our dysfunctional patent system [Gordon Crovitz] “Google Should Publicly Oppose Software Patents” [Timothy Lee, Forbes]
The Food and Drug Administration has banned the only over-the-counter asthma inhaler, Primatene Mist, on the grounds that it releases chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and is thus bad for the ozone layer. [Chris Horner, Big Government via Alkon; Washington Post](& welcomeAbove the Law readers)
More from @larkinrule: “I was alone at my family cabin had an asthma attack and no inhaler. The corner store had one left. I believe it saved my life.”
The Supreme Court’s admirable Twombly and Iqbal precedents give a federal district court the means to turn back a shotgun lawsuit against a horde of undifferentiated defendants [McFarland v. APP Pharmaceuticals LLC, slip op., 2011 WL 2413797 (W.D. Wash. June 13, 2011) via Beck, Drug and Device Law]. Quoting the court:
[A]lleging that 93 defendants all manufactured, distributed, and/or sold all of the products that caused all of plaintiff’s injuries is not plausible. In addition, plaintiff’s allegations are internally inconsistent. The complaint alleges that “each” of the defendants manufactured the heparin that caused her injuries, but also alleges that each of the 93 defendants “separately manufactured, marketed, distributed, wholesaled, and/or sold” heparin. The inconsistencies between those allegations, which are not pled in the alternative, further highlight the implausibility of plaintiff’s allegations.
James Beck writes, “Basically, the plaintiffs in McFarland didn’t want to do even the most basic spadework of identifying the correct defendants before bringing suit, so they threw in the kitchen sink in the hope that the defendants would end up having to spend the time and effort to figure things out.” After Twombly and Iqbal, that’s become a less effective legal tactic — one of many reasons to resist the Litigation Lobby drive to get Congress to overturn the two pleading decisions.
P.S. Although it is only indirectly related to the issue of manufacturing shortages, note also the interesting reader comment on the gout drug Colchicine, known and used for millennia. Per relatively recent FDA rules, colchinine and various other older drugs, formerly “grandfathered” and free for anyone to produce, have been awarded in exclusivity to a single manufacturer, at considerable cost to consumers.
I’ve got a post at Cato at Liberty getting into more detail about some of the deadly side effects of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation, an issue raised previously in this space.
Trial judge up north supports certifying as class action unusual suit blaming Newfoundland for moose collisions [Canadian Press via Karlsgodt, earlier here and here]
Could it be that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) — known for his extensive involvement in pharmaceutical issues over many years as a Congressional nabob, and for his long, close alliance with the plaintiff’s bar — is really unfamiliar with the story of Bendectin, one of the staple horror stories of litigation run amok in the drug field? [Carter Wood, ShopFloor] Background here, here, here, etc., etc. The whole clip, starring Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), is worth watching: Bilbray wonders aloud whether there are any lawyers he can sue when unfounded lawsuits put needed medical technologies out of reach.
“Bioblitz”: Environmental groups file thousands of actions demanding endangered species listings [NYT; related discussion with Jonathan Adler and Steven Hayward at NYT's Room for Debate]
War on painkillers could turn many more Florida docs, druggists into criminals [White Coat]
I’ve got a new post up at Cato at Liberty on the avoidable medical crisis brought about in part by an FDA crackdown — and how the government might manage to make it still worse. I quote commenter “Greg S.” from our earlier thread (&White Coat).
Recent toughening of FDA regulation, particularly over the drug manufacturing process, is said to be a factor. Should this count as surprising? [LATimes]
Headline from last August, recalled by James Taranto: “Milwaukee teachers union files suit over lack of Viagra coverage.” The lack of coverage for erectile dysfunction drugs amounted to sex discrimination, according to the complaint. [Journal-Sentinel]
More on the Wisconsin union showdown from Cato Institute scholars Chris Edwards (Virginia has much sharper restrictions on public-employee unionism than what Gov. Scott Walker is proposing), Neal McCluskey (for the kids? really?), David Boaz (president, with his entire political machine, “is inserting himself into a medium-sized state’s battle over how to balance its budget,” Roger Pilon (unions’ quarrel is with voters) — and see also this 2009 background paper on the unsustainable costs of some union victories.
The plaintiff, who had been prescribed Zoloft and Ambien, “reportedly fell asleep while ‘inspecting’ his gun” and shot himself inadvertently on waking. He “is now suing his doctor for medical malpractice, saying that prescribing both an anti-depressant and a sleep aid together deviated from accepted standards of medical care. He has a separate product liability claim pending against the drug manufacturers.” [New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance, FindACase]
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