OTHERWISE: The selling of ADHD - NY Times

OTHERWISE: The selling of ADHD - NY Times: "The profound corruption of our pharmaceutical industry is explored in this report. - gwc
The Selling of A.D.H.D.
by Alan Schwarz // The NY Times"



'via Blog this'

194 child shootings this year

Slate: 194 kids 10 or under shot this year.  Situation Normal All F*cked Up, as the WWII expression goes.

DePuy Hip Implant Deal Excludes Thousands

DePuy Hip Implant Deal Excludes Thousands: by Amanda Bronstad
National Law Journal

Just weeks after DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. announced a $2.5 billion settlement to resolve the bulk of the litigation over its recalled hip implants, some lawyers have raised concerns about the thousands of patients excluded from the deal and the process that determines how the plaintiffs will be compensated.
The settlement resolves about 8,000 lawsuits filed nationwide against DePuy, a unit of Johnson & Johnson. DePuy agreed to provide a $2.475 billion cash fund to compensate patients for costs associated with "revision surgeries," or those designed to remove its implants — the "ASR XL" or "ASR resurfacing devices," which plaintiffs claimed caused pain, clicking and grinding of the hips, as well as high metal content in blood tests.
The deal, announced at a Nov. 19 hearing in Toledo before U.S. District Senior Judge David Katz, also includes up to $1 billion in reimbursements to health care insurance firms that paid for those surgeries.
But plaintiffs in about 4,000 cases won't be eligible to participate in the settlement, which is also contingent on at least 94 percent of patients submitting claims. DePuy has the right to walk away if too many opt out.
Some already have raised concerns about the settlement.

Read more: http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202631268495&DePuy_Hip_Implant_Deal_Excludes_Thousands_#ixzz2nAqKtjC2

'via Blog this'

25 years ago - the Exxon Valdez oil spill - a look back.

The Times takes a look back at the lessons of the Exxon Valdez oil spill 25 years ago.  An important effect is the strict liability and broader recoveries imposed via the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.  It made possible the quite smooth (all things considered) compensation scheme for the BP Gulf oil spill - he Deepwater Horizon Settlement.

The Punishment Cure - NYTimes.com

There is too many millionaires in the Senate - and the House for reality to hold much sway. - GWC
The Punishment Cure - NYTimes.com:
by Paul Krugman

The G.O.P. answer to the problem of long-term unemployment is to increase the pain of the long-term unemployed: Cut off their benefits, and they’ll go out and find jobs. How, exactly, will they find jobs when there are three times as many job-seekers as job vacancies? Details, details.

'via Blog this'

Is The United States Supreme Court Poised To Overrule or Modify Basic Inc. v. Levinson? - Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration - United States

Is The United States Supreme Court Poised To Overrule or Modify Basic Inc. v. Levinson? - Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration - United States: by Eric A. Boden//Schnader Harrison

On November 15, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari to Petitioner Halliburton Company ("Halliburton") in the case entitled Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., f/k/a Archdiocese of Milwaukee Supporting Fund, Inc. Halliburton appeals to the Supreme Court from a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirming the certification of a class in a securities fraud class action and rejecting Halliburton's attempt to introduce price impact evidence at the certification stage to rebut the presumption of reliance afforded by the fraud-on-the-market theory (see fn 1, infra). By granting Halliburton's writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court has agreed for the second time in connection with this class action to revisit its 1988 landmark ruling in the case of Basic Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224 (1988) ("Basic"), a decision which eased the obstacles to certification of putative classes in securities class actions.

On appeal, Halliburton presents the Supreme Court with two questions: (i) whether the Court should "overrule or substantially modify [Basic] to the extent that it recognizes a presumption of class wide reliance derived from the fraud-on-the-market theory," and (ii) whether, "in a case where the plaintiff invokes the presumption of reliance to seek class certification, the defendant may rebut the presumption and prevent class certification by introducing evidence that the alleged misrepresentations did not distort the market price of its stock." Halliburton Petition for Writ of Certiorari ("Halliburton Pet."), 2013 WL 4855972 (2013).


'via Blog this'

Corps wasn't held accountable for MR-GO damage, but case was worth fighting: Joseph M. Bruno | NOLA.com

Corps wasn't held accountable for MR-GO damage, but case was worth fighting: Joseph M. Bruno | NOLA.com: by Joseph M. Bruno
It has been eight years since Hurricane Katrina exposed the fatal flaws in the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection System. Even though thousands died and billions of dollars were lost because of its neglect, the United States Army Corps of Engineers was granted immunity. The corps will never again be known as the greatest engineering firm in the world.



'via Blog this'

Environment, Law, and History: The Environmental Moment

Environment, Law, and History: The Environmental Moment:
Environmental History has a review by Gary Kroll of The Environmental Moment, 1968–1972, a collection of primary-source documents edited by David Stradling (U Washington Press, 2012). The book contains a number of classic legal sources, including the National Environmental Policy Act and Justice Douglas's iconic dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton ("Mineral King"), in which he argued for granting standing to inanimate natural objects, as well as "voices—Reagan, Joseph Ling, and John Maddox—of those who opposed or criticized the costs of new forms of regulation."
'via Blog this'

BP, Anadarko Ask Appeals Court to Reverse Spill Decision - Bloomberg

BP, Anadarko Ask Appeals Court to Reverse Spill Decision - Bloomberg:

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and BP Plc (BP/)  asked an appeals court to toss out a judge’s finding they were both liable under the U.S. Clean Water Act for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier found BP and Anadarko, partners in the doomed Macondo project, are automatically responsible under the law for polluting the water because they owned the well. The 2012 ruling allowed the federal government to seek fines of as much as $1,100 per barrel of oil spilled -- multiplied by as much as 4.2 million -- without having to prove the issue of liability at trial.

Both companies contend in filings with the U.S. Appeals Court in New Orleans that Barbier improperly decided the matter before trial. Anadarko also says the government is trying to shift the burden to the owners of the spilled oil rather than who’s responsible for the discharge.

“This isn’t a circumstance where the government gets to just make things up as it goes along,” Anadarko attorney David Salmons told the appellate panel at a hearing today. “The question is where the discharge is from, not where the oil is from.”

Neither company has much chance of prevailing before the appeals court, said law professor David Uhlmann.

'via Blog this'

Nocera: Asbestos Litigation a Giant Scam // NY Times

The Asbestos Scam  - by Joe Nocera // NY Times

Congresswoman Carolyn Malony was diagnosed recently with lung cancer. She quit smoking - at 69, and filed suit against asbestos manufacturers - no tobacco companies. Joe Nocera is outraged. He claims the evidence of synergy (multiiplying effect) of smoking and asbestos exposure is based on "muddled science". As to insulation workers - that is clearly not correct. But the evidence is doubtless thinner as the asbestos exposure drops and the tobacco smoking increases. Twenty years ago the New Jersey Supreme Court authorized apportionment of causation between smoking and asbestos in the case Dafler v. Raymark Industries.

Nocera is quick to embrace attacks on litigation. He got caught short on BP when he wrongly declared Deepwater Horizon settlement administrator Patrick Juneau to have been a plaintiff's lawyer who hired corruptly. Wrong on both counts. I recall no Nocera apology when Juneau was cleared by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.  Here too Nocera should have done his homework and read something more than industry press releases before launching into his diatribe. - GWC

"[Congresswoman Malony's] "claim for “asbestos exposure” is that when she was young, her father and her brother worked as boiler makers, and she came into contact with asbestos dust because they all lived under the same roof. Plus, she says in her legal filing, she “visited and picked up my father and brother at the various work sites, including Navy Yards, Bridges, Hospitals, Schools, Powerhouses, and other sites where I breathed the asbestos dust.”Her lawyer at Weitz & Luxenberg — which has feasted for decades on asbestos lawsuits — told The New York Post that “it has been conclusively proven that cigarette smoking and asbestos exposure act synergistically to cause lung cancer.” Actually, it hasn’t been: There are plenty of studies saying there is no synergy at all. At best, the science is muddled.Not that that matters. No doubt McCarthy’s lawsuit will be bundled by her law firm with other cases to force a company that had nothing to do with her disease to pay up. I hope McCarthy wins her battle with lung cancer. It is an awful disease. But the right thing for her to do is drop this lawsuit. All it has really accomplished is showing how asbestos litigation is a giant scam."