In The News

Fairness in Class Action Bill Does Not Live Up to Its Name

Last week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee Chairman Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) introduced the “Fairness in Class Action ...

E-Cigarettes: The New Kink in the Fight Against Tobacco

While the anti-tobacco movement has made major legislative strides over the years in the fight against death and disease caused by cigarette smoking and other tobacco products, a new tobacco ...

Recent Ninth Circuit Ruling on Nutrition Labeling is a Win for Consumers

On March 13, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a consumer-friendly decision in Reid v. Johnson & Johnson, a false advertising case concerning assertions made by a ...

CFPB Study Confirms Arbitration Clauses Do Not Benefit Consumers

If you ask a company representative if they think arbitration clauses are harmful to consumers, more than likely, they will say no. If you ask the average consumer if they think arbitration ...

A Fish Story

In the timeless words of Dr. Seuss, “From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.”[1] On February 25, 2015, the United States Supreme Court decided Yates v. United ...

Direct-to-Consumer Advertisements: Is Less Really More?

At the heart of a case involving a prescription drug is the question of risks – what risks exist, what risks were known, and what risks were warned about. All of us have seen prescription drug ...

New Rules for Clinical Trial Transparency: Did the NIH and FDA Provide a Solution or Merely Identify a Problem?

Clinical trials—or the lack thereof—often play a central role in cases involving dangerous drugs and medical devices. If and when manufacturers had knowledge of the dangers associated with their ...

Eric Garner, Michael Brown and You

The deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have brought several topics to the forefront of public discussion in recent weeks. Questions of racial profiling, discrimination and the threat of an ...

Arbitration Clauses: Coming Soon to an Online Customer Service Agreement Near You

Earlier this year, I wrote about the online storage company Dropbox adding arbitration clauses to its customer service agreement. It seems Dropbox is in very good company on the Internet these ...

Generic Drug Labeling: The Saga Continues

Almost a year ago, I eagerly wrote about the FDA’s proposed rule that would permit generic drug manufacturers to unilaterally change the warnings on their product labels, effectively overturning ...

You Might Be Able to Avoid Forced Arbitration, Even in 2014

The Seventh Circuit has recently upheld litigants’ rights to pursue their claims in court rather than in forced arbitration in two cases: Druco Restaurants, Inc. v. Steak ‘n Shake Enterprises, ...

The Hits Just Keep On Coming… Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund

Two days ago, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Halliburton Co., et al. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., No. 13-317, holding that at the class certification stage of a securities fraud class ...