Don’t take his money, St. Luke’s
Many Houston doctors are outraged that St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital is preparing to rename its medical tower, a local landmark, after controversial plaintiff’s attorney John O’Quinn (Apr. 28, 2004,...
View ArticleBut where are the customers’ Lamborghinis?
Houston plaintiff’s lawyer John O’Quinn, famed for his huge fee hauls in asbestos, tobacco and silicone breast implant cases, was the winning bidder at $500,000 at a Labor Day auction of a Lamborghini...
View ArticleOz: “Law firm’s brawl over $1m bonus”
Australia: “Leading plaintiff lawyer Peter Gordon from the firm Slater & Gordon was paid a $1 million bonus he was not entitled to from the profits of a massive class action over faulty breast...
View Article“FDA ends ban on silicone breast implants”
“The government on Friday rescinded a 14-year ban on silicone gel implants for cosmetic breast enhancement, a decision praised by some for providing women with a better product but criticized by others...
View ArticleSteve Chapman on breast implants
As always, worth reading: “In the end, the truth — and personal freedom — prevailed [when the FDA re-approved the devices after 15 years]. But only after a heck of a fight, and only after sustaining...
View ArticleUnclear on the concept
Bizarro-Overlawyered hasn’t quite gotten the hang of how to put forward their propaganda campaign to deprive consumers of the choice of arbitrating disputes. A New Orleans woman, Patricia Dicorte, says...
View Article“The Use of Litigation Screenings in Mass Torts: A Formula for Fraud?”
Lester Brickman has a new must-read paper on an under-reported problem: Lawyers obtain the “mass” for some mass tort litigations by conducting screenings to sign-up potential litigants en masse. These...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CPSIA chronicles, April 24
Understatement alert: per the official Congressional Research Service on Capitol Hill, “For the moment…one thing seems certain: implementation of the CPSIA is not going well.” [report in PDF format...
View ArticleUpdate: O’Quinn estate will refund $46.5 million to implant clients
As longtime readers of this site know well, the late mass tort king John O’Quinn nicked the accounts of breast implant plaintiffs with a fortune in unauthorized overcharges. Austin attorney Terry...
View ArticleNew breast-implant-cancer scare
New reports of a study linking an exceedingly rare cancer (anaplastic large cell lymphoma, 3 in 100 million women) to breast implants shouldn’t be seen as somehow vindicating the long-discredited...
View ArticleJoseph Nocera on the mass-tort business model
The New York Times columnist responds to critics of his coverage (earlier here, here, etc.) of the BP Gulf spill claims bonanza: Until that story [on the silicone breast implant episode], I’d always...
View ArticleNew book on silicone breast implant litigation affair
A new book by Dr. Jack Fisher revisits the silicone breast implant litigation fiasco, a tale often mentioned in this space, including the FDA’s role [Josh Bloom, Science20 via ACSH] Tags: FDA, silicone...
View ArticleNew books roundup
Widely discussed new Charles Murray book, By the People: Rebuilding Liberty without Permission, includes extensive discussion of failures of law and litigation system [Carlos Lozada WaPo review,...
View ArticleSilicone breast implants: “sad history of a government approved scare”
25 years ago CBS and the Food and Drug Administration, with trial lawyers and their hired experts busy in the background, kicked off a national panic over silicone breast implants. After waves of...
View ArticleLiability roundup
As one who wrote at length about the silicone-implant litigation at the time — founded as it was on junk science theories hyped to panic potential plaintiffs — I agree that Elizabeth Warren has...
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