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Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Law - "Plaintiffs' Lawyers Fight Restrictions On Product-Liability Suits"
From today's WSJ, an article by Alicia Mundy on the upcoming:
Supreme Court case, Wyeth v. Levine, which is to be heard Nov. 3, could affect lawsuits involving products such as cars, toys and flammable mattresses.See the SCOTUSBlog Wiki on Wyeth v. Levine here.Corporate defense lawyers are also girding for battle. A spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform said, "Pre-emption will be one of the top issues in Congress next year, and we'll be focusing significant resources on it."
Trial lawyers are expected to be heavily outspent. The chamber, which has helped drive the pre-emption and tort-reform campaign, intends to raise $40 million for political candidates this year.
The Bush administration has over the past few years circumvented Capitol Hill by weakening regulatory agencies' safety rules and adding introductions, called preambles, to public-safety regulations that effectively prohibit plaintiffs from suing at the state level, where safety standards can be tougher than those at the federal level.
Pre-empting plaintiffs' right to sue will come under the microscope in the Wyeth case. The case centers on Diana Levine, a professional guitarist who lost an arm to gangrene after a receiving a shot to treat a migraine headache in 2000.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 13, 2008 02:41 PM
Posted to General Law Related