The United States Supreme Court ruled this past Monday that smokers may sue tobacco companies for fraud in the marketing of “light” cigarettes. In a surprising 5-4 decision considering the conservative, pro-business nature of the Court, the Supreme Court determined that several Maine residents had been deceived by Altria and…
Deaths such as actor Heath Ledger’s drug overdose from a mixture of medications have soared since the 1980’s according to a study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine yesterday. The authors studied 50 million death certificates since 1983, and found that there were more than 224,000 fatal medication errors,…
There was a shocking and sobering story on the ABC’s 20-20 program several weeks ago. Tires sold throughout this country in stores such as Sears, Wal-Mart, and Goodyear have expiration dates, and become dangerous after 6 years regardless of whether they have ever been placed on a vehicle and put…
Supplementing our February 29, 2008 post “Blood Thinner Heparin Tied To Several Deaths“, the actor Dennis Quaid appeared on “60 Minutes” last Sunday to reveal every parent’s nightmare: He and his wife almost lost their newborn twins last year at Cedar’s Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles due to a massive…
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS acknowledged that due to a huge increase in applications for green cards and citizenship in July of 2007, the average waiting time for legal residency and citizenship is now 18 months. The surge in applications in July of 2007 (7 times more…
Following up on our blog “U.S. Supreme Court Deals Blow to Lawsuits Against Defective Products“, the Court heard arguments on February 25 in Warner-Lambert v. Kent, to determine whether drug manufacturers should receive similar protection from lawsuits that the Court handed out to medical device makers earlier in February. Judge…
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that private lawsuits against medical device manufacturers are not permitted when the device in question complies with federal requirements. Essentially, the Court’s decision in Riegel v. Medtronic is another example of the U.S. Supreme Court’s attack on consumer rights, and will have far…
The Food and Drug Administration announced on February 28 that “potential deficiencies” at a Chinese plant that produces the active ingredient in Heparin, a blood thinner used to treat blood clots during dialysis and after some surgery, is a possible cause of 21 deaths, as well as hundreds of allergic…