Comments on: Drug Lawsuits Keep Atlantic City A Judicial Hellhole

By: Hap

Hap — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:45:06 +0000

I think Atlantic City might be a hellhole of sorts, and maybe even a judicial hellhole, but probably not due to its refusal to shield pharmaceutical companies from liability.

If companies can find enough qualified people willing to work elsewhere, they have shown no sentimentality for NJ that would inhibit them from leaving. The problem is that no one wants to pay to run a government on the behalf of businesses and at their expense, and so locations with such governments (and appropriately compliant courts) correlate poorly with places people actually want to live (because those pesky things like infrastructure and education cost money that businesses would prefer not to spend). If you want educated people to work for you, you have to go where the educated people are. People smart enough to work for you are probably not smart enough to screw themselves that badly (by exempting companies from product liability or by limiting such in the absence of other safety mechanisms), though I’ve been wrong before.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:09:03 +0000

It would be a version of fraud only if they were filing a personal injury lawsuit. Depending on the situation, there are other types of lawsuits that could legitimately be filed in some states for those that purchased and/or took the drug but were not necessarily harmed(e.g. consumer fraud and economic damages).

By: Justice in Michigan

Justice in Michigan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:10:30 +0000

Thanks, Chris. But wouldn’t it be a versionof fraud if the lawyers bringing the case _knew- these plaintiffs never took the drug and/or were not harmed in any way (fraud on part of lawyers, that is)? Or perhaps I’m misunderstanding your last sentence in par. 1.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:59:33 +0000

Perhaps some of the cases don’t hold water. But then think of all the deaths that never even become “cases”. Or the cases where the person who died never had a chance, and the settlement was in the $50,000 range. I say “go New Jersey. Help work to even the score”.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:54:00 +0000

JIM -
The fact that ‘cases are brought on behalf of people who do not even claim to have been harmed’ is not fraud, although there are many who might find this practice highly objectionable. Perhaps the claim is that they were misled into choosing one type of treatment over another.

It is fraud when people who never took the drug CLAIM to have been harmed.

By: Justice in Michigan

Justice in Michigan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:50:43 +0000

“Believe it or not, some of these cases are brought on behalf of people who do not even claim to have been harmed by taking a drug.”

Yup. There is fraud in every profession and business I know - medicine, law (trial and defense), journalism, academic research, investment banking, health corps, etc. etc. etc.

By: Justice in Michigan

Justice in Michigan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:37:54 +0000

The term “Judicial Hellhole” is part of the lurid, purple prose of ATRA and its sister right-wing “think tanks” and foundations. I believe it deserves quotation marks when part of a headline, just as one would use quotations around terms like “Demon Rum,” “Yellow Plague,” and so forth.

In any case, if one really wants to visit a hellhole as far as justice in concerned, come to Michigan, where lawsuits against drug companies have been shielded, essentially in their entirety, for thirteen years.

Favor preemption? We are your future.

By: Dan A.

Dan A. — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:28:18 +0000

With pharma, I heard Boston and Philadelphia were good locations as well.