Defective Design

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently inspected the Mounds View, Minn., location of Medtronic’s heart implant division and found problems with the company’s procedures for “preventing and identifying problems with its devices, documenting those problems, and the speed with which it informs the FDA of any issues,” says a […]

You have to love Big Tobacco.  Nothing gets them down – no sir! They can cry foul with the best of ’em; even when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. First, a jury sees through their smoke and mirrors in a trial down in Fort Lauderdale, […]

Today, a Broward county jury delivered a verdict against Big Tobacco that should have sent a message. When jurors in good faith hear the evidence of misconduct, fraud, and deception practiced by the tobacco industry for decades, jurors are willing to render a verdict that relates to the egregious nature […]

One of the leading manufacturers of baby strollers, Maclaren, has recalled one million strollers which pose an amputation danger for children’s fingers.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 12 children had suffered fingertip amputations after getting them stuck in the closing hinge mechanism of the strollers.   In response […]

The latest buzz in the legal industry focuses on the drug Byetta. The diabetes drug exenatide, trade name Byetta, has been linked to an increased risk of a serious and often deadly form of pancreatitis. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a warning that Byetta might increase risk […]

Nearly a ton and a half of steel hurling its way down the road at 50 miles an hour suddenly lurches and begins to increase its speed; 60 mph, 70 mph, 75, mph, 80 mph. The driver applies the brakes in a frantic effort to slow the vehicle; it does […]

It is old hat in the medical device and drug industry; do not ask for permission—simply deal with the fall out of asking for forgiveness. The US Attorney’s Office announced indictments against a number of Stryker executives for lying to the Food & Drug Administration. Apparently, Stryker was given permission […]

Bangor, Maine’s most famous resident (no disrespect directed towards other Bangorians) is horror-writer extraordinaire Stephen King. It seems appropriate then that Bangor’s federal courthouse is the latest venue in which cigarette manufacturers’ horrific decades of long fraudulent practices will be put under the forensic microscope. In 2005, Maine residents filed […]

In a unanimous decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled on Monday that cigarette manufacturer, Philip Morris, may have to pay for screening/diagnostic scans for smokers.  The ruling paves the way for the possibility that Philip Morris could be required to pay for low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans, which can detect […]

Phillip Morris was found to be 38% at fault in the death of a smoker. This is the verdict delivered by a jury of good citizens on August 14, 2009, in Broward County, Florida. Philip Morris and their lawyers, presumably, blame the judge and bad rulings made by him. Altria’s […]