May 2009 Archives
"You need to have, in order to maximize the benefit, you have to tolerate some risk, and the danger of using litigation to solve these problems is that ... it forces us as a society to be over-cautious. I do think that as a general rule our society is overly risk-adverse and we pay for that."
Journalist and former host of CNN's "Crossfire" Michael Kinsley, who has Parkinson's Disease, testifying in Congress against H.R. 1346, which would open the floodgate of lawsuits against manufacturers of lifesaving medical devices
"I'm also here as a journalist who has written quite a bit about the damage done to our economy and to our country by excessive litigation in general and product and medical liability lawsuits in particular."
Journalist and former host of CNN's "Crossfire" Michael Kinsley, who has Parkinson's Disease, testifying in Congress against H.R. 1346, which would open the floodgate of lawsuits against manufacturers of lifesaving medical devices
"... appellant contends that the Legislature does not have [the authority to limit recoverable damages] -- only a jury does. This argument was made and rejected more than 20 years ago. ... We reject it again."
Fifth District Court of Appeal, ruling against an attack on California's landmark Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), Van Buren v. Evans, F054227, May 20
"He didn't settle: He went public. Private companies tend not to air their litigation laundry, but the Silica CEO talked to the media, detailed his lawsuit figures, ginned up coverage of the lawyers' tactics. The growing story emboldened other defendants to fight back. U.S. Silica also pushed hard, behind the scenes, to depose, investigate and fight."
Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal writer, describing U.S. Silica CEO John Ulizio's successful battle against asbestos plaintiffs' lawyers trying to expand into bogus silicosis litigation
"I expect (securities class action) filings to drop in 2009 not because the severity of the credit crunch will go away, but because virtually all the major financial-services firms have already been sued. I think for the first time in history, we have a pool of defendants that is fished out."
Joseph Grundfest, director of Stanford Law School's Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal