Daniel Fisher News
Latest opioid ruling puts MDL judge further out of step on public nuisance
A federal judge soundly rejected the “public nuisance” theory behind most opioid litigation, further isolating the judge in charge of thousands of similar lawsuits who has consistently ruled in favor of plaintiffs on this very question.
Big Oil gets win at SCOTUS in climate change litigation
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Ruling on a narrow question of procedural law, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an appeals court’s decision that sent the City of Baltimore’s climate lawsuit to Maryland state court, giving oil companies a second chance to try to keep the case out of a plaintiff-friendly venue.
Walmart hopes old law will block feds' suit over opioid 'unwritten expectations’
SHERMAN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Walmart is betting on an 86-year-old law that companies most commonly use to fend off lawsuits over insurance coverage or trademarks to block an expected government suit over how its pharmacists filled opioid prescriptions.
Walmart's new lawsuit a preemptive shot against U.S. over coming opioid litigation
Walmart fired a warning shot at the U.S. government in advance of an expected opioid lawsuit, asking a federal court to declare invalid claims that its pharmacies can be held liable for filling prescriptions written by licensed doctors and failing to follow standards that don’t appear in the law.
Politically generous lawyers poised to take billions from opioid settlement
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Their request for some $3 billion in fees has generated fierce resistance from state attorneys general and defendants, but don’t worry about the financial states of private lawyers who represent thousands of municipal plaintiffs in opioid litigation.
Johnson & Johnson claims FDA's new asbestos testing based on 'faulty assumptions'
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson says a Food and Drug Administration panel charged with designing new standards for detecting asbestos in talc used “faulty assumptions” and failed to reflect scientific consensus in its draft recommendations.
Sixth Circuit, for now, puts stop to order forcing release of patient records in massive opioid litigation
CINCINNATI (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has temporarily halted a federal judge’s order requiring the largest U.S. pharmacy chains to turn over more than a decade’s worth of nationwide prescription records, although the court refused to halt production of prescriptions for the state of Ohio.
Pharmacies in opioid MDL ordered to turn over 14 years of prescriptions as states, ACLU fight similar requests
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge has ordered the nation’s leading pharmacy chains to turn over billions of nationwide prescription records going back 14 years - even as the American Civil Liberties Union and some states attack similar requests by the government as overbroad and an invasion of privacy.
Pharmacies facing opioid lawsuits file claims against doctors who did the prescribing
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Saying they have been unfairly targeted because of their deep pockets, pharmacies facing trial in opioid multidistrict litigation in Ohio later this year filed claims against hundreds of unnamed practitioners who may have written improper prescriptions for addictive painkillers.
New York's 'ill-conceived' lawsuit against Exxon is rejected by judge
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) The flagship lawsuit of the #ExxonKnew climate litigation campaign was sent to the bottom today after a New York judge rejected all claims brought by the office of Attorney General Letitia James, including fraud charges the state’s lawyers unexpectedly dropped at the close of trial.
While New York goes to trial, Massachusetts AG finally sues ExxonMobil over climate change statements
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has launched her long-threatened lawsuit against ExxonMobil, accusing the oil giant of “deceiving the world about climate change” and defrauding investors by failing to fully disclose the risks embedded in its portfolio of hydrocarbon reserves.
Opioid settlement hints at massive windfall for private lawyers who snagged government clients
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - It was a stroke of good luck for Cuyahoga and Summit counties in Ohio that U.S. District Judge Dan Polster selected them for the first bellwether trial out of thousands of other cities and counties that are blaming the opioid industry for the nation's addiction crisis.
Ohio AG to colleagues: Let's limit fees to private lawyers in opioid settlement
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has warned his fellow AGs that a reported $50 billion settlement of opioid claims will fall apart unless the states demand tight controls on fees to private lawyers and make sure the rest of the money is directed toward programs designed to address the opioid crisis, instead of state general funds.
Private lawyers stand to make $90 million as judge hits Johnson & Johnson with $572M opioid ruling
NORMAN, Okla. (Legal Newsline) - A state judge in Oklahoma has blamed Johnson & Johnson for the state's opioid crisis and ordered it to pay $572 million in damages, extending public nuisance law beyond its traditional boundaries into what may become an all-purpose tool for government lawsuits against product manufacturers.
Talc supplier's bankruptcy could be what Johnson & Johnson needs to bring order to costly asbestos litigation
WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson has borrowed a page from the legal playbook pioneered by breast-implant manufacturer Dow Corning to try to consolidate thousands of talc lawsuits in a single federal court for resolution.
Beware of even the fine print, attorneys warn of ALI's insurance law Restatement
Beware of even the fine print, attorneys warn of ALI's insurance law Restatement
Trump DOJ punishes hedge fund manager who sued drug companies and shorted their stocks
The Trump Justice Department, following a tougher policy toward dubious False Claims Act lawsuits by private citizens, has moved to dismiss a pair of lawsuits by a former hedge-fund manager who shorted stock in pharmaceutical companies he accused of a wide-ranging price-fixing conspiracy.
Trump DOJ acts on threat to trial lawyers who sue on behalf of the government
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The Department of Justice's recent effort to toss lawsuits it says it wasted hundreds of hours investigating is emblematic of a strategy under President Donald Trump to rein in trial lawyers who are using a federal whistleblower law to seek millions of dollars.
Opioid plaintiffs: A small percentage of pill shipments were 'suspicious.' Or maybe it's nearly all of them
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Forced to identify opioid prescriptions they say were “suspicious” and never should have been shipped, Ohio cities and counties came up with a rough estimate. Very rough.
Trial lawyers find unusual allies in fight against arbitration: Conservative state treasurers
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Class action lawyers who see arbitration as a mortal threat to their business have found unlikely allies among some of the nation’s most conservative state officials.