Articles Posted in Litigation

Donald Trump’s hair reportedly turned orange by a Just for Men hair product.  This is probably a serious thing to Trump, but less so to the rest of us.

But there is a real concern about these Just for Men products.  An increasing number of men are reporting severe allergic reactions to “Just For Men” hair and beard products. The reactions include burning, difficulty breathing, dizziness, faintness, hives, rash, redness, scarring, and swelling.

The reactions are being reported not just by new users, but also by long-time users who had previously never experienced any problems. The hair product reactions are so severe that some users had to go to the emergency room, or even be hospitalized. Many users needed antibiotics and steroids to treat the reactions.

Abnormal Use interviewed University of Maine School of Law professor Jennifer B. Wriggins in a blog post last week. Professor Wriggins is best known for her book “The Measure of Injury: Race, Gender, and Tort Law” which talks about how tort law does not provide full redress for injuries to women.

Professor Wriggins was asked by Abnormal Use, “What rule or concept in modern torts or products liability jurisprudence do you believe is the most outdated, and why?”

Now that is a really good question. My first answer would probably be contributory negligence, which is also touched on in this interview. Professor Wriggins said she thought the most antiquated idea might be not telling the jury of the existence of liability insurance, even though the likelihood is that most of them know or suspect the defendant has insurance:

This is a really good article in the Tulane Law Review that explains the history and theory behind bellwether trials in the MDL.

The Drug and Device Law Blog has an articulate rant about plaintiffs’ lawyers jerking around defendants on whether certain documents produced should be deemed confidential. The core of their argument is that plaintiffs’ interests in the battle over confidential documents are either for (1) sport or (2) to shop documents obtained in discovery to the press.

There is some measure of truth to almost the entire post. But it is as if Tiger Woods told the following story: “I was looking forward to a nice Thanksgiving weekend with my family but on Sunday my wife just left. Didn’t say goodbye or anything.” That’s a true story.

Similarly, the Drug and Device Law Blog leaves out a little fact of the story: mass tort defense lawyers are the undisputed kings of making plaintiffs’ lawyers work for pure sport. Plaintiffs’ lawyers in drug and device cases largely just want to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. I think this is a function both of the personality types attracted to these very different jobs (and I’ve done both) and fundamental economics: plaintiffs’ lawyers get paid for success while defense lawyers get paid for working, even if they are just creating work.

According to the Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog, Maryland has seen only 10 patent lawsuits in 2010. Incredibly, there have already been 265 patent lawsuits in Texas. There are more patents in Texas than in Maryland. Maryland inventors received almost as many patents in the first half of 2010.

Drug companies, who are anti-lawsuits until they want to file one, are frequently parties in patent lawsuits involving one drug company accusing another of reverse engineering or copying of drugs.