The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week overruled a lower court’s perfectly sound dismissal with prejudice of a food labeling class action against Chobani yogurt
Judicial HellholesFor the second time in a week, the litigious animal rights activists at PETA have had a specious lawsuit tossed out of court
Points of LightIn litigation first reported here two years ago, defendant Goya Foods is fighting back against a serial plaintiff and her bogus, no-injury claim that seeks to exploit California’s Prop 65 labeling requirements
Judicial HellholesThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit tossed out a “scandalous” settlement stemming from a Pella window consumer protection class action suit that would have paid the plaintiffs’ attorneys $11 million up front, with $2 million going to the ethically-challenged lead counsel. It’s just one more example of how state Consumer Protection Acts are abused
Judicial HellholesCalifornia’s leading journal for legal news has published a worthwhile story about the growing wave of preposterous consumer class actions that target the packaging and marketing of various food and beverage products, and which have found a welcoming embrace in the arms of judges comprising the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Judicial HellholesThe federal District Court for the Northern District of California, known increasingly for its plaintiff-friendly embrace of preposterous food and beverage consumer class actions, is where apparently alcohol-obsessed litigants have filed a new, multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch, alleging that the actual alcohol content of various beers is marginally lower than labels indicate
Judicial HellholesDespite all the tort reform progress that has been made in the Lone Star state during the past decade, parasitic personal injury lawyers and their personal responsibility-shirking clients persist in their conniving and scheming efforts to get rich at someone else’s expense
Judicial HellholesJoining cookie-cutter lawsuits in California, a new nationwide class action filed in Minnesota names two plaintiffs — one from New York, the other from New Jersey — to represent millions of presumptive imbeciles who want our courts to believe they are incapable of reading and understanding federally mandated nutrition labels on boxes of granola bars
UncategorizedWith the record Tobacco Settlement in the books, opportunistic plaintiffs’ attorneys are now looking for their next big payday and it seems they have their target set on food manufacturers. More than a dozen lawyers who took on the tobacco companies have filed 25 cases aginst industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani.
Judicial HellholesOn August 9, 2012, in what was a sharply divided decision, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that makers of respirators designed to prevent asbestos exposure can be held liable for failing to warn of the contaminant’s risks. This decision unfairly opens up safety product manufacturers to more lawsuits over asbestos-related injuries.
Judicial HellholesTwo women who are either lying, dimwitted or both, claim in the latest preposterous consumer class action in California that they’ve been misled by the brand name and promotional labeling of a popular granola bar
UncategorizedAs reported this week by the Wall Street Journal, Blitz USA- the nation’s No. 1 consumer gasoline-can producer, based in Miami, Oklahoma, has filed for bankruptcy due to an abusive attack of frivolous lawsuits led by the trial bar.
Judicial HellholesThis past week, a major nursing home chain said it will no longer operate in Kentucky because of increased litigation and the 2012 General Assembly’s failure to pass a law making it more difficult to file lawsuits against nursing homes.
Judicial HellholesOn Monday, May 6, 2012, a Jenkintown-based law firm filed a ridiculous consumer fraud class action lawsuit against Comcast Spectacor, the parent company of the Philadelphia Flyers, on behalf of all 2011-2012 full season ticket holders.
Judicial HellholesWilson v. Frito Lay is the latest food-related class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, adding to the growing wave of ridiculous consumer class action lawsuits filed there
Judicial HellholesLast week, Merck & Co. successfully defended itself against a claim involving its drug, Fosamax. This was the company’s fifth win in six such cases that have gone to trial. The cases were heard in the Atlantic County Superior Court by Judge Carol Higbee, a court that has consistently been targeted by our Judicial Hellholes report.
Points of LightIn a big win for lovers of hamburgers and cheap toys, and in a stinging defeat for incompetent parents who can’t control the acquisitive impulses of their young children, a San Francisco judge yesterday thankfully disposed of another crazy California consumer class action — this one targeting McDonald’s — like a garbage bag full of stale buns
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightAmerican Tort Reform Association communications director Darren McKinney fired up a comment to an online UPI story he sees as too sympathetic to trial lawyers and class actions
UncategorizedIf it’s not with phony wheelchair access claims or absurd consumer protection lawsuits, California plaintiffs lawyers also extort money from small businessmen and women by exploiting an environmental law that’s ripe for reform
Judicial HellholesAs reported by the New York Daily News, a New Jersey woman who tried to perpetrate a coupon con on a department store has conspired with a personal injury lawyer relative of hers in Queens, N.Y., to gin up a class action because, she alleges, she’s owed 80 cents.
Judicial HellholesJere Beasley, Alabama’s infamous class-action impresario and would-be Dickie Scruggs, has headed for the border. Alleging that his own law firm’s “independent” testing indicates that Taco Bell’s beef tacos include only 35% beef, Beasley is suing the fast-food chain in – you guessed it – California, the nation’s best place to have a meritless consumer class-action certified and taken seriously by a kooky judge
Judicial Hellholes