Author: Ring of Fire Staff

By Robert E. Price December 6th, 2012  9:00am Earlier this year, the United States Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation issued an order that executed something never seen before in Multidistrict litigation:  placing not one, but four (4) separate multidistrict proceedings in the hands of a single judge. Currently, Judge Goodwin of the United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia, presides over the pretrial proceedings for nearly 8,000 cases where women allege injuries caused by a transvaginal mesh device.  The number of cases is expected to reach over 10,000 by early next year.  This past August, the panel...

In the appeal of the Karen Bartlett case, recently accepted for review by the U. S. Supreme Court, the issue to be determined is whether the makers of generic pharmaceutical products can ever be held liable for the injuries caused by their drugs. The court will talk in terms of “preemption” (one form of Federal intrusion favored by the far-right wing of the Court), but the real effect of their decision could be complete immunity for the generic manufacturers. The high court has already given such immunity to generic manufacturers when the warning label is defectively insufficient, but now...

By Virginia Buchanan November 30th, 2012  4:00pm A federal judge in Florida awarded a US Air Force vet and his wife $1.25 million dollars as a result of the 70 year old veteran contracting hepatitis from unclean medical equipment used during a colonoscopy. It is estimated that approximately 11,000 veterans were subjected to colonoscopies in which improperly cleaned equipment was utilized over a 5 year period, beginning in 2004.  The VA facilities which are believed to have used the inadequately sterilized equipment  are located in Florida, Tennessee and Georgia. Hepatitis C is a serious infection and is the most...

By Virginia Buchanan November 27th, 2012  12:00pm The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (“ACOG”), the premier professional organization of American’s obstetricians, is recommending for the first time that birth control be made available for over the counter purchase.  It has been nearly 20 years since such a dramatic position has been voiced by main-stream medicine.  In the early 90’s, the American Journal of Public Health published a paper supporting the availability of oral contraceptives without  a prescription, but, perhaps due to lack of sufficient information showing the safety and effectiveness of birth control pills, the idea languished in...

By Erica Reed November 27th, 2012  9:00am The biggest insider case ever, an alleged $276 million fraud, stemmed in part from a 2008 referral from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).  FINRA, a Wall Street self-regulator, detects one-time offenders who may tip friends and family, as well as more sophisticated rings that work to conceal their trading and sources of inside information.  Referrals from FINRA are often pursued by investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and prosecutors from the Justice Department. On November 20, 2012, U.S. prosecutors charged former SAC Capital employee, Mathew Martoma, with insider trading...