This revealing podcast from This American Life tells the story of the acetaminophen warning that should have been — but wasn't. For decades. According to the show, fairly small overdoses of this popular pain medicine (the active ingredient in Tylenol) could be quite dangerous to a patient's liver, or even fatal. But the public remained […]
Author Archives: Scott Michelman
…is the title of this insightful NPR story yesterday from political correspondent Don Gonyea, who investigates a salient divide — highlighted by the current government-shutdown debate — between the populist/tea party wing and the business wing of the Republican Party. Which wing of the GOP should consumers root for in the shutdown debate? The tea […]
Settlements of privacy-based legal challenges to practices of big tech companies often include as one component a contribution by the offending tech giant (e.g. Facebook) to various privacy groups. This thought-provoking article from gigaom asks: is that money well-used, well-planned for? Do these settlements do any good? The article explains: In [several prominent privacy cases], […]
As we've discussed previously, D.C.'s tax-lien program can result in homeowners losing their homes because of liens bought by private companies where the delinquency was only a few hundred dollars. The Post published a fabulous investigative piece (this link is to the first of the three-part series), and the D.C. officials have promised reform. Now, […]
One night in 2002, Dr. Greg Gulbransen was backing up his SUV in his driveway when his two-year-old son Cameron darted out into the driveway behind the vehicle. Too small to be seen by his dad using any of the vehicle’s rearview or sideview mirrors, Cameron was struck by the moving car and killed. […]
Today, a group of parents from California, New York, Tennessee, and Virginia appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case in which the district court last month approved a settlement between Facebook and class of plaintiffs alleging privacy violations. As we've described before, the settlement is bad deal; particularly […]
…filing pro-business, often anti-consumer briefs. Reuters has the story, which provides as one example a case in which the Chamber "argu[ed] that a landfill operator should not have to pay certain damages to nearby residents for the irritating or offensive odors the facility produced. In August, the court issued a ruling in line with what […]
Responding to the Washington Post's heart-wrenching investigative report this weekend about predatory lien-buying practices causing D.C. homeowners to lose their homes — a story Brian flagged last night — Mayor Vincent Gray promises action "as quickly as possible," reports the Post today: "Gray said he would introduce emergency legislation next week to put a moratorium […]
About a year ago, Public Citizen petitioned for rehearing in a case in which a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a First Amendment retaliation claim brought by a police officer who courageously spoke out after he witnessed the abuse of suspects within his department. In a welcome development this week, […]
As we've discussed several times since March, the Supreme Court's decision this spring in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend has provided fodder for a new and dangerous argument that a damages class cannot be certified whenever the damages must be calculated individually. District court decisions have been mixed on this question, but so far the response […]