The Supreme Court today decided Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer and White Sales Inc., which presented the question "whether the Federal Arbitration Act permits a court to decline to enforce an agreement delegating questions of arbitrability to an arbitrator if the court concludes the claim of arbitrability is 'wholly groundless.'” The answer was an unanimous […]
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The Supreme Court held argument yesterday in Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht. Here's the (loaded) question presented in Merck: Whether a state-law failure-to-warn claim is pre-empted when the Food and Drug Administration rejected the drug manufacturer's proposal to warn about the risk after being provided with the relevant scientific data, or whether such a […]
That's the name of this Washington Post article by Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee. The article explains that the FDA continues to allow critical, implanted medical devices on the market via the so-called "510(k) process." Among other serious deficiencies, the 510(k) process does not require pre-market clinical safety testing. Lenzer and Brownlee explain that the […]
Excerpts from the announcement: The Janet D. Steiger Fellowship Project provides law students the extraordinary opportunity to work in the consumer protection departments of state and territorial Offices of Attorneys General and other consumer protection agencies, including the National Association of Attorneys General and the Attorney General’s Office of the District of Columbia, throughout the […]
It could have been a routine order directing arbitration in a commercial dispute no one beyond the parties would likely care about. Instead, Judge William Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts used the occasion of a dispute between two companies about the meaning of their arbitration agreement to deliver an […]
Law prof Jean Sternlight has written Mandatory Arbitration Stymies Progress Towards Justice in Employment Law: Where To, #MeToo?. Here's the abstract: Today our employment law provides workers with far more protection than once existed with respect to hiring, firing, salary, and workplace conditions. Despite these gains, continued progress towards justice is currently in jeopardy due […]
In case you've not read about the allegations that Johnson & Johnson covered up possible asbestos contamination in its baby powder, read this article by Roni Caryn Rabin and Tiffany Hsu. We've posted before (for instance, here) about suits against Johnson & Johnson alleging that talc in baby powder caused the plaintiffs' ovarian cancer. Plaintiffs […]
Alison Frankel of Reuters reports that the Delaware Chancery Court has held that Delaware corporations lack authority to include in their charters "forum selection clauses" applicable to federal securities fraud claims asserted by shareholders. Put more simply, the ruling limits corporate power to tell shareholders where they have to file their claims. As Frankel's article […]
Today, in conjunction with a new study that details a host of concerning practices in apps targeted to young children, 22 consumer and public health advocacy groups (including Public Citizen) called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the preschool app market. The groups' letter urges the FTC to hold app makers accountable for unfair and […]