5/28/2015 A young girl got a $15M jury verdict for birth defects she suffered because her mother took Depakote, an anti-epileptic drug, while pregnant. The St. Louis, MO jury was unanimous in the verdict, which came down after only a few days’ deliberation. The $15M is just for damages; the jury is now considering adding
5/28/2015 Last year a Johnson & Johnson medical device, the laparoscopic power morcellator, was removed from the market. This year the FBI investigates the cancer-spreading hysterectomy device. The power morcellator was a favorite of surgeons for doing minimally-invasive hysterectomies and removing uterine fibroids. The device worked by grinding up tissue that could then be removed
5/28/2015 In what looks to be the most widespread and lucrative corruption scandal in the global history of sport, the U.S. Justice Department has unsealed a 47-count indictment against 14 executives of the worldwide soccer governing body, FIFA. The executives are being charged with racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. The Justice Department alleges that
5/27/2015 In a decision that helps to define the statute of limitations for whistleblower cases, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday, May 26th that whistleblowers do not get extra time to file false claims complaints during a time of war. The case revolves around former Iraq contractor, Benjamin Carter, whose 2011 complaint under review alleges
5/27/2015 For the second time in as many months, a federal court has upheld the stoppage of a key portion of President Obama’s November 2014 executive order reforming U.S. immigration policy. A split 3-judge panel from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Texas Federal Judge, Andrew Hanen’s February injunction of the executive order after
5/26/2015 Perhaps no industry besides investment banks has been hit as hard by the federal court system than tobacco over the past several years. A pair of recent appeals rulings, however, indicates a substantial turn in the industry’s decades-long financial flogging. On Friday, the D.C. Court of Appeals delivered a mixed-ruling, in which some
5/26/2015 Charter Communications is expected to announce on Tuesday that the company has reached an agreement to purchase Time Warner Cable. If the deal passes regulatory scrutiny, the third and second largest cable providers, respectively, will provide heavy competition to industry leader Comcast, as well as other companies like DirecTV and Netflix. The estimated $55
5/25/2015 A lawsuit will continue in U.S. District Court in Minnesota regarding Target’s widespread 2013 pre-holiday data breach as banks rejected a $19 million settlement proposed last month. Over 40 million debit and credit cards were compromised during the breach, putting millions of cardholders’ information at risk. The settlement set aside by Target would have
5/25/2015 A recent ruling from the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit tells Actavis it cannot withdraw Namenda IR. The drug, a popular drug for treating Alzheimer’s disease, needs to be taken twice daily. Actavis, in a bold move to make more money, decided to remove Namenda IR from the market, prior to a
5/25/2015 On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit handed down a ruling that tobacco companies must tell the public that cigarettes are designed to be addictive. However, the tobacco industry doesn’t have to tell the truth about past actions. The opinion’s author, Judge David Tatel, wrote that the court decided that,