Trial Lawyer Lobby Prods Obama With Wish List
January 14, 2009
President-elect Obama hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet, but America’s leading trial lawyer lobby is already demanding the incoming Administration repeal a series federal regulations aimed at reining in lawsuits against innocent companies, reports LegalNewsline.com. The American Trial Lawyers Association – which has tried to re-brand itself as the American Association for Justice – called on the Obama Administration to block 54 separate regulations at seven federal agencies that preempt state tort claims.
But the trial bar’s real target isn’t administrative regulations – it’s a U.S. Supreme Court decision that keeps hungry trial lawyers at bay, while protecting life-saving medical devices that have been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Last year in Riegel v. Medtronic, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that state tort claims are barred against manufacturers of medical devices which have received FDA approval. The Court’s decision reaffirmed that Congress explicitly preempted many state tort law claims when it established the FDA’s pre-market approval requirements.
Trial lawyers are pressuring the Obama Administration and the new Democratic Congress to reverse this decision – which would, not coincidentally, create a broad new avenue for mega-tort claims. This is why Lisa Rickard of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform labeled their plan “a stimulus package” for personal injury lawyers.
The trial lawyer lobby wants us all to believe this is intended to help patients, not fatten the wallets of greedy personal injury attorneys. This is nonsense. As Justice Scalia wrote in his decision, pre-market approval “is in no sense an exemption from federal safety review – it is federal safety review.” And, as Congress knew when it passed the law, the FDA is far more effective at creating uniform safety standards than 50 state courts at the mercy of the trial bar.
As Justice Scalia noted:
State tort law that requires a manufacturer’s catheters to be safer, but hence less effective, than the model the FDA has approved disrupts the federal scheme no less than state regulatory law to the same effect. Indeed, one would think that tort law, applied by juries under a negligence or strict-liability standard, is less deserving of preservation.
The Court was right, which is why Federal agencies have been busy bringing their regulations in line with the principles behind the Court’s ruling in Medtronic. The Obama Administration should respect the Court’s decision and let these agencies act. Otherwise, the Court will just have to issue the same ruling all over again – maybe 54 more times.
Posted by Dan Pero in the categories: Obama Administration, Tort Reform, Trial Lawyers
2 Responses to “Trial Lawyer Lobby Prods Obama With Wish List”
[...] tested and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from state torts. (see my earlier post on FDA preemption of state torts for medical [...]
[...] on the trial bar’s agenda – pressing Congress to overturn a 2008 8-1 Supreme Court decision that barred state tort claims against manufacturers of medical devices which have received FDA [...]