Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 105: Listen and Learn -- Public and Private Nuisance
Earlier this month, the Law Court weighed in on a hot-button legal issue—the potential liability of opioid manufacturers for the costs of the drug epidemic. In Eastern Maine Medical Center v. Walgreen Company, the Law Court...more
Notices of filing bankruptcy from debtors to its creditors are intended to halt all collection efforts of prepetition debts. But where lenders are required by law to provide information to mortgagors who are debtors in...more
In Westfield National Insurance Co. v. Quest Pharmaceuticals, the Sixth Circuit held that two insurers owed no coverage obligations to Quest Pharmaceuticals in connection with 77 lawsuits filed against it alleging misconduct...more
You’ll find some notable decisions in our May Insurance Update. Appeals over pandemic-related business interruption losses have made their way up to state high courts. And so far, these courts have continued the trend...more
This is the sixth installment of our series of articles reviewing some of the key trends and developments currently impacting the U.S. insurance industry. Lead Paint - Coverage issues relating to the $400...more
In August 2018, the Province of British Columbia (Province) commenced a class action on behalf of itself and other provincial and federal governments against approximately 50 pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and...more
The past year saw several attempts to apply new applications of the public nuisance doctrine to the opioid crisis. While in the past, public nuisance claims typically sought recovery for damages in connection with land use in...more
Not so long ago US Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York had his time in the barrel—pilloried in the media for approving releases to members of the Sackler family as part of a bankruptcy plan that...more
On November 9, 2021, the Oklahoma Supreme Court set aside a $465 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in State ex rel. Hunter v. Johnson & Johnson, 2021 OK 54. In 2017, the State of Oklahoma sued three opioid...more
Competition regulators in Italy have fined Amazon $1.3 billion, accusing the company “of breaking antitrust laws by giving special perks to third-party merchants who use Amazon’s warehouse and delivery system.” The penalty,...more
On November 9, 2021, the Oklahoma Supreme Court in State ex rel. Hunter v. Johnson & Johnson, No. 118474, 2021 WL 5191372 (Okla., Nov. 9, 2021), overturned a $465 million verdict against opioid manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson...more
There is a widely recognized opioid crisis in America, affecting literally thousands of people who have become addicted to opioids. Something must be done to address this crisis, but is the 700 year old legal theory of public...more
In a blow to Google and the rest of Big Tech, an EU appeals court has refused to “overturn a landmark antitrust ruling by European regulators” from 2017 over Google’s alleged “preferential treatment to its own...more
Public nuisance claims have long been understood to rest on “an unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public.” Typically, litigation sought recovery for damages in connection with (among other...more
Massachusetts AG Maura Healey sued healthcare marketing company Publicis Health, LLC (“Publicis”) under a theory of public nuisance and for violations of Massachusetts’s consumer protection law over Publicis’s alleged role in...more
In August of 2019, following a seven-week bench trial, Judge Thad Balkman of Oklahoma’s Cleveland County District Court found biotech and healthcare company Johnson & Johnson responsible for sparking the state’s opioid...more
For years, the number of people becoming addicted to opioid-based pharmaceuticals has rapidly increased. People who are chronic users of opioid drugs can experience severe side effects and are at a greater risk of overdose...more