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Ethicon Media Monitoring 11/23/2017
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Trump's Judges | J&J Witness Troubles | Lumber Liquidators Deal
Nov 22, 2017 | Law.com
By Amanda Bronstad
.... Now alleged witness shenanigans have surfaced in two other cases against Johnson & Johnson or its subsidiaries. My colleague Max Mitchell took a look at the claims in cases involving blood thinner Xarelto and pelvic mesh. -
Mesh Twitter Storm Takes UK Prime Minister, Trends on Twitter
Nov 23, 2017 | Mesh Medical Device Newsdesk
Never underestimate the power of citizens to make enormous changes when they band together. Twitter allows that to happen globally. -
Weekly’s virtual Downing Street march becomes hot topic on Twitter
Nov 23, 2017 | HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk
By David Sharman
HTFP previously reported how the Cambs Times was encouraging readers to join a virtual march on Downing Street as part of reporter Kath Sansom’s ‘Sling the Mesh’ campaign, which aims to end pelvic surgical mesh implants which have left women with life changing injuries after childbirth.
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Trump's Judges | J&J Witness Troubles | Lumber Liquidators Deal
Nov 22, 2017 | Law.com
By Amanda Bronstad
Welcome to Critical Mass, Law.com's new briefing on class actions and mass torts. I'm Amanda Bronstad in Los Angeles. This week, I'm taking a look at…
Welcome to Critical Mass, Law.com’s new briefing on class actions and mass torts. I’m Amanda Bronstad in Los Angeles. This week, I’m taking a look at President Donald Trump’s latest additions to his list of potential SCOTUS picks, J&J’s witness tampering troubles and certification challenges with Google’s pay equity class action.
Want to subscribe? This briefing—and others written by my Law.com colleagues—are now available. You can check out the new offerings and sign up for a complimentary trial here. In the meantime, please send your feedback to abronstad@alm.com or find me on Twitter: @abronstadlaw
I reached out to University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias on the nominees and how they might approach class actions and mass torts, areas where the court’s conservative appointees tend to be seen as defense friendly.
Tobias noted that two of the contenders, Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Britt Grant of the Georgia Supreme Court, both worked at Kirkland & Ellis—a firm well known for its mass torts defense. (Think BP oil spill, GM ignition switch.)
But Tobias also noted that nominees with state court backgrounds are more likely to be exposed to mass torts and class actions than those on federal courts. Patrick Wyrick, for instance, comes from the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He and Kevin Newsom, of the Eleventh Circuit, also were former state solicitors general.
“They might well get those kind of cases in state court,” Tobias said.J&J’s Witness Problems
As I pointed out last week, things did not go well for Johnson & Johnson in its latest hip implant trial in Dallas. Even before losing a $247 million verdict, J&J faced accusations of witness tampering that ended up involving the FBI.
Now alleged witness shenanigans have surfaced in two other cases against Johnson & Johnson or its subsidiaries. My colleague Max Mitchell took a look at the claims in cases involving blood thinner Xarelto and pelvic mesh.
Max notes that lawyers with Drinker Biddle & Reath have been involved in each of the disputes. (The firm did not respond to a request for comment.) Plaintiffs lawyers in the Xarelto and hip implant trials alleged a J&J sales rep contacted a plaintiff witness. The pelvic mesh case—ensnared in a jurisdictional dispute—is a bit different.
Max writes in an email: “It stems from defense counsel allegedly contacting a former Ethicon employee, and then indicating to the court that they hadn’t been able to find the witness.”
Apparently, the story says, plaintiffs attorneys found the witness through “a simple internet search.”No Mulligan for Reed Smith
Think the grass is greener on the other side of the plaintiffs-defense bar divide? Reed Smith may have thought so too when it signed on as co-counsel last year representing investors in a securities class action against SAC Capital.
My colleague Christine Simmons has a story about what happened next that’s a cautionary tale for defense firms considering dabbling in plaintiffs work. The investors obtained a $135 million settlement but Reed Smith came out with nothing.
And this past week a federal judge chastised Reed Smith for essentially “seeking a mulligan” by suing its former co-counsel, Wohl & Fruchter, in state court for $6.75 million in attorney fees.
U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said she found “little about either side’s conduct that is sympathetic.” Reed Smith, Buchwald added, should have sought its fees in the federal court case.
It was a short-lived representation for Reed Smith; the firm stepped out after about a month or two after SAC Capital lawyers raised conflict concerns. But apparently the potential for conflicts didn’t deter other firms from vying for the assignment. Christine told me: “The firm initially was in a beauty contest with Quinn Emanuel to be co-counsel. Quinn Emanuel also had to leave due to a perceived conflict.”MORE CLASS ACTION NEWS:
➤ Gaps in Google Case: Google has called on a San Francisco judge to reject certification and dismiss a pay equity class action it called “vague” and “sparse.”
The case parallels a Labor Department investigation that found pay discrimination among the 21,000 employees at Google’s headquarters at every level. “The class spans Google’s entire California workforce, top to bottom,” said Google attorneys at Paul Hastings.
➤ Lumbering On: Lawyers representing people who say they were sickened by their wood flooring are threatening to derail a $26 million settlement reached last month with Lumber Liquidators after insisting they were cut out of the negotiations. Here’s my report.
Lumber Liquidators disputes the personal injury plaintiffs’ facts, as does Cohen Milstein’s Steve Toll, lead attorney for a class of consumers. But Toll said they got one thing right: “They wanted to be included in our mediation and we didn’t want them there,” he said.
➤ Nowhere to Run: Problems are mounting for opioid maker Insys Therapeutics, which is defending lawsuits from the states of Arizona and New Jersey. Last week Insys founder John Kapoor pleaded not guilty to federal bribery and racketeering charges. Here’s the report from Law.com’s Kristen Rasmussen.
First order of business: Kapoor’s lawyer, Nixon Peabody partner Brian Kelly, asked the court to remove his client’s electronic bracelets. “Dr. Kapoor is a daily jogger, and the cumbersome bracelet makes it virtually impossible for him to run,” Kelly wrote in a motion.
➤ Smile, Johnson & Johnson!: Los Angeles Superior Court isn’t known for defense verdicts. But last week, Johnson & Johnson won significant bellwether trialsinvolving its baby powder and Risperdal. According to my colleague Jenna Greene, it took the Risperdal jury less than two hours to reach a verdict.
In both cases, defense lawyers went after the credibility of the plaintiffs.O’Melveny’s Dan Petrocelli, in the Risperdal case, took this parting shot at the mother of the plaintiff, asking why she didn’t have photos of him as a young boy to show how the anti-psychotic drug caused him to develop enlarged breasts.
“Are you trying to tell me there is not a single picture? His mother says there were no pictures, not one picture, the only pictures were the ones that you gave to the lawyers to make the case?”
And on that family note—happy Thanksgiving to all!
https://www.law.com/sites/almstaff/2017/11/22/trumps-judges-jj-witness-troubles-lumber-liquidators-deal/?slreturn=20171023020434
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Mesh Twitter Storm Takes UK Prime Minister, Trends on Twitter
Nov 23, 2017 | Mesh Medical Device Newsdesk
Mesh Medical Device News Desk, November 22, 2017 ~ Never underestimate the power of citizens to make enormous changes when they band together. Twitter allows that to happen globally.
Call it the night of 10,000 tweets. Camb Times reports on a Twitter storm Monday night directed at the UK Prime Minister’s residence over the use of transvaginal mesh.
Read it here.
The Sling the Mesh Campaign coordinated a Twitter storm to bombard Prime Minister Theresa May with calls to remove transvaginal mesh from the market and demands for an inquiry.
The initiative was coordinated on the first meeting all-party Parliamentary gathering of Parliament Ministers at Westminster to listen to testimony from members of the campaign, women injured by transvaginal mesh.
From 6 to 7 pm London time, Monday, there were 5,300 tweets and retweets all directed to the Prime Ministers @Number10 Twitter account. 10 Downing Street is the residence of the PM.
The effort gained a “What’s Trending on Twitter? response as a topic to pay attention to. The Trendshelps newcomers discover breaking news and emerging topics from around the world in real-time.
Tweets came in from Sweden to Boston, Ontario Canada to Philadelphia.
Kath Sansom, organizer of #SlingtheMesh said “Wow, look at what we have all achieved together. We trended on twitter globally. This is incredible.”
Supporters were urged to learn Twitter to be ready for the next round.
Sling the mesh is #Slingthemesh on Twitter.
Other hash tags that involve mesh are include #meshdevicenews, #MAM, #patientsafety, @MeshAwareness, @MeshProblems, @MeshCampaign, @JNJNews, #MeshToo, @MeshDeviceNews, @SWEMeshSupport, @SixYearsofHell, #MeshUK, #Hernia, #CleanUpThisMesh, #MeshAwareness, #BanAllMesh, GettheMeshOut, #JustSayNo2Mesh, #MedicalDevices, #meshinjuredpatients, #Mesh, #MeshMaimes, #MeshKills, #BanAllMesh, all are found online to notify the reader on the topic of pelvic and hernia mesh.
LEARN MORE:
Janis Key Urban is a master Tweeter and very clever in the graphics she creates.
https://twitter.com/JanUrban12Here is coverage in Camb Times
http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/downing-street-stormed-in-slingthemesh-twitter-campaign-1-5289018MND, January 20, 2017 Pelvic Mesh Twitter Party this Friday
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/pelvic-mesh-twitter-party-friday/MND, April 29, 2016 Twitter Party May 1, 2016
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/global-mesh-awareness-twitter-party-may-1-sunday/https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/mesh-twitter-storm-takes-uk-prime-minister-trends-twitter/
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Weekly’s virtual Downing Street march becomes hot topic on Twitter
Nov 23, 2017 | HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk
By David Sharman
A weekly newspaper’s bid to bombard Theresa May online led to its campaign becoming one of Twitter’s most talked about topics.
HTFP previously reported how the Cambs Times was encouraging readers to join a virtual march on Downing Street as part of reporter Kath Sansom’s ‘Sling the Mesh’ campaign, which aims to end pelvic surgical mesh implants which have left women with life changing injuries after childbirth.
Times readers were urged to bombard the Prime Minister, pictured, as well as health ministers, with tweets supporting calls for a public inquiry on the issue between 6pm and 7pm on Monday.
A total of 5,300 tweets and retweets were posted on the Prime Minister’s official Twitter account as a result, leading to five phrases associated with the campaign making the social networking site’s top 40 global trends.
Times journalist Harry Rutter, who compiled the statistic, said: “#SlingTheMesh was the 10th most trending hash tag in the UK between 5.40pm and 7.40pm on the night of the rally.
“Southampton, UK took the lead as 11pc of all tweets came from them, shortly followed by Belfast with 9pc of tweets and London in third place with 4pc of all tweets.”
International support also came from Twitter users in Sweden, the USA, Canada and Australia.
In a message to supporters, Kath said: “A lot of you have never used Twitter before yet you went out and learnt how to do it. High five to all of us.
“Together we got #Slingthemesh to trend. Just amazing. No words. I hope you are buzzing as much as I am.”
She added: “We will kick this mesh mess out of the water and stop other women suffering as we have done. It is the beginning of the end.”
Editor John Elworthy said: “Without doubt it was one of the most remarkable moments of my career. To watch, in real time, events unfold was astonishing.”
He added: “[The Government] must surely sit up and take note of hundreds of individuals who have now testified to the pain and suffering being caused.”
https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2017/news/weeklys-virtual-downing-street-march-becomes-hot-topic-on-twitter/
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