February 28th, 2012
The week before last, we once again held our Mass Torts Forum/Roundtable in Philadelphia for Judges and Lawyers in the Northeast. There were plaintiffs lawyers in attendance as usual, but we also invited defense lawyers this time, something which Mike Papantonio has long advocated and was beneficial to both sides.
We were also joined by an impressive list of judges for our Forum, where we discussed important developments in the storage of information electronically, coordination between state and federal courts, and how globalization is affecting litigation, just to name a few issues broached at the conference.
MTMP also held an auction to help fund the to-be-created Center for Social Justice at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Participants were able to win such one-of-a-kind prizes as an afternoon of falconry with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., premier sports tickets to the Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and more, Broadway tickets, spa packages in Vegas, in addition to first-class air fare to Europe and vacations at luxury vacation homes. The event raised over $200,000 for the Center.
As usual Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) in Philadelphia was both fun and edifying, and we look forward to growing these conferences in the future as plaintiff’s lawyers, defense attorneys and judges become regular attendees.
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February 27th, 2012
Meet And Learn From Top Plaintiff’s Attorneys During The April 19-20 Conference
For the 11th year in a row, top plaintiff’s attorneys Mike Papantonio, John Morgan, Mark Proctor, John Romano and Todd Romano will come to Las Vegas to lead the Mass Torts Made Perfect and Torts Made Perfect conference. During this two-day gathering of prominent trial lawyers they’ll share their experiences in the trenches, with the aim of helping plaintiffs’ attorneys improve all aspects of their practices–from attracting clients to preparing for trials against formidable opponents.
The Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) conference first began in 2002. Since that time, thousands of plaintiff’s lawyers have benefitted from these growing seminars and social events, held every April and October at the Wynn and Bellagio Hotels, respectively. What these lawyers learn at this conference in Vegas, most certainly doesn’t stay in Vegas.
According to Papantonio, “Mass Torts Made Perfect is so important, especially during these times, with reactionary forces trying to limit our Constitutional right to trial by a jury of your peers. Just meeting each other, sharing strategies and really working together has become essential. This conference has become a must-attend event to do that.”
This year, famed environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will address the group, and the National Trial Lawyers will induct Ron Motley, Robert Josefsberg & Howard Nations into the Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame. An annual event, this year the ceremony will take place during an exclusive luncheon on April 19th.
There is still time to register for this game-changing event. Simply go to www.masstortsmadeperfect.com and take the first step to join your peers in leveraging the important relationships and successful strategies that come from perfecting your practice by attending Mass Torts Made Perfect.
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February 27th, 2012
Judge Sandra Mazer Moss, the Philadelphia judge in charge of mass tort cases, said that she needs to balance the fact that Pennsylvania gives high deference to the choice of forum made by plaintiffs with whatever problems can be caused by that deference.
The issue of what forums plaintiffs and their lawyers select to bring mass torts in pharmaceutical and asbestos litigation has gotten a lot of attention recently. For example, the state Supreme Court recently rejected the request of pharmaceutical manufacturer Bayer to exercise its jurisdiction over whether Pennsylvania is the most convenient forum for several drug products liability cases brought by out-of-state plaintiffs in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. And last month, drugmaker Pfizer asked that almost 50 cases that have been removed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania be consolidated into one multidistrict litigation.
“We have a very high standard for forum non conveniens in our appellate courts, which we in our trial bench have to look at,” Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Sandra Mazer Moss said. “You have to balance … whether or not it is abusive.”
Moss, the coordinating judge of Philadelphia’s mass torts program, the Complex Litigation Center, spoke as part of a panel Thursday of state and federal judges at a conference titled “Mass Torts Made Perfect Presents: Mass Torts Forum: A Roundtable for Judges and Lawyers.”
Moss also responded to a question from co-forum moderator Heidi Levine, co-chair of DLA Piper’s New York mass torts practice group, on when it is appropriate for plaintiffs who are not Pennsylvania residents to file multiple cases in Pennsylvania state court in order to be coordinated in Moss’ Philadelphia docket.
“Every person that comes in that’s not from the jurisdiction might be keeping one of your clients that is in the jurisdiction from getting to trial within their lifetime,” Moss said. “We have to balance the fact that Pennsylvania gives very high preference for the choice of forum by the plaintiff with the fact we are a very efficient jurisdiction and we can get our cases tried within the [American Bar Association] standards. We’re not the only wonderful jurisdiction. There are a lot of wonderful jurisdictions around the country who would be happy to take your case.”
U.S. District Court Chief Judge David R. Herndon of the Southern District of Illinois, who is in charge of the multidistrict litigation over the birth control Yaz and related birth control pills, said that he is dealing with plaintiffs “doing everything in the world to get out of federal court.”
But Herndon said that it doesn’t matter to him how many cases are in MDLs because what matters is whether the case belongs in federal court or not.
The issue is not “maintaining the inventory of the MDL and making sure we have as many cases in the MDL as possible. It’s only a legal issue,” Herndon said.
U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank of the District of Minnesota, the MDL judge for litigation over implantable defibrillator and pacemaker devices manufactured by Guidant Corp., pointed out that federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction.
Mostly plaintiffs lawyers were in attendance at the event, but some defense lawyers participated in the event as moderators of the panels.
Asbestos plaintiffs lawyer Mike Papantonio of Pensacola, Fla., firm Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor, a main organizer of the event, said that there needs to be a conference in the Northeast United States with both defense and plaintiffs lawyers practicing in the field of mass torts.
The panel of judges also stressed the importance of coordination between state and federal courts.
Moss pointed out that because Herndon and she are able to coordinate they were able to prevent a “civil war” in the Yaz litigation when an issue cropped up regarding the money being expended by separate plaintiffs firms.
The strategy of plaintiffs attorneys used to be the “15-state strategy,” in which they would file cases in 15 states where they liked the politics of the jurisdiction, the demographics and the law, Papantonio said. There would be a diverse group of defense firms that would compete over getting the defense work in each of those states, he said.
Then there was an effort, coming out of meetings between plaintiffs and defense lawyers, that there could be more coordination of mass tort cases in more jurisdictions, Papantonio said.
But the idea of the 15-state strategy resurged among plaintiffs lawyers “when there was a sense where the MDL didn’t work well,” Papantonio said.
Herndon commented that there is now a conference for MDL judges and MDL judges are trying to learn from each other’s mistakes.
A joint committee of federal and state judges are writing a treatise on coordinating state and federal cases in the same mass torts with the blessing of the National Center for State Courts, the Federal Judicial Center and the Conference of Chief Justices, Moss said. Moss, who sits on the committee, said that treatise could provide a reference point to new MDL judges or new state court judges and make it so plaintiffs hopping from jurisdiction to jurisdiction will face getting the same result within each jurisdiction’s law and find it a lot harder to play judges against each other, Moss said.
Coordination is important for discovery, depositions and document reviews, Herndon and Moss said.
Frank said the point of MDLs is “economics of scale” and MDLs will come to an end if the cases end up costing more for individual defendants and individual plaintiffs than if the cases were handled individually.
Garrett E. Brown Jr., who handled the Fosamax Femur MDL and recently retired as chief judge of the District Court of New Jersey, also was on the panel Thursday. Brown has now joined alternative dispute resolution provider JAMS.
Amaris Elliott-Engel can be contacted at 215-557-2354 or aelliott-engel@alm.com. Follow her on Twitter@AmarisTLI.
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February 23rd, 2011
FOSAMAX FEMUR FRACTURE: THE EVIDENCE MOUNTS
Today’s on-line edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) included publication of a major case control study relating to bisphosphonates (particularly Fosamax) and subtrochanteric femur fractures. The researchers who authored the study concluded that patients on long-term bisphosphonates for osteoporosis therapy had a 274% higher chance of subtrochanteric femur fractures than similar matched patients. Read the rest of this entry »
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March 19th, 2009
On Thursday, March 19, 2009, five of America’s most powerful and legendary trial attorneys were inducted into The American Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. Selected for this prestigious award were attorneys Bobby Lee Cook, Stanley Preiser, Gerry Spence, Morris Dees and Fred Levin.
These celebrated honorees were inducted into the Hall of Fame and presented with an award during The American Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Luncheon held in conjunction with the Mass Torts Made Perfect and Torts Made Perfect Seminar at the Encore Wynn Las Vegas on March 19 and 20. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 19-20, 2012 Las Vegas Mass Torts Made Perfect
October 11-12, 2012 Las Vegas Mass Torts Made Perfect
