Warning: don't flick with Bic: lighter manufacturer adopts heavy-handed approach to litigation

Article Abstract:

The Bic Corp has taken a proactive approach to litigation strategy and the company has won almost 90 suits regarding allegedly faulty lighters filed since 1988. Thomas Kelleher, Bic's general counsel, says the company has suffered only 2.5 losses in those 8 years. There has also been a more than 70% drop in complaints and a more than 50% drop in number of suits filed during that time period. Kelleher's reasons for the success include product quality, caliber of legal counsel and willingness to accept responsibility those few times when the lighter was really defective. Product liability lawyers who have taken Bic on in court are suspicious of the statistics.

Cigarette lighters, BIC Corp., BIC

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Wheeze, sneeze... 'scalpel, please;' health care workers allege latex gloves cause severe allergic reactions

Article Abstract:

A growing number of health care workers blame the latex glove industry for adverse side effects, and by mid-Nov 1997 more than 200 latex-allergy suits had been filed at the state and federal levels in the US, about half of which were consolidated for discovery purposes under Judge Edmund Ludwig of Philadelphia. Doctors and nurses who have had used latex products extensively at work since the mid-1980s are the main plaintiffs. At the use of surgical gloves became a universal precaution due to the spread of AIDS.

Physiological aspects, Rubber gloves, Latex, Synthetic, Synthetic latex, Gloves (Surgery)

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Lawyers spar over implant litigation; claim concern for clients, not fees, at issue in fight over class action status

Article Abstract:

There is a difference of opinion on whether the more than 700 pending suits regarding the safety of breast implant devices should be handled as class actions or multidistrict litigation. Advocates of the class action approach feel that theirs is the only way to make sure all injured women will be compensated. They state that the attorneys favoring multidistrict litigation hope it will allow them to reap larger fees by accepting only the worst cases.

Product defects and recalls, Personal injuries, Breast implants

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