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About UsUncommon Law: Ruminations on Public Nuisance
(Copyright 2010. All rights reserved)
“I recognize without hesitation that judges do and must legislate, but they can do so only interstitially; they are confined from molar to molecular motions.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes 1 Read More »
Trust Without Verification? Using Legal Fictions to Justify Contingent Fees by Public Authorities in Public Nuisance Litigation
Introduction
“Trust, but verify” was one of President Ronald Reagan’s signature phrases. Reagan typically used the expression in nuclear arms negotiations with the Soviet Union, and he represented it as a translation of the Russian proverb "doveryai, no proveryai.”1 Like most proverbs, this adage effectively expresses a commonplace truth, namely, that wise persons do not trust others blindly. Instead, they provide reliable verification systems to guarantee that their trust is respected. Verification against misuse and abuse is a lynchpin of a trustworthy system whether it is nuclear arms control, climate change treaties2, or the use of contingent fee counsel by public authorities. Read More »
"Thar's No Gold in Them Thar Pills": How State Contingent-Fee-Driven Lawsuits Against Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Undermine States' Health Care Policies
Introduction
Beset by ever-escalating health care costs and staggering budget deficits, states are increasingly resorting to tort actions against pharmaceutical manufacturers to recover the cost of Medicare payments made by them to pharmacies and other providers of prescription drugs. Most of these cases center on the charge that, because of some allegedly wrongful conduct on the part of drug companies – e.g., improper marketing and promotion, or off-label sales of their products – state Medicaid programs paid far more to reimburse pharmacies than they should have. Read More »