January 25, 2012
Assembly member Jared Huffman will present his January Sustainable North Bay Award to Brayton Purcell LLP in recognition of its environmentally responsible business practices. For more than a decade, Brayton Purcell has been striving to minimize its impact on the environment. The firm has demonstrated this commitment to conservation and sustainability by progressively introducing business [...]
January 17, 2012
Cynthia Foster, The Recorder San Francisco — January 18, 2012 — Lawyers for about 30 different defendants crowded into a makeshift San Francisco courtroom this week as trial got under way, after some delays, in a major asbestos case. Plaintiff’s lawyer Gilbert Purcell, of Novato’s Brayton Purcell, said the case shares similarities and defendants with [...]
June 22, 2011
Earlier this month, Judge Gladys Kessler refused to vacate her 2006 ruling finding that Philip Morris and other tobacco companies were guilty of racketeering. Her newest ruling effectively blocks, for the present, tobacco’s attempt to get out from under Justice Department supervision of their marketing activities. Judge Kessler’s original ruling in 2006 found Altria Group [...]
March 18, 2011
Tobacco Companies Suggest Smokers See Into the Future to Preserve Their Statute of Limitations Twenty years ago Nikki Pooshs developed periodontal disease and COPD related to smoking. At the time, she decided to live with both of these conditions rather than pursue a remedy in the courts. According to Phillip Morris, now that she has [...]
November 21, 2010
FDA Seeking Public Comment on Updates to Required Warning November 16, 2010 — Images of diseased lungs, corpses and addictive behaviors along with warnings like “Smoking can kill you” are among the example warning labels the FDA may require for cigarette packages and advertising. A by-product of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, [...]
November 2, 2010
Bayer’s Settlement Framework Weighs Each Suit on Several Factors November 2, 2010 — To date, Bayer has settled approximately 200 of the 2,000 cases against it over the drug Trasylol, used to control bleeding during heart surgeries. Rather than settlements based on a universal point system stemming from either bellwether trials or settlement negotiations, Bayer [...]
September 24, 2010
Affordable Care Act Opens Door for Preventative Care Services September 24, 2010 — Smoking and tobacco-related diseases are the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. Diseases from smoking account for over 400,000 annual deaths in the US and consume an estimated 10% of Medicare’s annual budget. Yet Medicare only covered cessation [...]
June 28, 2010
Merck to Pay $8 million in Damages in Fosamax® Jury Trial July 28 2010 — A New York jury awarded Shirley Boles, of Fort Walton Beach, FL, $8 million in compensatory damages from her case against Merck & Co, which alleged the osteoporosis drug Fosamax caused her jaw osteonecrosis. This was the second lawsuit against [...]
January 26, 2010
National Gypsum Focus of New Drywall Lawsuit January 26, 2010 — U.S. drywall manufacturer National Gypsum has been named in a class-action lawsuit for producing wallboard with similar corrosive properties to defective Chinese drywall. National Gypsum has denied blame for their product being the cause of corrosion of air conditioning coils, wiring, and other metals [...]