Jury awards $8 Billion in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson
On Tuesday, October 8, 2019, a Philadelphia jury hit a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, with an $8 billion punitive damages verdict over its marketing of the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. In doing so, the jury sided with the plaintiff who argued that the health care giant downplayed risks that the drug could lead to ...
Appellate Court Allows Sexual Abuse Claims against USA Taekwondo to Proceed
A state appeals court reversed a California Superior Court's decision to dismiss defendant USA Taekwondo from a case alleging that the organization was negligent in failing to prevent a coach from sexually abusing minors. Former USA Taekwondo coach Marc Gitelman was convicted on sex abuse charges and sentenced to over four years in prison ...
Sex Trafficking Victim’s Suit Against Major Hoteliers Survives Dismissal
A federal court has denied a bid by six hotel operators to dismiss a suit brought by a sex trafficking victim who was exploited at their hotels. The plaintiff's complaint details being trafficked for sex at Days Inn, Comfort Inn, and Crown Plaza locations in Columbus, Ohio. The case is brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization ...
Financial Stability Board To Scrutinize Stablecoins at the G20’s Request
According to Law360, the G20 nations have requested that the Financial Stability Board ("FSB"), an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system, assess the role that stablecoins will have on the global financial system now that Facebook's proposed stablecoin (Libra) has gained international attention ...
New York State Law Now Protects Victims of Revenge Porn
On September 21, 2019, New York's "revenge porn" laws took effect. Revenge porn which is also called "image-based sexual abuse" and sometimes "sexploitation," is the non-consented dissemination or publication of an intimate image. Revenge porn scandals have recently engulfed the United States Marine Corps, the Los Angeles Police Department, ...
Envision Healthcare Investors Defeat Motion to Dismiss
On September 19, 2019, United States District Judge Richard G. Andrews overruled Defendants' objections to an August 1, 2019 Magistrate Judge's Report & Recommendation (the "Report") issued in In re Envision Healthcare Corp., No. 18-1068-RGA (D. Del.) recommending the court deny Defendants' motion to dismiss shareholders' claims under the ...
Owner of a Building Liable Under NYS Labor Law 240(1) in a Construction Accident
In Roblero v. Bais Ruchel High School, Inc., the plaintiff fell from a scaffold while he was doing plumbing work at a construction site owned by the defendant. The plaintiff was not wearing a harness or a lanyard when he fell from the scaffold. The plaintiff brought the case against the owner of the building alleging that they violated Labor ...
Federal Court Certifies Class of Direct Purchasers in Antitrust Action Regarding ADHD Drug Intuniv
Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts recently certified a class of direct purchasers of the ADHD drug Intuniv or its generic equivalent in an antitrust "pay-for-delay" case. In re Intuniv Antitrust Litig., 16-cv-12653-ADB (D. Mass. Sept. 24, 2019), ECF No. 343. Pay-for-delay arises ...
Untimely Disclosures Regarding Medicaid Misclassification Costs Mylan N.V. $30 Million
On September 27, 2019, Mylan N.V. agreed to pay the SEC $30 million to settle charges brought against the Company for failing to timely disclose a loss contingency arising from a Department of Justice's investigation into Mylan's misclassification of its most profitable product, EpiPen, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in ...
Federal Judge Grants Platinum Partners Co-Founder a New Trial and Former Executive is Acquitted
On September 27, 2019, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan granted Platinum Partners co-founder Mark Nordlicht ("Nordlicht") a new trial and acquitted Platinum Partners executive David Levy ("Levy"). In July 2019, Nordlicht and Levy were convicted by a federal jury in the Eastern District of New York for their alleged roles in defrauding investors. ...
Direct Purchasers of Suboxone Certified as a Class in Product Hop Case
On September 26, 2019, Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania certified a class of direct purchasers of Reckitt Benckiser's opioid addiction drug, Suboxone, and appointed Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP as Co-Lead Counsel for the class. In In re Suboxone, plaintiffs allege that Reckitt ...
New DOL Rule Makes 1.3 Million Workers Eligible for Overtime Pay
This week, the United States Department of Labor ("DOL") finalized a new rule that increases the salary threshold required for executive, administrative, or professional ("EAP") workers to qualify as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). The new DOL rule requires employers to pay overtime to EAP employees that earn ...
Congressional Committee Pushes for Tighter Restrictions On The Sale Of Unregistered Securities
Earlier this month members of the house Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets urged Congress to adopt more robust regulations on the sale of unregistered securities. The discussion centered around eight legislative proposals that are designed to address the risks facing investors from the growth of private ...
Opioid Litigation Watch : Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay Oklahoma $572 Million
On August 26, 2019, an Oklahoma state court held Johnson & Johnson liable for causing the opioid crisis under an Oklahoma public nuisance law in one of the nation's first opioid crisis cases to go to trial. The court ruled that Johnson & Johnson was responsible for causing the opioid crisis by exaggerating the benefits of its narcotic painkillers ...
Pressure Mounts as State Attorneys General Launch Antitrust Investigations into Facebook and Google
Big tech is facing antitrust scrutiny from all sides as coalitions of state attorneys general launch investigations into Facebook and Google, reinforcing the already-initiated federal investigations into possible anticompetitive conduct by the tech giants. Letitia James, Attorney General for the State of New York, announced an investigation ...
Judge Finds No Surgery Required to Sustain the Plausibility of the Overarching Conspiracy Alleged in the Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation
On August 15, 2019, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania overseeing the Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation multidistrict litigation ("MDL") denied in full generic drug manufacturer defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiffs' overarching conspiracy claims, concluding that the "connective ...
Lost Cryptocurrency Value Reportedly Surpassed $4.26B Globally in 2019
On Tuesday, August 13, 2019, the cryptocurrency intelligence firm CipherTrace released its Q2 2019 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report, which analyzes cryptocurrency-related crime and countries' efforts to regulate the cryptocurrency economy. The firm reported that over $4.26 billion in cryptocurrency holdings were lost worldwide in ...
Capital One Data Breach Exposes Sensitive Data of Over 100m Americans
On July 29, 2019, Capital One announced the theft of over 100 million of its customers' private information, including social security and bank account numbers, resulting from a cybersecurity attack against its data systems. The hacker exploited vulnerabilities in Capital One's infrastructure located on its Amazon Web Server. Faruqi & Faruqi ...
SEC Proposes Amendments to Financial Disclosure Rules for Acquired and Disposed Businesses
On May 3, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") released newly proposed amendments to the financial disclosure requirements for acquired and disposed businesses and other related rules. The proposals stem from the SEC's Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative whereby the SEC has been reviewing Regulation S-X and Regulation S-K in ...
Connecticut Denies Violating Protective Order in Generic Drug Price-Fixing Case
Connecticut's Attorney General recently opposed a motion from Heritage Pharmaceuticals that claims that it violated the protective order in a price-fixing case against generic drug manufacturers by referring to an email in its complaint suggesting that Heritage and two other generic companies, Mylan Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals, tried to ...