Does Tylenol Give Mass Tort Defense Lawyers A Headache? – Above the Law

For many of the 20 years that I labored at a regulation agency, I defended pharmaceutical and medical machine (and different) mass torts.

The issues that you simply do professionally can create a bias: I didn’t just like the plaintiffs’ bar. I by no means defended a lawsuit introduced on behalf of a single particular person, so I noticed little of the great that plaintiffs’ legal professionals do. However I noticed many class actions and mass torts that appeared designed solely to switch cash from pharmaceutical and medical machine firms to plaintiffs’ legal professionals. Whether or not a drug or machine really harmed anybody was inappropriate; anybody who was really damage may file their very own particular person lawsuit. The category actions and mass torts picked up the stragglers, whose conditions didn’t benefit submitting a case — individuals who overpaid for an allegedly harmful drug (however hadn’t suffered bodily harm) and needed to recuperate the acquisition value; individuals who hadn’t been damage but however is perhaps damage sooner or later; individuals who didn’t even know that they had a declare, however the lawyer’s commercial mentioned they is perhaps entitled to free cash.  

Do you see why you would possibly develop a distaste for these shenanigans?

Lots of my fellow mass tort protection legal professionals have been hardcore Republicans. Though generalities might be deceptive, there was a widespread notion within the protection bar that Democrats appointed pro-regulatory people to the FDA. Democratic regulatory appointees have been terribly powerful on drug firms. Democrats additionally appointed many judges who didn’t prefer to grant abstract judgment in instances during which hundreds of individuals sued the producer of some drug or machine: “The proof is perhaps fairly skinny, however hundreds of persons are claiming that the bubble gum causes mind most cancers! Who am I to throw out these lawsuits?”

Mass tort protection legal professionals simply needed to vote Republican. That was the one likelihood they needed to win their instances!

The place do mass tort protection legal professionals stand now?

Mass tort protection legal professionals, as a gaggle, are fairly nicely off financially: They’re companions at prestigious protection companies. These people aren’t actually motivated by the tradition wars. Certainly, as I heard a few years in the past (lengthy earlier than Trump): “Mark, you must vote Republican. The Republicans simply say that crap about weapons and abortion to placate the lunatics. What actually issues are the cash points — taxes and spending — and Republicans are significantly better than Democrats on these.”

Mass tort protection legal professionals usually believed in free commerce; these people had gone to school when the advantages of free commerce have been the standard knowledge. Trump has disenchanted the free merchants.

Mass tort protection legal professionals believed in preserving the federal deficit beneath management. Trump has allow them to down.

Mass tort protection legal professionals are typically “regulation and order” varieties. They weren’t glad on January 6, 2021, when Trump unleashed his supporters on Congress, they usually weren’t glad on January 20, 2025, when Trump granted a wholesale pardon to the rioters.

These legal professionals don’t consider in a weaponized Division of Justice. They have been outraged when federal and state Democratic administrations indicted Trump: “This occurs solely in Third World international locations!” These 34 felony convictions posed a bit of extra hassle for my brethren — the indictments have been phony, however how do you clarify convictions? — however they nonetheless made excuses: “The trial was in New York Metropolis. I normally consider within the jury system, however this by no means ought to have occurred.”

Now that Trump’s encouraging his Division of Justice to pursue Letitia James, John Bolton, Jim Comey, and others, all that’s left is cognitive dissonance. Possibly: “The Democrats did it. Trump’s mad. Honest is truthful.”

However Tylenol, guys, Tylenol!

Properly-established science means that Tylenol doesn’t trigger autism or ADHD. Within the mass tort litigation involving Tylenol, the trial court docket threw out the plaintiffs’ claims, saying that the plaintiffs’ specialists used unreliable methodologies and did not show a reputable hyperlink between the usage of Tylenol throughout being pregnant and the alleged harms.

Junk science, guys, junk science!

We’ve been beating that drum for many years, and now you’ve gotten a choose who’s in your facet!

The appellate argument on the trial court docket’s resolution is scheduled for October 6.

And now, simply weeks earlier than oral argument, Trump and RFK Jr. select to announce that, on the premise of the identical outdated drained proof, the FDA believes that taking Tylenol throughout being pregnant is harmful.

May now be the time to interrupt your inherited allegiance to the Republican Social gathering and transfer on to sanity?

Doesn’t Tylenol, in the end, provide you with a headache?

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a accomplice at a number one worldwide regulation agency and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment issues at a big worldwide firm. He’s the writer of The Curmudgeon’s Information to Training Regulation and Drug and Gadget Product Legal responsibility Litigation Technique (affiliate hyperlinks). You possibly can attain him by electronic mail at [email protected].