Recent congressional testimony by the Legislative Director of the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) catalogued several major trends in the insurance industry over the past two decades. Most of these trends are extremely adverse to consumers including small businesses. The first trend is the “hollowing out” of the benefits provided…
Best Lawyers in America has now released its law firm rankings for 2009, and has ranked Atkinson, Conway & Gagnon #1 in the Products Liability category in both the Alaska and Anchorage surveys. The Alaska Personal Injury Law Group is the practice group within the firm of Atkinson, Conway &…
Richard E. Vollertsen, one of the Alaska Personal Injury Law Group’s attorneys, has just been selected as “Lawyer Of The Year” by Best Lawyers In America. Mr. Vollertsen is one of three lawyers to be recognized from Alaska, and the only lawyer recognized in the specialty practice of Personal Injury…
The bright spot in today’s news is that the FDA has announced its initiative against “contaminated weight loss products.” One has to applaud the agency’s efforts because diet supplements, in general, and weight loss products, in particular, have been “spiked” with pharmaceutical drugs for some time. The reason diet supplement…
Judge Jack T. Camp, of the U.S. District Court, has sentenced the CEO of Hi-Tech Phamaceuticals, Jared Wheat, to 50 months in prison for illegally selling knock-off prescription drugs over the internet. He was also fined $50,000, and was required, along with the company and other defendants, to forfeit $3…
The diet supplement industry has used innumerable methods of staying ahead of the posse (the FDA, the FTC, State AGs, and the courts). They have simply outrun regulation, and outfoxed the regulators. The industry has outlobbied the regulators, as well. Despite decades of scientific data and media disclosures, the industry…
Nine scientists at the FDA sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday to plead for major reform at the agency. Their central concern is with the agency’s scientific review process for medical devices, which they characterize as having beeen “corrupted and distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the…
The potential for injury from the antibiotic flouroquinolone (Cipro, Levaquin) has been known for over 20 years, yet it was only recently that the FDA told the drug’s manufacturers to add a black box warning about the increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture. The FDA stopped short of requiring…
We at the Alaska Personal Injury Law Group have been closely following preemption litigation because the results are so central to consumer-based litigation. Today, we find hope in the news that the United States Supreme Court has rejected the claims by Philip Morris that federal regulation of tobacco companies preempted…
The Alaska Personal Injury Law Group has frequently warned injured Alaska consumers about various bad faith tactics used by insurance companies. A new study just released by the American Association for Justice documents many of the bad faith and fraudulent tricks and tactics insurance companies use to evade paying valid…