Personal Injury Law

Salmonella Hartford and Salmonella Baildon - Third Taco Bell Lawsuit

Posted on February 02, 2011
A food poisoning lawsuit was filed in Muskegon County Circuit Court on behalf of Salmonella victim Gary Erdman today against Yum Brands, Inc., parent company of Taco Bell and Chicago Diversified Foods Corporation, the franchisor of a Whitehall Taco Bell restaurant...

Off to Washington D.C. again - next week

Posted on February 02, 2011
I have the honor of being the opening speaker at the GAP Conference at American University School of Law next week in DC. I am also going to show this video.

Small vs. Large Producers of Cheese - What is Safer?

Posted on February 01, 2011
Bryan Buckalew of OPB News and I talked a few weeks ago: Listen Here - Audio Read the transcript below:Northwest artisan cheese makers say the F.D.A. just doesn't get their craft. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been getting tough on food companies after years of incidents like last August's nation-wide egg recall...

GMA Speech - Some Recent and Emerging Trends in Foodborne Illness Litigation

Posted on February 01, 2011
You have to give credit to the GMA Litigation group to pair me with the one lawyer who I would not like to face in a courtroom.  Any smooth taking, southern lawyer is an issue, but Alan Maxwell is the one that the male jurors want to have a beer with and the the women jurors, well, want to take home - not necessarily to their mothers...

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I love making the Packer - "Law Firm Donates $10,000 for Sprout Safety"

Posted on February 01, 2011
I missed Mike Hornick's (of the Packer) call today about the $10,000 donation from 'product liability law firm Marler Clark to the International Sprout Growers Association,' but I like that the donation 'will help speed implementation of a food safety audit for sprouts,' according to ISGA president Bob Sanderson...

Heading to the Middle East

Posted on February 01, 2011
No, not to join in the pro-democracy demonstrations, but to talk food safety in Dubai.  Perhaps not quite as exciting, and perhaps generally more risky.

FDA 483 Report of Sprouter's Northwest Salmonella Outbreak Released

Posted on January 31, 2011
Seven people in Oregon and Washington became ill with Salmonella in January after eating the Sprouter's Northwest clover sprouts. The company subsequently recalled all its sprouts. A few days ago the FDA released 483 Inspection Report of the Sprouter's Northwest facility...

Minnesota considers making Raw Milk Legal as one Farmer heads for Trouble

Posted on January 31, 2011
According to press reports, a Minnesota dairy farmer accused of selling contaminated raw milk that made 15 people sick is due in court on a contempt charge. State agriculture officials say Michael Hartmann has ignored a court-approved embargo on his food...

"Thank you for suing us" - Taco Bell takes on the Trial Lawyers

Posted on January 31, 2011
I had a nice chat Friday with Gergana Koleva for her article 'Taco Bell Has a Beef with Lawyers, Runs Nationwide Ads to Fight Back,' for AOL. Here were my thoughts: Bill Marler, a foodborne illness and product liability attorney who has represented clients in at least three previous food-related lawsuits against Taco Bell, said the company has made a clever move by counterattacking its accusers...

A Cautionary Tale - Food regulators need to be respectful of the producer

Posted on January 31, 2011
I have been glued to the media reports on the political upheaval in the Middle East over the last several weeks. The unrest was sparked in an interesting place: On December 17, 2011, twenty-six year-old Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi lit the fuse that ended his life and ignited the current unrest sweeping the Middle East...

Raw Milk as a Body Lotion and Massage Aid?

Posted on January 31, 2011
You have to give Michael Schmidt (a.k.a., Canadian Raw Milk Messiah) credit for a superior marketing move, and possible legal move. According to press reports, the Canadian raw-milk dairy he now manages, which was ordered to stop selling unpasteurized milk for human consumption, is rebranding the product as a "body lotion...

248 arrested in China for food safety violations in 2010 - In the US - Zero

Posted on January 30, 2011
According to Chinese press reports, a total of 248 people were arrested in China last year for involvement in food safety cases, food safety authorities said Sunday. The country dealt with 130,000 cases involving food safety last year, including 115 criminal cases, according to a statement of the National Food Safety Regulating Work Office...

Do not eat Salmonella Cilantro

Posted on January 29, 2011
Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), today warned people not to eat certain fresh cilantro distributed by Tanimura & Antle, based in Salinas, because the cilantro may be contaminated with Salmonella. To date, no illnesses have been reported...

Marler Clark Donates $25,000 to IAFP for Public Health Scholarships

Posted on January 29, 2011
The International Association for Food Protection turns 100 years old this year.  Of all the organizations dealing with the safety of our food supply, we have really enjoyed our involvement with it over the last decade (although IAFP was a bit reluctant at first)...

Food Poisoning Victims Honored, Donations Needed - I'll Match $5,000 each to STOP and CFI

Posted on January 29, 2011
In the middle of a late January D.C. snowstorm that jammed intersections, closed airports and made commutes last several hours, Senators Harkin, Klobuchar and Durbin and Congress Members Pallone and DeLauro, who were instrumental in pushing the Food Safety Modernization Act onto President Obama's desk, honored victims, many my clients, of food poisoning events over the last two decades...

Dubai International Food Safety Conference - February 27 to 2 March, 2011

Posted on January 29, 2011
I just got my Visa back to attend this Dubai conference to give a speech entitled: 'Reducing the Burden of Foodborne Diseases - Is the Food Industry Doing its Best?' I am taking a side trip through Istanbul on the way to Dubai.  You should download the brochure.

Grocery Manufacturers Association - Emerging Trends in Foodborne Illness Litigation

Posted on January 29, 2011
On February 22, 2011, I will be headlining with Al Maxwell, Esq., Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial at the GMA Food Claims and Litigation Conference. According to the brochure - In this session, the top plaintiff and defense attorneys in the foodborne illness litigation arena will discuss recent trends and where related litigation is headed in the year ahead...

GAP Conference - Employee Rights and the Food Safety Modernization Act

Posted on January 29, 2011
I have the honor of opening up the Government Accountability Project's Conference in a few weeks. I will also be bringing to Washington D.C. about a dozen victims of the Peanut Corporation of America Salmonella Outbreak to ask why justice has yet to be done to the over 700 sickened and nine dead...

Taco Bell - "Thank you for suing us" - How come they never say that to me?

Posted on January 28, 2011
A class action lawsuit was filed a few days against Taco Bell. The claim is that its claims that its products contain "seasoned ground beef" or "seasoned beef" are "false and misleading" because the beef is in fact "taco meat filling." According to Beth Weise of U...

Carpe Cheese - Bravo's Raw Milk Cheese Seized by the FDA

Posted on January 28, 2011
In late 2010, the CDC reported that thirty-eight persons infected with E. coli O157:H7 were reported from five states. The number of ill persons identified in each state was as follows: AZ (19), CA (3), CO (11), NM (3) and NV (2). There have been 15 reported hospitalizations, 1 case of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and no deaths...

Washington State Legislature may consider loosening raw milk rules

Posted on January 28, 2011
It seems a nearly everyday occurrence that the raw milk lobby tries to change some state law related to raw milk production and consumption. The new bill in Washington (a state that already allows for certified raw milk dairies to sell raw milk products on farm and retail) would be 'AN ACT Relating to direct sales of milk; and adding a new section to chapter 15...

Minnesota Considers Expanding Raw Milk Sales

Posted on January 27, 2011
In a state that is becoming famous for the 'Raw Milk Poster Boy,' the Senate is considering a bill, H.F. 255 that would now permit direct farm-to-consumer sales of raw milk, including sales at farmers markets and at private homes. Current law allows sales of the product only at the farm, which produced the milk...

Listeria monocytogenes may invade the heart and lead to serious heart infections

Posted on January 27, 2011
New research from the University of Illinois reveals Listeria monocytogenes has the potential to invade the heart and lead to serious and difficult to treat heart infections, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology. The findings suggest approximately 10 percent of serious Listeria infections involve a cardiac infection, with more than one-third proving fatal...

Congressman Dennis Kucinich Sues House Cafeteria for $150,000

Posted on January 26, 2011
According to the website Gawker, Congressman Dennis Kucinich is suing Restaurant Associates and three other companies involved in running and supplying the Longworth cafeteria after Kucinich bought a sandwich in April 2008 and bit into it only to find an unpitted olive that cracked a tooth...

Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, Under Secretary for Food Safety, on the challenge of STECs

Posted on January 26, 2011
With the time difference, traveling East always presents a problem waking up in time for early meetings. So, when I was walking into the Pew Charitable Trusts and Center for Science in the Public Interest conference, Dr. Hagen had already given her speck on STECs...

Food Safety in the Age of Obama

Posted on January 26, 2011
I waited for the call after Christmas to come to the signing ceremony after the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, but it did not come.  Frankly, it still seems odd that the President would miss an opportunity to showcase the first major piece of food safety legislation in over 50 years...

Senators Harkin, Klobuchar and Durbin and Congress Members Pallone and DeLauro Honor Food Poisoning Victims

Posted on January 26, 2011
In the middle of a late January D.C. snowstorm, Senators and Congress Members who were instrumental in pushing the Food Safety Modernization Act onto President Obama's desk, honored victims, many my clients, of food poisoning events over the last two decades...

Foodborne Hazards of non-E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella - Report on Retail Ground Beef Sampling 2008-2010

Posted on January 25, 2011
In a few moments I have the opportunity to speak at the PEW Charitable Trust and Center for Science in the Public Interest Conference on 'managing the risk of foodborne hazard: STECs and antibiotic-resistance pathogens.' Here is some of the data that I will present based on retail ground beef studies that we have ben doing since 2008...

Bravo Farms Cheese - To Pasteurize or Go Raw that is the Question after $1,500,000 in Losses

Posted on January 24, 2011
According to Visalia reporter Melina Morales, Bravo Farms is 'now pasteurizing' some or all of its cheeses after it was linked to over 30 E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in the Western United States. According to Ms. Morales: Bravo Farms has begun pasteurizing its cheese because of the contamination incident...

Raw Milk on Tap in Texas Too?

Posted on January 24, 2011
It appears that Texas will be considering HB 75 and SB 237 which would both allow the sale of raw milk person to person, at farmers markets, at farm stands, and at flea markets. More visitors to Real Raw Milk Facts from Wisconsin, New Jersey and now Texas.

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