Litigation

Judge Posner opinion on overwarning

By Ted Frank

The Seventh Circuit finds preemption in a case involving Children's Motrin, but also, interestingly, that additional warnings could not be said to be merited because the "resulting information overload would make label warnings worthless to consumers." Drug and Device Law has extensive details, and the case is interesting for many other reasons.

Robinson v. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, __ F.3d __, No. 09-4011, slip op. at 14-15 (7th Cir. Aug. 11, 2010) (Posner, J.) (citing Troy A. Paredes, "Information Overload and its Consequences for Securities Regulation," 81 Wash. U. L.Q. 417, 440-43 (2003); Howard Latin, "'Good' Warnings, Bad Products, and Cognitive Limitations," 41 UCLA L. Rev. 1193, 1211-15 (1994); Richard Craswell, "Taking Information Seriously: Misrepresentation and Nondisclosure in Contract Law and Elsewhere," 92 Va. L. Rev. 565, 583-85 (2006); and Mark Geistfeld, "Inadequate Product Warnings and Causation," 30 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 309, 322 (1997))

Full post as published by Point of Law on August 17, 2010 (boomark / email).