Comments on: “Judge Fines Medtronic $10 Million Over Trial Tactics”

By: Anonymous Attorney

Anonymous Attorney — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:42:00 +0000

I don’t see enough evidence of defense counsels’ sins to get worked up here. Anyone have a specific example of Dewey & LeBoeuf being bad? I don’t do patent and I don’t know what “governing claim construction is,” but “imposing on the jury’s time”? Isn’t that what plaintiffs do by bringing the lawsuit?

Overlawyered sidenote: I bet these oh-so-valuable spine surgery devices spring from the increasingly profitable business of spine surgery, which provides a great source of income for both doctors and lawyers, regardless of the actual need for it.

I am telling you, there is a major scandal in America having to do with naturally-occurring “bulging discs” being deemed injury-caused. The NYT has had some good coverage on the issue of unnecessary spine surgery — and even doctors who unethically hold business interests in spine-surgery equipment makers, but some enterprising journalist should really look into this.

By: Todd Rogers

Todd Rogers — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:01:00 +0000

Oh, I imagine that lawyer (or his firm) will receive the appropriate desert. But it won't be via fines. He likely lost a major client. How much sting will that have over the next three, five, or ten years?

According to Yahoo, their market cap is $55B, on $13B in sales. How much of the $13B goes to litigation? How much can D&L expect to collect going forward? How long does it take a firm to land such a client?

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:29:29 +0000

Shouldn’t that fine go to the LAWYER? I mean, the whole point of lawyers is that they know the law…

If I were in a lawsuit, there’s all kinds of things that might occur to me to do, and I might suggest many of them to my lawyer. My lawyer’s job would be to represent me WITHIN THE LAW, and, as such, he should tell me when my suggestions are illegal, against the lawyer’s code of ethics, etc.