Law And More

Marler Blog Breaks into ABA

A breakthrough for the plaintiff bar, Marler Clark's blog has been selected to be among the American Bar Association's Blawg 100.  Marler Clark is a plaintiff firm specializing in food-borne diseases. 

There is a daily constant updating of the blog on breaking developments in food-related outbreaks, legislation, regulation, and litigation.  But the firm also has a number of other blogs on specific categories of food-borne diseases.

The key keeper of the blogs, Bill Marler, deserves this recognition.  I have never witnessed such fierce commitment to using the blog medium to educate diverse constituencies, ranging from the public to regulatory agencies.

"Ground beef not a completely safe product," Dr. Bender, NYT

In sort of an understatement, food expert Dr. Jeffrey Bender at the University of Minnesota tells THE NEW YORK TIMES, "Ground beef is not a completely safe product." 

This quote is part of a six-page article by Michael Moss in that newspaper about the risks involved in consuming any product made in America from ground beef.  The focus of the coverage is a 22-year-old dance instructor Stephanie Smith who is confined to a wheelchair after she ate a hamburger her mother had grilled for her.  The E-coli in that burger put her there.  And it will continue to ruin lives as well as kill.

The reason, points out Moss, is that the burgers we eat represent different cuts of meat.  "Those cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E-coli contamination, food experts and officials say.  Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen."

It's not hyperbole then to conclude that ground beef is not safe to eat, not cooked at any temperature.  It's been that way for years now.  That wasn't always the situation.  As Bill Marler of Marler Clark Law Firm continually tells readers of his blog and Congress in his testimony [Download TestimonyEnergy], after the Jack-in-the-Box killer burger contamination in the early 1990s, federal leadership created a bullet-proof system for preventing that.  Why that system broke down years later is something many food experts, including Marler, are investigating.

The pressure to create another bullet-proof system to ensure the safety of ground beef should come from the fast food industry.  They have the most to lose from a national boycott on consuming burgers and the most power to affect change in meat processing.  In fact, shareholders of Mickey D et al. should demand that kind of muscle be applied.

Marler doesn't allow his three daughters to eat burgers.  I never eat 'em, serve 'em, or allow guests I treat at restaurants order 'em. 

Full disclosure: About a year ago I did some freelance digital writing/editing for Marler Clark.

Sweet Spot Not Reached - Fixing Food Safety

Who hasn't eaten raw cookie dough?  For 57-year-old Linda Rivera that indulgence might cost her her life.  It already has delivered a one-two punch to her health. 

Because the Nestle cookie dough was contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, today she lies in a hospital bed mute.  The silence, reports Lyndsey Layton in THE WASHINGTON POST, is "punctuated only by groans."  The aging like Rivera and the young like a four-year-old South Carolina girl who had a stroke after eating the cookie dough are sitting ducks for severe complications from contaminated foods and beverages.  In the former category are us baby boomers, all 70-million-plus of us.

Yet, the federal response has been timid - so far. There, for example, are too many loopholes such as letting farmers off-the-hook from having their records inspected.  Why?  That's what plaintiff attorney Bill Marler of Marler Clark Law Firm has been struggling to answer for years. 

In my multiple interviews with Marler, he highlights the then bulletproof safety system for meat the federal government had created and implemented following the Jack-in-the-Box fatal crisis.  That was the early 1990s and U.S. meat was among the safety in the world.  The approach was systemic, comprehensive, and had big bad regulatory teeth.  Here is what Marler testified in Congress about then - and now Download Testimonywaxmanfoodsafety, Download TestimonyEnergy. 

In his passionate blogging, Marler asks federal leaders, food processors, and consumers:  Why haven't we reached the sweet spot again in food safety?

I'd like your opining, off- and on-the-record.  The U.S. Senate is reviewing this crisis situation in the fall.  Perhaps we can provide some straight-off-the-shoulder insight.  Please leave a comment or contact Jane Genova at Mgenova981@aol.com, 203-468-8579.  You can also reach Marler at Bmarler@marlerclark.com.

Hubby Hubby Ice Cream: Ben & Jerry's Salutes VT's Marriage-Equality Legislation

Tomorrow that vanilla malt ice cream with fudge-covered pretzels and peanut butter will be re-labeled "Hubby Hubby," for the entire month.  Previously purchased as "Chubby Hubby," this Ben & Jerry's flavor is being renamed to salute the state of Vermont's passage of marriage-equality legislation.

In Change.org, Michael A. Jones reports Ben & Jerry's aggressively had supported the same-sex marriage bill in VT.  They positioned passage as good for the business community since the state would be able to attract the best talent.

Give State AGs, Health Police Their Labels - Alcohol with caffeine

If only that would do it: A label on those alcohol beverages containing caffeine.  That's what the state attorneys general and health police want, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. 

Of course, when the industry complies, that won't be effective in stopping or reducing much whatever.  Labels make the folks in law enforcement, regulation and advocacy happy.  They aren't much of a deterrent and how much information do they really supply.  I read on my bag of chips about fat and sodium.  So?  Does that flag me, with my own genetic/age/compulsive profile how much benefit or danger all those ingredients add up to.

Since the labeling won't be effective, AGs and the health police will be at it again, harassing an industry that provides pleasure.  The New Puritans stamp out both old and new kinds of pleasure-seeking.

PEANUTS!

Okay, it's a step in the right direction.  Today, in a 283-142 vote, the House of Representatives passed legislation which provides some more authority and some more whatever to the FDA to address the surging food-contamination problem in the U.S.  But, let's face it, it's PEANUTS.

That's primarily because it covers, as Jane Zhang reports in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, "only foods most likely to be contaminated."  Okay, who anticipated that peanut butter becoming a danger to human health?  The reality is: Evolving viruses and bacteria, new technologies, increasing imports make anything and everything a potential danger to the food supply system. There are other weaknesses in the bill such as letting farms off the hook for full disclosure. 

My question: Why isn't the bill bulletproof?  Is it because children are the most frequent victims of food-borne diseases and capitalism never put children first?

My advice to policy makers and those, e.g. moms, who care about children is to bookmark Bill Marler's blog.   Since the early 1990s, Marler of Marler Clark Law Firm has been that Ibsen "Enemy of the People" type.  He took on the role of the messenger who brought the lousy news that, hey guys, your children and you face sickness and possible death every time you eat.  Here is his D.C. testimony Download Testimonywaxmanfoodsafety.

Suggestion:  Should we advocates of food safety fund-raise selling Tee-shirts with "Dying To Eat" with an appropriate cartoon mascot?

Fast Foods, Fast Lawsuits: This can be prevented, says Bill Marler

After the two lawsuits against McDonald's were filed, I chased down plaintiff attorney Bill Marler whose firm specializes in food-borne diseases.  Marler is also handling this litigation regarding an outbreak of Hepatitis A.  One of the suits could gain class-action status.

This too-familiar situation in the fast-food business costs the company plenty.  Customers stop coming, often developing new eating habits and therefore not returning.  The brandname is hammered.  Even after the problem is addressed and fixed a cloud hangs over the chain.  And, there are, of course, the lawsuits, with their ongoing tale of human suffering.  Hepatitis A makes people very sick.  In rare cases it can damage the liver.  The outbreak has been traced back to one or more food workers.

So, I asked Marler:  How can the fast-food industry prevent this.

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Plaintiff Attorney Bill Marler, on-the-record:

"Fast-food chains, in fact all establishments which serve food, should mandate that their workers receive a Hep A shot.  You might view this as 'cheap insurance' for preventing sickness and death among customers and lawsuits for the organization.

"Jane, the tragedy here is that I have been advocating vaccinating food-service workers for years.  Yes, it may cost $50 per worker.  But in the long run, it saves money - and lives."

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You can continue to follow the Mickey D Hep A story on Bill Marler's blog.  Here is testimony he delivered before Congress on making the food supply safe Download TestimonyEnergy   Download Testimonywaxmanfoodsafety.  The system HAD BEEN safe after the reforms put in-place after the Jack-in-the-Box E-Coli crisis in the early 1990s.

Bill Marler files 2 lawsuits against McDonald's re Hepatitis A

Any time a large fast-food chain gets sued, Americans notice.  We all fear another Jack-in-the-Box E-Coli crisis that happened in the early 1990s. 

Time will tell how serious the situation is at the Milan, Illinois McDonald's which is the subject of two lawsuits regarding a Hepatitis A outbreak.  Food-borne disease expert BIll Marler of Marler Clark is handling both suits. Marler also represented plaintiffs during the Jack-in-the-Box epidemic Download Testimonywaxmanfoodsafety.

One lawsuit, reports Carla K. Johnson at THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, is on behalf of a 16-year-old boy who was hospitalized after eating at the restaurant where one or more food handlers were infected with Hepatitis A.  He tested positive for it.  Marler informs us that Hepatitis A can make us very sick.  In rare cases it can threaten the liver.

The other lawsuit, Johnson goes on to explain, was filed by a man who received preventative shots after eating at the same McDonald's.  Attorneys "are seeking class action status in that case on behalf of people who got preventive shots recommended by health authorities to diners at the restaurant on certain dates."

You can follow this story on Marler's 24/7 blog.

 

One for Bill Marler - Nestle cookie-dough plant still making pasta and sauce

Last week, plaintiff attorney Bill Marler, whose firm Marler Clark specializes in food-borne diseases, told me, "Don't eat any cookie dough."  Yeah, it's among my faves.  Nestle halted production of that on June 18th because of an E-Coli outbreak.

Marler might have also warned me not to eat any pasta or pasta sauce from Nestle.  As Jane Zhang reports in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, "Nestle USA, a unit of Switzerland-based Nestle SA, suspended cookie-dough production at the plant June 18, but has continued to make pasta and sauce there, Ms. Burge [Nestle USA spokeswoman] said.  The company has recalled 300,000 cases of refrigerated cookie-dough products."

Why is this allowed to occur?  I ask Marler to put his best people on looking into this puzzling matter and informing consumers what we should do about the pasta and sauce products.

Princes of Park Avenue - Next-to-last vestige of feudalism

The sign is the empty restaurants in Manhattan.  And the question is now actually being put out there, e.g. by the influential NEW YORK Magazine, if not crazy-gluing relationships over pricey lunches is a recessionary aberration or a long-term trend.

My bet is on the latter.  I go further:  The feudal model, so well applied and leveraged by the Princes of Park Avenue, is over.  Prospecting for business, conducting business, impressing those higher and lower in the great chain of old-economy being - all this has gone the way of analog.   Feudalism and its web of favors and threats can only play out now in organized politics.  The world of business has made it a growing anachronism.

That means that those Princes of Park Avenue representing BigLaw, BigPR and BigExecutiveSearch will have to adopt different approaches to developing new business, keeping it, and growing it.  As that bible of capitalism FORBES documented, the New Barbarians are already here. 

Guerrilla professional services providers use fresh models plus technology to deliver as-good-as if not-better service at significantly lower costs. In the legal field, among those New Barbarians is The Rimon Group.  Not surprisingly, that virtual firm is based far from New York Metro.  With technology such as cloud computing, the price of entry itself is much lower for a New Barbarian, even in fields such as law which deals with and needs to store so much data.

What could be attributes of the new models?  Here's some of what I see, particularly from my coaching:

 

• Niche-oriented or wagging the long tail, along with freeconomics.

 

• Diverse menu of pricing options, ranging from project fixed fee with a cap to pay-for-performance.

• End of using the business to train newbies.  Clients demand seasoned professionals.

• Exploiting technology to improve quality, boost productivity and lower price.

• Putting a human face on the brand.  Aloof is 20th century.  So is elite. Download SavingSoulsJaneGenova.  The new ethos is: Being helpful.

The bottom line, of course, is: Will the Princes of Park Avenue be able to move with the times?  So far, it's not at all fast enough.  They may perish within the comfort zone of their fiefdoms. That's all most of them know.