J&J and U.S. Chamber Outed

Scales of Justice, WikiCommons

This story from St. Louis (here) is about a U.S. Chamber of Commerce tactic to have people sign onto a letter to their lawmakers that would make it more difficult to file a court action. Problem is they didn’t sign the letter.

Johnson & Johnson is reported to have written two checks for $1.6 million to the US Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform which advocates on behalf of industry to make it more difficult for citizens to file lawsuits. The letters went to lawmakers with emails and names of people who say they didn’t sign and send the letters.

The issue backfired on J&J last April in front of a judge overseeing talcum powder litigation in St. Louis. Judge Rex Burlison said the J&J donation makes it the case the company should face liability in Missouri. Then came a July St. Louis jury award of $4.7 billion for plaintiffs involved in the latest talcum powder, cancer lawsuit tried in that venue.

MND story on the Talc/ Cancer verdict from July.

The US Chamber of Commerce and its Institute for Legal Reform aims to make it more difficult to citizens to file lawsuits against the corporations the Chamber represents, Big Pharma, Asbestos, Tobacco, Insurance, etc. PR Watch does a superb job monitoring disinformation campaigns about tort reform. ###