Federal agencies: Our rules pre-empt injury lawsuits

[flashl]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — If you think the prescription drug you took for headaches caused your heart attack, the Food and Drug Administration says you can't sue the maker for injury if it met agency standards.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says you can't sue a mattress maker if your mattress bursts into flame despite meeting CPSC standards. Companies making sport utility vehicles would get similar protection from suits brought by people injured or the families of those killed in rollovers under National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposals for stronger roofs.

Plaintiffs' attorneys call it "silent tort reform." But it's part of tension existing since the nation's founding: conflict between state and federal law.

If they clash, state laws give way. That's in Article Six of the Constitution. But in areas where there is no federal law, federal courts must defer to laws of the state where a lawsuit is heard. That includes product liability.

Chicago Tribune

[sharesunited]

1. A recent SCOTUS decision has changed things.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/04/7469/

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2. Please explain change. nt

[sharesunited]

3. Approval by a federal agency preempts tort liability.

Riegel v Medtronic Inc.

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4. Thanks

[WildClarySage]

5. But wait a minute... I keep hearing repubs claim that government is so incompetent

they shouldn't be in charge of anything... so why should we trust their oversight in these areas???