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Kill the Pfizer class action
4/13/2008 10:00 PM
After three years of trying, class action lawyer Stephen Tillery has dropped his claim that Pfizer is "misrepresenting" consumers in its marketing of popular painkillers Bextra and Celebrex.
As the Record reported last week, he's now asking the Madison County Court for permission to downgrade to a blurrier, more facile charge.
The company's conduct is simply "unfair," he alleges. So is life. Who knew they passed a law against it?
But that isn't stopping this lawyer from trying to bully Judge Ralph Mendelsohn into creating new law from the bench--setting a legal standard for "fairness" in marketing for all drug companies, anywhere and everywhere.
We shudder to consider the repercussions of "fairness" becoming civil lawsuit fodder with its starting point established by Mendelsohn by-way-of Tillery.
Didn't get that job but you thought you deserved it? Scheduled your wedding for a rainy day? University of Missouri basketball fan?
Sue! And tell the court your plight is illegal because it's unfair.
Judges have more important business than taking up such far-fetched issues. Their job shouldn't be extrapolating new laws based on the "creative" legal arguments of men like Tillery, desperate to save an apparently flawed case against Pfizer.
That our court even allows these antics--this case would have faced dismissal long ago in most county courts--signals Tillery's need for home court advantage.
In Madison County, judges often have followed Mr. Tillery's tortured logic, allowing him to twist and contort the law in his never-ending procession of lawyer-driven litigation. They've indirectly enabled him to pursue his big game hunting trophies as his wealth and ambition snowballed.
The court should folllow the law. Justice should drive the Pfizer class action, not anyone's quest for another payday.
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