Business Cases Back Before Friendly Court
High-profile business cases are back before the U.S. Supreme Court after a term in which the justices handed big wins to corporate defendants in antitrust, patent and securities law cases.
The court’s decisions made it more difficult for plaintiffs to get into the courthouse door, targeted discovery costs and tightened punitive damages, the ABA Journal reports in its October CLE feature, “The Company Line.”
“What was new about last term was that so many cases focused on litigation,” Theodore Frank of the American Enterprise Institute told the Journal. “In case after case, the justices said, ‘Hey, there are problems here with unbridled liability.’ ”
Two pending business cases will give the court another chance to decide whether to help close the litigation floodgates. In StoneRidge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta Inc., No. 06-43, the court will decide whether to permit lawsuits against lawyers and other professionals who participate in a fraudulent scheme with a company. And in Riegel v. Medtronic Inc., No. 06-179, the court will consider federal pre-emption in product liability suits.
