You realize J&J is a massive company with a huge range of products?
Imagine if Google was fined 50% of a year’s revenue because of Google Voice.
That’s a massive penalty by any measure.
Imagine if Google was fined 50% of a year’s revenue because of Google Voice.
That’s a massive penalty by any measure.
This is the sort of punishment we need for corporations.
Everybody thinks personal injury lawyers are slimy but then quotes their “data” like it was proven fact.
People get cancer all the time. It’s very, very hard to prove a causal relationship.
Regardless of the numbers, for that to be true, you've got to be pretty convinced you've fucked up really hard.
And they make a ton of money doing it.
Maybe make a new law
Some new law would likely be needed. How could such a law be written in a manner that satisfies the vagueness doctrine?
This is a serious problem if you want to wait until a perfect law is written it won't be solved.
Also, can you provide a some other solution?
Considering laws exist for many types of actions it should be possible to make one in which knowingly producing and distributing any product for any price that you know to cause harm, and that harm is not made of aware of to the public in an obvious way, should be held liable for any damages that occur from the use of that product as indicated by the instructions
This includes people that approve of the actions and/or responsible for the subordinates involved in the production/approval of said products, in the company/subsidiary/any related entity, as long as that person was provided with the information or access to information that would allow them to ascertain the risk with a reasonable amount of accuracy. However, it shan't be required to show that person actually consumed or understood that information if it was expected that they do so.
The punishment must be but can not be limited to monetary fines which can not be purged through bankruptcy. <something about jail here>
etc etc.
Even if you were found liable in civil court you wouldn't lose all of your income forever. You would be able to declare personal bankruptcy and clear the debt.
I guess it depends.
From the net:
"Instances in which a court ordered judgment won’t be overridden by bankruptcy include debts related to:
Student loans
Any debt owed to the government, including taxes and fines
Court ordered awards related to criminal proceedings"
Kill a giant after it steps on people and other giants will learn to tiptoe.
It's an analogy, trying to take it too far will get silly.