The first bellwether trial over blood thinner Xarelto began on Monday in New Orleans—but it’s not just your ordinary case involving a pharmaceutical drug.
Xarelto has become the poster child for critics of unbridled plaintiffs attorney advertising—led by tort reform groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who co-authored a tort reform bill that the U.S. House of Representatives passed last month, referenced the Xarelto litigation in letters last month calling on the American Bar Association and various state bar groups to change their rules of professional conduct pertaining to attorney ads. The ABA has countered with a letter noting that the ads aren’t “false and misleading.”
