Litigation Overview from Puerto Rico with Mikal Watts
Mass Tort News LegalCast
English - July 10, 2021 00:24 - 11 minutes - 8.13 MB - ★★★★ - 3 ratingsBusiness News News Business law lawnews lawyers legal litigation masstortnews tortlaw tortnews Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Leah Easterby and Mark York meet with Mikal Watts, founding partner of Watts Guerra.
Watts shares the value of setting up a law firm in Puerto Rico.
Want to understand the Texas Winter Storm litigation? In this episode, Watts touches on the impact of this horrifying event, the preventions that could have been set in place to prevent it from occurring, and the litigations that are currently underway as a result.
The opioid trials are in full swing and Watts reveals his thoughts on the Sackler family and what Purdue Pharma has done to spur the opioid crisis.
With 25,000 3M Combat Arms Earplugs cases, Watts is actively involved in the 3M litigation alleging earplugs issued to military personnel have caused hearing loss and tinnitus.
Finally, Watts discusses litigation surrounding water contamination with PFAS.
Key Topics:
The causes of the Texas Winter Storm outages and what litigations are occurring as a result.
Opioid cases relating to Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers.
Federal MDL bellwethers having to be tried one at a time and the power of grouping people together in trials.
Public water crisis and what the damages model would look like in a PFAS case.
Quotes:
“I don't think these defendants can afford to take these verdicts. I've seen the documents, it's just the most despicable conduct ever that caused the most non-cigarette-related public health crisis in the history of our country.” (4:03, Watts)
“I think the Sacklers are going to have a hard time getting past St. Peter's gates after what they did. It's just the most despicable conduct I've ever seen.” (4:47, Watts)
“There's a ton of settlement discussions, but these companies need to buy their peace because these jurors are going to wipe them out based on what I’ve seen.” (5:32, Watts)
“Congratulations to 3M for winning one. But I think they are about to be one out of three.” (8:15, Watts)
“The bottom line is we have a public water crisis in this country. I've seen entire towns where the cancer rate is 35%.” (8:48, Watts)
“Under federal environmental laws, there are remediation costs that are just extraordinary. I worry that some of these companies cannot carry the burden of the damages they've caused.” (9:09, Watts)
Further Resources/Links:
Watts Guerra: