Marler Blog - Providing commentary on food poisoning outbreaks & litigation

Had a great spinach lunch at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas today - actually a spinach salad followed by spinach-stuffed chicken.  The group of about 250 - 300 consisted of lettuce and spinach growers from the entire region.  Hopefully, we both learned a bit.  Several members of the press were there - here is one that hit the wire in the last few moments:

KSBW - SALINAS, Calif. -- A lawyer representing about 90 plaintiffs in lawsuits stemming from the 2006 spinach E. coli outbreak spoke to a group of agricultural leaders in Salinas Wednesday.

Bill Marler said he wants to educate the industry about these costly lawsuits.

The Ag Forum committee said Marler was invited to speak to provide the perspective of those who were victims of food poisoning.

Marler has filed lawsuits against Dole, Natural Selection/Earthbound Farm and Mission Organics.

"Hopefully we leave here perhaps not friends, but with an understanding of how the process operates," Marler said.

The E. coli outbreak killed at least three people and sickened more than 200.

It also touched off a criminal investigation that is still ongoing.

Op-ed - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
William Marler and Paul Nunes
Guest essayists

(February 27, 2007) — In 1906, Upton Sinclair penned his great American novel The Jungle about the corrupt meat-packing industry. He described in shocking detail how dead rats were processed into sausage while bribed inspectors looked the other way. The book inspired great change in the industry.

One hundred years later, the American Meat Institute can boast that since 1999, the incidence of E. coli in ground beef samples tested by the Agriculture Department has declined by 80 percent to a fraction of a percent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that E. coli outbreaks linked to tainted meat have declined by 42 percent.

How did this change happen? Michael Taylor, head of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection in the mid-1990s, introduced a mandatory risk-management system requiring meat processors to adopt precautions such as carcass washes, citric acid sprays, steam pasteurization and air-exchange systems. The U.S. meat industry now staffs in-house microbiologists or contracts with outside labs to test for E. coli and other contaminants before meat is shipped to consumers.

Today, however, the apparent greater risk to the public is not meat, but produce. In recent months as many as 150 people across the Northeast and upper Midwest became ill after eating contaminated lettuce at fast-food restaurants.

A few months ago, 200 people got sick and at least four died from eating E. coli-contaminated spinach. In September 2005, more than two dozen were sickened, including one young girl who suffered acute kidney failure, after eating bagged, pre-washed lettuce. Similar outbreaks occurred in 2002 and 2003.

The Food and Drug Administration reported more than 21 E. coli outbreaks related to fresh leafy produce in the last 10 years with nearly 1,000 sickened. Upstate New York is not immune. The New York Department of Health confirms that many victims of the Taco Bell E. coli outbreak are residents of western and central New York.

To prevent future outbreaks, we need to serve notice to produce processors that E. coli is an adulterant that will no longer be tolerated in our fresh produce supply. The produce industry must adopt the same attitude that meat processors adopted years ago.

Moreover, Congress should conduct hearings to consider the following:

# Producing an E. coli vaccine for cattle.

# Irradiation for all mass-produced foods, including produce.

# Updating our food safety regulations (given post-9/11 risks).

# Granting state and/or federal authority to order product recalls.

# Establishment of a single federal agency responsible for all food safety.

# Clarifying state agencies' role in the network of defense against food-borne illnesses.

# Better funding for state health departments in identifying and stopping foodborne outbreaks.

# Improvement of treatment for victims of E. coli.

Finding solutions will not only help the food industry but will also help prevent innocent people from being sickened by eating what is supposed to be good for them.

No, those are not lawyers (well, I don't think), but are the rats found in a NYC Taco Bell - remember the recent E. coli outbreak?  We are representing nearly two dozen people sickened after eating E. coli contaminated tacos at Taco Bells in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  Anyway, back to Peanut Butter - Jennifer Emert from WALB News 10 and I spoke by phone about the recent recall of Con Agra Peanut Butter:

Here are today's other major developments. A Seattle attorney today filed a class action lawsuit with more than three-thousand people who believe peanut butter made them sick, and production at the Sylvester ConAgra Foods plant is still stalled.

Seattle Attorney Bill Marler has filed a class action lawsuit against ConAgra Foods. "The calls have come in from every corner of America, several foreign countries and we even got an e-mail from a Sergeant serving in Iraq, who'd gotten the peanut butter in a care package."

Also, last Friday I spent a pleasant hour talking with NPR correspondent Margo Adler of Justice Talking.  And camera crew from CNN  And Oregonian reporter, Alex Pulaski

All are doing stories that will air or be in print over the next few weeks.  Food safety and the rash of recent outbreaks and illnesses tied to our food supply is finally getting the attention is requires.

Salmonella Confirmed In Georgia Peanut Butter

According to AP reports a few moments ago:

A week after ConAgra Foods Inc. recalled peanut butter from its Georgia plant after a salmonella outbreak, the Center for Disease Control confirmed the presence of the dangerous germ.  Opened jars from people who were sickened in New York, Oklahoma and Iowa tested positive for salmonella, said Dave Daigle, a spokesman for the CDC in Atlanta.

"Now the question becomes, how did the salmonella get in the jar," Daigle said.

CDC Outbreak update:

As of February 21st at 12 PM EST, the last time when numbers were updated, 329 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Tennessee have been reported to CDC from 41 states. Among 249 patients for whom clinical information is available, 51 (21%) were hospitalized. No deaths have been attributed to this infection. Onset dates, which are known for 224 patients, ranged from August 1, 2006 to February 2, 2007, and 60% of these illnesses began after December 1, 2006.

Marler Clark updates can be found at www.peanutbutterclassaction.com:

By Paula Schaap from Verditsearch

Bill Marler, a litigator who specializes in representing plaintiffs who were sickened by food-borne pathogens, said he is in the enviable position of not having to prove fault. But when he explains that to food growers, packagers and distributors during settlement discussions, he often has a problem getting his adversaries to understand.

"The concept of strict products liability, especially as it relates to food, is always a little bit difficult for defendants to get their heads around," Marler said. "It's not like an auto accident where both sides say the light was green. In these instances, the light is always green for me."

Once the food companies and their insurers understand the concept that they are liable if they are in the chain of distribution, no matter where in the chain the contamination occurred, the focus shirts to damages and what a jury would be likely to award, Marler said.

Marler recently settled a large group of cases on behalf of customers who purchased tomatoes contained in salads or sandwiches at Sheetz convenience stores and became ill with salmonella poisoning over the Fourth of July weekend in 2004. In the tomato cases, 429 confirmed salmonellosis cases were identified in nine eastern states, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Marler represented the majority of the plaintiffs and brought claims against Sheetz Inc., Altoona, Pa., and Coronet Foods Inc., Wheeling, W. Va., the firm that packaged the tomatoes.

People with salmonella poisoning can suffer a range of illnesses, from mild gastroenteritis to symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization. In rare cases, victims can die. However, in the case of the tomato salmonella outbreak there were no deaths.

So far, Sheetz settled almost every case with the clients Marler represents for confidential amounts, Samaratunga v. Sheetz Inc. Only one lawsuit is pending in Pennsylvania state court.

This year, Marler's firm is once again busy representing victims of food-borne illnesses after a nationwide recall of spinach that was tainted with the E.coli bacteria. Marler represents 96 claimants in 26 states.

Marler also spends time counseling his potential adversaries on how to make the food supply safer, through his nonprofit corporation, OutBreak Inc.

"I've taken close to $300 million from the food industry for my clients," Marler said, "but I don't have a burning interest to own a jet."

Marler gave an example of his approach to settlement in another set of cases involving contaminated lettuce.

"I went into mediation and all the defense attorneys were pointing fingers at each other, so I put my head down on the table," Marler said.

When the mediator asked him if he was okay, Marler said to the distributor in the lettuce case, "In a few months your insurance company is going to settle and then the rest of you are going to settle and until then you're going to keep fighting me."

Marler then stood up and announced, "But I'm in Seattle, it's a beautiful day and I'm going to the beach."

Carol M. Ostrom, Seattle Times staff reporter, spent a few hours in our office today.  Below is her report:

A Kent woman and a Bellingham man have filed a class-action lawsuit against a Nebraska-based food manufacturer on behalf of people sickened by Salmonella infections after eating peanut butter later recalled for contamination.

James Winston Daniels II of Bellingham missed several days of work after he made sandwiches using Great Value peanut butter purchased at a Wal-Mart store in Bellingham, according to the lawsuit. Linda Lee Oswald, of Kent, missed three days of work after she made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches using Peter Pan brand peanut butter.

On Feb 14, the FDA warned consumers not to eat either Peter Pan and Great Value brands of peanut butter with jars carrying the product code of 2111, manufactured at ConAgra's Georgia plant, and recalled products with that code purchased since May of 2006.

The suit, against ConAgra, Inc., was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. It was filed by Seattle attorney Bill Marler, a specialist in food-safety cases who also filed suit in New York and Missouri last week against ConAgra.

Calls to ConAgra were not immediately returned.

The lawsuit estimates it may include over 3,000 potential class members. It excludes those who have been hospitalized or who died, whose cases would be handled separately, Marler said. He has been contacted by family members of four people who died after eating peanut butter, Marler added, but those cases have not been verified.

As of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted nearly 300 people in 39 states, including four in Washington, who have been sickened since August. Not all cases have been linked to the implicated peanut butter.

Marler said he expects the number to grow much larger. "From an epidemiological point of view, this has been one of the oddest outbreaks I've seen in 14 years of doing these cases," Marler said. Instead of happening all at one time, in specific areas, this outbreak has occurred over months, and has been spread out around the country.

Because people may buy peanut butter and keep it on the shelf for months, people are coming forward who have been sickened for months at a time, or have gone through cycles of being sick, then recovering, then re-infecting themselves by eating the contaminated peanut butter again, Marler said.

"There is an enormous miscount of the number of people sickened," he added, because most people who got sick were not tested, and were not suspicious of their peanut butter until last week.

Only those who tested positive to the implicated strain are counted by the CDC, he noted.

Marler said he plans to test about 1,500 jars of peanut butter for contamination. "Part of what we do is make sure that claims that are brought forward are legitimate and meritorious, because that helps the system move forward to correct itself," said Marler, who says he takes partial credit, through his lawsuits, for cleaning up the meat industry after outbreaks of E. coli, including one in Washington.

Angela Hatcher of WSLS NewsChannel 10 reported:

Area Girl Scouts are having trouble selling some of their most popular cookies because of worries over peanut butter. Danville troop leader Nancy Beasley has 17 full cases of peanut butter cookies in her living room along with 9 boxes customers have returned. The bakers that make Girl Scout cookies do not get peanut butter from Conagra, the company that recalled Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter. Girl Scouts of the USA issued a statement saying their cookies aren't contaminated.

My seven-year-old, Sydney, is a Brownie and committed to sell 500 boxes of cookies. She will be mad if this cuts into her sales.

RECENT UPDATE FROM FDA:

As of February 16, the FDA advised consumers not to eat any Peter Pan peanut butter purchased since May 2006 and not to eat Great Value peanut butter with a product code beginning with "2111" purchased since May 2006 because of risk of contamination with Salmonella Tennessee. Salmonella is a bacterium that causes foodborne illness, and “Tennessee” is a type of Salmonella. All Peter Pan peanut butter purchased since May 2006 is affected; only those jars of Great Value peanut butter purchased since May 2006 with a product code beginning with "2111” are affected. Although Great Value peanut butter with the specified product code has not been linked by CDC to the cases of Salmonella Tennessee infection, the product is manufactured in the same plant as Peter Pan peanut butter and, thus, is believed to be at similar risk of contamination. Great Value peanut butter made by manufacturers other than ConAgra is not affected.

Number of Cases and State Locations:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified 290 people from 39 states who have gotten sick from Salmonella Tennessee, the Salmonella type associated with this outbreak. Forty six (46) patients are known to have been hospitalized and there have been no reported deaths.

The 39 states with reported illness are: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Dole is recalling more than six-thousand cartons of imported cantaloupes. They were distributed to wholesalers in the eastern U-S and Quebec between February fifth and February eighth. Dole says there have been no reports of illness due to the contaminated cantaloupes which were grown in Costa Rica.

SPRINGFIELD, MO – A Salmonella lawsuit was filed Friday in United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri against ConAgra, the Omaha, Nebraska-based food company whose Georgia peanut butter plant has been traced as the source of a Salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Buchannan County, Missouri, residents Brian and Susanna Cox and their two children. The Cox family is represented by Seattle-based Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm that has represented thousands of victims of foodborne illness outbreaks, and Springfield, Missouri-based Aleshire, Robb & Sivils.

In the lawsuit, attorneys allege that the Cox family first became ill with symptoms of Salmonella infections in October, 2006 and that both children required medical treatment. Unaware of the association between the consumption of peanut butter and their illnesses, the Cox family continued to purchase and consume Great Value brand peanut butter in the subsequent months. The Cox family first learned of a Salmonella outbreak traced to Great Value brand peanut butter on February 14, 2007, when the Food and Drug Administration announced Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter manufactured in ConAgra’s Georgia peanut butter plant had been traced as the source of a Salmonella outbreak among nearly 300 residents of 39 states.

“I’ve handled claims on behalf of victims of nationwide Salmonella outbreaks traced to tomatoes, cereal, and unpasteurized orange juice, but never peanut butter,” said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark.

Marler listed his top five recommendations for individuals who may be part of the Salmonella outbreak:

1.If you or a family member are still sick, please seek medical treatment.

2.If you do seek medical treatment, please ask that a stool culture be done to try and confirm that you have been sickened by Salmonella.

3.You should contact you local health department about your concerns and to relate information about your family members’ illnesses. Please make note of your peanut butter label, the brand, and the product code found on the lid—“2111” is the implicated product. Also note when and where you purchased it. This information will help the health department’s investigation.

4.If you have any left-over peanut butter, please put the entire jar in a plastic bag and place it in a cool spot. Please let your local health department know that you have it. They may offer to test it.

5.If any family member is currently sick, please be sure to attend to careful hygiene. Frequent hand washing can help reduce the risk of spreading infection among family members.

Salmonella outbreak due to peanut butter

From the Associated Press:
 
ATLANTA -- A salmonella outbreak that has slowly grown to nearly 300
cases in 39 states since August has been linked to tainted peanut
butter, federal health officials said Wednesday.

It is believed to be the first salmonella outbreak associated with
peanut butter in U.S. history, said officials with the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

About 20 percent of the 288 infected people have been hospitalized,
but none has died, said Dr. Mike Lynch, a CDC epidemiologist.
About 85 percent of the infected people said they ate peanut butter,
CDC officials said.  How salmonella got into peanut butter is still under investigation,
Lynch said.

The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat certain
jars of Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter because of the risk of
contamination.  The affected jars have a product code on the lid that begins with the
number ''2111.'' ConAgra makes the affected jars in a single
facility in Sylvester, Ga., the FDA said.

I got this email last evening from a client in the Dole Spinach case whose two kids were sickened from eating E. coli - tainted spinach:

Hi Bill,
We have just a crazy coincidence I thought I would share with you. We have a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter in our fridge that both kids have been eating the past several weeks. It just so happens to have the product code beginning with the "2111" that is linked to the recent salmonella outbreaks. What are the chances?!?! The kids seem to be fine but now we are panicking. We will keep an extra close watch over them.
Have a good night.

Thanks to Ben and Doug at Food Safety Network:

Tomorrow I will fly out to Jamesburg, New Jersey, for a seminar put on by The Packaging Group entitled, "E. coli 2007: Understanding, Detecting, and Preventing."  My speech is titled, "E. coli Outbreaks in Fresh Produce: Who has legal responsibility?"

According to the Daily Dispatch:

To date, the state health department is reporting 48 confirmed cases of Salmonella Oranienburg in the Sierra Vista (Arizona) area since Sept. 1. In addition, health officials have confirmed three new cases of salmonella, but the exact type has not been determined. If any of those three are Oranienburg, they will be added to the existing count.

I found several other Salmonella Oranienburg outbreaks cited over the last several years:

• International outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg due to German chocolate

• Salmonella enterica serotype Oranienburg infections associated with consumption of locally produced Tyrolean cheese

• Salmonella Oranienburg, Ontario - Cantaloupes were imported into Ontario from numerous sources including the United States, Mexico, and Central America.

• This study involved 82 Salmonella enterica serovar Oranienburg isolates from patients with gastroenteritis and/or focal infections, healthy carriers, and cuttlefish chips which were epidemiologically linked to a major outbreak that had affected 1,505 people in Japan between 1998 and 1999.

• A multistate outbreak of Salmonella javiana and Salmonella oranienburg infections due to consumption of contaminated cheese.

• From November 1981 to August 31, 1982, 126 bacteriologically confirmed cases of Salmonella oranienburg infections were reported in Norway. The investigation lead to the discovery of contaminated black pepper as the source of the outbreak.

• One hundred and two cases of Salmonella Oranienburg infection were notified to the Communicable Disease Control Branch (CDCB), South Australia, from March to June 1998. Food history questionnaires indicated that Italian food, in particular pasta, pizza and gelato featured highly in the food frequency analysis.

Marler Clark has brought Salmonella claims against:

Black Forrest Bakery
Brook-Lea Country Club
C.L. Swanson
Cafe Santa Fe
Chili's
Corky & Lenny's
Golden Corral
Harmony Farms
KFC
Linh's Bakery
Malt-O-Meal
Old South Restaurant
Orchid Island
Paramount Farms
Quality Inn
San Antonio Taco
Seasons at the Pond
Sheetz
Sun Orchard
Sunset House
Sushi King
Susie Cantaloupe
Viva Cantaloupe
Wal-Mart
Western Sizzlin'
Wyndham Anatole Hotel

For more information on Salmonella, see www.about-salmonella.com and for recent news and informations, see www.salmonellablog.com.  For ongoing litigation, see www.salmonellalitigation.com.

Interestingly, there is another Salmonella outbreak - this one in Kane County Illinois as reported by Tim Wagner:  Kane outbreak of salmonella still puzzling health experts

In Kane County Illinois alone, 15 laboratory-confirmed salmonella cases with the same strain of bacteria were reported to the health department last year, compared to four on average. Health department officials are working to create awareness of this specific form of salmonella. They also are attempting to identify the cause, but it has proven ultra-difficult, given that the cases have been widespread -- eight were reported in Aurora and seven more in the Elgin/Carpentersville area. Of the 15 cases, six were reported to the health department in December.

Sen. Florez pursues E. coli agreement

Senator Dean Florez (D-Shafter) is criticizing a new agreement between spinach processors aimed at preventing another E. coli outbreak. Florez, the Chairman of a newly-formed Senate Committee on food-borne illness, is criticizing the agreement because only 24 of 170 processors of spinach and other leafy greens signed it. Florez said even though the 24 processors supply 70 percent of the leafy greens, 30 percent non-compliance with the agreement is unacceptable. "I think there's no other way to view it, that this is not taken seriously by those other than the 24 that said yes," Florez said. "I think they're important players because it only takes one rogue player to put out a bad batch of spinach." A spokesperson for the health department said it believes the marketing agreement is a good first step to address food safety issues. September's E. coli outbreak killed four people and sickened more than 200.

QSR Magazine - Special Online Feature - by Fred Minnick

Fred Minnick and I spoke a few weeks ago about what and why I do what I do.  Here is his story:

Bill Marler has won more than $300 million from food companies. In this QSRmagazine.com exclusive, Marler talks about how to prevent him from suing you.  Bill Marler is not the man you want to see in the courtroom. Just ask Jack in the Box.  Following Jack in the Box’s 1993 E. coli outbreak, which sickened 600 people and killed four children, Marler won a $15.6-million settlement for a 9-year-old girl. Since then, he’s garnered clients more than $300 million from food companies.  These days, the country’s foremost authority on food-illness litigation is suing Taco John’s, Taco Bell, and Dole for their recent E. coli outbreaks. QSRmagazine.com’s Fred Minnick recently spoke with Marler to learn what makes this powerful man tick.

On your web site and your many blogs, you position yourself as a hero. Do you think of yourself as the food illness Superman?

I’m more like Batman. [He laughs]. Some guys from Canada described me as the Wayne Gretzky of plaintiff’s lawyers. I certainly enjoy what I do because it makes me a good living, but it also allows me to have a non-profit company where I can spend one-third of my time talking to companies and health departments about how important it is to avoid food poisoning.

You talk to people about food safety, and you sue restaurants and food suppliers. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?

My partners and lawyer buddies ask the same question. But I look at the law as a tool for social change.

Well, you’ve certainly left your mark on society. And it all started in 1993. How did you get the Jack in the Box case?

It was 75 percent dumb luck, and 25 percent hard work. I happened to be in Seattle when the Jack in the Box case hit, and Seattle really was the epicenter. I litigated the Jack in the Box case for two years and then settled $35-million worth of cases over the course of several months....Then, the Odwalla case hit. (Also in Seattle). That went on until 1998. Then shortly after that, I joined Bruce Clark and Denis Sterns, who had defended Jack in the Box. We started Marler Clark.

So you hired the Jack guys you beat?

Well, I wouldn’t say it that way. They probably wouldn’t say it that way either. They were really good opponents and did the right thing for their client. They had in a sense lost the battle, but I think in some respects, Jack in the Box won the war by resolving claims and focusing on their business as opposed to fighting the lawsuit to some sort of standstill.

You’ve won more than $300 million from food companies. With all the high-profile brands you’ve sued, it seems like you should have won more than that.

It sounds like such a big number until you actually think about it. In the spinach litigation, I’ve had lots of conversations with the lawyers for Dole and Natural Selection. They’re always trying to guesstimate the value of the claims. A lot of times, these companies get so wrapped up in the litigation that they’re really not paying attention to protecting their core competency and their core asset, which is their business.

Speaking of the spinach litigation, where are you with that?

We have 93 cases. We’ve been going through each one individually to figure out whether there’s a link to Dole Baby Spinach. We have eight lawsuits filed in six states, all in federal court, and we’re in the process of discovery, starting to exchange documents. The three target defendants are Dole, Natural Selection, and a recently named third, Mission Organics, which grew the most likely source of the contaminated spinach.

What about Taco John’s and Taco Bell?

Against Taco John’s, we’re representing 15 people. We’ve got three lawsuits filed, two in Iowa and one in Minnesota. Apparently, there’s an unnamed grower in California that they have found a genetic match to the outbreak. So I don’t know exactly where that’s going to go.  And in the Taco Bell case, we have three lawsuits filed. One in Pennsylvania, and two in New York. We represent 25 people. In those instances, we have named Taco Bell and Ready Pac.

You recently complimented Taco John’s and Taco Bell for how they handled their E. coli outbreaks. Why?

They viewed the victim as their customer…. Stepping out and offering to pay your customers’ medical bills and their wage loss and setting up a 1-800 number for claims, it does two things. One, it shows that the corporation is actually interested in their customers. Two, it also limits lawsuits and claims. If a company is willing to pay lost wages and medical bills, there’s no reason for a person to hire a lawyer or make a claim.  Taco John’s and the Taco Bells and the Doles of the world have the opportunity to put pressure on their suppliers to not supply contaminated product.”

Seems like Taco John’s and Taco Bell did nothing wrong. It’s not like they have an E. coli X-ray machine in the kitchen. Why sue the restaurants instead of just the suppliers or farmers?

That’s a great question. It’s a question that the restaurants have the hardest time dealing with.
Any product you buy that is defective, the manufacturer of that defective product is strictly liable under the law. And the [food] product manufacturer is defined fairly broadly. It would include somebody in a restaurant who manufactures a taco. They are strictly liable for providing a defective taco. They’re responsible for that contaminated lettuce even though they didn’t contaminate it.  And you can say, ‘That just doesn’t seem very fair.’ But the reality is that the Taco John’s and the Taco Bells and the Doles of the world have the opportunity to put pressure on their suppliers to not supply contaminated product. They have the right to say to their suppliers, ‘You poisoned my customer, and I think that the customer has got a legitimate claim. I want you to pay it.’

Do you ever turn down a case?

We turn down 95 percent of the proposed cases.

What’s the craziest proposal you’ve had?

One lady said her husband had opened a jar of salsa, and it smelled really badly. But he chose to eat it anyway. As he was eating it, he found what they described as a lump of flesh that looked like the back of a human hand. They were actually quite upset that we wouldn’t represent them. Just because you’re grossed out, I don’t think you have a legitimate claim.

So you don’t believe in frivolous lawsuits?

I think you need to focus on legitimate claims.

What about all these obesity and trans-fats cases. Are you interested in those?

Because of our visibility, we’ve been approached by lots of people who want us to take on trans-fat cases or obesity cases. We didn’t want to take them.

Why?

Those cases would have gotten more traction had those individuals spent more time working with the companies and legislators as opposed to a courtroom. The courtroom is a good place to seek recompense for injuries sustained, such as with the E. coli cases. It’s not a really good place to change really broad social policies