How Is It That All Food Poisoning Is the Same to a Legal Expert, Except Raw Milk Is Worse?
Sunday, January 6, 2008 at 10:35PM Gee, I’ll go to bed tonight feeling a lot more secure that food poisoning lawyer Bill Marler is out there protecting my loved ones and me.
“The fact is that if a producer of a food product kills a kid or causes them to lose their kidneys, I am coming after them,” he says in a comment on my previous post. Yes, let’s hear it for truth, justice, and the American Way!
We all know it’s for the sake of the kids, and their kidneys. Just like on the television shows. No one asks for upfront fees. No one discusses the cost of appeals. No one negotiates whether the contingency fee should be 25%, 33%, or 40%.
Now, having gotten that off my chest, I’ll add that I have nothing against what he and his ilk do. If an Organic Pastures screwup led to Chris Martin, Lauren Herzog, and other children becoming ill, then in our system, the company is potentially liable for damages.
Several individuals on this blog, myself included, advised Mary McGonigle-Martin and Melissa Herzog a long time back to seek out legal avenues to redress their grievances with Organic Pastures Dairy Co., and it seems they have done so—or at least, Marler is looking into the situation.
How successful has Marler been in fighting the food poisoning fight? It’s hard to tell from what’s posted on his blog. I read through the long list of cases on his Legal Services page (not much in the way of raw milk there), and I was struck that the page leads off with a 1993 case—that’s 15 years ago—in which his firm represented a food poisoning victim that resulted in a $15.6 million settlement.
What’s happened since? There are dozens of cases, but only a few provide specific financial outcomes. What about the cases where no amounts are specified? Were those losses? Still ongoing cases? In appeal? Amounts so small he prefers not to divulge them? Results that can’t be disclosed because nondisclosure is part of the settlement? Other factors?
It seems in the Organic Pastures situation, he hasn’t yet decided whether or not to file a case. If you read his posting carefully, you see that he is circumspect in his phrasing: “We are continuing to investigate…What we have learned…”
The only thing we know for sure from a legal perspective is that California’s Department of Food and Agriculture decided that Organic Pastures wasn’t at fault, and paid money to end claims by Organic Pastures against the agency.
As several individuals point out, what is especially irksome about Marler is that despite his claim to the contrary (“I do not care if it is ConAgra, Cargill or Organic Pastures that sickens a kid…”) all food poisoning isn’t the same to him, because raw milk is somehow worse. As he says in his Legal History of Raw Milk in the United States, “Because raw milk sales have not been outlawed altogether, outbreaks associated with raw milk continue to occur.”
Yet most of his cases seem to involve bad ground beef and restaurant illnesses. I kept looking for a statement like this: Because ground beef sales have not been outlawed altogether, outbreaks associated with ground beef continue to occur. But I didn’t see it.
But then, as I read his blog posting about the California situation with AB 1735 more closely, I realized that perhaps I was being too hard on him, because his commentary does contain the seeds of a solution: “…perhaps I should just stay out of the fight, let the raw milk people win and continue to provide me with work? I’ve always wanted to own land in Fresno and Paicines.”
That actually sounds reasonable. Get the government out of the business of restricting our rights, let consumers make their own decisions about what to consume, and leave it to the courts to settle the problems that come up when possible mistakes occur. Kind of like what happens with ground beef and restaurants.
Reader Comments (18)
Wow, I had no idea that food corps try to poison their consumers! You learn something new everyday!
I did not know that we need to hire arrogant lawyers to teach corps to not poison people as well.
I know the protocol for food safety and most corporations know the rules and regulations too!
All I know is you don't see McDonald's shut down, Taco Bell shut down, or any of the other corps that have sickened people lately.
Hamburger meat is a lot scarier as well as pork and spinach, than raw milk. At least when you consume raw milk, you know what you are doing and most people who consume it are very healthy.
When you play Russian Roulette with hamburger meat from Walmart, buy a frozen pepperoni pizza, or a bag of Dole Spinach and don't wash it...well, too bad for you because they will never be shut down and the fines they get are pennies compared to what they make.
I am sure hot shots like Bill, jump to ensure that these corporations don't go around poisoning their consumers and they do it...practically for free! Truly amazing!
Sure! Seems to me like this marathon runner started running marathons to chase more ambulances faster than the rest of them!
Gimme a break.
I feel pity for the six children who went through this ordeal, but I think any suit against OP would be fruitless for the following 3 reasons:
1. Five out of the six children had an identical strain of E. coli, indicating a common source, but that same strain was never found at OP despite 1000 samples being tested.
2. The CDFA later withdrew their assertion that OP was responsible and apparently even compensated the company.
3. The FDA removed the incident from its website, further indicating a lack of confidence in any association of OP with this outbreak.
If anyone is to blame, it is the public health department who handled the investigation of these cases. They seemed to have been willing to leap to the easiest conclusion and failed to investigate other possibilities. There were also potentially valuable tests on food samples that just weren't done.
That being said, the public health infrastructure in this country is sorely stressed in the best of times. The children became ill during a massive nationwide E. coli outbreak from spinach where public health resources were stretched very thin. Maybe this should be a wake-up call for all of us. Public Health needs our help. It is all too easy just to "round up the usual suspects". E. coli in spinach was fairly unknown before this outbreak. I want my public health system to be sharp and on guard - not just going through the motions.
If it were treated like other foods (especially those that degrade health) more would catch the miracle.
"you are pathetic ad shallow..."
Why do all the anti-raw milk people ALWAYS resort to name-calling?
Mr. Marler, this sort of juvenile behavior really hurts your credibility.
Look at recent history and you will see many examples.
I suspect that the very unprofessional comments made by Marler are due to frustration that he cannot make a case against OP and other raw dairies.
It seems that Gary Cox's experience with unprofessional attorneys is more common that I thought.
If I want to drink raw milk, it is none of your business.
Outbreaks of food contamination have been occurring since time began, and there will always be outbreaks. It cannot be 100% eradicated, that would be impossible. So the goal would be to minimize it as much as possible. I do believe there should be minimal sanitary standards, there should also be disclosure on what the animals are fed, any added chemicals to both the animal and its environment, their environmental conditions, etc. The public should be informed so that they can make their own choices.
You are absolutely right, govt should not be restricting our rights. As consumers we can and should make our own INFORMED decisions. The key word is “informed”. If “issues” (the correct word escapes me at this time) are not disclosed then it is impossible to make informed choices.
I do believe that if people were truly informed of what all goes into their bodies, then things would change, and the costs to the big corps/govt would be tremendous.
I don’t need my milk to have a 4 week shelf life, nor my cream to last 6-8 weeks (why are you unable to freeze store bought cream?) My half & half should not be 2% milk mixed with cream, it should be ½ whole milk & ½ cream. Just as my eggs don’t need to be pasteurized. Clean up the factory farms, the processing plants, etc. and the potential for contamination would decrease significantly.
Please define "risky".
The rules of treating all foods equally does not apply on this blog. The view on Raw Milk is so slanted here that its to the point of insanity. There is actually multi-personality posting happening on this blog. One of the personalities, has conversations with themselves and another one actually suggests therapy to two mothers that almost lost their children. This should be an indicator of what you are dealing with here. You shouldnt have to defend yourself and what you do for a living.
Look how your words get twisted. I did not ONCE see you post that anyone should not have the freedom to choose what they want to eat.
But you are right...they love it when the fast food and beef industry get slammed for the same thing. FUNNY isnt it?
There are extremists on all issues. But they needn’t tarnish the truth, unless we let them. This blog is a uniquely good source for sane commentary if one simply reads the comments for what they are. Pointing to extreme comments to debase the sane middle is very unwise, and unfair.
Some fundamentals on raw milk: It is a basic, natural food that has been healthfully supporting mankind for as long as we have history. In historical terms, the adulteration of milk through pasteurization, homogenization, unconstituting and reconstituting, fortifying, and God only knows what else, is but a blink of time.
Now modern science has decreed that raw milk should be deleted from our lives, and bureaucrats are happy to enforce the edict. But modern science is both completely and continuously confident of current practice, and ever changing! There is more than enough evidence (scientific, experiential, and intuitive) to doubt our white-coated gods. And there has never been a good reason to interfere with the right to choose a food.
I agree with David that we should leave people alone to choose their own foods, and let the chips fall where they may. I say that with full knowledge that lawyers and angry people are often “first-stone throwers” with the power to do great harm. If you want to see a dangerous zealot, look no further than those anxious to hang somebody in punishment for every negative outcome. (Negligence, as any thoughtful person knows, is not black and white, though lawyers often make that case. The recent rule mandating milk coliform limits without differentiating between beneficial and pathogenic varieties, is just the sort of thing I’m talking about. That rule will inevitably be used at some point to hang somebody—likely an innocent man—and the lawyer who facilitates the hanging will inevitably be proud of himself.)
I almost agree with your conclusion, but, to paraphrase you: I kept looking for a statement like this: "I’ve always wanted to own land in St. Louis, Omaha, and Wayzata .” (Headquarters of Monsanto, ConAgra & Cargill)
Marler wasn't really suggesting he'd 'stay out of the fight.' It was meant to be menacing to OGDC and small purveyors of raw milk. He was warning that one of his lawsuits could put them out of business by bankrupting them with the legal bills. And, yes, I detected your sarcasm.
melissa, why are you even on this blog? are you actually enjoying yourself?
thanks.