Whether You Like It Or Not, Plaintiffs' Lawyers Have To Eat Too
.jpg)
If there’s any doubt that the legal profession will continue to significantly impact the way we do business, I wanted to share some additional perspective. When conditions are ripe, lawyers (like pathogens) tend to multiply quickly.
Most of us recall the large west coast E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in the early 1990s, in which nearly 600 people fell ill and some lost their lives. At that time, there were few reported outbreaks, very few food safety attorneys and hardly any foodborne illness lawsuits.
Since then, we have witnessed stunning changes within the industry. Beginning in 1994, USDA required raw meat products to carry safe-handling labels. In turn, Mike Espy issued a policy statement declaring E. coli O157:H7 to be an adulterant in ground beef. In 1998, USDA solidified its zero tolerance standards (for fecal and ingesta), and required establishments to implement comprehensive HACCP plans.
Meanwhile, enhanced surveillance increased our ability to detect food-borne illnesses nationwide. The CDC created PulseNet so public health agencies could upload and compare the PFGE (DNA) patterns of pathogens isolated from ill persons nationally. From 195 PFGE patterns in the mid-1990s, the database has grown to nearly 400,000 today. Having access to such information has helped investigators determine: (1) whether reported food-borne illness cases are genetically similar; and (2) whether they may have originated from a common source.
This, of course, has also led to a recent increase in reported outbreaks and recalls. Rarely a day goes by when we don’t hear about food safety in the news. And, with increased media coverage and public awareness, many attorneys have taken notice.
While a Google search for “slip and fall attorney” yields about 125,000 returns, “food poisoning lawyer” garners nearly 500,000. The result is an ever increasing number of lawsuits, often without merit, pursued by lawyers with little or no knowledge of food safety.
Because of increasing scrutiny from regulators, the media and lawyers, fewer mistakes are also avoiding detection. Thus, we should do all we can to reduce our risk and exposure to the greatest extent possible. We should embrace a robust food safety culture, closely monitor our suppliers, continuously refine our HACCP Plans, and aggressively ensure incoming and outgoing product has been appropriately tested. We are, after all, members of an incredible industry that works tirelessly to provide our families with the safest food possible.
So, recognizing that plaintiffs’ attorneys have to eat too, we should each do our part to ensure they’re shopping for our products – and not our customers.
