November 19, 2009

Among the provisions of the overreaching Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is one directing the Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish an online database of consumer safety complaints about products. In a submission on behalf of the Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform (PDF), Cary Silverman of Shook Hardy & Bacon warns that without appropriate sanctions the database could become a source of tactical advantage for product liability plaintiff's lawyers and a method of spreading inaccurate information about products as a means of leveraging settlement.