"[Edwards & Kirby partner David Kirby] had asked [the defendant's chief engineer] a fairly straightforward question: 'Would you agree that the manufacturer of a product has an obligation to inform all of the users of its products of all the dangers that are known that are associated with the use of their product?'
I don't know how "chilling" this response was (personally, I agree with the defendant's chief engineer), but I really appreciate the melodrama that using the word "chilling" adds to the excerpt.
The discussion over warning labels continued at the Mass Tort Litigation Blog, which highlighted some of the stupidest warning labels I've ever read in my entire life. Some of my favorites included (and, yes, these are real warning labels): "Don't try to dry your phone in a microwave oven" and "Never use an open flame or lit match to check fuel level." Who writes these warning labels? Who would think to warn someone against putting a cell phone in a microwave? It sounds like corporations are hiring stoned college students to write warning labels for them.
Finally, The Volokh Conspiracy also weighed in on the issue. Volokh is apparently very upset (well, more like mildly perturbed) that restaurants will not provide patrons suffering from headaches with aspirin. He and some of his readers conclude that it's because restaurants are trying to avoid even the slightest chance of litigation. Now, when I was in high school, I used to work in a restaurant, and trust me, with some of the things that go on in the kitchen, handing out aspirin to customers is the least of their worries.
