Silverman Speaks to Congressional Staff About Food Litigation Trends

Shook Partner Cary Silverman was an invited panelist at The George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School’s Law and Economics Center’s Congressional Civil Justice Academy program on the legal challenges surrounding food labeling, advertising and marketing. The event, which draws congressional staff, was held on April 26, 2019, in the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee’s hearing room in Washington, D.C.

Silverman discussed the wave of consumer class actions and private attorney general lawsuits targeting food and beverage makers ranging from “natural” claims to slack fill litigation, as explored in his paper “The Food Court: Trends in Food and Beverage Class Action Litigation” and law review article “In Search of the Reasonable Consumer: When Courts Find Food Class Action Litigation Goes Too Far.” His suggestions for addressing the subject included federal class action reform, clear labeling regulations backed by preemption and objective decisions by judges as to whether reasonable consumers are actually misled by the advertising and marketing practices targeted in lawsuits by private lawyers, serial plaintiffs and advocacy groups.