Attorney Heffernan is joined by Attorney Martin G. Rubenstein to talk about Mass Torts

Welcome back to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. I'm David Heffernan, I've been practicing personal injury law here in South Florida for nearly three decades. And the thought behind this show is that quoted Shakespeare line from the 15th century, which drew a lot of chuckles when it was issued, still rubs true today, sometimes you bring it up, and people have got their images of lawyers and whatnot. And so, the goal here is to talk to Donald has been local lawyers, we're going to have a little fun today we're branching out beyond South Florida. But to bring you a fantastic lawyer, a very good friend of mine, and probably just a better human being. But clearly, one we're going to be able to take off the kill list was all when all is said and done. Let me bring in Martin Rubenstein, who is the managing partner of Levy, Balldante Finney & Rubenstein in Philadelphia. Good morning, great catching up with you, brother, you know that it's, it's always fun. So, if this is an excuse to catch up, we're going to do it. So, let's talk a little bit about first just out of curiosity, you going to law school? What was behind that? Was this a family thing? Was this something you always wanted to do? What drew you into the law? So, I actually had always thought about the law. I think that my father who passed away last year had a gift of subtly delivering messages to his kids. And he did that with me. So, I'll give him a lot of credit for that. And then when I was in high school, I was at best a mediocre student, mainly, I just had an interest in other things. I think we all know about that stage of life. You know, on the preset. I was a senior, and I had a homeroom teacher, which means that's the person who just makes sure you're showing up, right? She was cut truthfully, she was kind of a floozy, everybody knew it, that that's the way she was. She came up to me one day in class and said, hey, guess what? You're on my speech and debate team. I said, really, like since when she said, since right now I just looked at your grades, you need it. So, she immediately you know, guilted and intimidated me. And the first thing that she asked me to do was to write a persuasive paper. This is 1974, okay. And it was about the Arab-Israeli conflict. She gave me a book, and she and this is on the heels of the Six-Day War from that lady. She gives me a book and she says, and by the way, you know, I'm Jewish, she says, you'll take the Arab side. And, you know, I really, like what are you kidding me, and she said, in her comment was the other side's too easy, you're going to take the Arab side, so kind of forced me to be an advocate for something, maybe I didn't believe it. And I really felt that was like a major moment for me, like, going through that. And I stayed with her. And I was not a particularly good speaker at that point in my life and she had me going to these speech tournaments, we'd have to speak for 15 minutes in front of these judges. So it was a wonderful experience, and coupled with my, you know, my father's not so subtle, you know, suggestions to me, that's kind of what led to it, I always want to, unlike you, Dave, and I know this about you, because you and I've done this together for 17 years, you and I always have tried to help those who need it. Usually, it's the end, it's always the individuals, it's the little guys, and, and taking on the bigger people has always just made it more fun, hotter percent, and we're going to leave into that. So. So you've been doing that taking on the big guy and representing that individual for close to 40 years in Philadelphia, and Mass Torts and nationwide. So, let's talk a little bit about your practice. Because I'd like to talk today about mass torts. And I know that's been a big emphasis, your practice is what draw it got you and I connected. And, and the beauty of that is, you know, you make these relationships through litigation, and then you look at, you know, 17 years or whatever it's been, you know, still very close friends. As a result of that, so, so let's go back a little bit, um, mass torts. A lot of people, you know, they think, Oh, well, it's class action. Well, it's a separate animal. So what is a mass tort? So basically, there are many situations that occur, where there's one particular problem or one particular defect or one particular type of behavior that injures 1000s and 1000s of people. I mean, just for current examples, a medication or a medical device that was just recalled two months ago, made by Philips called the C pap machines. Well, they recalled all these machines dating back 2009 particularly Models because they contain a certain plastic that can be carcinogenic. So, all these people who've been using it now we're now looking at their medical histories and realizing Well, I have some of that is that related? Well, there are 1000s and 1000s of people who purchased it. So, two things will happen. One is, many of those people ...