Have you seen this ad or one like it? Lawyers—already an opportunistic bunch by most accounts—have been trying to capitalize on defective drugs and faulty medical devices. The Orlando Sentinel takes a look at the litigation process on the patient side, asking one basic question: sue on your own or with others? There is strength in numbers, apparently. And it's cheaper, too. There's a Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation that decides whether different lawsuits against a particular drug or device are similar, and if so, the cases are consolidated and assigned to one judge in one district (called multidistrict litigation or MDL). Those not in the legal realm may wonder how Riegel v. Medtronic factors into this; the article doesn't really make it clear that these litigation options are only open to patients who claim to have been harmed by 510(k)-cleared devices and not those that have undergone premarket approval. —Lawrence Lloyd