Trial lawyers can breathe a sigh of relief because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that federal drug labeling laws don't prevent patients from filing product liability claims under state laws. In one of the major cases of the court's current term, the justices ruled 6-3 that plaintiffs can file suit against drug companies in state court over pharmaceutical products if U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved labels fail to adequately warn consumers of the products' dangers. That had been the case for decades, but in recent years the Bush administration, supported by the pharmaceutical industry, had argued that certain federal consumer protection laws trumped state law claims.

Trial lawyers across the country -- and their main lobbying group, the American Association for Justice -- hailed the decision, which could have severely curtailed their practices if it had gone the other way. San Francisco-based Elizabeth J. Cabraser of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP said the court had made it clear that "the FDA shields the public, not the drug companies."