Taser Suffers a Rare Loss in Court

Mike Nizza
NY Times
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Despite a steady stream of negative news coverage, Taser International’s business has sailed above it all, rolling with the punches before coming out on top of a growing industry.

To the frustration of the company’s many critics, orders keep coming in, from cities like Las Vegas and even from a country that remains nameless. The brand’s dominance in the electric-shock weapons market prompts comparisons to Kleenex’s hold on the facial-tissue market segment. Academic studies have supported the company’s claims that its products are safe to use. And incidents that hit the papers do not always engender outrage: some are even hilarious. New product lines from the company seek to lure female consumers as well.

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Perhaps most importantly, the company has been remarkably successful inside the courtroom. With 69 straight trial victories, according to one count, Taser had assembled a nearly unmatchable record — 3 more wins than this year’s much-vaunted Boston Celtics, with none of the embarrassing losses.
None until Friday evening, that is, when an unfavorable verdict represented the first chink in the taser-proof body armor. From The Herald of Monterey County, Calif., the local paper on the case:

A federal jury has held Taser International responsible for the death of a Salinas man in U.S. District Court in San Jose on Friday, and awarded his family more than $6 million in punitive and compensatory damages.

An attorney for the family called the verdict a “landmark decision,” and indicated that it was the first time Taser International had been held responsible for a death or injury linked to its product.

During trading on Monday, the company’s stock dropped almost 12 percent. “Investors will assume heightened operating risk in the Taser model in the short-term,” one analyst told Barron’s, adding that shrinking police budgets also threatened business. Bloomberg News reported last month that more than half of Taser’s top 10 shareholders sold some of their shares this year.

Full article here.

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