Volume 1 - Number 4 | October 2005
| October Issue in PDF Format … |
| In the Aftermath of Katrina By Lawrie Demorest and Josh Becker In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people from all walks of life and from all corners of the world want to reach out to do what they can to help the victims of this unfathomable disaster. Schoolchildren are raising pennies to help those in need while relief organizations send supplies from all regions of the country. On the ground where this disaster struck in Louisiana and Mississippi, however, thousands of caring individuals have been providing emergency first aid and medical care to their neighbors in need. When licensed health care workers respond to the urgent needs of the hurricane's victims, what kinds of liability might they be opening themselves up to? |
| Dangerous Drug Trials By Anthony Lin A federal judge in Manhattan has dismissed for a second time class action claims against drug maker Pfizer Inc. by Nigerian families who claim the company put their children in dangerous drug trials without consent. |
| Merck Faces New Jersey Jury After Big Texas Loss By Tim O'Brien After Merck & Co.'s devastating loss in Texas in August in the first Vioxx case to go to a jury, the nation's eyes now turn to Atlantic City, where New Jersey's first case was set for trial on Sept. 12. There are about 5000 personal injury suits filed nationwide, about half in New Jersey, over the Merck painkiller that has been linked to increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Last month, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee, who is overseeing nearly 2500 Vioxx product-liability cases, rejected a Merck request to postpone the trial. The plaintiff's attorney, Christopher Seeger of Seeger-Weiss in Manhattan and Newark, told The Wall Street Journal that he was "absolutely thrilled" by the judge's action. "I just can't wait to get in a courtroom with this company," he said. |
| Judge Won't Stop Suit Against Clinical Lab By Shannon P. Duffy In a ruling that breaks new ground in the area of drug products liability, a federal judge has refused to dismiss negligence and fraud claims against a clinical laboratory for allegedly conspiring with a drug manufacturer to mislead the FDA. |
| Using Daubert to Defeat Causation in the Delayed Diagnosis Claim By Victoria M. Davis and Brian R. Stimson Part Two of a Two-Part Article. The McDowell case discussed in the first part of this article presented the question of "whether it is so if an expert says it is so." See Viterbo v. Dow Chem. Co., 826 F.2d 420, 421 (5th Cir. 1987). Daubert and its progeny answered in the negative and established that an expert may not present a bare causation conclusion to the jury when that expert has no scientific basis for that conclusion or for any of the predicate inferences leading up to it. The McDowell claim failed because a physician's personal clinical experience, sometimes called anecdotal experience, is simply not a proper scientific basis for causation opinion testimony. |
| Company Agrees to Pay $74 Million to Resolve Allegations By Janice G. Inman Natick, MA-based Boston Scientific Corp. has agreed to pay $74 million to the United States to resolve an ongoing investigation concerning its 1998 distribution and subsequent recall of one of its coronary stent delivery systems. In agreeing to the settlement, the company did not admit to any wrongdoing. |
