When the U.S. Second Circuit handed down its decision in Windsor v. U.S., it gave new hope to the many same-sex married couples in New York that their marriages might someday be afforded the same recognition as the marriages of opposite-sex couples. The emotional benefits of such an acknowledgement are undoubtedly substantial, but the financial benefits are equally compelling.
While on occasion a report arrives that is so flawed as to be unsalvageable (suggesting that the report or the evaluator should not come within a mile of the courtroom door), there are certain trial strategies that can assist in preserving the aspects of a report that are both empirically supportable, consistent with the interests of one's client, and consistent with a trial process focused on discerning bests interests.
A discussion of several key cases.
For litigants today, faced with the potential of a long and drawn-out jury trial, along with the uncertainties that accompany such an exercise, mediation is becoming a very important alternative in the dispute resolution process.
Last month, we discussed the fact that one long-settled aspect of the California Supreme Court's peer-review jurisprudence is the exhaustion-of-remedies doctrine. We stated that two of California's intermediate appellate courts addressed doctors' whistleblower claims ' with diametrically opposed results.
The cornerstone of many FDA enforcement actions against pharmaceuticals manufacturers in recent years has been the charge that they have "misbranded" their pharmaceutical products by promoting them for uses not approved by the FDA. Now, the Second Circuit has thrown the concept of criminal liability for misbranding by means of off-label-use promotion into turmoil.
While it is natural for same-sex marriage supporters to want to ride the current wave of ballot box victories for marriage equality, that instinct should be resisted because popular-vote referenda are simply not the appropriate vehicle for determining fundamental individual rights, like the right to marry.
