LJN Newsletters

When Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader, several political observers attributed his downfall to the criticism leveled at him through a hitherto little-noticed medium: Web logs, or, as they are more commonly called, blogs.

The Supreme Court's April 7 ruling on punitive damages, greeted with relief and enthusiasm by corporate defendants, opens new battlegrounds in litigation seeking those awards. The ruling significantly expanded the High Court's prior attempts to guide lower courts and lawyers on when punitive damages awards may run afoul of the Constitution. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, No. 01-1289.

The first article in this series (Insurance Coverage Law Bulletin Volume 2, Number 1, February 2003) provided an overview of upcoming articles, and addressed the issue of fraud at the inception of an insurance claim. This second installment focuses on insurance carriers' analysis of fraudulent claims and the use of forensic experts to defend against claims. It also addresses the issue of fraudulent enhancement of otherwise valid claims.

Professional liability policies typically exclude coverage for claims arising out of an insured's knowing, wrongful acts, but, in recognition of the fact that a single policy may extend coverage to multiple insureds working together in association, insurance companies sell the policies with language reinstating coverage for innocent insureds, those of the insureds who had no knowledge of the allegedly wrongful acts of their colleagues. Recently, this innocent-insured coverage has received scrutiny.

Highlights of the latest insurance cases from around the country.

In the weeks before trial of a product liability case, you will presumably begin to focus more significantly on jury selection, perhaps the most important stage of any jury trial. One way to maximize the voir dire process is to use juror questionnaires — a series of written questions that are given to the prospective jury panel and answered in writing by each prospective juror prior to voir dire.

Attorneys litigating suits involving everything from vaccines to the safety of the air on jetliners, or those who simply need scientific information about research and policies, can visit www.national-academies.org, the Web site for the National Academies of Science and Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Areas covered on the site include: biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental issues, behavioral and social science, education, health and medicine, and business and economics.

Mass tort litigation provides ample opportunity for filing spurious claims. Last November, a Philadelphia federal judge sharply criticized two small New York plaintiffs' firms for allegedly having submitted dubious claims to a fen-phen diet pill settlement trust. U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found that 78 claimants did not, in fact, show evidence of heart valve damage, notwithstanding diagnoses to that effect by two physicians retained by the firms. One of those physicians had been paid $725,000 to interpret 725 echocardiograms, while the other was getting a contingent $1500 bonus for each diagnosed claim that was paid by the trust, the judge found.