Lessons from the First Vioxx Verdict
February 28, 2006
What do you get when you cross Court TV with the Food Channel? One answer: a recipe for a multi-million dollar jury verdict! Drug giant Merck will not see such blended TV programming, but it may have seen stars after getting hit with a $253 million jury award on Aug. 19, 2005. The first product liability trial against its Cox-2 inhibitor drug Vioxx in Angleton, TX, in August, 2005 produced a quarter-billion dollar award, $229 million of which was for punitive damages. Merck plans a vigorous appeal on multiple grounds. (Reportedly, grounds for appeal include: 1) letting in testimony from unqualified experts; 2) letting in testimony not based on reliable scientific evidence; 3) allowing irrelevant but prejudicial evidence in against Merck; and 4) letting in an undisclosed "surprise" witness against Merck.) Even pro-plaintiff observers concede that the award will likely drop to "only" $26 million due to recent Texas tort reform caps on punitive damages. (Merck fared better in its second and third Vioxx trials, which ended with a defense verdict and hung jury, respectively. Three Vioxx cases down -- only about 5998 to go!)
Litigation
February 28, 2006
Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Life Insurance in a Divorce Setting
February 28, 2006
In many -- if not most -- matrimonial actions, counsel or the court almost always automatically ensure that the dependent spouse is provided with life insurance, despite the fact that the statute authorizing life insurance to secure alimony is permissive and not mandatory. In many cases where there is a child support obligation or an equitable distribution obligation, the purpose of life insurance is clear: to secure these obligations, in the event the paying spouse dies prior to their fulfillment. Life insurance protects the supported spouse by providing a source of funds to assist with the support of the children (an obligation that survives the death of the spouse) and by assuring that the payment of equitable distribution is received (because the payment should not depend on the life or death of the obligor).
Witness Preparation Checklist for Deposition
February 28, 2006
My field is communications. My specialty is witness preparation. I am not a lawyer. Because I do not have to split my time between preparing a case and preparing a witness, I am free to focus exclusively on the problems and needs of witnesses. Over the years of preparing witnesses for both deposition and trial, I have made some interesting discoveries. For one thing, with proper preparation, there are very few witnesses who will remain bad ones. Almost all of them want to do the best job possible. They are highly motivated. The major reason for the problems and mistakes is lack of understanding of what is expected and lack of practice time to turn instructions into behavior.
The Progressive Lawyer
February 28, 2006
The "Parenting Coordinator" or "Parent Coordinator" (PC) is a newly evolving professional role, which is now being implemented in an increasing number of states -- with or without the benefit of a specific Rule of Court or statutory authority -- as a means for dealing with high-conflict families involved in domestic relations proceedings before the courts. <b><i>Part One of a Two-Part Article.</i></b>
Backup Tape Restorations: Back To The Present
February 28, 2006
One major concern in e-discovery is restoring backup tapes of data that may be needed for litigation, or other purposes. <br>Backup tape restoration can be a costly and time-consuming aspect of any litigation or investigation. Your client may have spent several years creating backup tapes, and now you have only days to locate and restore them.
Planning For The Inevitable
February 28, 2006
People who negotiate tech deals and draft contracts for legal or other services ' such as partnerships and the instruments that monitor them and give them teeth ' must remember one constant in today's ever-changing world: The technology we depend on every day often does not work. <br>As a result, the traditional wisdom, "failing to plan is planning to fail," has been transformed into a rule of thumb for the tech sector: "plan for failure." Firms that do not explicitly anticipate systems failure run the risk of being unprepared for a catastrophe
Another Kind Of Room With A View
February 28, 2006
Ramping up for document-review is a challenging prospect, requiring a firm to react quickly and aggressively, depending on the requirements of the case. The timeline for reviews can be extremely long, requiring attorneys to spend months sifting through information or very short, at times requiring firms to use contract attorneys to scale up to several times their original staffs' size to meet deadlines. <br>Vendors are offering off-site document-review rooms (DRRs) more frequently for customers who see the value these resources provide, and the DRR market is expanding.
