FDA's Failure-to-Warn Pre-emption
Nearly one year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a pre-emption on filing failure-to-warn actions over federally approved drugs, rulings across the nation show a clear division over the issue.
Medicaid Liens on Settlements After Ahlborn
Last May's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ark. Dep't of Human Servs. v. Ahlborn, 547 U.S. 268 (2006) ' which held that when a Medicaid benefits recipient settles with a tortfeasor, states seeking recoupment of funds for monies expended on their medical care may do so only from that part of a settlement that was designated as being for past medical expenses ' has so far led to very few reported decisions on the subject. However, two recent cases in New York have applied the teachings of the decision to find that some malpractice claimants who are also Medicaid benefits recipients and who settle with those who allegedly injured them must be allowed to keep for themselves more of the proceeds of their claims.
Fields v. Yusuf
Generally speaking, a physician is not liable for the negligent actions of hospital employees and staff who are not employed by the physician. There are, however, two key instances where a physician can be held liable for a non-employee's negligent actions: 1) when the physician discovers a non-employee's negligence during the course of ordinary care and fails to correct or otherwise prevent the ill effects of the negligent act; and 2) when the non-employee is under the physician's supervision and control such that a 'master and servant' relationship exists. Over the past several decades, the viability of this 'captain of the ship' doctrine has diminished, for several reasons.
Partial Birth Abortion
In what may become a landmark decision on abortion rights, the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (the Act) in a 5-to-4 decision with implications extending beyond the abortion field.
'Dear Abby' Law Firm Blogs a No-No, Carrier Says
One of the largest carriers of lawyers' professional liability insurance has set out guidelines for law firms that want to get into the business of blogging, without hurting their insurability.
Defective Pet Foods: New Litigation Theories Or Just the Same Old Chow? An Animal Law Attorney Argues for More Than Market Value Damages
One of the biggest stories in product liability in the past month has been the recall of tens of thousands of cans of food sold to consumers to feed to their companion animals. The news has attracted public attention because it is a tragedy of potentially epic proportion: Somewhere between 20 (according to the FDA) and 20,000-plus (by extrapolating statisticians) of the nation's nonhuman family members have developed serious illnesses and/or died from eating food containing something very toxic that has caused renal failure (still being debated). Furthermore, in the litigation arena, plaintiffs' attorneys ranging from sole practitioners to the large class action law firms most often in the headlines have all filed actions representing both individual clients and broad-ranging classes of thousands of individuals affected by the poisoned food. (At the time of this writing, more than 30 cases had supposedly been filed across the country.)
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