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Leading the NewsGeorgia High Court strikes down cap on medical malpractice awards.The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (3/23, Rankin) reports, "A unanimous Georgia Supreme Court on Monday struck down limits on jury awards in medical malpractice cases," ruling that the $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages violates the right to a jury trial guaranteed by the Georgia Constitution, as the cap "'clearly nullifies the jury's findings of fact regarding damages and thereby undermines the jury's basic function,' Chief Justice Carol Hunstein wrote for the court." The AP (3/23, Bluestein) reports that the ruling "will likely herald a flurry of new litigation, as the court said the ruling applied retroactively to all other pending medical-malpractice cases, including those that are now in the appeals process." In the case before the court, Betsy Nestlehutt "was awarded $1.15 million in non-economic damages -- including $900,000 in pain and suffering -- by a Fulton County jury after she was permanently disfigured after a botched facelift." The New York Times (3/23, A19, Brown) reports, "The ruling was praised by victims' rights groups and plaintiffs' lawyers and was condemned by doctors and Republican lawmakers." The Fulton County Daily Report (3/23, Palmer) reports, "Atlanta lawyer R. Adams 'Adam' Malone of Malone Law, who represents the plaintiffs in Monday's case, expressed gratitude for the unanimous nature of the ruling."
AAJ in the NewsBlogger says link between tort reform, health care savings is unclear.In a blog at the Cleveland Plain Dealer (3/20), Stephen Koff wrote, "five years after a difficult but successful fight in Columbus to pass tort reform, health-care costs in the state have not gone down. And health policy analysts say it may not be possible to say whether costs would have spiked even higher had Ohio not passed lawsuit reform." The American Association for Justice, "a trade group that represents trial lawyers, notes...that while health insurance premiums in Ohio rose more slowly than the national average, the Ohio pace still outstripped the hikes in neighboring Kentucky. And Kentucky did not put caps in malpractice verdicts, so tort reform could not explain its savings."
Civil Justice SystemSCOTUS to hear prosecutorial immunity case.The National Law Journal (3/23, Mauro) reports, "The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to rule on a Louisiana dispute that could be an important test of prosecutorial immunity in a death penalty case. In Connick v. Thompson, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court verdict that awarded accused murderer John Thompson $14 million for the district attorney's failure to train its lawyers about so-called Brady violations, a failure that led to his wrongful conviction and death sentence in 1985. Current Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizaro Jr. appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, asserting that upholding the 5th Circuit's decision 'exposes district attorney's offices to vicarious liability for a wide range of prosecutorial misconduct.'" The AP (3/22) reported, "Prosecutors ordinarily may not be sued for their official actions. The high court underscored that point last year when it held that a California man who spent 24 years in prison after being wrongly convicted could not sue the former Los Angeles district attorney." New York City settles strip-search class-action for $33M.The AP (3/22) reported, "Two women who claimed they were forced to undergo gynecological exams and thousands of other people who said they were strip-searched in New York City jails have settled a class-action lawsuit with the city for $33 million. The suit was filed on behalf of people arrested on misdemeanor drug and weapons charges and strip-searched at Rikers Island and other jails." Under the agreement, "victims can receive between $1,800 and $2,900 each, depending on how many people respond." Texas couple fails to reach settlement in mediation with Perry Homes.The AP (3/22) reported, "Mediation efforts were unsuccessful Monday between an elderly Fort Worth-area couple and the politically powerful Houston homebuilder who lost a $58 million judgment to them, the couple's lawyers said. Van Shaw and Dan Hagood, attorneys for Robert and Jane Cull of Mansfield, said they failed to reach an agreement with lawyers for Perry Homes owner Bob Perry, once considered one of the nation's largest political donors. A Fort Worth judge had ordered the mediation to avoid appeals after the $58 million verdict against Perry and a home warranty company earlier this month." McGuireWoods challenges elimination of attorney's fees based on class representative incentives.The Recorder (3/23, Bronstad) reports, "Plaintiffs' lawyers who obtained a $49 million settlement in an antitrust class action against the parent company of BARBRI are gearing up for another fight before the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals - this time, involving their attorneys fees. Class counsel McGuireWoods, which settled the litigation in 2007, filed a notice of appeal on March 8 after U.S. District Judge Manuel Real of the Central District of California eliminated all the firm's attorneys fees over an apparent conflict of interest." The appeals "challenge Real's Feb. 3 finding that McGuireWoods violated the California Rules of Professional Conduct by failing to inform class members about an agreement that gave incentive awards to five class representatives based on the value of the settlement."
Washington, DC married lawyers sue over protestors' rights.The Washington Post (3/23, Labbé-DeBose) reports, "When Carl Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard sued the District on behalf of hundreds of protesters arrested by D.C. police, their strategy all along was to do more than win a large settlement for the demonstrators. They wanted to teach the city a lesson." The Post profiles Messineo and Verheydne-Hilliard, who are married, commenting that their "tedious approach to assembling facts is a staple of their three-person law practice, the Partnership for Civil Justice, and reflects a deeper personal passion to defend the Constitution and create social change." Congress
Obama to kick off campaign to promote new healthcare law.House approval of the healthcare reform measure is receiving extensive, and largely positive media coverage, including the lead stories on all three network newscasts. A majority of stories describe the bill in positive terms, and cast its passage as a big victory for Democrats in general -- and for the President and Speaker Pelosi in particular. NBC Nightly News (3/22, lead story, 3:30, Williams) said in its lead story that the measure "will improve the healthcare of millions of Americans." NBC (Guthrie) added that Democrats are "basking in their victory," and on Monday "worked to place the vote among the nation's legislative landmarks, civil rights, social security, the Speaker clutching the gavel used at the passage of Medicare." The President will sign the bill on Tuesday, "then travel to Iowa on Thursday for a rally to sell it." On Monday, "the President's top political adviser David Axelrod said the President was actually more excited last night than on his own election night." ABC World News (3/22, lead story, 2:30, Tapper) also noted the exchange between Axelrod and the President: "'When you win the presidency,' he told Axelrod 'it's like the semi finals, but the goal is to get to a place where you can really make a difference.'" The President, says the CBS Evening News (3/22, story 2, 3:15, Smith), "put just about everything on the line to get health reform through: his presidency and his party's future." CBS (Reid) added that this "is not the end of the road for healthcare reform for the President. In fact, it's really the beginning of a brand-new campaign of trying to convince a skeptical American public that passing healthcare reform was the right thing to do." Senate GOP hoping to derail health bill's reconciliation process. NBC Nightly News (3/22, story 2, 1:00, O'Donnell) reported that "the President can sign the bill, he can go out and sell it, but that doesn't mean it's actually over. Why? House Democrats did a lot of rewriting on the health reforms that were just passed so the Senate must approve those for them to take effect. This is called reconciliation. Senate Republicans have a strategy to try to strip out whole sections of the bill and they can offer dozens of amendments, even some appealing to Democrats. If they succeed even once it goes back to the House for another vote." In fact, Roll Call (3/23, Drucker) reports, "a senior Republican Senate aide" said "Republicans are 'virtually certain' there are flaws in the Democrats' strategy that can be exploited to thwart the majority party's plan for wrapping up health care legislation within the next few days." Like ABC, Roll Call also says that "the GOP hopes, at a minimum, to force the House to vote again on the measure." Obama lauds Senate banking panel approval of financial regulatory bill.The AP (3/23) reports, "President Barack Obama is praising the Democrats' massive Wall Street regulation bill as it heads to the full Senate." The bill was approved by the "Senate Banking Committee...along party lines on Monday." Obama stated that "the nation is 'one step closer' to passing financial reform that he contends will bring oversight and accountability to the US financial system." Drug SafetyFDA asks physicians to suspend use of Rotarix due to contamination.The New York Times (3/23, Harris) reports that the FDA "on Monday asked the nation's pediatricians to stop giving children" Rotarix, a vaccine used to protect against rotavirus, "until federal scientists can figure out why the product contains apparently harmless but extraneous pieces of a pig virus." Dr. Margaret Hamburg, FDA commissioner, said, "This was a difficult decision for us because there is no evidence at this time that there is a risk to children." The decision on the Rotarix vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, also "is unlikely to disrupt routine immunizations in children since a second vaccine, this one made by Merck and called RotaTeq, remains available." Dr. Hamburg added, "We're not taking this vaccine off the market." The Wall Street Journal (3/23, Dooren, Favole) reports that the FDA's recommendation came after it became aware that an independent US academic team found porcine circovirus 1, or PCV-1, DNA in Rotarix. Dr. Hamburg also noted that a panel of outside medical experts in four to six weeks will be convened to address the issue. The Washington Post (3/23, Brown) notes that "preliminary tests of GSK's inactivated polio vaccine, which is also made in cell culture, has not found the contaminating virus." AFP (3/23) also points out that "European medical regulators were urgently seeking information Monday" from Glaxo "after finding traces of a virus that normally infects swine in a children's vaccine." Still, the European Medicines Agency said in a statement, "The findings do not present a public health threat." According to USA Today (3/23, Rubin), "One million US babies have received Rotarix, a two-dose oral vaccine, since its approval in 2008, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said." CNN (3/23, Watkins) adds that "Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said 'a substantial amount' of the DNA was found in the vaccine. But, he stressed, 'there is no evidence that it causes any disease. ... There is no evidence that it ever does anything.'" Recent Plavix boxed warning divides physicians.The Wall Street Journal (3/23, Winslow) reports that every month, approximately three million prescriptions for Plavix (clopidogrel) are written, but some patients carry genetic abnormalities that render the drug ineffective. The medical community has known about such risks for more than a year; however, the FDA's recent decision to place a boxed warning on the clot-preventing drug has caused a divide among cardiologists who are either unsure about the usefulness of genetic testing, the soundness of doubling doses, or the benefits of switching patients to a rival drug, Effient (prasugrel). "'There are so many questions about what to do that it puts us in a tough spot on a day-to-day basis,' says Christopher Cannon," a Brigham and Women's Hospital cardiologist. He added, "There are lots of issues, none of which have any answers." Employment/Workplace SafetyKBR withdraws appeal asking SCOTUS to block rape lawsuit.The AP (3/22) reported, "Halliburton Co. and KBR Inc. have withdrawn an appeal asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block a lawsuit by a former military contractor who says she was raped by KBR co-workers in Iraq. KBR said in a statement Monday that it withdrew the appeal to not risk violating a recently passed federal provision it called "very broad and vague," that restricts the Defense Department from doing business with companies that prohibit employees from seeking redress for certain crimes through the courts." Jamie Leigh Jones, "of Texas, sued the companies after she says she was raped while working for KBR in Baghdad in 2005. KBR and Halliburton split in 2007." More men filing sexual harassment claims.The Wall Street Journal (3/23, Mattioli) reports that according to the EEOC, an increasing percentage of sexual harassment claims since the beginning of the recession are being filed by men. Medical Errors/HealthcarePhysicians' litigation fears may keep medical costs high after reform.In Newsweek (3/22), Sharon Begley, noting that although many lawmakers "remain opposed to" the newly passed reform bill "because it does too little to rein in medical costs," pointed out that "history is full of examples of imperfect legislation (Social Security, civil rights) being improved by subsequent bills." With that in mind, "there is no better place to start than with unnecessary care," and many physicians "couldn't get their nominees" for certain procedures in "fast enough," because "doctors hate practicing defensive medicine." But, "nationwide, physicians estimate that 35 percent of diagnostic tests they ordered were to avoid lawsuits, as were 19 percent of hospitalizations, 14 percent of prescriptions, and eight percent of surgeries," which amounts to some "$650 billion in unnecessary care every year." Begley notes that "even in Texas, where a 2003 tort-reform law caps awards for pain and suffering at $750,000, physicians practiced defensive medicine at the same rate as in other states." Product Safety
Bills would make it harder for Louisiana insurers to drop Chinese drywall homeowners.The New Orleans Times-Picayune (3/22, Anderson) reported, "Two New Orleans area lawmakers have filed competing bills for the upcoming lawmaking session that would prohibit or make it harder for insurance companies to drop policyholders who filed claims based on the presence of tainted Chinese drywall in their homes. Sen. Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, and Rep. Walt Leger III, D-New Orleans, filed the bills for the legislative session that opens Monday." Florida homeowners grapple with Chinese drywall.Scripps News (3/22, Vanderhoof) reported, "According to a database obtained by Scripps Howard News Service from the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 166 Chinese drywall complaints have originated from [Florida's] Treasure Coast including 53 from Indian River County, 90 from St. Lucie County and 23 from Martin County." Dozens of homeowners "are taking their builders and drywall manufacturers to court." Others "are simply walking away from homes, risking foreclosure, while some homeowners are considering paying for expensive repair procedures that promise to fix the drywall problems and salvage the home. Some more fortunate homeowners have received assistance from their builders but others continue to live in the homes and pay the mortgage despite the possibility of health risks because they don't have the money to pay rent at an apartment and a mortgage." Plaintiff's lawyer to pan Toyota's safety systems in press event.USA Today (3/23, O'Donnell) reports that in a Washington, DC, press conference scheduled for today, an attorney in a case against Toyota will claim that the automaker's "safety systems are 'deficient' because they do not detect problems that lead to unintended acceleration. ... Disputing Toyota's claims that its 'fail-safe' systems prevent unwanted acceleration will be Tom Murray, a Sandusky, Ohio, lawyer who has brought dozens of unintended-acceleration cases over 20 years, and three British engineers who specialize in electronics and electromagnetic interference (EMI) from signals in or outside the car. The group also contends that no amount of testing could assure Toyota that EMI or software glitches can't cause unintended acceleration." California sisters sue Toyota over 2008 crash. The San Jose Mercury News (3/23, Salonga) reports that a pair of sisters from Contra Costa County, California, filed suit this week alleging that Toyota is responsible "for injuries they suffered in a 2008 car accident, claiming their Camry suddenly accelerated and sent them crashing into a brick wall. ... The suit further claims that a recall of that Camry model would have prevented the accident." Toyota told dealers sudden acceleration linked to electronics in 2002. CNN (3/23, Griffin, Fitzpatrick) reports that in a 2002 technical service bulletin to its dealerships, Toyota warned "that Camry owners were complaining about throttles surging and recommended adjustments in an electronic control unit to fix the problem." The document "went to every U.S. Toyota dealership in late August 2002 after some customers reported their vehicles were speeding up unexpectedly. 'Some 2002 model year Camry vehicles may exhibit a surging during light throttle input at speeds between 38-42 mph,' the bulletin states. 'The Engine Control Module (ECM) calibration has been revised to correct this condition.'" CNN contrasts this document with Toyota's repeated insistence that its sudden acceleration problems are not due to electronic factors. Toyota Announces Plan To Replace Accelerators In Secondary Recall. The New York Times (3/23, Maynard, Bunkley) reports that Toyota has announced that its dealerships will "provide replacement accelerator pedals to owners unhappy with repairs" after a series of cases of unintended acceleration in cars that have already been through the recall process. "'Accelerator pedal replacement is based on specific customer request only,' said the memo, which was addressed to dealers, service managers and parts managers. 'Dealers are not to solicit pedal replacement.'" Hazardous lead levels found in some Indian spices, powders.In "Vital Signs," the New York Times (3/23, D6, Rabin) reports that "it appears Indian spices and ceremonial powders may contain lead at levels that may be hazardous to children." In a report published in the March 15 edition of the journal Pediatrics, Boston researchers "tested the products after four young children were referred to the hospital with elevated blood lead levels." They "found that only about one-quarter of spices had any detectable lead, but 58 percent of ceremonial powders and 81 percent of cosmetics tested contained lead." Also in the NewsFTC orders Pennsylvania telemarketing scam to pay $4.7M restitution.The Legal Intelligencer (3/23, Duffy) reports, "Chalk up a win for the Federal Trade Commission now that U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose of the Western District of Pennsylvania has shut down a telemarketing scam run by an East Pittsburgh firm and ordered more than $4.7 million in restitution to consumers. In the suit, FTC lawyers argued that Magazine Solutions Inc. engaged in a nationwide telemarketing scam that targeted young mothers with promises of valuable coupons when, in fact, they were luring them into buying unwanted magazine subscriptions." | ||||||||||||||
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