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Leading the NewsAn exultant Obama signs healthcare bill into law.The signing of the healthcare reform legislation received very extensive, and overwhelmingly positive, media coverage, much of it casting the event as a historic occasion and as a major triumph for the President and his party. While Republicans continued to appear confident that the new law will be an electoral boon for them this fall, some analysts are now predicting that the win on healthcare gives Democrats new momentum and could change the political dynamic of recent months. The bill itself is being described in generally positive terms. ABC World News (3/23, lead story, 2:45, Sawyer) said in its lead story last night, devoted to the bill signing at the White House, "As of today, it is the law of the land that every man, woman and child in America will have healthcare coverage." ABC (Tapper) added that Obama "was as happy as we've seen him, perhaps since the inauguration." The CBS Evening News (3/23, lead story, 3:00, Smith) led its broadcast announcing that this is "the closest the nation has ever come to universal coverage," and added that "ecstatic Congressional Democrats treated the President and Vice President like conquering heroes." NBC Nightly News (3/23, lead story, 3:05, Williams) reported, "It was the end of the fight" Obama "staked his presidency on, and for him a crowning achievement." In his remarks, "the President took pains to highlight reforms that will happen immediately, and nightmare scenarios that won't." Obama was shown saying, "I heard one of the Republican leaders say this was going to be Armageddon. Well, you know, two months from now, six months from now you can check it out. We'll look around. And we'll see." Industry lobbyists turn their attention to crafting regulations. The Washington Post (3/24, Eggen) reports, "Interest groups that spent the past year fighting over President Obama's health-care overhaul are quickly transforming themselves for battle in a new arena, working to sway the law to their benefit. ... Industry groups and labor unions will focus on attempting to steer implementation of the legislation to their advantage, including the writing of federal rules to govern insurance coverage, requirements for employers and the insurance exchanges created under the law." According to the Post, "These and other efforts by outside interest groups suggest that the health-care legislation signed into law Tuesday by Obama will probably redirect, rather than end, the furious lobbying efforts that have surrounded the administration's health-care plans. Insurers, drugmakers and other health-care companies have broken records for lobbying expenditures over the past year and show little sign of slowing their activities."
AAJ in the NewsConservative groups continue efforts to "scuttle" health care bill.Roll Call (3/23, Murray) reports, "Industry groups, labor unions and other stakeholders in health care reform offered up their parting shots on Monday, airing lingering grievances with the historic legislation or praising a bill that, after more than a year of tussling, now awaits President Barack Obama's signature." Conservative groups "are continuing their attempts to scuttle the contentious legislation this week, arguing for amendments involving tort reform, immigration, abortion rights and other political wedge issues. American Association for Justice lobbyist Linda Lipsen said she wouldn't be surprised if there was an attempt to include a medical malpractice amendment to the reconciliation bill by those trying to derail the entire package. 'There's a whole host of issues that could be raised with the intent of trying to derail the bill,' Lipsen said." US Chamber's Institute For Legal Reform grades states by "lawsuit climate."The Sacramento Business Journal (3/22, Trujillo) reported, "California's lawsuit climate is one of the worst in the nation, joining Alabama, Louisiana and West Virginia, according to a U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform report released Monday." The Golden State "especially ranks low for class-action suits, tort or personal injury lawsuits, damages and contract litigation, according to the attorneys who responded and represent companies with at least $100 million in revenue." AAJ "attacked the just-released report, claiming the survey depends heavily on corporate attorneys who benefit when they protect corporations from lawsuits after injuring consumers. 'The chamber's report is just another shallow attempt to weaken the civil justice system to help its Wall Street and big business financiers,' American Association for Justice spokesman Ray De Lorenzi said. 'This is just one more call from the corporate lobby to bail out negligent corporations while everyday Americans are left holding the bag.'" WDSU-TV New Orleans (3/22) on its website reported, "AAJ argued Monday the survey lacks scientific merit and is part of an effort to weaken civil litigation on behalf of the same companies in need of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout funds. 'The American people have seen what happens when the Chamber's largest clients -- like AIG, insurance and drug companies -- are not held accountable,' spokesman Ran De Lorenzi said." In a column in Forbes (3/22), Daniel Fisher wrote, "It's hardly an objective survey, and trial lawyers dismiss the whole thing as bunk, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce once again ranked West Virginia at the bottom of the list of states according to what corporate lawyers call the 'lawsuit climate.'" Fisher commented that AAJ "predictably denounced the survey as 'another corporate bailout,' designed to hoodwink voters into supporting 'reforms' that will shield corporations from paying for the damages they cause. The group--formerly known as the American Trial Lawyers Association--criticized the Chamber for using a polling method that failed to discriminate between uninformed opinion and actual data about states like West Virginia." In the "On Small Business" blog at the Orange County (CA) Register (3/22), Jan Norman wrote, "The American Association for Justice objects that 'the annual lawsuit climate rankings released today by its Institute for Legal Reform are yet another call for less oversight and accountability for the Wall Street, drug, and insurance companies that fund this corporate front group.'"
Civil Justice SystemSome question judge's power to reject 9/11 settlement.The New York Law Journal (3/24, Hamblett) reports, "Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein's rejection of a settlement between New York City and some 10,000 plaintiffs who claimed to have suffered respiratory ailments during the World Trade Center response and cleanup has left the lawyers for the plaintiffs, the city and its contractors who had spent almost two years negotiating the settlement wondering what to do next. The judge, addressing a courtroom packed with attorneys and plaintiffs last Friday, called the $575 million to $657 million settlement inadequate and potentially confusing to plaintiffs." Legal analysts "on Monday said there is no precedent on point for appellate review of a judge's refusal to accept what he believes to be an inadequate settlement in mass tort litigation." Geoffrey P. Miller of New York University School of Law commented, "The legal basis for the judge exercising that kind of powerful equitable authority is questionable." New York City DOC officials lied about strip-searches, says columnist.In a column in the New York Times (3/24, A20), Jim Dwyer writes that on Monday, New York City "announced that it had agreed to pay off yet another class-action lawsuit for the very same kind of strip-search violations that it had promised...would end in 2002." Beyond "the cost of the settlement, this case has another striking feature: hard-core dishonesty by officials in the Department of Correction." Dwyer asks, "Has anyone in government been held accountable for not complying with the 2002 promises, or for denying under oath the plain truth of what was going on?" Catholic Bishops' report finds reduction in number of abuse claims in US.The AP (3/23) reported that according to the latest annual report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "the number of abuse victims, allegations and offending clergy in the U.S. dropped in 2009 to their lowest numbers since data started being collected in 2004." Dioceses "and their insurers paid $104 million in settlements, attorneys' fees and other abuse-related costs in 2009, down from $376 million in 2008." David Clohessy, "national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, reiterated victims' skepticism about self-reported abuse figures."
Chemtura Corp. sued for $9B.In the "Bankruptcy Beat" blog at the Wall Street Journal (3/23), David McLaughlin wrote that the California-based Council for Education and Research on Toxics is suing Chemtura Corp for $9 billion, claiming that the Connecticut company's chemical products were injurious to wildlife and humans. Chrysler expected to settle whistleblower suit over bribery.The Detroit Free Press (3/23, Hyde) reported, "Nine years ago, Chrysler auditor David Bazzetta was shocked to hear from DaimlerChrysler executives in Germany that the company regularly bribed foreign governments for business – even though they knew it violated U.S. law. That whistle Bazzetta blew will finally be answered next week, when Daimler appears in a U.S. federal court in Washington on charges it spent hundreds of millions of dollars on payoffs to officials in 22 countries between 1998 and 2008. Several outlets reported that the company will pay $185 million to settle the charges, but the company and the U.S. Department of Justice declined comment." InsuranceCalifornia bill seeks to make insurance companies justify rate hikes.The Los Angeles Times (3/24, Lifsher) reports that "California lawmakers who want to go further than the newly signed federal healthcare overhaul scored a victory Tuesday when a proposal to make insurance companies justify rate hikes sailed through the Assembly's Health Committee." The legislation "would put health insurers and health maintenance organizations under the same strict regulation that has covered automobile and other types of property insurance for the last two decades." According to the Times, "health insurance companies and most preferred provider organizations would have to get approval from the Department of Insurance, while HMOs would have to get an OK from the Department of Managed Health Care." Drug Safety
Neurontin civil racketeering trial goes to jury.Bloomberg News (3/23, Boris, Lawrence) reports, "Pfizer Inc., facing a $270 million fraud claim, defended its epilepsy drug Neurontin [gabapentin] at the close of a civil racketeering trial in Boston." Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals allege "that Pfizer illegally promoted Neurontin for unapproved uses" and that they were "misled into believing Neurontin was effective for migraines, bipolar disorder and other conditions in addition to epilepsy." Kaiser alleges that the medication was marketed as treating "a number of conditions for which it didn't work." However, Pfizer argues that "Kaiser continues to permit its doctors to prescribe Neurontin for off-label conditions." The "jurors deliberated briefly today before going home for the night." Judge asks Pennsylvania SC to uphold ruling barring re-filing of HRT case in Minnesota.The Legal Intelligencer (3/24, Elliott-Engel) reports, "A Philadelphia judge has asked the state Superior Court to uphold his ruling that two plaintiffs alleging their breast cancer was caused by hormone replacement therapy drugs could not end their lawsuits in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court and seek to file their cases instead in Minnesota, which has a six-year statute of limitations. In two opinions written late last month, Common Pleas Judge Allan L. Tereshko explained that letting the plaintiffs voluntarily terminate their action before commencement of trial is inappropriate if it would frustrate the statute of limitations, if it is only pursued to institute the same cause of action in a different forum, or if a dispositive motion is pending." Employment/Workplace SafetyOhio SC upholds law limiting employees' ability to sue while receiving workers' comp.The AP (3/23) reported, "The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a 2005 state law that limited lawsuits by workers hurt on the job. In a pair of 6-1 decisions, justices found the law restricting the ability of employees to file 'workplace intentional torts' against their bosses while simultaneously receiving state workers' compensation benefits is constitutional. The law requires employees who want to file lawsuits to prove their employer acted deliberately to cause injury." Miami Herald calls for passage of Paycheck Fairness Act.The Miami Herald (3/24) editorializes, "There's a bill in the U.S. Senate that could give women more tools to force bosses to abandon gender-pay discrimination for good. The House has already passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, and, as driven by partisan politics as the Senate is, there can be only one view of unequal pay for equal work for nearly half of all U.S. workers: It's time to crack down on employers who cheat female workers." Ensuring "that women workers get paid what they're worth should be a shoo-in." Medical Errors/HealthcareMissouri SC rules med-mal caps not retroactive.The AP (3/23, Lieb) reports that a Missouri Supreme Court ruling "slightly narrowed the scope Tuesday of a 2005 state law limiting how much money can be awarded to people in medical malpractice cases." The high court ruled that under the Missouri Constitution's prohibition on retroactive laws, the limit for non-economic damages to $350,000 per lawsuit doesn't apply to those injured before the cap took effect. Although the majority "avoided the broader issue of whether the lawsuit limits are a violation of other constitutional rights," Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff's concurrence argued the cap violates the right to a jury trial, and Judge Richard Teitelman's concurrence agree with Wolff, adding that the limits violate equal-protection guarantees. The St. Louis Business Journal (3/23) also covers this story. Senate hearing to examine crackdown on dispensing drugs in nursing homes.The New York Times (3/24, B2, Wilson) reports that the Senate Special Committee on Aging "will hear complaints on Wednesday from nursing home operators, doctors, nurses and pharmacists that a Drug Enforcement Administration narcotics crackdown has left seriously ill patients crying for pain relief" by "upend[ing] many years of practice in which the government informally allowed nurses to speed the process by taking doctors' orders orally, or from medical charts, and passing them along to pharmacies, similar to the procedures used in hospitals." The groups argue that this has left nursing home residents in pain for hours or even days. However, the DEA responds that "it is merely enforcing the law that requires pharmacies to wait for prescriptions that are signed by physicians," The Wall Street Journal (3/24, Pérez) reports that Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) said in a statement, "Vulnerable patients have at times been left to languish in pain." However, in a letter to lawmakers in December, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said that the prior arrangement "trivialize[s] the doctor-patient relationship and weaken[s] the quality of care for the frail and infirm," citing times that nurses faxed or called in prescriptions without a doctor's knowledge. Editorial calls for industry-sponsored research to be analyzed by independent scientists.Bloomberg News (3/24, Olmos) reports, "Industry-sponsored drug research should be analyzed by scientists without ties to the company developing a product, said an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association." The editorial "cited a GlaxoSmithKline Plc study of its diabetes drug Avandia [rosiglitazone] as a 'disturbing example of inappropriate conduct surrounding an industry-sponsored clinical trial,'" and said researchers should be allowed "full access" to each study's data, while "medical journal editors should require an independent statistical analysis before publishing company-funded research." JAMA "also published a commentary from Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic," who "wrote...that independent review of study data 'is an essential step' to safeguard against companies influencing researchers' evaluations." Maryland Senate passes False Claims Act.The Baltimore Business Journal (3/23, Graham) reported, "The Senate approved a bill Tuesday that will allow Maryland to more aggressively pursue and penalize health care providers and individuals who attempt to defraud the state's health care program for low-income residents." Chief among the Maryland False Claims Act of 2010's "designs is a provision that allows whistleblowers to bring a fraud case to state investigators and rewards the whistleblower with a portion of any damages recovered by the state." But "it stops short of allowing whistleblowers to sue health care providers without the state's intervention in the case - a move that renders Maryland's False Claims Act out of compliance with federal guidelines that would allow the state to receive a greater share of the recovered damages." Complete Immunity PreemptionPreempting state consumer protection laws has negative economic impact, study finds.In a blog at the Huffington Post (3/23), Marcus Baram wrote, "One of the more contentious issues in the debate over financial regulatory reform has to do with whether tough state consumer protection laws should continue to be preempted by federal regulations and laws, some of which may be less stringent." Two new studies "find that allowing state laws to exceed federal regulations has a positive economic and impact. According to the Center for Community Capital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, states with strong anti-predatory lending laws 'exhibit lower foreclosure risk than other states.' Conversely, another study by the center found that when federal regulators allow national banks to be exempt from state lending laws, the quality of mortgages deteriorates dramatically along with an increase in default risks." Product Safety
New York police confirm driver error in runaway Prius crash.In continuing coverage, the Detroit Free Press (3/24, Korngold) reports that police in Harrison, New York, have confirmed reports from Toyota and NHTSA that "driver error, not a stuck accelerator, caused a Toyota Prius to crash into a stone wall" there. "'The data is black and white,' acting police chief Capt. Anthony Marraccini said Monday. "The acting chief made his comments at an afternoon news conference at police headquarters, where he was joined by Wade A. Hoyt, Toyota Motor Sales U.S. A. Inc.'s Northeast public affairs manager. ... Marraccini said his department has concluded that the fail-safe system in the 2005 Prius operated correctly and that in fact the driver was hitting the gas pedal, not the brake, resulting in the car accelerating out of a driveway into a stone wall." Engineers, safety advocates call on NHTSA to probe possible electronic fault in Toyotas. Bloomberg News (3/24, Plungis) reports that a group of "consumer advocates and engineers" said that NHTSA "should examine possible flaws in electronic systems of Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles, including unshielded wiring, as it investigates sudden acceleration incidents. According to electrical engineer Keith Stafford, who spoke at a press conference in Washington, "Toyota's cars relay electronic signals using wires that are vulnerable to electromagnetic interference. ... 'Thirty years of empirical evidence overwhelmingly points to sudden acceleration being caused by electronic system faults undetectable by inspection or testing,' said Armstrong." Toyota issued Canadian floor mat recall in 2003. The New York Times (3/24, Austen, Maynard) reports that according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "Toyota recalled 408 cars in Canada in 2003 because of concerns that their floor mats would interfere with accelerator pedals." The Times notes that the recall was "little noticed at the time," adding that nevertheless, "Joe Volpe, an opposition Liberal member of Parliament and the vice chairman of a committee currently reviewing Toyota safety issues, said the earlier recall raised questions about the handling of issues related to unwanted acceleration by Toyotas." Toyota tells dealers to replace gas pedals for drivers dissatisfied with recall fix. The AP (3/24) reports, in continuing coverage, that Toyota has instructed its dealerships to replace the accelerators of "owners who are dissatisfied with the repairs to their vehicles covered by a massive recall," noting that "dealers have been inserting a piece of metal into the gas pedal mechanism to eliminate friction that was causing the pedal problem on 2.3 million vehicles involved in a January recall. 'A replacement pedal should only be offered to a customer after the reinforcement bar has been installed and the customer has expressed dissatisfaction with the operation and/or feel of the pedal,' Toyota said in a memo to dealers, service manager and parts managers." The AP notes that NHTSA "said it urged Toyota to make the new pedals available as an option because it wanted owners to get their cars fixed as soon as possible instead of waiting for new accelerators to be designed and manufactured." FDA panel says ReGen Biologic's knee-repair device probably safe.The AP (3/24, Perrone) reports that on March 23, a Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts said that ReGen Biologic's Menaflex "device for repairing knees that was subject to a contentious three-year review by the" agency "is likely safe and effective, despite major shortcomings with company studies. The findings by the FDA's independent panel of orthopedic experts came despite the government's highly critical review of" the "device published ahead of the meeting." The Wall Street Journal (3/24, Mundy) reports that following the meeting, the director of the FDA's device division, Jeffrey Shuren, explained that the agency has the option of leaving the device on the market the way it is now, subjecting the device to special controls, or even reclassifying it as a high-risk product, which would require ReGen Biologic to submit a new application. For its part, the FDA is not required to follow advice given by its expert panels, but often chooses to do so. SecuritiesSecurities class action settlements increase in 2009.Bloomberg News (3/24, Fisk) reports, "Securities-fraud class-action settlements in the U.S. rose 39 percent to more than $3.8 billion in 2009, driven in part by the resolution of a UnitedHealth Group Inc. shareholder case, a study found. The rise, from $2.75 billion in 2008, reversed a two-year decline, according to Cornerstone Research, the Washington-based consulting company that conducted the study." The Cornerstone study "listed 103 class-action securities settlements averaging $39 million approved in 2009, up from the 2008 total of 97 settlements averaging $28 million." The National Law Journal (3/24, Sloan) reports, "The report does not attribute the growth in settlements to the credit crisis of 2008. Most of the litigation tied to the stock market decline and credit crisis has yet to be resolved, and likely won't produce settlements until later this year, 2011 or beyond, said Laura Simmons, a professor at the College of William & Mary Mason School of Business and senior research adviser at Cornerstone Research. Rather, the settlement numbers were higher in 2009 due to a relative dearth of comparable settlements in 2008 - a fact Simmons attributes to a wave of settlement activity between 2005 and 2007 that left the cupboard dry of cases in 2008."
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AAJ News Brief is a digest of the most important news selected from thousands of sources by the editors of Custom Briefings. The presence of advertising does not endorse, or imply endorsement of, any products or services by the American Association for Justice. This complimentary copy of AAJ News Brief was sent to haytham@puckettfaraj.com as part of your American Association for Justice membership. View Custom Briefings' privacy policy. Neither Custom Briefings nor the American Association for Justice is liable for the use of or reliance on any information contained in this briefing. For information about other member benefits, please contact American Association for Justice Member Service Center at (800) 424-2727. American Association for Justice | 777 6th Street, NW | Washington, DC 20001 Copyright © 2010 by Custom Briefings | 11190 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 130 | Reston, VA 20191 |