Here is an interesting site that provides a good number of links of use to tort lawyers (and others). The site is published by the Philadelphia Association of Paralegals and has more than 100 links. For instance, Omni Medical Search is a site that I was unfamiliar with that is referenced by…
Merck got hammered twice yesterday, first in New Orleans and then in New Jersey. In New Orleans, a federal court jury ordered Merck to pay $51 M to a retired FBI agent who suffered a heart attack after taking Vioxx for three years. The case was a "must win" for…
The ABAs House of Delegates voted 207-137 to recommend adding to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 26(a)(2) a privilege for draft reports and communications between attorneys and their experts. A Law.com article on the votes reports that "[t]he proposed change was prompted by varying judicial interpretations of 1993 amendments…
Law.com has posted an interesting article about destructive testing in products liability actions. The article was written by Michael Hoenig and was originally published in the New York Law Journal. The article discussed the recent case of Mirchandani v. Home Depot, U.S.A., Inc., 235 FRD 611 (D. Md. 2006), in…
A recent study reports about the risk of lack of sleep on commercial drivers. In an article entitled "Impaired Performance in Commercial Drivers: Role of Sleep Apnea and Short Sleep Duration" researchers from the University of Pennsylvania "examined 406 truck drivers and found that those who routinely slept less than…
Under Tennessee law fault cannot be assigned to a plaintiff’s employer but the defendant is permitted to prove and argue that the employer was the cause in fact of the injury. But what if the defendant wants to ask the jury to apportion fault to an entity that is deemed…
Public Citizen has challenged an attempt by Guidant Corporation to keep secret certain papers filed in litigation in Minnesota. The Public Citizen press release says that "two subsidiaries of Guidant that produce and sell controversial cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices sued the health care consulting company Aspen Health Care Metrics…
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled (applying Minnesota law) that a product manufacturer who is following specs supplied by its customer can be liable for defective design in the evidence shows that the manufacturer particpated in the design of the product. Of course, the general rule is that…
Next Wednesday (August 16, 2006) I will be presenting a one-hour seminar on Tennessee tort law. The seminar is called "Tennessee Tort Law: What’s Hot, What’s Next." The telephonic seminar is sponsored by M. Lee Smith & Co. and begins at 10:00 CDT. Register here.
Did Burger King have a duty to design its stand-alone restaurant in such a way to protect its in-house dining customers from being struck by a car that came through the building’s wall? The Illinois Supreme Court addressed this problem in the case of Marshall v. Burger King Corporation, Docket No.…