The New Jersey jury awarded $9.0 Million in punitive damages.
Perfect. Within the range of reason. Merck will suffer the sting of the shilling but not be able to argue that it took a head shot. Recall that punitives were capped at $22.5M.
Nice work.
Off Topic – A Political Comment.
Read this, please:
“John Fund [of the WSJ], after discussing how disgruntled the GOP base may be, has it exactly right: ‘Republicans have appeared to the world to be as unprincipled and rudderless as the politicians they campaigned against back in 1994. Unless they change course dramatically in the seven months between now and Election Day, they may well find themselves facing the same fate as the Democratic political dinosaurs of that year that they replaced.’ I’m disgruntled, too, and I’m going to get it all of my chest this morning: I’ve never voted for a Democrat in a general election in my life, and I don’t expect to anytime soon, but it’s been impossible for me over the past couple of years to get enthused about the Republican party. I voted for President Bush twice, and contributed to his campaign twice, but held my nose when I did it the second time. I don’t consider myself a Republican any longer. Thanks to this Administration and the Republicans in Congress, the Republican Party today is the party of pork-barrel spending, Congressional corruption – and, I know folks on this web site don’t want to hear it, but deep down they know it’s true – foreign and military policy incompetence. Frankly, speaking of incompetence, I think this Administration is the most politically and substantively inept that the nation has had in over a quarter of a century. The good news about it, as far as I’m concerned, is that it’s almost over.”
From the National Review ….
Full Recovery of Medical Expenses Permitted
The Arizona Court of Appeals has decided that a plaintiff can recover the full value of her medical bills in a tort case and that the amount of the bills should not be reduced by contractual discounts. The case is Lopez v. Safeway Stores, Inc. (2 CA-CV 2005-0057, 2/28/06).
The opinion includes a survey of law from other states on this important issue. Read it here.
Off to Knoxville
I am a little late in posting today because I have been busy preparing for a speech and panel discussion in Knoxville. The Tennessee Journal of Law & Policy is honoring Justices Drowota, Anderson and Birch today; I have been invited to speak about the impact that these gentlemen have had on Tennessee tort law. I am honored to have the opportunity to participate in this program.
To get ready I read tort opinions for an hour or so last night and started again at 4:30 this morning. Tort law has come a long way in Tennessee since 1990, and these gentlemen played a major role in advancing the cause of justice in Tennessee.
Justice Drowota retired last year and Justices Anderson and Birch retire at the end of August. They will be sorely missed.
No Fee From Rejected Settlement Proposal
Surprise! You cannot collect a contingent fee if your client rejects a settlement offer and later collects nothing.
In this Louisana Supreme Court decision in the case of Cullpepper & Carroll v. Cole (No. 05-C-1136) attorneys sought a one-third fee of a rejected settlement proposal in an estate case.
Check this out: “Having found a contingent fee contract exists, we now turn to the question of whether Mr. Culpepper is entitled to recover any attorney’s fees under this contract. Pursuant to the parties’ agreement, Mr. Culpepper is entitled to one-third “of whatever additional property or money” he obtained on behalf of Mr. Cole. It is undisputed that Mr. Cole recovered no additional property or money as a result of the litigation against his mother’s estate. Because Mr. Cole obtained no recovery, it follows that Mr. Culpepper is not entitled to any contingent fee.
Lanier v. Merck, Round 2, Post 20
The New Jersey trial judge is going to let the jury decide the punitive damages issue. The arguments on punitives will be heard on Monday.
Read more here.
Chiropractor Testimony Just Decreased in Value
Chiropractors get a bad rap and almost certainly an unfair rap. But this type of news stories do not do the profession any good.
Time travel?
Deaths from Medical Malpractice
It is getting worse. A study of patients in our Medicare population has found an alarming number of incidents and deaths.
The study looked discharge records of Medicare patients and used 16 of “20 indicators for potentially preventable patient safety incidents that could be readily identified in hospital discharge data. This tool set of 20 evidence-based PSIs was created and released to the public in 2003 to be used by various healthcare stakeholders to assess and improve patient safety in U.S. hospitals.”
They found:
Lanier v. Merck, Round 2, Post 19
Now, the punitive damage phase. Read here.
Lanier v. Merck, Round 2, Post 18
The jury returned a verdict in the New Jersey Vioxx trial yesterday afternoon.
The jury found that Merck had failed to warn the men about the risks of heart attack and stroke associated with Vioxx but found a causal link between the drug and a heart attack for only one plaintiff.
McDarby, who said he used the drug for four years, was awarded $3.0 million. His wife was awarded $1.5 million.