I wrote yesterday that a trial judge was going to permit the pathologist who performed the autopsy of the plaintiff’s decedent in the Vioxx case to testify.
How important is that testimony to the plaintiff? Well, a good guage of that is that Merck has appealed the decision in the middle of the trial. The court of appeals denied the request for review, and Merck appealed to the Texas Supreme Court.
How can Merck claim surprise when the doctor was on its witness list?
One of the big fights in the Vioxx trial underway in Texas is the cause of death. The Plaintiff has been granted permission to have the pathologist who did the autopsy testify – and she is giving great testimony that supports the plaintiff.
Here is the complete article:
KRISTEN HAYS
Associated Press
Morgan Adams recently pointed out that this site has the codes for reading crash reports from most states. Great tip, Morgan.
Lawyers have a lot to worry about. It’s an occupational hazard. Want one more stressor on your plate? If you’re filing electronically, and the court’s website runs so slowly that you start before the filing deadline but finish an hour after the deadline, your filing may not count. Read about it over at our Tennessee Business Litigation blog.
Well, I am still in Toronto at the ATLA Convention. The Covention has been great; it is wonderful to see old friends and meet new ones.
The word here is that the Vioxx trial in Texas is going great for the plaintiff. I have been receiving daily transcripts and from my review it seems like plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Lanier is scoring a lot of good points.
That being said, the first few trials in a products case usually result in defense verdicts. If this one does, people with “good” cases should not lose faith.
Here is a link to an interesting blog about probate litigation.
We were involved in a significant will contest several years ago that ended up going to the Tennessee Supreme Court (Rule 11 denied) and then, believe it or not, to the United States Supreme Court (cert. denied). It was interesting work and, quite frankly, alot of fun.
The blog looks good, too!
Over at our Tennessee Business Litigation blog, read about an Arkansas state judge’s decision to order sanctions against a nursing home chain in a class action suit. The sanctions arise from failure to produce emails and other electronic documents, and include $25,000 in attorney’s fees and possible jail time.
General Motors has been the leader in putting event data recorders, or so called “black boxes,” in its passenger vehicles. These devices record a vehicle’s speed, brake systems, seat belt status, and other information in the seconds before an airbag is deployed. Since 1990, GM has been progressively increasing the amount of information that the devices store. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration published a paper analyzing GM’s event data recorders, including some great detail on the information stored in each variation of the devices and a technical explanation for how that information is recorded. Other manufacturers are following GM’s lead, so black box data can be an issue in any case involving a late model car.
The U.S. Department of Transportation maintains a website with journal articles, research papers, and other published research on transportation. There are articles covering a massive number of topics. It’s a good starting point if you’re looking for information about a roadway problem, the adequacy of signs and pavement markings, or temporary work zone issue.
Each one of us deals with it almost every day – subrogation or reimbursement.
Many of those plans are covered by ERISA. This post by John Wood on our ERISA blog may be of assistance to you.
