Texas Appeals Court Reverses Vioxx Judgment Against Merck

From CNNMoney.com:

A Texas appeals court on Thursday reversed a 2005 judgment against Merck & Co. (MRK) in the case of a woman who alleged her husband's use of the pain drug Vioxx caused his death.

The jury had awarded Carol Ernst $253.5 million in damages in the first Vioxx lawsuit to go to trial. The jury had concluded Merck's design and marketing of Vioxx was defective, and that its negligence caused the 2001 death of Bob Ernst. The damages award was subsequently reduced to $26.1 million under state law capping damages.

Merck appealed the judgment, arguing there wasn't sufficient evidence supporting the jury's verdict. That led to Thursday's reversal by Texas' Fourteenth Court of Appeals. The court concluded there was no evidence that Bob Ernst suffered a "thrombotic cardiovascular event," or heart attack triggered by a blood clot.

Apparently there is some controversy about whether Merck settled prematurely with other plaintiffs (to the tune of $4.85 billion).

Click here for the full article...

Lawyer Sues Delta for Ruining Vacation

This combines two of our favorite topics: Law and Travel! Apparently a New York attorney had himself a vacation from hell and lived to sue about it.

Richard Roth, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and his mother, said he planned the Christmas 2007 trip to Buenos Aires to celebrate his mother's 80th birthday. She had grown up in the city, but had not returned in years, he said.

Instead, Roth, his two teenage children, his wife and mother spent three days in airports, went days without their luggage, were treated rudely by airline employees and were forced to spend $21,000 on unused hotel rooms in Argentina, replacement clothes, and other costs.

If I filed a lawsuit everytime I was treated rudely by airline personnel, I'd be a very busy person.

Click here for the full article...

Odd Laws

In North Carolina, it is illegal to hold more than two sessions of bingo per week in the same building (and those sessions must be less than 5 hours each).

§ 14‑309.8. Limit on sessions.

The number of sessions of bingo conducted or sponsored by an exempt organization shall be limited to two sessions per week and such sessions must not exceed a period of five hours each per session. No two sessions of bingo shall be held within a 48‑hour period of time. No more than two sessions of bingo shall be operated or conducted in any one building, hall or structure during any one calendar week and if two sessions are held, they must be held by the same exempt organization. This section shall not apply to bingo games conducted at a fair or other exhibition conducted pursuant to Article 45 of Chapter 106 of the General Statutes. (1983, c. 896, s. 3; c. 923, s. 217; 1983 (Reg. Sess., 1984), c. 1107, ss. 6, 7.)

The more you know!

Jet Lag Cure: Starvation

For those of you who travel frequently, this Yahoo! article may interest you. According to U.S. researchers, starving yourself before a flight might be the most effective way to combat jet lag.

Here comes the science:

Normally, the body's natural circadian clock in the brain dictates
when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust to new time zones, they said.

"A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is
enough to engage this new clock," said Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the journal Science.

Yes, you read that correctly: fasting for 16 hours. I don't know about you, but I think I'll take my chances with jet lag.

On the other hand, with airlines cutting snack service to save money, you might not have a choice whether to fast or not.

Click here for the full article.

R. Kelly Trial: 12 Ways to get kicked out of the jury pool

Here is a piece from the Chicago Tribune regarding attempts to seat a jury for R&B singer R. Kelly's trial. Yikes.

Advice from the R. Kelly trial: 12 ways to get kicked out of the jury pool
By Stacy St. Clair
Tribune staff reporter
5:26 AM CDT, May 15, 2008

Jury selection is expected to resume at 9 a.m., with 10 more Cook County residents available for vetting.There wasn't any progress Wednesday, with not a single person picked for the panel.

Candidate after candidate came in with excuses as to why he or she couldn't serve on the high-profile case.

If the dismissed jurors this week joined together, they could write a book: "How to Get Out of Jury Duty without Really Trying."

Some of the potential chapters:

I have a teenage daughter. Several axed jurors provided this explanation for why they couldn't give Kelly a fair trial. "I would have a hard time see anything involving a child without thinking of my child," one man said.

I would change the age of consent. Two who were kicked off offered this philosophy, one going so far as to suggest that "nature already had an age of [sexual] consent: puberty."I save lives. An oncologist was excused from duty after he told the judge that jury service would create a logistical nightmare for his patients.

Um, well, er, yes, I think I could be fair to Mr. Kelly. Maybe, yes. Nearly everyone who paused when asked if he or she could give the singer a fair trial got the boot from either the judge or the defense.I'm a cop One Niles police officer lasted only about two minutes in the interview room before he was dismissed because of his profession.

I (heart) R. Kelly. Nothing gets prospective jurors booted faster than telling the prosecution they are a fan of Kelly's. Just ask the woman who called him a "musical genius." When prodded to say something negative about Kelly, the best she could come up with was: "He and [rapper] Jay-Z don't get along?" Prosecutors bounced her soon after.

I'll change my vacation plans. Overeagerness to serve on the jury is a definite red flag to attorneys. When one man offered to rearrange a trip to see his parents, the prosecution bounced him for being star-struck.

Click here to read the full article...

Vioxx Ruling Overturned

A Texas appeals court has overturned a multi-million dollar verdict against Merck, the makers of the painkiller Vioxx. Retrials are currently pending in several other cases. Click on the link to read about the case and the latest developments.

http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/212383-texas-court-overturns-vioxx-ruling

Judicial Hellholes

The American Tort Reform Association released it's 6th annual Judicial Hellholes report with their rankings of "America's most unfair jurisdictions." How does your home state compare? Click on the link to learn more.

http://www.atra.org/reports/hellholes/

Judge Rules Georgia Award Caps Unconstitutional

Reports this week of a judge striking down monetary award caps on medical malpractice cases in Georgia may seriously impact tort reform law in the state. Click on the link to read more...

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/05/01/arrington_0502.html#

Simple Statistics

If social scientists are right and jurors only retain 10 percent of what they hear in a courtroom — more likely than not what they heard first — what can you do to make them remember the defense’s case?

Using only a few carefully chosen statistics or key numbers to illustrate a point is a great way to arm jurors with ammunition they can use in the deliberations room.

As an example, a general internal medicine patient died from a calf sarcoma after multiple tests in response to “arthritis-type” pain.

Focus group research in the case revealed that highlighting the extent of the efforts made to diagnose the patient’s condition was crucial. The defense formulated a phrase that was used repeatedly to reinforce its theme: “Four tests were done by three different radiologists, at two hospitals, and none of them saw any sign of cancer.”

After trial, exit interviews revealed those words rang out again and again during deliberations — “four tests, three radiologists, two hospitals, and no cancer!”

Used correctly, simple statistics and numbers help to illustrate a theme and help arguments resonate in jurors’ minds, which they will hopefully remember when it comes time to render a verdict.