Benchmarks: Mo. court reinstates $28M punitive award for fatal plane crash 
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: May 20, 2013
Tags: aviation litigation, product liability, punitive damages
The third time apparently is a charm. After an award of $28 million in punitive damages in a product liability case over a fatal plane crash twice failed to pass judicial scrutiny, a Missouri appellate court sitting en banc decided that the jury had it right in the first place.
N.Y. attorney wrests $130M verdict from jaws of defeat
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: birth injuries, cerebral palsy, medical malpractice
New York defense attorneys were having a good laugh back in 2009. The snickering was over the story of a well-known medical malpractice lawyer who lost his case after turning down an $8 million settlement offer.
But no one’s laughing now.
Calif. judge tosses $6.5M verdict in first Actos trial
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Actos, design defect, expert testimony, failure to warn, product liability, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
A California judge has thrown out a $6.5 million product liability verdict against Takeda Pharmaceuticals, deciding that a key expert witness should not have been allowed to testify that the diabetes drug Actos was the cause of a man’s bladder cancer.
J&J chalks up win in second DePuy ASR hip trial
Published: May 1, 2013
Tags: ASR hip implants, DePuy hip litigation, DePuy Orthopaedics, Johnson & Johnson, product liability
A Chicago jury has decided that Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopaedics unit is not liable for the failure of a metal-on-metal hip implant that failed three years after an Illinois woman’s hip-replacement surgery.
Benchmarks: Cooper Tire must pay $33M in fatal van rollover
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: April 29, 2013
Tags: Cooper Tire, product liability, rollover, tires, tread separation
An Iowa court last week upheld a $32.8 million verdict in favor of plaintiffs who alleged that tread separation in a Cooper Tire product was the cause of a 2007 van rollover that killed one person and injured five.
First gadolinium injury trial yields $5M verdict
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: April 23, 2013
Tags: gadolinium, GE Healthcare, MDL, multidistrict litigation, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, Omniscan, product liability
A federal jury in Ohio has awarded $5 million in the first case to go to trial in the multidistrict litigation involving patients who claim injury from the body scan contrast agent gadolinium.
Jury: School board owes $90M for teen’s death
By:
Beth Moszkowicz
Published: April 22, 2013
Tags: wrongful death
A Prince George’s County, Md., jury has awarded more than $90 million to a family whose 13-year-old daughter was struck and killed four years ago while crossing the street as she was trying to reach a school-bus stop.
The parents of Ashley Davis, who was a freshman at Crossland High
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Jury hits HMO with $524M verdict for keeping negligent doctor in its network
By:
Sylvia Hsieh
Published: April 15, 2013
Tags: Health Plan of Nevada, hepatitis c outbreak, HMO, negligent credentialing, SIerra Health Services, UnitedHealth Group
A week after ordering two subsidiaries of one of the largest HMOs in the country to pay $24 million to two patients who contracted hepatitis C from a Las Vegas colonoscopy center, the jury added half a billion dollars in punitive damages to its award.
Pfizer must pay $142M over Neurontin marketing
Published: April 8, 2013
Tags: fraud, fraudulent marketing, health insurance, Neurontin, off-label uses, Pfizer, pharmaceutical litigation, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, RICO
Drug maker Pfizer violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by engaging in a fraudulent marketing scheme promoting the epilepsy drug Neurontin for “off-label” uses, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in affirming judgment.
$41.5M awarded to prep student stricken by encephalitis
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: April 8, 2013
Tags: duty of care, insect-borne diseases, negligence, schools, viral encephalitis
A prestigious Connecticut boarding school is on the hook for nearly $42 million for failing to ensure that a student was protected from insect-borne viral encephalitis during a 2007 trip to China.
