Health Law

Research on Junk Foods and Addiction Could Lead to Tobacco-Type Litigation, Yale Prof Says

Processed foods that contain high sugar and fat and little in the way of nutrients could be changing the brain in a way that resembles addiction, some researchers believe. The findings are leading Yale psychology and public health professor Kelly Brownell to suggest food companies could face lawsuits similar to…

Nov 3, 2011 12:49 PM CDT

Judge Axes HIPAA Prosecution of Psychiatrist Accused of Revealing Medical Info for Spite

Updated: A psychiatrist accused of disclosing information about a patient who was a Virginia state trooper was on trial briefly this week in what could be the first prosecution of a physician for an alleged violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. But a federal judge in Norfolk…

Nov 2, 2011 4:24 PM CDT

Judge Asked to Intervene in Family Dispute over Feeding Tube

A Maryland judge on Wednesday will consider a request for a preliminary injunction requiring doctors to keep a feeding tube in place for an unemployed computer technician who suffered brain damage after a heart attack. The brother and mother of Daniel Sanger say he should be kept alive with a…

Nov 1, 2011 4:52 PM CDT

Law Prof Is Concerned About Methods of Company Using Genetics to Control Mosquitoes

Researchers say their genetically engineered mosquitoes are apparently having the intended effect. In a paper released on Sunday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers said about 19,000 genetically altered mosquitoes were released on Grand Cayman Island in 2009, report the New York Times and Bloomberg News. The pests are lab-altered…

Nov 1, 2011 10:29 AM CDT

Desperate for a Parkinson’s Cure, Judge Turned to Doctor Later Accused of Fraudulent Treatments

A municipal court judge in Missouri was so desperate for a cure for his Parkinson’s disease that he paid for a Mexican doctor to perform two transplants using stem cells harvested from placentas. Judge Tim Donahoe of Cuba, Mo., tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal the treatment was arranged by Alfred…

Oct 28, 2011 10:30 AM CDT

DC Psych Hospital Tells Court It’s Not a Hotel, Seeks Order Requiring County or Mom to Pick Up Boy

A 10-year-old boy known as L.F. who stabbed his cousin in the eye with a pencil has overstayed his welcome at Children’s National Medical Center. According to court papers filed by lawyers for the psychiatric hospital, L.F. has been a patient since Sept. 15 and no one is willing to…

Oct 27, 2011 2:13 PM CDT

Lawyer’s Letter Bans Crusading Mom from Eight McDonald’s Restaurants

A college instructor and mother on a crusade to clean up children’s play areas has been warned by a lawyer for a McDonald’s franchisee that she is banned from eight restaurants in Arizona. Erin Carr Jordan tells the Arizona Republic she received the letter from lawyer James Stipe by hand…

Oct 27, 2011 1:04 PM CDT

Abortion Opponents Back Personhood Amendments; Effort Likely to Succeed in Miss., Prof Says

Mississippi voters will be asked to vote Nov. 8 on a “personhood” amendment, a new tack in the abortion fight that is splitting abortion opponents. The proposed state constitutional amendment states that a fertilized egg is a person, effectively classifying abortion and some kinds of birth control as murder, the…

Oct 26, 2011 12:10 PM CDT

GOP Contenders Campaign Against the Federal Judiciary; One Candidate Wants to Ax the 9th Circuit

Six out of eight candidates for the Republican presidential nomination are backing limits on the federal judiciary, ranging from an end to lifetime tenure to impeachment to curbs on jurisdiction. The candidates are criticizing the judiciary even though a majority of judges, including those on the Supreme Court, have been…

Oct 24, 2011 4:58 PM CDT

Top NY Court Strikes Rules Limiting Lawyer Access to Assisted-Living Facility Residents

Rules intended to protect residents of assisted living facilities from overreaching attorneys went too far in limiting lawyer access to their clients at these facilities, the top New York appeals court held yesterday. In a 5-2 ruling, the Court of Appeals said policies concerning attorneys drafted by the nonprofit New…

Oct 22, 2011 1:50 AM CDT

Speedy Filings Could Mean Speedy Cert Decision on Health Care Law

Speedy court filings could put challenges to the Obama’s administration’s health care law on the Supreme Court’s docket sooner rather than later. The U.S. Justice Department and 26 states challenging the law have filed briefs ahead of schedule, report USA Today and SCOTUSblog. “It now seems inevitable that the justices…

Oct 19, 2011 4:46 PM CDT

Scalia Lumps Kelo Decision with Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade

Justice Antonin Scalia predicted Monday that the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London will be overturned. Speaking to students at the Chicago-Kent School of Law, Scalia criticized the decision allowing the city of New London to use eminent domain to seize property for economic development, the…

Oct 19, 2011 1:05 PM CDT

Ethics Panel Recommends Indefinite Suspension for Ex-Kansas AG

Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline should be indefinitely suspended from practicing law for his alleged misconduct in the handling of criminal investigations of abortion providers in the mid-2000s, a professional ethics panel says. A three-member panel of the state Board for Discipline of Attorneys says Kline repeatedly misled other…

Oct 14, 2011 9:19 PM CDT

Law Firm Employee Lost Backup Hard Drive on Train; It Contained Med-Mal Patient Data

The Baltimore law firm Baxter, Baker, Sidle, Conn & Jones wanted to keep its computer files safe from fire or flooding, so an employee toted a portable backup hard drive home each night. But the employee lost the hard drive on the train, the Baltimore Sun reports. The data was…

Oct 11, 2011 12:38 PM CDT

Md. Surrogacy Lawyer in Baby-Sale Ring Disbarred, Awaits Sentencing in Federal Wire Fraud Conspiracy

A Rockville, Md., lawyer who reportedly collaborated with a California attorney to flout adoption and surrogacy laws in a baby-selling scheme has been disbarred. Hilary Neiman was disbarred by consent yesterday in Maryland, reports the Gazette. She and a California lawyer, Theresa Erickson, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit…

Oct 7, 2011 10:08 PM CDT