Health Law

Judge Sanctions Lawyers Up to $5 Million

In a blistering rebuke of some of Philadelphia’s most prominent lawyers and law firms, a federal judge has sanctioned them—and their clients—for failing to cooperate with discovery in a medical insurance coverage class action. Among those being required to pay up to $5 million in plaintiffs costs by U.S. District…

Oct 3, 2007 5:15 PM CDT

Top Med Mag: No Vaccine-Autism Link

Although thousands of cases are being pursued alleging a link between childhood vaccines and autism (see “No Longer Immune” in the July 2006 ABA Journal), it’s doubtful that causation can be proven. In fact, a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes there is no causal…

Sep 26, 2007 10:33 PM CDT

Court Accepts Diabetes Drug Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether Michigan plaintiffs may sue the maker of the diabetes drug Rezulin despite a state law that restricts pharmaceutical suits. The Food and Drug Administration asked that the drug be removed from the market after concerns arose that it caused liver damage in some…

Sep 25, 2007 3:21 PM CDT

Dead, Cautious Clients May Spoil High Court Appeals

One client whose balloon catheter burst later died, but his lawyer sought a U.S. Supreme Court appeal without knowing it. Another client who sued the administrator of a 401(k) plan withdrew his money from the account at issue. And now Supreme Court appeals filed in their names could be tossed.…

Sep 20, 2007 11:59 AM CDT

Iowa Judge OKs Sperm Donation By Dying Man

An Iowa judge has OK’d a family’s plan to harvest sperm from a dying man so that his fiancée can later have his baby. The family sought the unusual ruling after the hospital at which Daniel Christy is on life support after a Sept. 9 motorcycle accident refused their request…

Sep 15, 2007 2:19 AM CDT

Legal Info Can Save Some Cancer Patients

Corrected: A little-known federal law entitles breast and cervical cancer patients under age 65 to Medicare treatment, even if they wouldn’t normally qualify for the federally funded health care program for the indigent. But in a number of states only some health care centers qualify for Medicare reimbursement under the…

Sep 13, 2007 9:37 PM CDT

NY to Rewrite Calorie-Posting Rule

New York’s health department will go back to the drawing board to craft a regulation able to withstand judicial scrutiny that will require restaurants to post calorie counts. At the same time the city is considering an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday that the regulation conflicted with…

Sep 13, 2007 6:52 PM CDT

No Abortion Warning By NJ Doc Required

A physician has no duty to warn a woman before an abortion that she is about to terminate a human life, the New Jersey Supreme Court held today. Ruling in the case of a married woman who decided with her husband to abort their baby and then regretted the decision,…

Sep 12, 2007 10:33 PM CDT

Shackled Fen-Phen Lawyers Seek Release, Judge Says No

Shackled and attired in faded gray-and-white-striped jail uniforms, three personal injury attorneys involved in mega-bucks fen-phen litigation attended a federal court hearing in Kentucky today to seek their release. Accused of bilking clients out of $64 million from a $200 million litigation settlement in 2001 concerning the diet drug combination,…

Sep 11, 2007 8:10 PM CDT

Judge Tosses Calorie-Posting Rule

A federal judge has ruled New York City did not have the authority to require fast-food restaurants to post calorie information. The New York regulation, which applied to restaurants that had already voluntarily disclosed calorie information, required them to make it more accessible by measures such as posting it on…

Sep 11, 2007 6:02 PM CDT

Law Prof Succeeds Despite Schizophrenia

When Elyn Saks got married in 2001, she wondered if aliens might attend the wedding reception. At one point in her life, she thought about kidnapping her psychotherapist and keeping her in a closet, so the woman would always be available for therapy sessions. Yet while Saks, 51, still struggles…

Sep 11, 2007 5:50 PM CDT

LA ‘Health Zoning’ Would Limit Fast Food

Los Angeles is considering a two-year ban on new fast food restaurants in part of the city, in order to encourage residents to eat better food. The approach, which the Los Angeles Times terms “health zoning,” is far from the first attempt to ban fast-food restaurants by municipal legislation, the…

Sep 10, 2007 11:58 PM CDT

‘TB Lawyer’ Fights to Regain Practice

Less than six months ago, life seemed good for Andrew H. Speaker, even though he’d been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The young personal injury lawyer was getting married, and about to start his own practice in Atlanta. Then he became the subject of international disapprobation for allegedly endangering others by taking…

Sep 10, 2007 10:17 PM CDT

Mom’s in Cold Storage, But That’s Legal

Two British sisters who have kept their mother’s body in cold storage at a London funeral home for a decade as they visited her there almost weekly have broken no laws. But family friends are now trying to end the two 50-something sisters’ practice of regularly sitting with their 84-year-old…

Sep 6, 2007 4:32 PM CDT

Vioxx Class Action Rejected

The New Jersey Supreme Court has refused to certify a nationwide class action against the company that makes the Vioxx painkiller, rejecting the plaintiffs’ efforts to prove losses through a “fraud on the market” theory. A superior court judge had granted class action status to the suit against Merck &…

Sep 6, 2007 3:32 PM CDT