All news posts from February 01, 2003 to February 28, 2003

Plaintiff attorneys arguing the first lawsuit to go to trial over the withdrawn cholesterol drug Baycol are reportedly seeking $500 million in punitive damages. According to a German newspaper, the amount is in addition to compensation of around $100 million already demanded in the case. The suit , which is ong

In a case that may allow thousands of Vietnam War veterans to bring litigation against chemical companies that made the defoliant Agent Orange, three Supreme Court justices suggested that Dow Chemical Co.'s and Monsanto Co.'s 1984 settlement does not bar veterans who developed cancer later in life from filing lawsui

Around 300 Illinois physicians gathered in the state capital Wednesday to protest rising liability insurance premiums. The doctors, who congregated in the Springfield capitol, lobbied lawmakers during the afternoon for immediate changes to the state's medical malpractice insurance program. Protesters stated that hi

Ford Motor Company, the nation's second-largest automaker, has settled a lawsuit involving the controversial E-350 15-passenger van. The suit was filed by the family of two people who died in 1996 when their E-350 van flipped on a Kentucky highway. The case was scheduled for trial Monday in Chicago. In January, U.S.

A fire broke out at a Connecticut nursing home Wednesday morning, killing at least 10 people and injuring nearly two-dozen others. Fire officials and a spokesperson for Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez told reporters that one suspect, a resident at the 150-bed Greenwood Health Care Center, was arrested and is being question

Bayer Corporation's lead attorney announced Tuesday that the company was in talks to settle 500 lawsuits over its now-banned cholesterol medication Baycol. Bayer has already settled around 450 claims, at a cost of nearly $125 million. The additional 500 cases involve patients who now suffer from rhabdomyolysis , a s

Attorneys and investigators took action this week in the wake of last week's nightclub disasters in Chicago and Rhode Island that left nearly 120 people dead. In lawsuits filed Monday, lawyers blamed the city of Chicago for the fatal stampede that killed 21 people at the E2 nightclub. According to attorneys, the city

Bayer Corporation is facing accusations this week that the pharmaceutical giant continued to market its cholesterol-lowering medication Baycol despite the fact company officials knew the drug was causing severe health problems. Newly released documents, reportedly made public by a personal injury attorney involved in

Diabetic women undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increase their risk of death from ischemic heart disease, according to a new report published in the February 22nd issue of the British Medical Journal. Investigating the causes of myocardial infarction and ischemic heart disease, the study examined data ob

A Texas jury ruled in favor of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. this week in a lawsuit filed over the now-banned diabetes medication Rezulin. Doris Brown, 63, died of liver and stomach complications in December 1998, eight months after beginning treatment with the drug. Brown's family filed suit against Warner-Lamb

A Kansas teenager was killed Tuesday when his vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer outside of Linn. Jeremy Lee Oelschlager, 16, of Palmer, Kansas, was reportedly stopped at a stop sign when he pulled his 1996 Dodge truck onto K-15 highway. A tractor-trailer heading westbound slammed into the left side of Oelschlag

The legal world kept a close eye on Corpus Christi, Texas this week as the first trial in the United States involving the withdrawn cholesterol medication Baycol began. The plaintiff, retired engineer Hollis Haltom, alleges Baycol, which was removed from the U.S. market in August 2001, caused him to develop rhabdomyo

Results from last year's Women's Health Initiative study on the benefits of combination hormone replacement therapy indicate that HRT is associated with an increased risk of stroke, even in the first year of use. In the trial, which was halted in 2002 after researchers determined estrogen plus progestin therapy wa

Scientists at the Medicines Monitoring Unit of Britain's Medical Research Council report in this week's issue of the medical journal The Lancet that heart patients who take both aspirin and ibuprofen may increase their risk of death due to ibuprofen's tendency to block the blood-thinning abilities of aspirin. A

Tort reform was a major issue on Capitol Hill Tuesday as the main House sponsor for a bill that will cap damages in medical malpractice cases revealed that both the House of Representatives and the Senate could vote on the legislation by the end of March. At an address at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Rep. James Green

Public Citizen, a major consumer interest group and strong supporter of trial lawyers in the current medical malpractice insurance crisis, released a study Monday blaming high premiums in Texas on frequent medical mistakes made by "repeat offender" physicians. According to Public Citizen director Dr. Sidney Wolfe, bet

Children who play on arsenic-treated wooden playground equipment increase their risk of developing lung or bladder cancer later in life, according to a report released by officials with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The chairman of the CPSC told health officials that for every million children exposed