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Does Off-Label Promotion Settlement Signal Change in FDA Policy?

Policy & Legislation
Legal Newsline |
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Tort Reform Association Shows GOP Allegiance in Comments on House Bill

A piece of legislation that would make it harder to file class action lawsuits passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but faces an almost guaranteed veto from the White House.


The Fairness in Class Action Litigation and Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act of 2016, which passed the House along largely partisan lines in January, would bar a suit from being filed as class action unless every member of the suit was shown to have suffered exactly the same injury as the named plaintiff in the suit.


“These are common sense, reasonable, civil justice reforms,” Darren McKinney, spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association, told Legal News Line. “That we even have to talk about undertaking them… is frustrating, [but] it’s not surprising.”


McKinney said the law faces a number of challenges, the first of which would be blockage of the bill in the Senate. But even with a Republican-controlled Congress, the changes are unlikely to become law in the near future.

Policy & Legislation
Law.com |

Study to Explore Gender Disparity in Mass Tort Leadership($)

With the Yaz birth-control multidistrict litigation led almost entirely by men, the evidence that women are less likely to be first chairs at trials across the legal industry, and the occasional story about old-guard leadership jockeying to ensure continued appointments on steering committees, anecdotal evidence suggests women are underrepresented in leadership positions on plaintiffs’ steering ­committees in MDLs and mass torts.


Although many attorneys say the situation is improving—in large part through efforts from both the judiciary and attorneys who work in the arena—soon hard evidence may be coming forward outlining exactly the disparity mass litigations are facing when it comes to female attorneys serving on leadership panels.


Recently a study has gotten under way at the Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law that is aimed specifically at quantifying the various factors that may go into appointing female attorneys onto steering committees.

Policy & Legislation
York Daily Record |

Med Mal and Tort Reform – Myths v. Facts

I continue to hear, mostly from the Republican politicians and/or candidates, misrepresentations regarding health care and tort reform. We are asked to believe physicians are leaving Pennsylvania due to medical malpractice lawsuits and increasing professional liability insurance premiums.


Tort reform is a total distraction. The winner is the insurance industry, not the physicians, and certainly not the patients.


Tort reform does not prevent injuries or save lives. Absent proper accountability, tort reform often shifts the burden for injuries caused by malpractice to the taxpayers who wind up covering the costs of inadequate compensation.

Policy & Legislation
FORBES |
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New FDA Warnings for Opioids – Will They Matter?

FORBES - The Food and Drug Administration’s announcement Tuesday that it is now requiring a boxed warning about “the serious risks of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose and death” on the labels of all short-acting opioid pain medications might have left some Americans wondering why it took so long.

Policy & Legislation
The Hill |
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GOP Tort Reform Bill Faces Conservative Opposition

The Republican author of a popular medical malpractice bill that was derailed in committee on Tuesday said conservative opposition caught him unaware.


Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said he was surprised when two fellow Republicans — Texas Reps. Ted Poe and Louie Gohmert — voiced opposition during the House Judiciary Committee markup, forcing the panel to temporarily abandon the bill.


“To be quite honest with you, no. I hate to admit that, but I didn’t know,” Franks told The Hill on Wednesday.

Policy & Legislation
The Pop Tort |

Tort Reform to Reduce the Deficit: “Look Elsewhere, Mr. Speaker.”

Speaker Paul Ryan is searching for ways to save his dying budget proposal, so he is apparently “looking to find real savings that can be achieved.” Here’s one of his big ideas: cut the liability for malpracticing doctors and hospitals, nursing homes and drug companies that harm or kill people. (Watch the House Judiciary Committee mark up this bill, H.R. 4771, today. Expect the House to vote on this charade in early April.)


Save money? We could use a laugh today. Here's actually what would happen if this travesty became law:


More Errors Will Lead to Increased Costs. Yesterday, 30 consumer, health and safety groups sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee explaining, among other things:


The bill’s sweeping scope covers not only cases involving medical malpractice, but also cases involving unsafe drugs and nursing home abuse and neglect. Even if these provisions applied only to doctors and hospitals, recent studies clearly establish that its provisions would lead to more deaths and injuries, and increased health care costs due to a “broad relaxation of care.” Add to this nursing home and pharmaceutical industry liability limitations, significantly weakening incentives for these industries to act safely, and untold numbers of additional death, injuries and costs are inevitable, and unacceptable.

Policy & Legislation
National Law Journal |
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Federal Judiciary Refuses to Lift Ban on Cameras in Its Courts

The federal judiciary will not consider lifting the longstanding prohibition of cameras in trial courts, officials announced.


A four-year pilot project that permitted video recording of certain civil proceedings in 14 federal district courts ended last year. The committee of judges overseeing the program concluded in a report that there was no “sufficient or persuasive evidence of a benefit to the judiciary to justify the negative effect upon witnesses and/or the significance equipment and personnel costs associated with video recordings.”


Absent a recommendation for policy changes from the committee, the camera prohibition in the trial courts will stand. Video recording has stopped in 11 of the 14 federal district courts that participated in the pilot project. A smaller-scale program will continue in three district courts in California, Washington state and Guam, to provide longer term data to judiciary officials.