Personal Injury Roundup No. 24 (2/13/09)

In the week my son turned 4, the world of torts kept moving…

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Roderick Hills and Cathy Sharkey on preemption (Stier/Mass Torts Prof)
• Georgia judge strikes down med mal caps (Olson/Point of Law)
• Albany Law School symposium on off-label prescription of drugs (Stier/Mass Torts Prof)

New Lawsuits

• $15M lawsuit claims ex-Met Roberto Alomar had sex knowing he had AIDS (NY Daily News)

Trials, Settlements & Other Ends

• Philadelphia’s Judge Bernstein decertified a neurontin off-label use class action and granted summary judgment on express warranty claims (Drug and Device Law)
• New Jersey judge dismissed defamation suit of three women included in the book “Hot Chicks with D-Bags.”  (Olson/Overlawyered linking to The Smoking Gun)
• Court:  Vaccine didn’t cause autism (CNN)

Appeals

• Seventh Circuit affirms defense verdict in SSRI suicide case (Drug and Device Law)
• Sixth Circuit allows some tort causes of action to be pursued against the highest authority in the Roman Catholic Church (Jackson on Consumer Class Actions & Mass Torts)

Damages

• 16-Year-Old Injured by Bat in School Softball Practice Awarded $2,750,000 for Pain-and-Suffering (Hochfelder/NY Injury Cases Blog)

Miscellaneous

• Auto fatalities decline (Day on Torts)
• Fitness expert is preparing class action against Nintendo:  Claims Wii’s marketing is deceptive, it doesn’t make people fit, and it’s dangerous (News BlazePopehat)
• The peanut butter plot thickens…(The Pop Tort)

Thanks to Bill, Sheila, John Hochfelder, and Patrick Anders.

—CJR