Personal Injury Roundup No. 16 (11/21/08)

One scheduling note: there will be no Roundup next Friday; happy Thanksgiving! 

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Massachusetts doctors say they’re practicing defensive medicine out of fear of lawsuits [MassLive.com]
• Allegations of misconduct against FDA scientists [NYT]

New Lawsuits

• Wrestlers sue college for contracting herpes [York Dispatch, Deadspin]

Trials, Settlements & Other Ends

• A look back, ten years after the tobacco settlement [NPR, Point of Law]
• Arkansas prof’s defamation suit against his students dropped [TaxProf]

Appeals

• $14.9 million award affirmed in unfenced gas well explosion; punitives 10x compensatories [LegalNewsline.com]
• Epstein on Levine [Forbes, via Overlawyered]
• Levine on Levine [FireDogLake]
• Part of Oklahoma tort reform statute struck down [Journal Record]
• Murtha defamation case heard [TortsProf]

Damages

• $12.9 million Accutane verdict [Press release]
• $2.5 million against Imperial Klans of America [Tort Deform]
• Someone who apparently stars in an MTV show liable for $5,000 in compensatory damages and $15,000 in punitive damages for an incident with a tow truck driver [E! Online]

Miscellaneous

• Scalia’s going hunting with, among others, a partner from a big plaintiffs-side firm in Texas [WSJ Law Blog]
• Not in civil litigation presently (though the defendant expects it), but the MySpace case is proceeding criminally [WSJ Law Blog, 2,000 other stories]

Thanks for reading, and again, happy Thanksgiving!

–BC