2013 TTLA Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Seminar, April 25-26 | TTLA is proud to present its first-ever seminar dedicated solely to Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Litigation. Join highly experienced and successful mass tort lawyers, including many who serve in leadership roles on plaintiff steering committees, as they discuss the hottest topics in this dynamic and ever-changing area of law. TTLA legends and panels of Texas plaintiff attorneys will gather in Houston to discuss and debate a wide-range of mass tort topics, from marketing and pre-litigation to voir dire and trial. So join us in Houston on April 25-26, 2013 to learn from some of the best Pharmaceutical and Medical Device lawyers in the country. Click on the headline to learn more. | Suit Settled over Muslim Woman Forced to Remove Scarf | | An Orange County woman as settled a civil rights lawsuit with local jail officials who forced her to remove her head scarf. The woman was temporarily jailed on a misdemeanor welfare fraud violation and said "jailers in the courthouse holding cell forced her to remove the religious scarf." Wire Report, San Jose Mercury News 02/14/2013 | Read Article: San Jose Mercury News | Student Advocacy Group Files Suit Against UA | | The Arizona Student's Association has filed a lawsuit against the University of Arizona, claiming the Board of Regents "suspended the group's funding" as a retaliatory measure. The suit says the regents took action against the student advocacy group after the group voted to support Proposition 204, which would have extended an education sales-tax increase that expires this year. For years the group had been funded by a $2 student fee that can be refunded to students upon their request, but recently that fee was suspended by the regents. Anne Ryman, Arizona Republic 02/12/2013 | Read Article: Arizona Republic | Suit: Woman's Thumb Severed at Strip Club | | A Philadelphia woman has filed suit against a local strip club, saying she lost part of her thumb while participating in a contest. In her suit, the woman says she was practicing on a crescent-shaped metal bar suspended from the club's ceiling when it suddenly severed part of her thumb. The plaintiff claims the club failed to ensure the equipment was "properly designed, built, inspected and tested." Wire Report, The Washington Post 02/12/2013 | Read Article: The Washington Post | A Workout Booster, and a Lawsuit | | Last April, federal health regulators issued a warning that the stimulant — called dimethylamylamine, or DMAA — frequently raises blood pressure and heart rate, and could lead to heart attacks. In December 2011, after the deaths of two soldiers who had used Jack3d, the Defense Department removed all products containing DMAA from stores on military bases, including more than 100 GNC shops. Now the parents of Michael L. Sparling, one of the soldiers who died, have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against USPlabs, the developer and marketer of Jack3d, and GNC, the store where he bought it. NATASHA SINGER & PETER LATTMAN, The New York Times 02/14/2013 | Read Article: The New York Times | Mass Teen Awarded $63M in Motrin Lawsuit | | Health care company Johnson & Johnson has been told to pay a teenager and her parents $63 million after she suffered a life-threatening drug reaction and lost most of her skin when she took a children's pain reliever nearly a decade ago. Johnson & Johnson and its McNeil-PPC Inc. subsidiary should pay Samantha Reckis and her parents a total of $109 million, including interest, a Plymouth Superior Court jury decided on Wednesday. Samantha was 7 when she was given Motrin brand ibuprofen, family's attorney said. She suffered a rare side effect known as toxic epidermal necrolysis and lost 90 percent of her skin and was blinded, he said. Associated Press, Yahoo News 02/14/2013 | Read Article: Yahoo News | Merck to Settle Enhance Lawsuits | | Merck & Co has agreed to pay $688 million to settle two U.S. class-action lawsuits by shareholders who said they lost money because the company concealed the poor results of a clinical trial of the anti-cholesterol drug Vytorin. The federal lawsuits, led by several pension funds, alleged that Merck and Schering-Plough Corp knew more than a year in advance that the trial, known as Enhance, was a failure, but withheld that information from investors. Jonathan Stempel, Reuters, Yahoo News 02/14/2013 | Read Article: Yahoo News | Class-Action Status Granted in Stop-And-Frisk Suit | | On Monday, a federal judge in New York granted class-action status to a suit against the NYPD that seeks to discontinue the "stop and frisk" searches police officers have been conducting near residential buildings in the Bronx. The judge found that minority residents could bring a suit on behalf of thousands of people who are at risk of being stopped and searched outside the buildings. The lawsuit calls the practice unconstitutional, saying officers don't have "reasonable suspicion" to frisk residents. Terry Baynes, Reuters 02/11/2013 | Read Article: Reuters | | |