| | TTLA Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Seminar | April 3-4 | Royal Sonesta, Houston | | Something BIG is missing…YOU! Each year, we are dedicated to planning seminars that are bigger, better and bolder than the year before, but it takes YOU to make a TTLA seminar a true success. When YOU register for TTLA’s 2nd Annual Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Seminar, YOU get to experience our unprecedented lineup of in-demand topics, storied speakers and unparalleled insight, and we get to experience YOU. YOU make all the difference. Think BIG. Think TTLA PMD. Click on the headline to learn more. Follow us on Twitter @ttla_ #ttla2014pharma |
| Calif. Police Officers Awarded $3.5M for Discrimination | | 
| | Three California police officers have been awarded $3.5 million by a federal jury. The three officers alleged in a lawsuit that they were continually passed up for promotions and assigned to lesser stations because they are Latino. The Santa Ana jury deliberated for three days before deciding to award the plaintiffs $3.5 million in damages for discrimination.
Adolfo Flores, LA Times 03/07/2014    | | Read Article: LA Times |
| Drug Firms Settle with Montana for $5.9M | |
| | Subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson have agreed to pay $5.9 million to settle a lawsuit with Montana over how an anti-psychotic drug was marketed, state Attorney General Tim Fox said Thursday. The settlement with Janssen Ortho LLC and Janssen Pharmaceuticals closes the latest in a string of lawsuits across the nation over the drug Risperdal, including a $2.2 billion settlement in November with the U.S. Department of Justice. The companies knew the drug had the potential to cause weight gain, diabetes and complications to the brain's blood vessels in the elderly, attorneys for the state claimed. But the pharmaceutical companies hid those risks from physicians, patients and others in the medical community about those risks, attorney William Rossbach said in the state's 2008 lawsuit.
Matt Volz, Associated Press, Yahoo News 03/10/2014 | | Read Article: Yahoo News |
| Former Skycap Could Receive $3M Award by Jury | |
| | A former skycap for Flight Services & Systems Inc. in Cleveland has been awarded $1 million by a jury after he was terminated for making a wage complaint. The $1 million awarded by the jury could actually be closer to $3 million because of Massachusetts law, which requires wage-related damages to be tripled. The plaintiff was fired two years after he acted as the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against his employer over a bag fee they were charging passengers that was not going to the workers.
Katie Johnston, Boston Globe 03/08/2014 | | Read Article: Boston Globe |
| Another Couple Files Lawsuit Over Active Landslide | |
| | Another couple has initiated a lawsuit against a private ski resort and golf community in southwestern Montana. The couple, as well as the other couples who filed previous lawsuits, alleges that they unknowingly purchased property on an active landslide. The lawsuit alleges that the company is guilty of fraud, negligence, negligent misrepresentation and violation of the Consumer Protection Act. Two of the other lawsuits ended in the plaintiffs being awarded damages exceeding $500,000. Another was settled out of court.
Staff Report, Helena Independent Record 03/09/2014 | | Read Article: Helena Independent Record |
| FDA, Cosmetics Industry Remain at Odds Over Outdated Regulations | |
| | Concerned about generations-old regulations that have left it with little power to ensure the safety of thousands of consumer products from shampoo to shaving cream, the Food and Drug Administration launched talks with the cosmetics industry more than a year ago. The goal was to reach a deal on a regulatory regime that has not changed since 1938. Tthe talks collapsed, and those once-promising private discussions have given way to public pronouncements of disillusionment, frustration and distrust.
Brady Dennis, The Washington Post 03/10/2014 | | Read Article: The Washington Post |
| Auto Regulators Dismissed Defect Tied to 13 Deaths | |
| | Federal safety regulators received more than 260 complaints over the last 11 years about General Motors vehicles that suddenly turned off while being driven, but they declined to investigate the problem, which G.M. now says is linked to 13 deaths and requires the recall of more than 1.6 million cars worldwide. A New York Times analysis of consumer complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that since February 2003 it received an average of two complaints a month about potentially dangerous shutdowns, but it repeatedly responded that there was not enough evidence of a problem to warrant a safety investigation.
HILARY STOUT, DANIELLE IVORY and MATTHEW L. WALD, The New York Times 03/10/2014 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
| Duke Ordered to Stop Groundwater Pollution at NC Coal Plants | |
| | A North Carolina judge ruled on Thursday that Duke Energy Corp must immediately stop the sources of groundwater pollution at its 14 coal-fired power plants in the state. The issue of pollution from coal ash gained momentum in North Carolina last month, when a spill from a retired Duke power plant dumped at least 30,000 tons of ash in the Dan River. Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway reversed a decision by the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission. He said the panel failed to apply state law properly when it did not force the utility to clean up its coal ash ponds.
Ian Simpson, Reuters 03/10/2014 | | Read Article: Reuters |
| Agency Judge Sides with his Bosses in Case Against Dentists | |
| | In an unusual move, a judge working for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission last week completely overturned findings of an outside judge — essentially changing a finding of innocence to one of guilt. The dispute, over whether there was enough evidence to withhold public Medicaid payments from a dentist accused of fraud, was also being prosecuted by HHSC. In other words, the agency’s judge rejected the findings of an outside jurist, changing the verdict in favor of his bosses.
Eric Dexheimer, Austin American Statesman 03/10/2014 | | Read Article: Austin American Statesman |
| Open Courts Challenge: Taking a New Aim at Tort Reform | |
| | The TX tort changes of 2003 reshaped medical-malpractice litigation in Texas. Now, two Dallas plaintiffs lawyers are mounting a constitutional attack on part of that legal overhaul. They've filed three federal lawsuits, all based on the same set of allegations. They argue that the 2003 Legislature's deletion of Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §41.001(7)(B) violates the Texas Constitution's open courts provision by setting an impossibly high standard for plaintiffs who bring a negligent-credentialing suit against a hospital.
Miriam Rozen, Texas Lawyer 03/10/2014 | | Read Article: Texas Lawyer |
| Nurse Numbers, Education Linked to Patient Death Rate | |
| | Both the quality and quantity of nurses on a hospital staff have significant influence on the chances patients will die following even simple surgery, according to a large new study by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Researchers found the proportion of staff nurses with a bachelor's degree and the number of patients each nurse had to care for could add up to a difference of 30 percent or more in mortality rates for inpatients.
Allison Bond, Reuters 03/10/2014 | | Read Article: Reuters |
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