Announcements | 
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Laws/Cases |
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Two Lawsuits Filed over Contaminated Organs |
| Two related lawsuits have been filed against Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency and the University of Mississippi Medical Center over allegedly tainted organs. In 2009, two women received kidney transplants from the same donor at UMC - three months later, one of the women was dead, the other is now partially blind. Medical Center officials said that a parasite, Balamuthia mandrillaris, was found after the fact, which can cause brain inflammation. The lawsuits are seeking unspecified damages. Jimmie E. Gates , The Jackson Clarion-Ledger 09/18/2011 | Read Article: The Jackson Clarion-Ledger |
Suit Filed over Headlight-Flashing Tickets in Florida |
| A group of Florida residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state highway patrol and other traffic-enforcement agencies over the issuing of headlight-flashing tickets. The lawsuit stemmed from an incident in 2009 where one of the plaintiffs was given a ticket for flashing his lights to warn other motorists about police parked along the highway. The suit claims these tickets are a violation of the first amendment since "flashing of lights to communicate with another driver is clearly speech." Rick Neale, USA Today 09/18/2011 | Read Article: USA Today |
Montana Judge Approves a $43M Asbestos Settlement |
| A Montana judge has approved a $43 million settlement for more than a thousand asbestos victims who said state officials knew that dust from a mine was killing people but failed to intervene.An estimated 400 people have been killed and 1,750 others were sickened by asbestos released from a W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine outside the mountain town of Libby. Lethal dust from the mine once blanketed the small community about 40 miles south of the Canadian border, and asbestos illnesses were still being diagnosed more than two decades after the mine was shuttered. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in Helena approved the settlement award, which stemmed from lawsuits filed against the state 10 years ago. Sherlock had dismissed the victims' claims in 2002, a decision the state Supreme Court overturned. Associated Press, KHOU-TV 09/19/2011 | Read Article: KHOU-TV |
BP Will Pay US $20.5M to Settle Royalty Case |
| BP will pay the U.S. $20.5M to resolve claims that its subsidiaries underpaid royalties owed to the federal government and Native Americans, the Justice Department said Friday. The settlement arises from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Harrold Wright, who was chairman of the National Gas Supply Association. The suit has resulted in a total of about $270M being collected from energy companies including Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell plc, Chevron Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. Another case Wright filed is still pending. The suits were filed in 1996 and 1998. Associated Press, Houston Chronicle 09/19/2011 | Read Article: Houston Chronicle |
NCAA Hit with Class-Action Concussion Lawsuit |
| The NCAA has been hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing the organization of failing to protect its football players from concussions. The suit claims the NCAA did not "correct tackling methods that led to head injuries and didn't set up sufficient guidelines for players with concussions." The lawsuit was filed by a former Eastern Illinois player who suffered several concussions between 2006 and 2009. Jim Halley, USA Today 09/17/2011 | Read Article: USA Today |
Class-Action Status Denied in Costco Suit, for Now |
| The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that a group of 600 female Costco employees cannot sue the company as a group on claims of gender discrimination. The appeals court declared that a lower court applied the wrong legal standard in granting the class-action status, and the case has been sent back down to the original court with instructions to further discuss a class-action possibility. The lawsuit claims Costco officials made it difficult for women to be promoted to managerial positions. Jonathan Stempel, Reuters 09/16/2011 | Read Article: Reuters |
Issues |
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Doctors Avoid Penalties in Suits Against Medical Firms Alleging Kickbacks, Fraud |
| At least 15 drug and medical-device companies have paid $6.5 billion since 2008 to settle accusations of marketing fraud or kickbacks. However, none of the more than 75 doctors named as participants were sanctioned, despite allegations of fraud or of conduct that put patients at risk, a review by ProPublica found. Reporters reviewed hundreds of pages of court records and interviewed current and former federal prosecutors, state medical board officials, attorneys for whistleblowers and, when possible, the doctors. For each doctor identified in a suit, ProPublica checked for state medical board discipline, penalties from the Medicare program and federal criminal charges. In many of the cases, it appears that not even a cursory investigation was done to see whether the physicians had behaved inappropriately. Tracy Weber & Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, The Washington Post 09/19/2011 | Read Article: The Washington Post |
Healthcare |
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New Law Bans Anonymous Complaints About Doctors |
| A law that took effect this month bars the Texas Medical Board from considering complaints against doctors if they come from anonymous sources. Some patients and their advocates said they fear the law will have a chilling effect on people's willingness to complain and ultimately will harm patient safety. Since a 2003 tort law made it tougher for consumers to sue doctors, the TMB has become the sole recourse for some patients who can't find lawyers to take their malpractice case because of damage limits. Those patients might not get justice — or money — in court, but they still want the doctor punished and the public to know about it. Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, an advocacy group that monitors corporations, insurance and regulatory issues, called the law "a step in the wrong direction" that "could endanger the safety of patients." "The bottom line is," he wrote in an email, "we should be adopting policies that encourage people to bring information forward — not putting limits on how information about violations of patient safety come to light." Mary Ann Roser, Austin American Statesman 09/19/2011 | Read Article: Austin American Statesman |
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