Legal Examiner staff writers come from diverse journalism and communications backgrounds. They contribute news and insights to inform readers on legal issues, public safety, consumer protection, and other national topics.
Judges in several statets are attending a new kind of Medical School, not to become doctors, but to become better judges in complex litigation. A non-profit school in Washington uses doctors and scientists to educate judges so that they can become more familiar with the underlying issues involved in
Seemingly, the medical profession has lost all sense of reason and ethics in their obsession to blame victims for unreasonably high malpractice premiums. A new website encourages doctors to blacklist patients and plaintiff attorneys who have filed medical malpractice suits. Ironically, plaintiffs wh
Scientific Fraud by industry is not limited to the motive of increased sales; it is also designed to defend lawsuits. I am currently prosecuting a Sanctions Motion against a Product Liability Defendant for secretly creating a “peer reviewed study” to promote its litigation strategy. The Scientific F
If you’ve been reading the newspapers lately, you can’t miss articles and editorials concerning the proliferation of Conflicts of Interest in Medical Studies. As recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Chicago Tribune; several stories are surfacing about researchers who dec
Doctors from Cardiff University in Wales have revealed that previous studies concerning antidepressants had inflated their safety statistics. Referring to the SSRI drugs (Selective Serotonim Reuptake Inhibitors), the Cardiff Study found that the risks of suicides have been routinely understated whil
The Institute of Medicine has reported that 1.5 Million patients each year are injured in hospitals as a result of medication errors. The study revealed the alarming statistic that at least one medical error occurs to each patient every day. The cost for additional medical treatment necessary to add
A 15-month Congressional inquiry into FDA enforcement of the nation’s food and drug laws has found a frighteningly sharp decline over the last five years. The number of warning letters to drug companies, medical device makers and others is down 54% from 2000 to 2005. Enforcement actions was down 65%
Do you bellieve Fast Food Restaurants should warn customers that their menu items are fatty? How about the Trans-Fat amounts? The recent lawsuit by the Center for Science in the Public Interest against KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) raises the question of whether the Courts are appropriate places to e
Corpus Christi, Texas will be the venue for the first jury trial to determine whether welding rods cause Parkinson Disease symptoms. Over 3800 lawsuits have been filed in the U.S, consolidated for supervision by a Cleveland Federal District Court. The suits allege that high expsures to manganese and
Newly released corporate documents show that, last year, Guidant drafted but never sent a detailed document to physicians which would have disclosed significant defects in its heart devices. Instead, executives of the company defended their failure to warn doctors by citing concerns that patients wo
A month after I blogged about Fosamax, the NY Times has run a front page story on the horrible dilemma facing patients with cancer or osteoporosis. The FDA has now required bisphosphonate labels to disclose the serious side effects of death of areas of bone in the jaw, which may occur in one of 10 p
Every now and then bad things happen to good people who are related to a doctor, and when they do, doctors file Medical Malpractice Lawsuits just like every other victim deserves to do. Recently, in Tacoma, Washington, an anesthesiologist sued the hospital where he once worked, asserting that the st
