products liability

There has been an increasing push by plaintiffs attorneys to pursue theories of liability against medical journals and medical publishers for harm allegedly caused to their clients from drugs they ingested. The National Law Journal reports that the First Circuit has rejected "a Massachusetts consumer protection case against two doctors, a medical journal and its publisher over an allegedly flawed article cited by defendants in birth-injury medical malpractice cases." The author of the opinion said "'the plaintiffs' theory of the case is imaginative but unpersuasive,"' The National Law Journal also reports.

The court did not reach the issue of the First Amendment in the case.
 

In December, two Pittsburgh attorneys, as well as a doctor they hired to read X-rays, were found liable by a federal civil jury in West Virginia for violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and for state-law fraud over 11 fraudulent asbestos claims by railroad employees against CSX Transportation, I reported for The Legal Intelligencer in a story picked up by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Now the presiding judge has tripled the award of  $429,240.47, which was the amount CSX said it spent to defend 11 claims it said exemplified a wider practice, the West Virginia Record reports. Awards under RICO can be tripled, the West Virginia Record also reported.

My full coverage from December is here: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/legal/two-pittsburgh-asbest...

http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202582429830&slreturn=201...