Greedy Trial Lawyer
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Slideshow Of The Decade: Allstate's BluePrint For Fraud
Category: The Latest Baddest
Allstate Insurance Co. has a split personality. Its TV/advertising personality is the Good Hands People. Its internal, claims-processing personality is similar to Mike Tyson's.
Fayette case puts Allstate tactics to test
In lawsuits in New Orleans and across the country, Allstate Insurance Co. has been accused of using its financial might to drag out claims and coerce injury victims and property owners into accepting low-ball settlement offers for their insurance claims.Secret documents that trial lawyers say show the motive behind Allstate's tactics have drawn increased national scrutiny, most recently from PBS's NOW, a TV news magazine.
Barring a last-minute settlement, Allstate's claims-handling will be put to the test in a civil trial set to start Monday in Fayette Circuit Court for a $1.425 billion lawsuit filed by Geneva Hager of Richmond.
The trial appears to be only the third time internal company documents that Allstate has fought to keep secret will be shown to the public.
The most famous document, which became the title of a book, plays off the company's slogan. It states that claimants who accept Allstate's offers are in "good hands" while those who object get the "boxing gloves." Trial lawyers call the McKinsey documents a blueprint for fraud.
The documents are actually 12,500 pages of PowerPoint slides developed by McKinsey & Co., which Allstate hired in 1992 to redesign the way it handles claims.
From Kentucky.com.
As a greedy trial lawyer who has gone more than a few rounds with Allstate, I would be willing to sit through all 12,500 slides to see the origin of the Allstate strategy to screw claimants. I probably could create dozens of slides from my experiences - for example: "I would like to offer more money for your broken neck, but the computer program says this is all I can pay." But, the original slides - that would be the Unholy Grail.
Our Seething Supreme Court Justice Airs His Tortured Soul
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It is frightening to know there is a tortured soul in Washington, D.C., who is likely to influence every aspect of our society for, possibly, four decades while barely containing a seething resentment over events that occurred more than 15 years ago.
Clarence Thomas Book Portrays a Tortured Soul
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's new autobiography has just been published. Titled My Grandfather's Son, it covers his life up to his swearing in as a member of the high court.In the book, Justice Thomas speaks out in vivid -- and sometimes seething -- detail about the events surrounding his nomination battle, the charges of sexual harassment against him by Anita Hill and his memories of growing up poor in rural Georgia.
From National Public Radio.
It must be very satisfying to Justice Thomas that he evens the score against the liberal, high-tech lynching party with every vote he casts.
Can anyone think of a better reason to impose a 20 year term limit on Supreme Court Justices?
Of Mice And Men In Clinical Trials
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Sometimes it's better to be a mouse than a man.
Report assails FDA oversight of clinical trials
Federal investigator says little done to ensure patient safetyWASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration does very little to ensure the safety of the millions of people who participate in clinical trials, a federal investigator has found.
In a report released Friday, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, Daniel R. Levinson, said federal health officials did not know how many clinical trials were being conducted, audited fewer than 1 percent of the testing sites and, on the rare occasions when inspectors did appear, generally showed up long after the tests had been completed.
The F.D.A. has 200 inspectors, some of whom audit clinical trials part time, to police an estimated 350,000 testing sites. Even when those inspectors found serious problems in human trials, top drug officials in Washington downgraded their findings 68 percent of the time, the report found. Among the remaining cases, the agency almost never followed up with inspections to determine whether the corrective actions that the agency demanded had occurred, the report found.
"In many ways, rats and mice get greater protection as research subjects in the United States than do humans," said Arthur L. Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Animal research centers have to register with the federal government, keep track of subject numbers, have unannounced spot inspections and address problems speedily or risk closing, none of which is true in human research, Mr. Caplan said.
From MSNBC.
Everyone knows that humans can take the necessary steps to protect themselves if they choose to participate in a clinical trial of a new drug or medical device. Obviously, rats, mice and monkeys do not watch television or go to movies - how can they be expected to understand medical releases or detect the gradual decline in their liver function?
Phil Spector Jury To See If They Can Name That Tune At Least One More Time
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Members of the jury, I am now going to read to you a revised instruction concerning second-degree murder in the hopes that you will now find a way to un-deadlock yourselves and return a verdict. Remember that you can still find the defendant, Phil Spector, innocent even though I am doing what I can to make it easier for you to convict him. If this does not do the trick for you, please let me know and I will see if there are some other instructions I can revise.
Judge in Spector Case Revises Jury Instructions
Morning Edition, September 20, 2007 · The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial in Los Angeles is giving the deadlocked jury one more chance to reach a verdict. The panel remains split after seven days of deliberations. But to avoid a mistrial, the judge revises his jury instruction about second-degree murder.
Big Pharma Plays Russian Roulette With Promotion Of Off-Label Use
Category: The Latest Baddest
An off-label use of a prescription drug is an unsupervised experiment, in my opinion. When it is the result of aggressive promotion by the drug's manufacturer it becomes an unconscionable assault on patients - sort of Big Pharma's version of Russian Roulette. Sadly, the bullet is, at times, in the wrong chamber as a posting on Managed Care Matters illustrates.
Sometimes it takes a few deaths for people to wake up. That appears to be the case with Fentora, the powerful narcotic manufactured by Cephalon. Four deaths have now been linked to Fentora, deaths that are all the more troubling because they appear to be from off-label use of the drug.I'm not surprised.
Cephalon has long been accused of aggressive detailing of powerful pain meds, with Actiq the leading example. Now the company is in damage-control mode, scrambling to redo label warnings and 'warn' physicians to avoid prescribing Fentora for anything other than FDA-approved conditions.
If you're looking for a definition of hypocrisy, this is it. Despite Cephalon's PR campaign to the contrary, the company has long been accused of aggressive detailing, including efforts to encourage off-label prescribing of Actiq. The company is currently under investigation by a Congressional committee for allegedly encouraging docs to prescribe Actiq (which is closely related to Fentora) for conditions such as migraine and back pain.
The Martha Stewart Rule Of Appellate Justice
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Your Honors, I would like to sum up my argument in an additional 46,000 words. I cite the Justice for Martha Stewart Rule.
The Curious Case Of Skilling's Really Long Appellate Brief
When we received Mr. Skilling's 239-page appellate brief this morning, we raised our eyebrows at its length. Coming in at roughly 60,000 words, we wondered whether the court placed limitations on the length of briefs. Indeed, it does. Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(a)(7)(B)(i): "A principal brief is acceptable if it contains no more than 14,000 words."So how did the lawyers for Skilling get away with their tome? They haven't. His lawyers, led by O'Melveny's Daniel Petrocelli submitted the brief to the court in draft form because it far exceeds the word limitation. In this 14-page motion in which Skilling's lawyers ask the court for permission to file a longer brief, they say the case is "extraordinary and compelling" enough to justify the additional length.
They also make some interesting points in arguing that size matters in this appeal. Among them: Because the DOJ has been permitted to file epic briefs in less voluminous and less complex criminal appeals, they should be allowed to here. Skilling's lawyers point out that in the Enron trial known as the "Nigerian Barge" case, the Fifth Circuit accepted a government brief filed at 69,730 words. And in the Martha Stewart case, they say, the Second Circuit accepted a brief at 56,078 words.
Posted by Peter Lattman at the Law Blog of The Wall Street Journal
Having spent an entire career living within what I considered to be overly restrictive time and word limits on voir dire, opening statements, closing arguments, appellate briefs and appellate arguments it is hard for me to accept that some litigants are permitted to write novels to express their points on appeal. I am certain there are people on death row whose attorneys had more to say but were required to shut their mouths by the rules. Obviously, Mr. Skilling feels his appeal deserves the Martha Stewart treatment. The question is, why was Martha allowed four times the appellate maximum to convince a panel of judges that her version of justice was correct? I know she bakes great cookies, but they always seemed normal-size to me.
Doctors Need To Control Information Regarding Quality Of Care
Category: The Latest Baddest
I believe it may have been Bambi's mother who gave us this rule to live by: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
Now, Jeffrey Segal, CEO of the Medical Justice League of America, adds a subsection to the rule: Just don't say anything at all about your doctor unless you get permission in writing.
Medical Justice League of America
A new company is helping doctors write "gag order" forms for patients who might want to post about them on one of those health information sites.This entry in the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog was intriguing:
Next time you go to the doctor, look for a new form buried in the stack of insurance and health-history paperwork you're asked to complete. You might find a contract that would require you ask your doctor for permission to grade him or her online.
A new company called "Medical Justice" is selling services to doctors. Among their offerings is a form that doctors can insist patients sign before providing treatment. The form forbids the patient from rating or reviewing the physician on any website or online forum.
"The whole notion of your reputation on the line and not having control makes physicians feel vulnerable," Medical Justice CEO Jeffrey Segal told the Health Blog. "The goal is to regain control of the flow of information."
From The Sentinel Effect
Do doctors really need to restrict free speech in order to cure their feelings of vulnerability? Do they need to control the flow of information in order to sleep at night?
This is the private healthcare delivery system we are fighting to preserve?
The Ultimate Defective Product - A Cadillac Hearse
Category: The Latest Baddest
Not wanting to have a blazing send-off to eternity I will be amending my will to preclude the transportation of my body to its final resting place in a Cadillac hearse.
Cadillac has issued a recall for 1049 of the 2006 and 2007 model year hearses built by Accubuilt, Inc. because of a potential fire hazard.Some of the hearses, sold under the brand names of Superior, Sayers and Scoville, Eureka and Miller-Meteor have a faulty fuel neck assembly that could leak gasoline resulting in a fire under the hearse.
I always thought of product defects as potential causes of serious injuries and deaths. It never occurred to me that manufacturers could nail me one more time after my funeral. In my particular situation, having sued manufactuers for years, I should have anticipated a retaliatory strike from industry.
"Buyer Beware" Is New Motto At Bush's Consumer Product Safety Commission
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission, under President Bush, has become the Industry Protection Agency.
Safety Agency Faces Scrutiny Amid Changes
Under the Bush administration, which promised to ease what it viewed as costly rules that placed unnecessary burdens on businesses, industry-friendly officials have been installed at agencies that oversee the nation's workplaces, food suppliers, environment and consumer goods.Top officials at the Consumer Product Safety Commission say they have enhanced protections for the American public in recent years. But they have also blocked enforcement actions, weakened industry oversight rules and promoted voluntary compliance over safety mandates, according to interviews with current and former senior agency officials and consumer groups and a review of commission documents.
At a time when imports from China and other Asian countries surged, creating an ever greater oversight challenge, the Bush-appointed commissioners voiced few objections as the already tiny agency -- now just 420 workers -- was pared almost to the bone.
At the nation's ports, the handful of agency inspectors are hard pressed to find dangerous cargo before it enters the country; instead, they rely on other federal agents, who mostly act as trademark enforcers, looking for counterfeit Nike sneakers or Duracell batteries.
At the agency's cramped laboratory, a lone employee is charged with testing suspected defective toys from across the nation. At the nearby headquarters, safety initiatives have been stalled or dropped after dozens of jobs were eliminated in budget cutbacks.
Other workers quit in frustration. The head of the poison prevention unit, for example, resigned when efforts to require inexpensive child-resistant caps on hair care products that had burned toddlers were delayed so industry costs could be weighed against the potential benefit to children.
"Buyer beware -- that is all I have to say," Suzanne Barone, the poison prevention expert, who left in 2005, said.
From The New York Times
Is this just one of the faith-based initiatives so strongly advocated by President Bush? We need to pray for our safety and the safety of our children - it would likely be more effective than the efforts of our federal safety and health agencies.
Surgical Gangs Still Operating
Category: The Latest Baddest
Are they still operating on the wrong body part or leaving surgical instruments and sponges in patients after surgery? You bet!
State Health Dept: Final Medical Error Tally for 2006 is 85
INDIANAPOLIS - A state health department report shows 85 medical errors were reported last year in Indiana.Health officials say the final report reveals the most common errors are bed sores, a foreign object left in patients after surgery and operations on the wrong body part.
It is the first year for the Medical Error Reporting system in Indiana.
It requires a concerted effort to perform surgery on the wrong body part or to leave a surgical instrument behind. It takes the active participation of more than one member of the surgical team. Maybe teams that perform this poorly should be called surgical gangs.
"I'll Have To Hang Up; My Cell Phone Is On Fire"
Category: The Latest Baddest
Globilization - when 46 million batteries manufactured by a Japanese corporation can overheat in cell phones sold by a company headquartered in Finland. If all 46 million batteries started a fire simultaneously would the planet survive?
Product Advisory: Nokia BL-5C battery
Dear Nokia Customer,This is a product advisory for the Nokia-branded BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006. This product advisory does not apply to any other Nokia battery.
Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge. Nokia is working closely with relevant local authorities to investigate this situation.
Nokia has several suppliers for BL-5C batteries that have collectively produced more than 300 million BL-5C batteries. This advisory applies only to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006.
Walgreens Does The Impossible And Kills A Drug Customer
Category: The Latest Baddest
There are some things that can never happen. One is the misfilling of a prescription.
If you were to read the procedure manual or interview the head of any major U.S. pharmacy company you would learn that there are four or five independent steps which are required before a container of prescription drugs is handed to the patient/consumer. You would also learn that multiple employees, including a licensed pharmacist, are independently involved in the process. Therefore, you would realize it would simply be impossible for a misfilled prescription to wend its way through such a fail-safe sequence. It would be the equivalent of an accidental launch of a nuclear-armed long-range missile, which also cannot happen.
Well, Walgreens launched a missile and killed a customer.
Walgreens loses $25.8M in Fla. lawsuit
BARTOW, Fla. (AP) - A jury awarded $25.8 million Friday to the family of a cancer patient who was given a wrong prescription, had a stroke and died several years later, lawyers said.Beth Hippely was prescribed Warfarin, a blood thinner, in 2002 to treat breast cancer. The prescription filled at a Walgreens (NYSE:WAG) pharmacy was 10 times what her doctor prescribed, court documents said.
The Polk County Circuit Court jury found the prescription error caused a cerebral hemorrhage resulting in permanent bodily injury, disability and physical pain. The mother of three died in January at the age of 46.
A 19-year-old pharmacy technician, with little training, misfiled the prescription, according to court documents.
Where was the 19-year-old's supervising licensed pharmacist? On a lunch break?
Blindness Is Ultimate Reward For Lighting Up
Category: The Latest Baddest
Many of us recall the admonition - don't do that or you will go blind. Medical causation was always dubious, however.
Now, parents can use the terrifying warning to discourage another bad habit, smoking.
The long list of health risks associated with smoking just got a little longer.New research shows that smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop the late stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
AMD is the leading cause of blindness in Western nations, according to researcher Jennifer Tan, MBBS, and colleagues.
Tan works in Sydney, Australia, at the University of Sydney's Centre for Vision Research and Westmead Hospital's ophthalmology department.
Is there any organ of the body which is not adversely affected by smoking? Does tobacco have any positive social value other than as a transport vehicle for large sums of money into the bank accounts of Big Tobacco?
The Heartless Jerks At Johnson & Johnson
Category: The Latest Baddest
As a greedy trial lawyer it often becomes my duty to defend another greedy professional or company. Today, I had to consider defending Johnson & Johnson because of the following post at IPThoughts.
Every once in a while you see the type of lawsuit that makes you wonder if the client has turned over its thinking ability to its lawyers. That was the case recently when Johnson & Johnson filed a lawsuit against the American Red Cross for trademark infringement. Johnson & Johnson, which owns the trademark registration for the red cross symbol for a variety of goods, asserts that the American Red Cross has crossed the line by licensing third parties to sell emergency preparedness kits and wound dressing kits under the AMERICAN RED CROSS name and red cross symbol.Johnson & Johnson may have a legally valid point. The more important question - does the lawsuit make business sense? While the American Red Cross has not been immune to criticism, suing a high profile charity that is generally well respected is not likely to be listed among the smartest PR moves of 2007. There is nothing like spending millions on public relations, only to have your legal department make you look like a bunch of heartless greedy jerks.
Posted by Rand Bateman
After two minutes of thought, I easily concluded Johnson & Johnson probably is the home of a rather large number of heartless jerks. I readily accept greed as a character trait, but I would not even share a cab with a heartless jerk, especially one who would sue the American Red Cross.
Guess What Happens When Mine Safety Regulation Is Entrusted To Former Coal Managers
Category: The Latest Baddest
Are we safer now than we were prior to 9/11? This question is usually asked in regard to the threat of terrorism. However, coal miners and their families have a special reason for asking the question.
Bush's Gutting of Safety Rules Preceded Utah Mine Collapse
The trapping of six miners in a Utah coal mine collapse is the latest coal industry disaster to occur since George W. Bush took office. Since 2000, Bush has cut funding for mine safety enforcement by $15 million and stacked the Mine Safety and Health Administration with representatives of corporate interests.Coal mining deaths have increased sharply in the past few years. 2006 was the deadliest year in a decade for coal miners.
As the AFL-CIO notes, 47 coal miners were killed on the job last year, a 210 percent increase over 2005, when 22 coal miners died on the job. 2006 was marked by several major disasters, including a Jan. 2 explosion that killed 12 coal miners in Sago Mine in West Virginia.
Although times are perilous for coal miners, it's a different story for America's coal companies. For example, 2005 was a record year for revenue and profits for St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp., the world's largest private-sector coal producer. In 2005, Peabody recorded revenues of $4.64 billion, up about 28 percent from 2004.
As WSWS.org points out, the "Bush administration has stacked (the Mine Safety and Health Administration) with former coal managers who have unashamedly tailored the agency's policies to meet the profit needs of the operators."
Posted at BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com
Everybody knows that former coal managers would protect the health and safety of coal miners. They are even better than Arabian Horse Association officials. Heck of a job, fellas.
The Family That Bounces Together Ends Up In The ER
Category: The Latest Baddest
Some activities are just too dangerous for ordinary folks to try. For example, cliff diving probably should be left to experts.
Why anyone would purchase a trampoline for their backyard is beyond me. Articles like the following appear weekly.
Get A Jump On Injury Prevention - Trampoline Safety Strategies Can Decrease The Number And Severity Of Related Injuries
Although trampolines were once found only in gymnasiums, in recent years, it has become increasingly common to see kids using them in their own backyards. While athletes use trampolines under the supervision of coaches and other experts, home users rarely take such precautions, leaving themselves at risk for injury. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) recommends that trampoline users take care to protect themselves. [I would recommend a tether to prevent any bounce higher than 12 inches.]In 2006, more than 272,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms, doctors' offices, clinics and other medical settings for trampoline-related injuries, according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.
Beware Of Birchwood Clogs
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Every pair of clogs I have ever worn has caused me to stumble or trip. Long ago I decided I must be clog-challenged. Now, I am informed by our government that one particular pair of clogs is a really bad actor.
Recall Alert from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Sandal Clogs Recalled by Hanna Andersson Due to Fall Hazard
Name of Product: Birchwood Sole Sandal ClogsHazard: The leather ankle strap can tear or separate from the clog sole, posing a fall hazard.
I'll keep a lookout for these wooden trip artists and warn all my friends.
"Go Slow" Was Message From Washington On OxyContin Case
Category: The Latest Baddest
The Bush Administration isn't much for the rights of accused terrorists or criminal defendants, But, boy, do they go the extra mile for drug manufacturers.
U.S. Attorney Became Target After Rebuffing Justice Dept.
The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke, testified that he was at home the evening of Oct. 24 when he received the call on his cellphone from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general and one of the Justice aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
Brownlee settled the case anyway. Eight days later, his name appeared on a list compiled by Elston of prosecutors that officials had suggested be fired.
Brownlee ultimately kept his job. But as Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales confronts withering criticism over the dismissals, the episode in the OxyContin case provides fresh evidence of efforts by senior officials in the department's headquarters to sway the work of U.S. attorneys' offices.
From the Washington Post
I would be like to know if Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was, as is his custom, out of the loop on this matter.
An Alarming Solution For Kids Left To Bake In Cars
Category: The Latest Baddest
At least 300 children have died in the last 10 years because they were left in hot cars. If we make the rather obvious assumption that not all children left in hot cars died we may well be dealing with thousands of children baking in metal cans and at risk of serious injury or death.
How Should System Respond to Parents Who Leave Kids in Cars?
The AP analyzed 300-some child deaths in hot cars in the last 10 years. Sometimes caregivers are charged, sometimes not. When they are prosecuted sentences vary. Mother are more often charged than fathers and, when convicted, their sentences average two years longer. Sentences vary when kids die in hot cars, Seattle Times, July 28, 2007.Posted by Mary Whisner at TRIAL AD NOTES
It may be difficult to decide the degree of culpability of each parent or caregiver and, therefore, the appropriate legal response after the death has occurred. However, it is not difficult to see that a simple alarm loudly and continuously sounding if a seatbelt remains engaged more than 20 minutes after a car's ignition is turned off could save lives. My car sounds like a bank robbery has occurred if I fail to buckle my seatbelt within about 60 seconds of ignition. Why not the same alarm for an engaged seatbelt without ignition?
Wash Your Damn Lab Coats!
Category: The Latest Baddest
When a doctor visits you in the hospital wearing that spiffy-looking lab coat it is likely he is accompanied by a million or so little buddies, a month's supply of dangerous bacteria.
MRSA Report Cites Irresponsibility Everywhere
My colleague Betsy McCaughey, chair of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, publishes in July's Best Hospitals 2007 of US News and World Report that hospitals must begin to take responsibility for their infection rates, and begin to take the necessary steps to clean themselves up.She cites a study that shows that "65 percent of physicians and other medical professionals admitted they hadn't washed their lab coat in at least a week, even though they knew it was dirty. Nearly 16 percent said they hadn't put on a clean lab coat in at least a month. Lab coats become covered in bacteria when doctors lean over the bedsides of patients who carry the organisms. Days later the bacteria are still alive, repeatedly contaminating doctors' hands and being carried to other patients."
From EVERY PATIENT'S ADVOCATE
If doctors aren't going to wash their lab coats why don't hospitals hand them freshly laundered ones as they enter the facility? Or, make the docs wear those cute patient gowns that tie up in the back?
OxyContin's Marketers Guilty But Not Bad Enough For Jail Time
Category: The Latest Baddest
OxyContin, the drug, probably has a proper place in the treatment of certain types of pain in particular patient populations (such as, the pain of a terminal cancer patient). OxyContin, the marketing campaign, had no place in the drug industry.
OxyContin maker, execs fined $634.5 million
Judge ruled that drug company misled the public about addiction riskPurdue Pharma L.P., the maker of OxyContin, and three of its executives were ordered Friday to pay a $634.5 million fine for misleading the public about the painkiller's risk of addiction.
U.S. District Judge James Jones levied the fine on Purdue, its top lawyer and former president and former chief medical officer after a hearing that lasted about three-and-a-half hours. The hearing included statements by numerous people who said their lives were changed forever by addiction to OxyContin, a trade name for a long-acting form of the painkiller oxycodone.
From 1996 to 2001, the number of oxycodone-related deaths nationwide increased fivefold while the annual number of OxyContin prescriptions increased nearly 20-fold, according to a report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In 2002, the DEA said the drug caused 146 deaths and contributed to another 318.
Purdue Pharma L.P., its top lawyer and former president and former chief medical officer pleaded guilty in May to claiming to doctors that OxyContin was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications. The sentencing Friday ends the national case.
Michael Friedman, who retired in June as Purdue's president, general counsel Howard Udell and former chief medical officer Paul Goldenheim each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of misbranding the drug. Of the total fine, $34.5 million was levied on those three.
From AP and MSNBC
Sounds like some serious, intentional wrongdoing that caused well over 100 deaths. Apparently, not serious enough to justify even a Paris Hilton county jail sleepover.
Jones placed the company on probation for five years and each of the executives on probation for three years. He also ordered the three to perform 400 hours of community service related to prevention of prescription drug abuse.
Atlantic City Gambling Casino, Lung Cancer And Kick In The Butt
Category: The Latest Baddest
Gambling casinos have a way of producing winners and losers. That is probably inherent in the nature of the business. However, some losers never place any bets.
Suit says firing by Tropicana payback for smoke-free stance
ATLANTIC CITY -- A former floorman at the Tropicana Casino and Resort has filed suit against the casino for wrongful termination, saying he was "unceremoniously fired" because he publicly advocated a smoke-free workplace.Vincent Rennich, of Somers Point, was let go on March 5, one week after he testified about the health hazards of second-hand smoke in casinos in front of the state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, according to the complaint filed in Superior Court in Atlantic City. At that hearing, Sen. Robert W. Singer, R-Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, thanked Rennich and other casino employees for coming to testify when "you've put your jobs on the line."
"A crueler fate could not have befallen a 26-year veteran of (the Tropicana) and the casino gaming industry, for Mr. Rennich developed lung cancer from his protracted exposure to second-hand smoke in the workplace," the suit contends.
Rennich, who never smoked cigarettes, sued the Tropicana a year ago for providing the unhealthful workplace that he said caused his lung cancer. Doctors discovered he had the disease when he underwent medical tests after an automobile accident. Since that time, he has told his story at several public events and been a vocal advocate for including casinos in the state's 15-month-old Smoke Free Air Act.
I can only hope the wheel of fortune spins in Vincent's favor when the jury eventually awards him the damages he deserves.
HCA's King-Sized Screw-up
Category: The Latest Baddest
HCA needs to revise its background check procedures.
Suing Putnam General and John Anderson King
The people who are suing the former Putnam General Hospital packed a courtroom Monday in Putnam County, finally getting their cases before a jury.It's the first of many civil trials involving the hiring of doctor John King and his work at the former Putnam General.
We already know the allegations that doctor king botched more than a hundred orthopedic surgeries at the hospital when it was owned by HCA.
The question in this first trial, did the hospital do enough to check King's background, before the doctor got temporary privileges to begin doing surgery.
The company that put King to work in Putnam County is on trial, the allegation that HCA and Putnam General rushed to get King operating privileges, despite serious flaws and omissions on his application.
And, wouldn't you think that by, say, the 25th botched surgery HCA would have gotten a whiff of a problem?
Take These Drug Ads And Get Plenty Of Sleep
Category: The Latest Baddest
Americans sit virtually alone in the industrialized world in front of incessant television ads extolling the wonders of prescription drugs. Aren't we lucky?
By Arlene Weintraub, Business WeekSome members of Congress want to limit Big Pharma's ability to promote products directly to consumers. But the roadblocks are high.
If Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) had his way, the little butterfly used to advertise the insomnia remedy Lunesta might not be allowed to flutter all over our TV screens, as it has incessantly since the drug was approved in late 2004. Waxman believes the U.S. Food & Drug Administration should be able to forbid companies from advertising directly to consumers until new drugs have been on the market for at least three years.
Critics are increasingly concerned that the ads encourage consumers to demand drugs they don't need, and in the process put themselves at risk of suffering dangerous side effects. A moratorium on advertising, some say, would give the FDA and drugmakers more time to understand the risks a particular drug poses before they plaster it all over the media.
Only one other country in the world--New Zealand--allows drug companies to market their products directly to consumers. All others deem it too dangerous.
However unusual, marketing drugs to consumers has become a huge business. Since 1997, when the FDA relaxed the rules on Big Pharma's television marketing, drug advertising surged to $5.3 billion in 2006, up 14% from 2005, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Ad spending in the pharma sector grew faster than that of any other industry among the top 10 spenders, including autos and telecom.
Who cares about drug safety or overuse of new drugs when there is over $5 billion to be made by advertisers and zillions of dollars to be made on each brand new wonder drug!