YEAR / STATE
YEAR / STATE
Let’s take a look at hospital malpractice verdicts and settlements in Massachusetts in recent years. I’m writing this on March 31, 2021 so we do not have a ton in recent years.
Why? Hospitals in Massachusetts — or anywhere — are usually not racing to the courthouse steps to try cases. They have too much in PR and goodwill to risk a loss so they settle the good cases they could lose.
YEAR / STATE
Roundup is one of the most popular and widely used weed killers in the world. Roundup was first released in the early 1970s by Monsanto (now owned by pharma giant Bayer) and it eventually came to dominate the weed killer market, both commercial and residential. Roundup was everywhere and there was never any question about whether it was safe.
The end of Roundup’s success story began about 5 years ago when it was discovered that chronic exposure to the active ingredient in Roundup (glyphosate) could cause certain types of cancer. This discovery was followed by an inevitable tidal wave of lawsuits by individuals who were diagnosed with cancers such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after prolonged use of Roundup.
The Roundup lawsuits soon numbered in the thousands and were consolidated into multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of California. Monsanto (and its successor Bayer) has repeatedly refused to admit that Roundup is unsafe and aggressively defended its product in the courts. After years of civil discovery and a series of “test trials” that resulted in massive plaintiff verdicts, Bayer finally gave in and announced that it was going to pay a staggering $10 billion to settle all of the Roundup lawsuits.
Last week, in Siebert v. Okun, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that the state’s damages cap in medical malpractice cases was constitutional, concluding the law did not violate the right to a trial by jury. This ruling struck down the Bernalillo County District Court’s 2018 ruling on Siebert v. Okun.
The New Mexico legislature passed the Medical Malpractice Act in 1976. The law caps damages in medical malpractice cases at $600,000. It applies to lost wages and pain and suffering. The cap excludes punitive damages and compensation for medical and rehabilitative treatments.
Injectafter lawsuits are starting to be filed around the country amid allegations that the iron supplement causes hypophosphatemia (HPP), leading to fatigue, muscle pain and weakness, and bone pain.
In 2013, the FDA approved the iron supplement Injectafer. This drug is used to treat iron deficiency anemia, a condition where the body lacks enough iron to produce healthy red blood cells. Shortly after FDA approval, studies revealed that use of Inectafer could cause severe hypophosphatemia (HPP) in some patients.
Last February, just before the coronavirus shutdowns put everything on pause, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Drug Safety Communication for the weight-loss drug Belviq. According to the FDA, studies show that Belviq increases the risk of certain types of cancers. In response to the FDA safety announcement for Belviq, Easai Inc. agreed to voluntarily withdraw the drug from the market. It now appears that Belviq is destined to suffer the same disastrous fate as many other prescription weight control drugs.
Belviq is the brand name for Lorcaserin, a new type of hormone appetite suppressant medication developed for the treatment of obesity. It was originally developed by Arena Pharmaceuticals and later manufactured and sold by Japanese-based pharmaceutical company Eisai.
The average personal injury verdict at trial in Connecticut is $2,519,637, according to Jury Verdict Research.
This is great ammo if you are a personal injury lawyer trying to trump up the value of your case or if you are a tort reform advocate trying to show that juries are going wild. But this is unbelievably misleading.
The median personal injury verdict in Connecticut is $22,499, less than 10% of the average. Only 4% of verdicts exceed $1 million and I would love to see how many of these verdicts are actually collected. My guess? Less than half. Someone got a $326 million verdict in this study. I didn’t look up the verdict, but somehow I doubt someone wrote a $326 million check.
There are reports that Penumbra’s JET 7 7 Ultra Flex Catheter has a defect that can cause serious injury or death. As a result, the medical device manufacturer recalled it inDecember 2020. One month later, one of Penumbra’s investors filed a class-action suit, alleging that it concealed information on the catheter’s defects. Can we expect injury and wrongful death lawsuits to be filed in connection with this recall? Let’s talk about this recall and what we might expect moving forward.
The JET 7 Reperfusion Catheter with Xtra Flex Technology is a medical device intended to remove stroke patients’ blood clots and restore blood flow. It works by sucking the blood clot from the affected artery. The catheter’s manufacturer, Penumbra, introduced it to the U.S. market in July 2019. By the end of the year, this device accounted for over 30 percent of Penumbra’s total revenue.
The Zantac cancer lawsuits are heating up. Discovery is moving forward surprisingly quickly given the pandemic and it may not be long before trials are being scheduled.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers are pushing like crazy for Zantac victims, including our law firm. Our lawyers are moving quickly and we have already signed up scores of plaintiffs for the Zantac cancer lawsuits. If you have cancer and were taking Zantac, don’t delay. We are at the point where there are statute of limitations concerns. Call us today at 800-553-8082 or get a free online claim evaluation.
On April 1, 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested the removal of all Zantac and generic ranitidine products from the market, after discovering that levels of NDMA in the drug could increase with time and exposure to high temperatures.
April 30, 2021 Update: Wow! We have a verdict. And it is a big one. $7.1 million for three plaintiffs. The jury kicked in $2.1 million in punitive damages. Why? They didn’t just find 3M negligent in manufacturing the Combat Arms earplugs. The jury thought 3M need to learn a lesson for what it did to these victims.
For the life of me, I can’t see why 3M let these cases go to trial. The outcome seemed almost predetermined.
From the mass tort work our lawyers do, we form opinions about the value of various class action type lawsuits, most involving pharmaceutical drugs or medical devices.
Our law firm makes virtually the same effort in all these cases. We tell lawyers and victims what we know about the litigation on our blogs and websites. That is the only “marketing” that we do.
But, clearly, different cases have different potential values. How do we compare the expected trial or settlement value of different mass torts?
