Personal Injury Roundup No. 13 (10/31/08)

Happy Halloween to you all (I have a skeleton and Eleanor Roosevelt in my house), and please go vote.  But only after reading this week's updates: 

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Asbestos litigation: the gift that keeps on giving [ALI-ABA]
• Not quite the right way to describe medians, ABA Journal (but still interesting data) [Point of Law]
• "Last push to deregulate" [Washington Post]

Experts & Science

• The "Evidence Gap," tied into medical devices [NYT]

New Lawsuits

• Family of man who died after vertebrae broken on Coney Island Cyclone sues; park's lawyers, a tad amazingly, purportedly acknowledge a malfunction that caused the ride to drop too fast -- something that is more or less impossible, at least from my understanding of the ride [TortsProf, Newsday, Brooklyn Eagle].
• Sen. Norm Coleman sues Al Franken for defamation over ads calling him "fourth most corrupt" senator and contending he lives "almost rent-free" in D.C. [Star Tribune]
• Challenger Kay Hagan sues Sen. Elizabeth Dole for defamation for ad tying her to atheism [AP]

Trials, Settlements & Other Ends

• Texas A&M settles 1999 bonfire tragedy litigation [TortsProf].
• Big verdict in hazing lawsuit default [TortsProf]
• Late addition: The Drug & Device guys have some fun describing a serious case involving (insert scary music here) the theft of human tissue! [Drug & Device Law Blog]

Appeals

• Illinois Supreme Court adopts risk/utility with consumer expectations component; useful teaching case [TortsProf].
• Wyeth commentary abounds with argument Monday; here's one good overview with links to opposing views - the FDA documents are particularly notable [NY Personal Injury Law Blog citing Pharmalot on the FDA documents; see also WSJ Law Blog on the issue and Drug & Device Law Blog responding to the FDA documents released by Rep. Waxman].

Damages

• No evidence of holiday bump in personal injury verdicts [Maryland Injury Attorney Blog]

Miscellaneous

• New blog from DRI [For the Defense]
  
• Not remotely tort related, but go listen to my daughter interview the Johns from They Might Be Giants [Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child]

Did I mention go vote?  Go vote. 

And just to put you in a Halloween mood, here's my daughter as Amelia Earhart a couple of years ago:

And my son as a hairy eyeball last year:

--BC