Personal Injury Roundup No. 31 (4/10/09)

Spring has sprung, more or less, in New England (though there were some snowflakes on Wednesday).  Those of you in places where it's been definitively spring for longer can just sit on your hands and refrain from making fun.

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Oregon looks like it's raising caps on damages against the state [Bend Weekly] 
• Man, Sheila and Chris did a heck of a job covering the Restatement (Third) Conference.  Wow.  [TortsProf]
• Off-label prescriptions [Mass Tort Litigation Prof Blog]
• Too much CPSIA stuff to summarize here; as usual, Walter Olson is definitive in coverage (even if you disagree with his views) [Overlawyered]

New Lawsuits

• MDL sought for "burning bra" lawsuit against Victoria's Secret [NY Daily News]
• Fourth lawsuit against Blackwater for civilian deaths in Iraq [LA Times]

Trials, Settlements & Other Ends

• "Douchebag" defamation suit voluntarily dismissed after earlier one involuntarily dismissed [Smoking Gun] 
• Interesting third-party duty issue: the Sixth Circuit permitted a case to go forward against a hospital for releasing a man who killed his ex-wife [AP]
• West Virginia hears appeal of $381M verdict against DuPont [Legal News Line]

Appeals

•  $42.5M judgment upheld against Wackenhut in private prison death [Houston Chronicle]

Miscellaneous

• Who is that reasonable person?  Larry Solum knows.  [Legal Theory Blog]
• I'm still pretty proud about WNEC's national championship at the Products Liability Moot Court Competition, but I won't post about it any more.  After this.  [TortsProf] 
• Sperm as defective product [Turley]

--BC