Personal Injury Roundup No. 37 (5/22/09)

A quick announcement before we get to the Roundup: You'll be seeing some schedule shifts over the next weeks and months.  I (Bill) am becoming Western New England's Associate Dean for External Affairs and will be dialing down my posting here a bit.  I'll still do the Roundup and post fairly regularly, but not on as specific a schedule.  Thanks to Sheila and Chris for picking up my slack!

And now, on with the show, er, roundup:

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• President Obama reverses much of preemption-by-preamble legacy of Bush administration (Huffington Post, Point of Law, Drug & Device Law) (for what it's worth, I think the last link has it right - unsurprising and probably, post-Levine, not as big a deal as it could be)
• ALI's principles of aggregate litigation getting finalized (summarized at Drug & Device Law Blog)
• Should foreign corporations have the same tort exposure as US corporations? (TortsProf) 
• NEJM on physician conflicts of interest (NEJM) 
• Robinette on early offers & apologies (Northwestern.edu) 
• Feres doctrine debated (UPI) 
• Deductibility of punitive damages (Insurance Journal, also at Point of Law) 
• New York's second largest medical malpractice insurer is insolvent (New York Personal Injury Attorney Blog)

New Lawsuits

• Weird set of facts results in lawsuit, when caregiver watching a bounce house gets smacked by a bouncer, later dies (On Point News) 
• First lawsuit may be imminent in swine flu outbreak (Examiner.com)

Damages

• $1 awarded in policy shooting (Washington Post)
• $10,000 damages in taser suit (Rutland Herald) 
• Punitive damages possible in Florida defamation suit (Orlando Sentinel)

Appeals    

• Collection of links about the implications (many torts-related) of the Supreme Court's Iqbal decision, limiting notice pleading in the context of a Bivens action (Point of Law)

Miscellaneous

• If you show up in the "Damages" section of the roundup with a $1 million verdict, maybe you can join the "Million Dollar Advocates Special People's Club" (okay, I added the last part).  Eric Turkewitz digs some.  Note that I will make you a pretty badge for your website for substantially less than $1,200.

--BC