Personal Injury Roundup No. 49 (9/4/09)

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• OK:  Tort reform takes effect on 11/1, potential claimants urged to file now.  (NewsOk, via Olson/Overlawyered)
• NY:  Tightening comparative negligence in med mal cases?  (Olson/Point of Law)
• In support of medical checklists as tort reform.  (Day on Torts)
• Judge Weinstein pushes for a global settlement of remaining AG Zyprexa suits.  (LegalNewsline)

New Lawsuits

• UK:  Suit blaming birth defects on pollution is allowed to go forward (Olson/Point of Law)
• Not yet a new lawsuit, but it might be on the way.  FDA says residue in Diet Pepsi can was a frog or toad.  (CNN)

Trials, Settlements and Other Ends

• VA:  The Virginia Supreme Court refused a petition for appeal in a case in which the defendant was granted charitable immunity.  The parents of a 25-year-old retarded man claimed the employees of a non-stock corporation set up as a charitable organization were responsible for breaking their son's leg.  (VLW Blog)
• MD:  Jury awards $50,000 in teen suicide against stepfather who kept a gun in the house, knowing his stepson was depressed.  (Maryland Daily Record)
• Pfizer agrees to pay $2.3 billion for promotion of Bextra (Bernabe/Torts)

Damages

• NY:  New lead paint verdicts for children range from $600,000 to $1.2M.  (New York Injury Cases Blog)

Miscellaneous

• Ted Frank & Marie Gryphon:  Negotiating in the Shadow of 'Bad Faith' Refusal to Settle:  A Game Theory Model of Medical Malpractice Pre-Trial Settlements and Insurance Limits (SSRN)

--CJR