Personal Injury Roundup No. 76 (5/14/2010)

Graduation here at Western New England is just a week away.  Congratulations to graduates here and across the country!

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Some Kagan links: Turkewitz hopes she's handed clients tissues (New York PI Law Blog); Overlawyered rounds up some links (Overlawyered); Victor Schwartz comments on her having an open mind on liability reform (Business Insurance).
• Center for American Progress criticizes damage caps for environmental damages. (Center for American Progress) 
• Damages the focus of insurer ad buys in North Carolina.  (BusinessWeek)

New Lawsuits

• Lord Jesus Christ hit by car in my little town of Northampton, Mass.; says he thinks it was an accident but has a lawyer anyway.  (MassLive.com)
• Media hears "Starbucks" and "hot beverage" in the same sentence, writes a story evoking Stella Liebeck and calls it a day.  (Turkewitz)

Damages

• $500 million in punitive damages to pharmaceutical companies for plaintiffs getting hepatitis C due to reuse of vials; allegation is, I guess, that the vials the pharma companies used were too big and thus encouraged (?) reuse.  (Google/AP, Daily Finance) 
• Family of eight-year-old killed by negligently installed and inspected carnival ride will receive no compensation on top of roughly $2 million already received (MassTort.org)

--BC