Florida Injury Lawyers Blawg

Recent results from tobacco cases are showing the tide continues to turn in favor of smokers. The Miami Daily Review reported a jury decision in favor of a widower of a smoker for $1.93 million against Phillip Morris.This trial is one of the first to go following the 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision which essentially established that negligence was the cause of the smoker's injury. This case contained claims of false advertising and deceptive marketing by Phillip Norris.

Pfizer agreed to settle civil and criminal claims with the United States Department of Justice for over $2 billion regarding how it marketed its product Bextra. While the Federal Drug Administration had approved the product to be used to manage arthritis, Pfizer was marketing the products to use the product for other purposes.

Several employees for Pfizer blew the whistle to the U.S. Government about the false marketing and recovered over one hundred million dollars of the settlement. Medicare and Medicaid will also receivea substantial sum of the settlement proceeds.

The settlement does not include compensation to individuals affected by Bextra. In 2005, Pfizer took Bextra off the shelf because the product was dangerous even for those uses previously approved by the FDA.

Claims against General Motors, including claims involving defective products that arose prior to General Motors filing for bankruptcy, are still viable. The rights to compensation and accessing the courts for those individuals victimized by defective GM vehicles prior to GM's bankruptcy are still in tact.

Chrysler has recently agreed that it will accept product liability claims on Chrysler vehicles made before the company ended bankruptcy on June 10, 2009. However, Chrysler's agreement only agreed to assume responsibility for those vehicles sold by the newly formed Chrysler. GM responsibility extends to all its former vehicles, regardless of whether GM continues to mae those vehicles.

The Senate has obtained documents from Forest Laboratories concerning its marketing plan for its Lexapro. The law prohibits drug companies for paying doctors to prescribe the drug companie's products. However, drug comanies are allowed to pay doctors to educate other doctors about a drug. The Senate Finance Committee is investigating the marketing by the drug companies. According to Senator Herb Kohl, who is the chairperson of the committee on ging, stated that documents obtained of Forest's marketing plan shows that there is no line between medica education and marketing.

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld a verdict of $101.7 million for four men framed by the FBI in a murder in 1965. The men spent numerous years in prison.

The verdict is believed to be the largest award for this type of case. The appellate court stated that the ward was "at the outer edge of the universe of permissible awards". The trial court conducted a 22 day bench trial and concluded that the FBI was responsible for the framing of four innocent men.

Several key legal rulings and decisions have been made recently affecting Florida. First, Governor Christ and the State of Florida have rejected Miami-Dade County's attempt to move the urban development line further west. The UDL was set up years ago, among other things, to protect the Everglades. Christ and the State agreed with an Administrative Law Judge that the county was violating the State's growth management laws by premitting Lowe's to build a store beyond the UDL.

United States Distrcit Judge paul A. Magnuson issued a 97 page order prohibiting the State of Georgia from using Lake Lanier for its citizenry north of the lake. Georgia, Florida and Alabama are all affected by the ruling and have been fighting over water for years. Judge Magnuson still needs to rule on other aspects of that litigation. An appeal is likely to take place. Judge Magnuson's ruling invites Congress to help decide the dispute. Georgia recently has suffered from severe droughts.