November 09, 2006

You might not know that there have been twenty Vioxx cases scheduled for trial by now—nearly every press account scorecard lists only the ten that have gone to verdict or those ten minus the Humeston defense verdict that was mysteriously overturned by Judge Higbee. The real total is 16-4: five cases were dismissed with prejudice by Judge Fallon, and five more were withdrawn by plaintiffs' attorneys before they could result in losses, six resulted in defense jury verdicts, and four in plaintiff jury verdicts, though all of those have strong appellate grounds for, among other things, violations of state and federal expert testimony standards. The West Virginia Record has an excellent interview with Merck defense attorney Ted Mayer. ("Vioxx cases not all big payoffs," Nov. 8).