October 20, 2009

It's in a tobacco case, but of course there are implications for other defendants as well. [Russell Jackson] And this from Legal Blog Watch:

The SJC [the state's highest court] also ruled that the plaintiffs claims are not blocked by the statute of limitations. Because the technology was only recently developed that would allow the medical monitoring they seek in their complaint, the discovery rule would apply, the SJC said.

For all the many reasons to welcome the advance of new technologies, there is something unsettling in the idea that they could reopen lapsed statutes of limitation and reawaken decades' worth of defunct legal claims.

More: Beck and Herrmann explain why they would say "Donovan only 'sort of' recognized medical monitoring" -- "subcellular changes" are a prerequisite.