December 2, 2009

"Calling Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's lawsuit against Eli Lilly & Co. a 'slash-and-burn style of litigation,' the federal judge overseeing Zyprexa lawsuits has granted Lilly summary judgment." [LNL]

[Judge Jack] Weinstein wrote that a ruling in favor of Mississippi could have been dangerous.

"If allowed to proceed in their entirety, the State's claims could result in serious harm or bankruptcy for this defendant and the pharmaceutical industry generally," he wrote.

"For the legal system to be used for this slash-and-burn style of litigation would arguably constitute an abuse of the legal process. Constitutional, statutory and common law rights of those injured to seek relief from the courts must be recognized. But courts cannot be used as an engine of an industry's destruction."

Judge Weinstein did leave alive one of the state's claims. The drug maker has paid to settle the claims of numerous other states, many of them represented (as was Mississippi) by entrepreneurial Houston law firm Bailey Perrin Bailey. More: Beck & Herrmann, Longstreth/AmLaw Litigation Daily.