Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Oral arguments in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth at the Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth. As you may recall, this is the case where the Court will decide whether Section 22(b)(1) of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 — which expressly preempts certain design defect claims against vaccine manufacturers “if the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and was accompanied by proper directions and warning” — preempts all vaccine design defect claims, regardless whether the vaccine’s side effects were unavoidable. As I have mentioned elsewhere, the case is being closely watched because of the enormous health and legal implications for drugmakers and parents. As AboutLawsuits.com states, the case "could potentially mean the end of virtual immunity for vaccine makers and may open the door for hundreds of vaccine injury lawsuits." See AboutLawsuits.com's comment on the case here. I am sure there will be a lot of commentary on this case over the next few days. For now here are a few links with more information about the case. I will keep adding links as I see them, so keep checking .... ScotUS Blog has an argument preview here. The Wall Street Journal law blog The PopTort For all the briefs, court opinions, transcripts and other legal documents, go here. UPDATE: here is the transcript of the oral argument Here is a story from Law.com

No comments: