The Department of Justice regards online tutoring services as “public accommodations” subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and in September entered into a consent decree with Sylvan Learning Centers, which agreed to provide aids such as written materials and “videotext displays” (as well as free sign-language interpreters) for the assistance of deaf persons who might wish to use its services. As TechLaw Journal notes (Sept. 26-30), and as we have often noted before in our ongoing coverage, there is reason to expect the legal pressure for web accessibility to extend to online businesses more generally.
Cometh the Regulation
Ed Silverman reports that pharmaceutical reps will now have to be licensed in D.C. From the story in the Washington Business Journal:
The measure makes D.C. the first in the country to license pharmaceutical company sales representatives, able to revoke that license if a salesperson’s activities were deemed fraudulent… The bill, dubbed SafeRx, also mandates that drug reps have a bachelor’s degree, adhere to a code of ethics and refrain from giving doctors gifts.”
As the Journal alludes to later in the story, the lawsuits have begun.
Lawyer liable to both client and opponent
As one of our reader/informants sums up this litigation against a Kentucky surgeon filed by (and backfiring against) a Tennessee attorney: “Plaintiff lawyer (who is a JD/MD) gets sued by both his plaintiff client and the defendant doctor and he loses to both.” (Andrew Wolfson, “Attorney is loser in malpractice lawsuit”, Louisville Courier-Journal, Nov. 28; Childs, Dec. 27). More on countersuits by doctors: Point of Law, Dec. 20.
Thimerosal Disappears but Autism Remains
That’s the title of this commentary in the latest issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. The author, Dr. Eric Fombonne of Montreal Children’s Hospital, provides his two cents regarding a new study in the same issue: Continuing Increases in Autism Reported to California’s Developmental Services System: Mercury in Retrograde. In sum, as Dr. Frombonne concludes:
The study by Schechter and Grether in this issue of the Archives provides additional evidence of the lack of association between thimerosal exposure and the risk of autism in the US population. Using an ecologic design and data from the California Department of Developmental Services, the authors showed that the prevalence rate of autism increased continuously during the study period even after the discontinuation of the use of thimerosal in US vaccines in 2001. Had there been any risk association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism, the rate of autism should have decreased in young children between 2004 and 2007. Instead, the rate increase did not attenuate, indicating that thimerosal exposure bears no relationship to the risk of autism.
Whatever the science says, there’s at least three reasons why people continue to believe in a vaccine-autism link. Yet like the Vioxx litigation, science only gets you so far once litigation is introduced to the mix.
White House race roundup
- Marie Gryphon rounds up what’s known about the Republican candidates and their views on litigation reform [Point of Law]
- Obama’s signature achievement as an Illinois legislator was a law requiring that police videotape interrogations and confessions, the better to protect both suspects from beatings and cops from false charges of abuse; some “death penalty abolitionists … worried that Obama’s bill, by preventing the execution of innocents, would deprive them of their best argument” (!). [Peters/WaPo]
- Giuliani-bashers had a fine old time hammering the former mayor on supposed scandal over girlfriend’s driver. So was there anything there? [NYTimes, Newsday “Spin Cycle”, Frum; standard disclaimer]
- Edwards has resolved to run as a plaintiff’s lawyer in full jury-stirring mode; we know a fair bit about his trial-winning style, less about how he settles cases [Beldar]
- Quite a few adherents of the scary Christian Reconstructionist movement seem to like Gov. Huckabee a lot, one hopes he doesn’t like them back [Lindsey, Cato-at-Liberty; Box Turtle Bulletin]
AEI Vioxx Settlement panel on CSPAN
Scheduled for broadcast today at the strange hour of 11:07 AM to 1:11 PM Eastern. A webcast is also available. See also our January 5 post.
A podcast and webcast are also available on the AEI website.
“The wonderful blog, Overlawyered”
Thank you, Patent Troll Tracker (Jan. 4).
“Inmate Sues Jail, Blames It For His Escapes”
Colorado: “An inmate who twice escaped from the Pueblo County jail filed a federal lawsuit Thursday, alleging that guards abused him and didn’t do enough to stop him from breaking out.” Scott Anthony Gomez, Jr.’s lawsuit “claims authorities ‘did next to nothing to ensure that the jail was secure and that the Plaintiff could not escape.'” (TheDenverChannel.com, Jan. 4).
Overlawyered featured
On the WSJ Law Blog—and the plaintiffs attorneys commenting have such nice things to say!
When is it nobody’s fault?
I’d like to thank Walter Olson for inviting me to contribute to one of my favorite blogs, Overlawyered. As an attorney and psychologist, I’ve worked in a number of different hospitals across the country. Health care institutions are unique places to work for in many respects because the decisions made there can directly lead to serious or even fatal outcomes. Of course this is obvious, as should be the fact that despite the best intentions of everyone involved in a patient’s care, bad outcomes occur.
Alison Cowan has this article in last Friday’s New York Times highlighting a recent case involving the suicide of Ruth Farrell. By all accounts Farrell had been quite depressed for a very long time. As is the case with some people who struggle with chronic depression, Ms. Ferrell was admitted to the hospital for care and observation related to her depression and suicidal ideation. Sadly, Ms. Farell hanged herself with her own pants between the standard 15 minute “checks” performed by staff on psychiatric wards. In turn, her estate sued her doctors and the hospital claiming improper care.