[drugawareness] LA TIMES-Bush: End 'Frivolous' Lawsuits

[Guest guest]

atracyphd2

Fri, 7 Jan 2005 09:45:47 EST

 

 

[drugawareness] LA TIMES-Bush: End 'Frivolous' Lawsuits

 

From the LA Times article found below we read:

 

" Doctors, hospitals, drug makers and other manufacturers who want to limit

litigation costs are lining up against the trial attorneys who represent

plaintiffs in personal injury cases.

 

" Bush prodded lawmakers to take action this year , , ,

 

" The legislation Bush favors would limit damages in malpractice cases,

restrict class action lawsuits and curb asbestos-related litigation.

 

" White House officials said the president wanted the new Congress to

tackle

the malpractice measure before taking up other top social legislative

priorities , , , [to] place a $250,000 ceiling on awards for pain and

suffering and

other non-economic damages. A number of states, including California, have

enacted such caps. "

 

Let me point out that what we have just learned about Prozac producing

such a

high rate of suicide would never have seen the light of day had it not

been

for what Bush is referring to here as a " frivolous " lawsuit.

 

PLEASE let your local political leaders know that you oppose this move by

President Bush!! If this happens there will be absolutely NO checks

and balances

of any kind left for one of these companies who kill in order to make

a buck

if they limit these suits.

 

Let me explain.

 

These wrongful death suits are ALL we have as recourse against these mass

murderers who kill using pharmaceutical drugs rather than bullets -

the death

toll as of a decade ago was already higher than if we were to have a

9/11 tragedy

every week in America alone.

 

With the limit Bush is suggesting of $250,000 there is not an attorney

in the

country who could afford to take a case to court. It costs hundreds of

thousands of dollars to gather all of the data in preparing to take a

case to court.

Why? Because you have to spend months coming through rooms filled with

boxes

of papers to find the evidence necessary to take one of these cases to

court.

 

This type of evidence is what has just given the British Medical

Journal the

information they needed to warn the world about the huge increase in

suicide

caused by Prozac. Without someone going through reams upon reams of

paper to

find that information for the Wesbecker wrongful death case, the world

would

never have known.

 

Let me make a point here. If any one of us goes out after premeditating a

murder and kills someone it is clear that we will spend the rest of

our lives

behind bars or get the death penalty. But these companies are not held

accountable in the same way when they market drugs that they know will

kill the patients

who take them.

 

For instance:

 

In the Wesbecker mass murder/sucide case the plaintiffs had just obtained

permission from Judge Potter to enter a particular piece of evidence

on a Lilly

drug called Oraflex that the FDA had recently pulled from the market. The

evidence was never presented because at that point in the case a

recess was

called. Lilly attorneys went into a room alone with the plaintiffs and

as Judge

Potter learned two years later LOTS of money ($50 Million is what has been

estimated) changed hands and a settlement was made.

 

In the case of Oraflex, a drug used for arthritis pain, (This may

sound like

deja-vu in light of the recent ban on Vioxx and Celebrex, etc.) Lilly knew

that the drug was killing patients in Europe, but neglected to mention

that to

the FDA when they gained approval in the US. After three months on the

market

there were reports of at least 139 deaths directly linked to Oraflex.

(I say at

least 139 because we know that not all reports are made to the FDA and

that

the real figure is generally estimated to be 10 to 100 times higher.)

 

Because of that lack of disclosure leading to those deaths several Lilly

officials were held accountable. In the mid 80's they were charge

criminally with

the 139 lives that were lost. They were found guilty and given the maximum

sentence possible.

 

No, not life in prison.

 

No, not the death penalty.

 

For knowingly killing at least 139 innocent victims the maximum

sentence was

a $20,000 fine.

 

This small fine for a company, who was and still is, the largest

manufacturer

of diabetic products and was at the time of the Wesbecker case

bringing in $7

Million a day on Prozac alone, is not only ridiculous, but

unconscionable! As

one man in a lecture I gave recently pointed out, that is less than

$150.00

per life lost. Surely Scott Peterson would have been more than

agreeable to

paying a $300 fine and walking out of jail, as would anyone else

facing the

repercussions of a guilty verdict for murder.

 

Now Bush is asking that we allow them to get away with these murders

for even

less?!! UNBELIEVABLE!!

 

Ann Blake Tracy, Ph.D.,

Executive Director, International Coalition For Drug Awareness

Website: www.drugawareness.org

Author: Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare

& audio tape on safe withdrawal: " Help! I Can't Get

Off My Antidepressant! "

 

Order Number: 800-280-0730

 

 

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-010505bush_lat,0,6501009.story\

?coll=la-home-headlines

 

Bush: End 'Frivolous' Lawsuits

Â

Warren Vieth, Times Staff Writer

 

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. ­ President Bush today demanded congressional

action this

year to rein in what he called " frivolous " lawsuits against doctors and

hospitals, saying the time had come to impose federal restraints on a

system

traditionally left to the states.

 

Taking his tort reform campaign to a southern Illinois county known as a

hotbed of civil litigation, Bush said the prospect of big jury awards

in medical

malpractice cases was causing insurance rates to soar and doctors to leave

their practices.

 

 

" What's happening all across the country is that lawyers are filing

baseless

suits against doctors and hospitals….They know the medical liability

system is

tilted in their favor, " Bush told a group of medical professionals and

business allies.

 

" Medical liability reform is a national issue and it requires a national

solution, " he said.

 

Bush's broadside was the opening round in a legislative battle

involving some

of the nation's most powerful and well-financed interest groups.

 

Doctors, hospitals, drug makers and other manufacturers who want to limit

litigation costs are lining up against the trial attorneys who represent

plaintiffs in personal injury cases.

 

Bush prodded lawmakers to take action this year to address three facets of

what he and his allies are presenting as a litigation crisis that the

White

House says costs the U.S. economy more than $230 billion a year.

 

The legislation Bush favors would limit damages in malpractice cases,

restrict class action lawsuits and curb asbestos-related litigation.

 

White House officials said the president wanted the new Congress to tackle

the malpractice measure before taking up other top social legislative

priorities, among them restructuring Social Security and overhauling

the tax code, but

he faces considerable opposition in the Senate, where many members are

attorneys and Republicans lack sufficient votes to cut off a filibuster.

 

The malpractice legislation Bush supports would not limit the amount of

damages for medical treatment and lost wages. It would, however, place

a $250,000

ceiling on awards for pain and suffering and other non-economic damages. A

number of states, including California, have enacted such caps.

 

The president and his allies say the prospect of multimillion-dollar

judgments is driving the malpractice insurance system into crisis.

Opponents say caps

disproportionately affect children, seniors and stay-at-home mothers

who have

little or no lost wages on which to base a malpractice award.

 

" The value of a life should not be equal to the value of a paycheck, "

said a

full-page newspaper ad welcoming the president to southern Illinois

but urging

him to reverse course.

 

A group allied with trial lawyers purchased the advertisement.