South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

(AP) - NEW ORLEANS-A doctor and two nurses who labored at a sweltering, flooded-out hospital in Hurricane Katrina’s chaotic aftermath were arrested and accused of murdering four trapped and desperately ill patients with injections of morphine and sedatives.

“We’re talking about people that pretended that maybe they were God,” Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti said Tuesday. “And they made that decision.”

The defendants were booked on charges of being “principals to second-degree murder,” which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

The three were the first medical professionals charged in a months long criminal investigation into whether many of New Orleans’ sick and elderly were abandoned or put out of their misery in the days after the storm.

Dr. Anna Pou, a cancer and ear, nose and throat specialist, and the two nurses were accused of deliberately killing four patients, ages 62 to 90, at Memorial Medical Center with a “lethal cocktail” of morphine and Versed. The patients’ names were not released.

“There may be more arrests and victims that cannot be mentioned at this time,” Foti said. “This case is not over yet.” He planned to turn the case over to the New Orleans district attorney, who will decide whether to ask a grand jury to bring charges.

Memorial Medical had been cut off by flooding after the Aug. 29 hurricane swamped New Orleans. Power was knocked out in the 317-bed hospital and the temperature inside rose over 100 degrees (38 Celsius) as the staff tried to tend to patients who waited four days to be evacuated.

In court papers, state investigators said Pou told a nurse executive three days after the hurricane that the patients still awaiting evacuation would probably not survive and that a “decision had been made to administer lethal doses” to them. Overdoses of morphine or Versed can stop the heart and lungs.

Foti, however, said he believed the patients would have lived through the storm’s aftermath.

“This is not euthanasia. This is homicide,” the attorney general said.

Two months after the hurricane, Foti subpoenaed more than 70 people in an investigation into rumors that personnel at the medical center had put patients to death.

Around the same time, the husband-and-wife owners of a nursing home in neighboring St. Bernard Parish were charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of 34 elderly patients. Prosecutors said the owners failed to heed warnings to evacuate.

According to court papers, tissue samples taken from the dead at Memorial Medical tested positive for morphine and Versed, and the amount of Versed present was found to be higher than the usual therapeutic dose. Medical records reviewed by investigators also showed that none of the four patients were taking either of the two drugs as part of their routine care.

Foti said the combination of morphine and Versed “guarantees they are going to die.” He said that authorities could not determine which of the defendants actually administered the fatal drugs in each case but that investigators believe all three participated, hence the “principal to second-degree murder” booking.

Pou’s lawyer, Rick Simmons, said his client is innocent, and her mother said she was distressed by her daughter’s arrest.

“Medicine was the most important thing in her life and I know she never ever did anything deliberately to hurt anyone,” Jeanette Pou said in a telephone interview.

In December, Dr. Pou had told Baton Rouge TV station WBRZ: “There were some patients there who were critically ill who, regardless of the storm, had the orders of do not resuscitate. In other words, if they died, to allow them to die naturally, and to not use heroic methods to resuscitate them.”

“We all did everything in our power to give the best treatment that we could to the patients in the hospital to make them comfortable,” Pou said then.

In addition to Pou, nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo were arrested. All three were released without bail.

Landry’s attorney, John DiGiulio, said, “She’s innocent” and had no further comment on the charges. It was not immediately clear if Budo had a lawyer. Her sister answered the phone at Budo’s home and declined to comment.

Pou’s lawyer complained that she was arrested and handcuffed at her house late Monday night.

“I told them that she is not a flight risk. I told them that she would surrender herself. Instead, they chose to arrest her in her scrubs so that they could present her scalp to the media,” Simmons said.

Angela McManus said Tuesday that her 70-year-old mother was among the patients who died at Memorial. Her mother had been recovering from a blood infection but seemed fine and was still able to speak when police demanded relatives of the ill evacuate. She died later that day, McManus said.

“At least now I’ll be able to get some answers,” McManus said. “For months, I haven’t known what happened to my mom. I need some answers just to be able to function.”

Harry Anderson, a spokesman for Tenet Healthcare Corp., the owner of Memorial Medical, said the allegations against the doctor and nurses, if true, are disturbing.

“Euthanasia is repugnant to everything we believe as ethical health care providers, and it violates every precept of ethical behavior and the law. It is never permissible under any circumstances,” Anderson said.

Dr. Steven Miles, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota’s bioethics center, said that instead of trying to kill, it is more likely that those charged were trying to relieve patients’ pain “in a resource-poor environment and were doing the best they could.”

He said that there are documented cases where patients have required seemingly lethal morphine doses to relieve extreme pain, and that he doubts the charges will be proven.

“I’m inclined to believe this was palliative sedation that’s been misread,” Miles said.

Mercy killings would be “not only highly frowned upon, but also rare,” Miles said. “It’s highly unlikely that’s what happened here.”

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (July 19) - A steering problem caused a new cruise ship to roll abruptly Tuesday, throwing passengers and crew to the deck and injuring dozens, including two critically, officials said.

One passenger said seawater flooded several upper decks of the Crown Princess, forcing water from a swimming pool “like a mini-tsunami,” and breaking windows and furniture.  

The vessel, with about 3,100 passengers and 1,200 crew, had just departed Port Canaveral on Florida’s east coast en route to New York when it listed badly to its left side, said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer James Judge. He said the ship reported problems with its steering apparatus.  

The ship then righted itself before returning to port, where the Coast Guard said all passengers and crew had been accounted for.  

Besides an adult and a child who were critically hurt, 12 people were seriously hurt and about 70 had lesser injuries, said Cape Canaveral Fire Rescue Capt. Jim Watson.  

Thirty-three people were taken to hospitals, he said. Most had bruises and minor back and neck injures.  

Tom Daus, 32, was sunbathing on the ship ’s upper deck when the ship began to list.  

“It became very disastrous because … tables, glasses, lounge chairs went flying,” he told The Associated Press in a cell phone interview. “I was just holding on for dear life onto the bannister of the ship .”  

Passenger Carol O’Connell told NBC’s Miami affiliate, WTVJ-TV, by phone that people raced for life jackets.  

“The captain sounded so terrified, which led to my feeling of more panic,” she said.  

Daus, of New York City, said several of the upper decks were flooded and the elevators were inoperable. Gym equipment flipped over, TVs fell off their shelves and shattered glass was strewn across the deck, he said.  

“The water came gushing out of the pool like a mini-tsunami,” he said. “It was really scary. People who were in the pool were shoved out.”  

Daus said most of the injured he saw were senior citizens being taken out on wheelchairs or stretchers. The remaining passengers were mostly calm, despite the chaos, he said.  

Bonnie Storie, 50, of Rochester, N.Y., was traveling with her husband and teenage son. “It felt like (the ship ) was going to fall over,” she said. “It was shocking.”  

Chris Broadbent, a 33-year-old honeymooner from New York City, said Tuesday night’s movie on the ship was supposed to be “Titanic.”  

Stan Payne, CEO of the Canaveral Port Authority, said the cruise line wanted passengers to wait until other lodging could be arranged, but were free to leave the vessel if they wanted. He said the ship would remain in port for several days.  

Princess Cruises, one of 12 brands operated by Miami-based Carnival Corp., said it was investigating the cause of the incident.  

Before leaving Port Canaveral, the ship has just completed a nine-day Western Caribbean cruise , she said. The 113,000-ton ship began sailing a month ago and was making its fourth voyage.  

“We deeply regret this incident, and are doing everything we can to make our passengers as comfortable as possible under these difficult circumstances,” company spokeswoman Julie Benson said.  

Martha Stewart christened the Crown Princess last month before it embarked on its maiden voyage to the Caribbean from its home terminal in the New York borough of Brooklyn.  

On Feb. 7, 2001, plaintiff Evelyn Villegas, 36, a school’s safety officer who was in a late stage of pregnancy, slipped while descending a staircase at Public School 19, in Richmond County. She claimed that she fell and sustained back and knee injuries. She also claimed that she sustained a trauma that ruptured her placenta and forced performance of an emergency Caesarean delivery.Villegas sued the school’s owner, the city of New York, and the school’s operator, the New York City Board of Education. She alleged that the defendants were negligent in their maintenance of the staircase and that their negligence created a dangerous condition.Evidence established that snowfall had occurred two days before Villegas’ fall. Villegas contended that she arrived at the school, ascended the steps, and visited the principal’s office. She contended that she exited the principal’s office, descended the first half of the stairs, stopped on a landing, and observed that the remaining steps were wet. She claimed that there were no handrails to her left and that the right handrail was blocked by an open door that was located on the landing. She contended that she placed her right hand on the door, proceeded down the steps, slipped, and fell down six steps.

Testimony revealed that the staircase was cleaned once daily, at 8 p.m. This procedure was not changed, despite the prevailing weather conditions. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that the placement of the door, which blocked an available handrail, violated common sense and what would be considered good and accepted safe practice, as well as a city building code.

Defense counsel noted that Villegas could not prove notice of the water at the top of the steps or that the lack of the handrail was not the proximate cause of her fall.

On Feb. 7, 2001, plaintiff Evelyn Villegas, 36, a school’s safety officer who was in a late stage of pregnancy, slipped while descending a staircase at Public School 19, in Richmond County. She claimed that she fell and sustained back and knee injuries. She also claimed that she sustained a trauma that ruptured her placenta and forced performance of an emergency Caesarean delivery. Villegas sued the school’s owner, the city of New York, and the school’s operator, the New York City Board of Education. She alleged that the defendants were negligent in their maintenance of the staircase and that their negligence created a dangerous condition.Evidence established that snowfall had occurred two days before Villegas’ fall. Villegas contended that she arrived at the school, ascended the steps, and visited the principal’s office. She contended that she exited the principal’s office, descended the first half of the stairs, stopped on a landing, and observed that the remaining steps were wet. She claimed that there were no handrails to her left and that the right handrail was blocked by an open door that was located on the landing. She contended that she placed her right hand on the door, proceeded down the steps, slipped, and fell down six steps.

Testimony revealed that the staircase was cleaned once daily, at 8 p.m. This procedure was not changed, despite the prevailing weather conditions. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that the placement of the door, which blocked an available handrail, violated common sense and what would be considered good and accepted safe practice, as well as a city building code.

Defense counsel noted that Villegas could not prove notice of the water at the top of the steps or that the lack of the handrail was not the proximate cause of her fall.

The jury found that the defendants were liable for Villegas’ injuries. Villegas was awarded $2.75 million.

Defense counsel contended that the damages awards were excessive. He has moved to set aside the awards and dismiss the case.

A Kane County jury Wednesday awarded $21 million–believed to be the 16th Circuit Court’s largest verdict ever in a medical malpractice case–to a woman left disabled by what was described as a botched procedure in an Elgin hospital.

Narin Bun, 41, of Elgin was awarded the compensatory damages after alleging that she became paralyzed and unable to speak at Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin.

At the trial, spread over two months, Bun’s attorneys said the hospital was responsible for her condition, the result of a procedure involving the removal of intravenous tubing. Bun had initially been treated at the hospital for a non-life-threatening infection.

Circuit Judge F. Keith Brown in Geneva presided over the trial. The lawsuit was filed in 2003.

According to attorney Peter Flowers of Geneva, co-counsel for Bun along with Donald Shapiro of Chicago, the lawsuit said that an embolism from the improper procedure caused the then-37-year-old wife and mother of three to have a stroke. She then suffered severe paralysis and lost her ability to speak, it said.

Shapiro said “the doctors over at Provena did a great job taking care of her and had cured her and she was on her way to recovery” when a nurse incorrectly disconnected a catheter, allowing air into her blood vessel.

Flowers said the jury decided to award Bun roughly $8.5 million for future and past medical care, $500,000 for pain and suffering and $12.5 million “for her loss of her normal life.”

According to Flowers, the largest verdict in any personal-injury case until Wednesday in the 16th Judicial Circuit, which includes Kane County, had been $6 million.

“The jury understood that substantial medical expenses were involved in the case in order to care for this woman,” Shapiro said.

Attorneys who represented the hospital and its insurer at trial were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

(AP) - BOSTON-Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday it would take months to fix problems in the entire Big Dig highway system and reopen the roads, and another ramp was closed to traffic because of what he called a “systemic failure.”

The work in the tunnel closed Sunday, a quarter-mile-long ramp, is expected to last at least several days and comes nearly a week after the collapse that crushed a car carrying Milena Del Valle, 38.

The closure was ordered because of potential problems with 40 of the bolts that hold up the heavy ceiling panels, Romney said.

Testing on the bolts has shown that “what happened last week was not an anomaly but a systemic failure,” Romney said.

“It appears the problem is far more substantial,” than at first thought, he said.

Since Del Valle’s death July 10, motorists had been using the now-closed ramp as a detour around the accident scene.

The ramp, which connects Interstate 90 westbound to Interstate 93 north and south, had been previously identified by Romney’s inspection teams as a potential trouble spot, said Jon Carlisle, a state Highway Department spokesman.

“We’re putting additional connections between the roof and the ceiling panels,” he said, adding that the specific number of repair spots was unclear. “We’re still working on the engineering.”

The closure was expected to snarl traffic even worse, Carlisle said.

Romney said Sunday’s closure was not called for because of any imminent danger. “We’re just not willing to risk people’s lives,” Romney said.

Twelve tons of concrete ceiling panels crushed the passenger side of the car being driven by Del Valle’s husband, Angel Del Valle, as they headed to Logan International Airport.

Connector tunnels in both directions have been closed since then.

State and federal investigators have focused on bolts used to hold the drop-ceiling system in place. Each of the concrete slabs suspended above the roadway weighs three tons.

Romney has said there are 84 potential trouble spots in the eastbound connector tunnel where Del Valle was killed. In two other adjoining sections of the tunnel, as well as traffic ramps, there are another 278 possible problems, he has said.

In some cases, inspectors have found ceiling bolts pulled as much as three-eighths of an inch away from the tunnel’s concrete roof, he said. Investigators are focusing on the bolts and the epoxy glue used to secure them.

The $14.6 billion Big Dig buried the old elevated Central Artery that used to slice through the city, replacing it with a series of tunnels. Although it’s been considered an engineering marvel, the most expensive highway project in U.S. history also has also been plagued by leaks, falling debris, cost overruns, delays and problems linked to faulty construction.

(AP) - PEARISBURG, Va.-Members of a Lutheran congregation gave spontaneous testimonials Sunday to their retired pastor who died in a college dormitory where more than 100 people were sickened by a carbon monoxide leak.

“What I missed when we sang that first song was Pastor Vierling. He led us,” Cheryl Mertz told the 35 worshippers at Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church, her voice cracking.

The Rev. Walter J. Vierling, 91, was found dead Friday morning, as emergency officials helped people staying in a Roanoke College dormitory suffering from nausea, dizziness and headaches. His official cause of death has not been determined.

A total of 114 people were taken to two hospitals. An elderly woman admitted in critical condition was the only one still hospitalized Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Vierling’s three children expressed shock at their father’s death.

“I drove him there,” daughter Corbin Vierling said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I left him there healthy and happy.”

Vierling and most of those sickened by the carbon monoxide were attending a church conference at the college. Also affected were teenagers in an Upward Bound program.

Investigators are focusing on a gas hot water heater as the possible source of the carbon monoxide leak.

Vierling was active and robust, his children said. He led the church service last Sunday and frequently preached at churches in several communities in the Blue Ridge Mountains area.

Vierling had walked more than a quarter-mile in a Relay for Life fundraiser in June, and was planning a camping trip with his daughter, they said. He also regularly read to second-graders at an elementary school and worked crossword puzzles almost daily.

“He was not done,” Corbin Vierling said of her father.

(AP) - HILLSBORO, Oregon-A vintage British fighter jet crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near an airport during an air show, exploding, destroying a home and killing the pilot.

Fire officials said no residents or others on the ground were hurt.

The 1951 jet was taking off from the Hillsboro Airport to return to California when it went down, said Connie King, a spokeswoman for the Hillsboro Fire Department.

The jet slammed into a house at 4:28 p.m. Sunday and destroyed it, she said. No one was home at the time, she said. The pilot’s name was not immediately released.

Another house with people inside sustained “significant damage,” but no one was hurt, King said. The attic exterior of a third house was damaged, and there was fire damage in the yard of another, she said.

A firefighter was treated at a local hospital for heat exhaustion and released.

Ed Kerbs, a neighborhood resident, was hosting an air show party on his lawn when the plane went down.

“As it came in, it pitched up its nose and it looked like he was trying to stay afloat,” Kerbs said. “I was talking to a buddy of mine and I said ‘Hey, he’s flying way too low; he’s not going to make it.’ And then there was a plume of smoke and a bang.”

Diana Halvorson, who lives on the street where the plane crashed, said she and her family ran to a neighbor’s house when they saw flames.

“It was a noise, a huge, huge, noise,” she said. The flames “shot up like a bolt of lightning.”

The plane crashed toward the end of the two-day Hillsboro International Air Show, where the plane had been on display, but did not perform, said Steve Callaway, an air show board member.

The Federal Aviation Administration provided a tail number that indicated the plane was registered to Robert Guilford, 73, an aviation attorney from Southern California.

According to information on his law firm’s Web site, Guilford has been flying planes since 1961. But authorities would not say if he was piloting the plane Sunday. His law firm, Baum Hedlund, did not return a page Sunday.

Air show organizers canceled the show immediately after the crash. It was the first crash in the show’s 19-year history.

JENKS, Okla. (July 13) - An SUV carrying high school football players having a paintball fight with teammates in another vehicle flew out of control on a highway and flipped, killing a 17-year-old boy, officials said.

The teens had just left a paintball adventure park Wednesday afternoon after meeting up other players and coaches from the Jenks High School football team, said Les Miller, manager of Paintball Adventure Games.

Seven of them were speeding down a highway in the two vehicles, shooting paintball pellets at each other, when the SUV crossed the median into oncoming traffic, struck a sign and then flipped several times, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

Garrett Austin Bennett, 17, died on the highway outside Tulsa. Two other teenagers were treated for minor injuries and released from a hospital.

“I have seen a lot of horseplay over the past years, but I think this is the first time I have ever seen somebody playing paintball at 75 mph,” said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Pete Norwood. “The highway is no place to play.”

Results of an investigation into the crash will be turned over to prosecutors, who will determine whether any criminal charges will be filed.

The war against drunk driving is turning high-tech.

Devices that can sense the amount of alcohol in the air around your face or even in your sweat are already on the drawing board, to join current technology aimed at stopping you from getting behind that wheel if you’ve had too much to drink, researchers say.

“People continue to drive drunk because they can,” said Heidi Castle, a spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). “That’s when technology comes into play. Technology has the potential to not allow someone who is intoxicated to operate a motor vehicle. It essentially separates the weapon — the car — from the drunk driver.”

But even though some technology has been on the market for a generation, impaired driving is still a problem.

Last year, almost 17,000 deaths and half a million injuries were caused by drunk driving crashes in the United States.

One of the featured technologies at a recent MADD symposium was the “ignition interlock,” essentially a tube connected to the vehicle ignition. The driver breathes into the tube and, if his blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is over a certain threshold, the system prevents the car from starting.

“This is the gold standard,” said Paul Marques, senior research scientist with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), a nonprofit public health research institute.

“As far as deterrents or prevention, this is probably the most common,” Castle added.

“We have 20 years’ experience with interlock, but it’s underutilized,” Marques said. “It won’t have an impact on impaired driving unless it’s used.”

The problem in the United States is getting courts to order it.

With 1.4 million DUI arrests every year, no more than 100,000 interlocks are being used. Studies have shown that the device results in a 65 percent reduction in recidivism.

A number of other futuristic technologies are also on the horizon. Among them:

• Transdermal alcohol sensors, such as SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor), to measure alcohol that is lost through the skin through sweat. The gadget, worn as an ankle bracelet, “sniffs” every 30 minutes and transfers data via a wireless connection to a probation officer or other law-enforcement official.
• Passive sensors to sample the air around a person’s face, usually without the person knowing it. The sensor can be hidden in a police officer’s flashlight and, if it senses alcohol, represents probable cause for more sobriety tests.
• A 2.5-ounce device to monitor the movements of someone convicted of drunk driving. Worn as a bracelet or anklet, this gadget uses global positioning system technology to alert law-enforcement personnel if an offender has entered a bar or gone someplace he shouldn’t. It’s part of the Southwest Riverside County (Calif.) “Watch Your Step” program.
• Near-infrared spectroscopy to determine blood alcohol composition under the skin. These devices would go into every car and be totally passive — in other words, the driver wouldn’t need to do anything, even breathe into a tube. The device is still in development and is being used by former U.S. Defense Department physicists. “It’s totally unaffordable today,” Marques noted.

But technology can only do so much to combat drunk driving.

“When you’re talking about drunk driving, there’s no silver bullet,” Castle said. “What we need is a comprehensive solution. One of the main components is law enforcement, but we will likely never have enough police officers on the street to arrest every drunk driver.”

Marques added: “Drunk driving is a slowly unfolding tragedy that doesn’t get better. Technology can help, but we can’t do it without a human program.”

Blockbuster drugs manufactured by three multinational pharmaceutical companies are generating headaches in a Middlesex County, N.J., courtroom.

Facing a caseload of 235 claims against anti-psychotic drugs Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa that could run into millions of dollars, Superior Court Judge Bryan Garruto has asked the state Supreme Court to roll up the litigation into a single mass tort.

“Judicial resources would be efficiently utilized by having one Judge in the state coordinating management and disposition of the cases with the assistance of a Special Master,” said Garruto, one of the four New Jersey trial judges assigned by the chief justice to manage mass torts.

“Centralized management would be fair and reasonable to the parties, witnesses and counsel since New Brunswick is in central New Jersey and is easily accessible. Furthermore, some of the parties have their principal place of business in Middlesex County and accommodations are readily available for the out of state participants.”

Mass tort cases usually involve large numbers of claims that are associated with a single product, a commonality of factual and legal issues and a value interdependence between the different claims.

Once litigation is designated a mass tort, the judge holds an initial conference to set up preliminary matters. Then monthly conferences are held to establish time lines for discovery and eventual trial. Often, bellwether cases are selected for trial first, from which counsel can reasonably decide on settlement value.

Garruto noted in his June 16 request, still pending last week, that additional Risperdal-Seroquel-Zyprexa cases continue to stream in. His request also noted that the local litigation has “common, recurrent issues of law and fact relating to both damages and liability.”

The prescription medications belong to a group of drugs known as atypical anti-psychotics, commonly used for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar, or manic-depressive, conditions.

Their use “has been linked to the occurrence of conditions like diabetes, a debilitating disease that can lead to amputation, blindness and other conditions,” says Larry Gornick, of San Francisco’s Levin Simes Kaiser & Gornick, which has filed about 200 suits in state Superior Court in Middlesex County. Local counsel is Sheller, Ludwig & Badey, a Philadelphia firm with offices in Marlton.

Risperdal is manufactured by Titusville, N.J.-based Janssen Pharmaceutica, a division of New Brunswick, N.J.’s Johnson & Johnson; Seroquel by AstraZeneca, of Wilmington, Del.; and Zyprexa by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly.

In 2005, Zyprexa generated about $4.2 billion of Eli Lilly’s $14.6 billion worldwide sales; Seroquel accounted for $2.8 billion of AstraZeneca’s $23.9 billion of sales in that year; and Risperdal brought in about $3.6 billion of Johnson & Johnson’s $50.5 billion in 2005 revenue.

Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa may have helped boost the companies’ sales, but mounting litigation is taking its toll. Federal court claims have prompted Eli Lilly to take more than $1 billion in write-offs against its 2005 earnings.

In April 2004, the federal Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation ordered the transfer of about 8,000 Zyprexa suits to the Eastern District of New York. Now before Judge Jack Weinstein, the litigation is still being heard, and last year Eli Lilly took $1 billion in charges against earnings — including the establishment of a $690 million fund for litigants who agree to settle their claims — that the company believes will account for a significant portion of the anticipated Zyprexa settlement costs.

In its 2005 annual report, AstraZeneca noted that it had been served with about 60 suits alleging that individuals had developed diabetes or other allegedly related injuries “as a result of taking Seroquel and/or atypical antipsychotics made by other pharmaceutical companies.”

Johnson & Johnson noted that in November 2005 the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania subpoenaed the company regarding marketing of Risperdal and adverse reactions to the drug.

Levin Simes partner Gornick says his clients will press for monetary damages, but the exact amount will depend on individual circumstances. “I’m comfortable saying that some individual claims alone will be in the millions of dollars,” he says. “We will seek damages related to the individuals’ injuries.”

Russell Rein, whose Pensacola, Fla.-based firm Aylstock, Witkin & Sasser is representing three plaintiffs in the state litigation, says mass tort classification may benefit the defendant drug companies, since each of their witnesses could make a single deposition, instead of giving separate testimony in each case.

Doug Arbesfeld, a spokesman for Janssen, says the company does not generally comment on litigation at this stage. Calls seeking comment from AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly were not returned by press time on Friday.