1. FALSE ALARM: HOW THE MEDIA HELPS THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AND THE GOP PROMOTE THE MYTH OF AMERICA'S "LAWSUIT CRISIS"

Last December, Newsweek featured a cover package by Stuart Taylor and Evan Thomas that blared: "Lawsuit Hell: Doctors. Teachers. Coaches. Ministers. They all share a common fear: being sued on the job." Paired with a weeklong tie-in on NBC News and online chats on MSNBC.com, the article claimed that because "Americans will sue each other at the slightest provocation," the country is suffering from an "onslaught of litigation" that costs Americans $200 billion a year. Newsweek's "onslaught" of lawsuits simply hasn't happened. According to the National Center for State Courts, a research group funded by state courts, personal injury and other tort filings, when controlled for population growth, have declined nationally by 8 percent since the 1975, and have been falling steadily in real numbers since 1996. The numbers are even more dramatic in places with rapid population growth, like Texas, where the rate of tort filings fell 37 percent between 1990 and 2000. Even in liberal California, the rate of filings has plummeted 45 percent over the past decade. And those overly sympathetic juries Newsweek derides as so eager to dole out big bucks to injured victims? In 2001, they voted against plaintiffs in 75 percent of all medical malpractice trials, according to the federal government's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

• Stephanie Mencimer, Washington Monthly, October 2004 For complete story, see here

For the facts about America's civil justice system, please go to our newly-revised AAJ Web page

2. HOW WOULD BUSH, KERRY AFFECT LAWYERS?

"Reforms" to the legal system have taken center stage in the campaign between President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry, and they continue to be a focus for attorneys and legal lobby groups. "It's no secret that the Bush administration has been extremely adverse to regular Americans' rights and therefore the ability of lawyers to be of assistance to people who have a negligence case, an asbestos claim or want to be part of a class action," said American Association for Justice president Todd Smith of Chicago.

• Reni Gertner, Lawyers Weekly USA, 09/27/2004 For complete story, click here

Just five weeks before Election Day, a federal appeals court revived a lawsuit demanding that all Florida voters who use touchscreen machines receive a paper receipt, in case a recount becomes necessary. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale to reopen the case, which could affect 15 Florida counties whose electronic voting terminals do not issue paper records. It was not immediately unclear if the case could be decided before the November 2 presidential election. The three-judge panel in Atlanta wrote that U.S. District Judge James Cohn misapplied a 35-year legal doctrine when he threw out the lawsuit filed by Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Florida. Wexler claims that paperless ballots cannot be recounted as accurately as those cast on paper. He sued state election officials, arguing that the Constitution would be violated by a voting system that varies from county to county.

• CNN.com, 09/27/2004 For complete story, search here

4. ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS IN NURSING HOME ADMISSIONS BECOMING WIDESPREAD

Leaders in the nursing home industry claim that arbitration clauses are needed to curb soaring litigation costs, while elder law attorneys and consumer groups criticize the pacts as self-serving industry weapons. Both sides agree, however, that nursing home arbitration agreements are on the rise.

• Nora Lockwood Tooher, Lawyers Weekly USA, 09/27/2004 For complete story, click here

Agreements to waive a party's right to a jury trial are becoming increasingly common in a wide variety of settings, from employment to credit card contracts, experts tell Lawyers Weekly USA. While arbitration clauses remain a popular choice for many businesses, the cost can serve as a deterrent.

• Correy E. Stephenson, Lawyers Weekly USA, 09/27/2004 For complete story, click here

6. VOLLEYS OVER ASBESTOS FUND CONTINUE AS FRIST REJECTS LATEST DASCHLE PROPOSAL

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has rejected the latest Democratic proposal for a privately funded trust fund for individuals exposed to asbestos. In a letter to Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Frist said Daschle's September 15 proposal for a $140 billion no-fault compensation fund represents "too little progress" on two major points: how to treat claims already in the courts and how much money businesses and insurers would contribute in the proposed fund's early years. The two sides have exchanged a half-dozen proposals and counteroffers since April, when Frist pulled from the floor a bill to establish a $118 billion fund. In the months since, the leaders have narrowed their differences over the size of the fund. Frist's most recent plan — a $136 billion fund he proposed in July — is almost identical to Daschle's recent offer, when contributions from the trusts of bankrupt asbestos manufacturers are taken into account. But other outstanding issues remain unresolved.

• Seth Stern, CQ Today, 09/28/2004 For complete story, see here

Shares of companies facing asbestos claims fell after prospects dimmed for establishing a victims' compensation fund this year. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist left the fund off a list of priorities for the few days left in the legislative period, which will end October 8. Shares of chemical producer W.R. Grace and Co. fell 36 cents, or $3.78, to $9.17, and the stock of car parts company Federal-Mogul Corp., slid nearly 3 percent to 19 cents. Both companies have filed for bankruptcy.

• Reuters, 09/28/2004 For complete story, search here, subscribers only

To hear Kelly-Moore's lawyer tell it, the Union Carbide salesmen had their mantra down: Don't worry, they'd say, don't worry. Union Carbide Corp. was one of the companies that supplied Kelly-Moore Paint Co. of San Carlos, California, with the asbestos used as a thickening agent in its products. Union Carbide's trademarked Calidria was supposed to be different from the asbestos sold by competitors such as the former Johns-Manville Corp. But Kelly-Moore now claims there was plenty to be worried about. Union Carbide, it charges, fraudulently promoted Calidria as a uniquely safe alternative to potentially deadly types of asbestos. Kelly-Moore says Union Carbide had evidence linking the product to cancer and asbestosis but withheld it. In a high-stakes trial underway in state court in Angleton, Texas (not far from Union Carbide's Houston headquarters), Kelly-Moore is asking a jury to order the chemical giant to take responsibility for a huge chunk of the paint company's exposure to 48,000 asbestos injury suits. Kelly-Moore wants actual damages of $1.3 billion - its anticipated liabilities and legal costs - plus punitive damages of $3.9 billion. Corporate customers are a new type of plaintiff in a litigation blame game that has prompted more than 60 companies to seek bankruptcy protection. Until recently, most asbestos suits were product-liability and wrongful-death claims filed by individuals who blamed lung disease and cancer on asbestos fibers they inhaled on the job and in the home. Kelly-Moore's lawyer, Mark Lanier, told jurors that they should, in fact, look back in time. In the 1950s, he noted, Union Carbide was a member of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation, which commissioned a study that linked chrysotile, the type of asbestos sold by the company, to cancer. But then the group publicly reported just the opposite. And in the 1960s, he said, a few years after Union Carbide discovered the world's largest cache of asbestos in California and opened its mill near King City, its own tests indicated that Calidria caused more damage to the lungs of rats than the asbestos sold by Johns-Manville.

• Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times, 09/26/2004 For complete story, search here, fees apply
• "Under A Cloud; Once Surrounded By Asbestos, Now Surrounded By Their Fears," Los Angeles Times, 09/25/2004. For complete story, search here, fees apply

Halliburton Co. said it might sell or spin off KBR, its engineering and construction services business, if its stock valuation doesn't approach that of its peers after it completes its asbestos settlement. KBR and a second Halliburton unit - DII Industries - filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December as part of a $4.2 billion settlement of more than 400,000 asbestos and silica claims against Halliburton. A U.S. District Court judge in July approved the settlement, which is subject to appeals by insurance companies. Driving the decision to keep or separate KBR is Halliburton's eagerness to close the valuation gap between itself and its peers in the oilfield services sector, Chief Financial Officer Christopher Gaut said during a conference with analysts and investors. Gaut said Halliburton is discussing with plaintiffs' lawyers how to share insurance proceeds that will be awarded starting next year. Although those discussions could drag out, he expects an agreement to be reached in the very near term. The $1 billion insurance payment that Halliburton is scheduled to receive in the first six months of 2005 will be put toward the $2.3 billion Halliburton has in remaining settlement obligations.

• David Bogoslaw, DowJones Newswires, 09/23/2004 For complete story, search http://www.dowjonesnews.com Only subscribers can access articles

10. A.I.G. IS FOCUS OF FEDERAL INQUIRY

The American International Group, one of the world's largest insurance companies, said that the Justice Department had begun a criminal investigation of one of its units over possible violations of federal securities laws. A.I.G. said in a statement that it believes the investigation involved dealings between one subsidiary and PNC Financial Services Group several years ago. The transactions enabled PNC, a bank holding company, to shift $762 million in loans from its balance sheet, according to court documents. Such accounting maneuvers, which can make a company appear financially stronger than it actually is, were at the core of the Enron collapse and led to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for financial-service companies. The insurance company initially disclosed more than two years ago that a subsidiary, the A.I.G. Financial Products Corporation, had engaged in three transactions with PNC after PNC was ordered by the Federal Reserve to restate its earnings. Then in June of last year, PNC agreed to pay $115 million in a fine and restitution in connection with its accounting practices. A.I.G. said that its dealings with PNC were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclosed the Justice Department investigation after the close of the stock markets.

• Joseph B. Treaster, The New York Times, 09/30/2004 For complete story, search here, fees apply

11. FDA WILL WARN ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS

The Food and Drug Administration will require antidepressants to carry warnings about the risk of increased suicidal tendencies in young people, but hasn't made a final decision on whether it will require the "black box" that signifies its most serious concerns. Robert Temple, director of the office of medical policy in the FDA's drug center, told lawmakers the agency will "probably" call for a black box on the label, but it also is considering bold text without the box. The black- box warning, framed in a literal box at the top of the label, can have a sharp impact on how doctors prescribe drugs. Dr. Temple said that a decision could be made within days, and that "in a couple of weeks, you'll see the labeling change." The FDA disclosed its plans in a hearing by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, focusing on how the agency has handled concerns that antidepressants could be linked to suicidal tendencies in children and adolescents. Lawmakers harshly questioned FDA officials about incidents stretching back to 1996.

• Anna Wilde Mathews, The Wall Street Journal, 09/24/2004. For complete story, search here, fees apply

12. LAW TO REIN IN HOSPITAL ERRORS IS SEEN AS ABUSED

Hospitals routinely violate a New York State law requiring that they tell the state promptly about medical errors that harm patients, an audit said. The audit found that hospitals often delay for weeks or months reports that might be critical to a timely investigation, and sometimes never report the mistakes at all. The audit, conducted by the state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, found thousands of instances in which hospitals failed to turn over prompt information concerning episodes as serious as patient deaths and mistaken surgery. But the State Health Department punished the hospitals for the lapses only on a handful of occasions, the audit concluded. In fact, Mr. Hevesi said the department had failed to draw up and follow rules detailing when and how to discipline the hospitals for violations of the law. "The purpose of these reports is to find problems, to correct them, and to save lives," he said. "You can't do that very well if you have incomplete or inaccurate information."

• Richard Pérez-Peña, The New York Times, 09/29/2004 For complete story, search here, fees apply

Massachusetts' highest court is set to decide just how much protection physician experts hired by the state to review another doctor's work will receive in the court system. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on October 5 is scheduled to hear arguments in a case in which reviewed psychiatrist Kennard C. Kobrin, MD, claims that he should be allowed to sue hired expert doctor David R. Gastfriend, MD, an addiction medicine specialist who critiqued his work for the Board of Registration in Medicine. A lower court threw out the lawsuit, saying that state laws protected Dr. Gastfriend from being sued. Dr. Kobrin has asked the state's highest court to allow him to go forward with the lawsuit, which alleges that Dr. Gastfriend is liable for, among other things, expert witness malpractice. One side says a decision that prevents the lawsuit from advancing would unfairly leave reviewed physicians without legal recourse. "There has to be some right of the person being accused to have redress," said George C. Deptula, the attorney representing Dr. Kobrin. "This plays into medicine being an art more than a science. Different people have different views." The other side says a ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts allowing the lawsuit to go forward would make it decidedly more difficult to find physicians willing to offer their expertise in peer review cases.

• Tanya Albert, American Medical News, 10/04/2004 For complete story, see here
• "Tort Reform Not The Answer," Island Packet, 09/28/2004 For complete story, see here

14. GOING TO THE WELL

Dallas lawyer and former AAJ President Fred Baron has been asking a court to freeze $70 million in his client's accounts so his firm can get paid. In 2000, the city of Santa Monica selected a team of lawyers, including Dallas’ Baron and Budd, who promised they were ready to fight the war of attrition with oil companies over contamination of the city's water wells. Santa Monica settled most of its lawsuits against the oil company last year. Its city attorneys expressed satisfaction at how little court fighting the case had required. They spoke too soon. Santa Monica now looks to be warring with Baron and its other outside lawyers. The lawyers say they are entitled to 25% of the city's recovery. The oil companies agreed to pay $121 million and to decontaminate the water themselves, a pledge worth $240 million, according to one city expert. Rather than pay the total fee request of $99 million, the city asked a court to invalidate its contracts with the firms, accusing their lawyers of malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty.

• Matt Fleischer-Black, The American Lawyer, 09/27/2004 For complete story, search here

15. FLORIDA HIGH COURT OVERRULES GOVERNOR IN SCHIAVO CASE

Florida's highest court ruled unanimously that Gov. Jeb Bush violated a "cornerstone of American democracy" when he overrode a court decision and ordered doctors to resume tube-feeding a severely brain-damaged woman. Chief Justice Barbara J. Pariente of the Florida Supreme Court called Bush's actions in the case of Terri Schiavo "an encroachment on the judicial branch" that undercut the constitutionally protected separation of powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The decision does not mean that Schiavo, who has been in a vegetative state since going into cardiac arrest 14 years ago, will be immediately removed from life-support systems, lawyers involved in the case said. But the emphatically worded opinion leaves a dwindling field of options for Bush, who has sided with Schiavo's parents in a bruising legal battle to stop her husband from having her disconnected from the feeding tubes that are keeping her alive.

• Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post, 09/24/2004 For complete story, search here, fees apply

16. JAMES BEASLEY, 78, LAWYER IN BIG-JUDGMENT CASES, DIES

AAJ member James E. Beasley, a lawyer who won millions of dollars in jury verdicts in major cases, including an unpaid $104 million judgment stemming from the September 11, 2001, attacks, died on September 25 at a hospital in Philadelphia. He was 78 and lived in Villanova, Pennsylvania. His death was announced by the Beasley Firm, a 16-lawyer office he formed in 1966. As its principal partner, he remained active, said his son, James E. Beasley Jr., a member of the firm who lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The firm won wide notice with one of the first suits brought for families of September 11 victims. The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan just over a month after the attacks, named as defendants Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan, its Taliban rulers and the Iraqi government. The action won a finding of liability and a $104 million judgment last year. By then, the money, confiscated by the United States, had been allocated to rebuild Iraq, and the judgment remains unpaid. On the other hand, clients of the firm collected on scores of million-dollar judgments, including some of largest settlements in the state, cases like catastrophic brain-injury and neonatal malpractice cases; aviation and product liability suits; and suits over a recalled cholesterol treatment, Baycol; the fen-phen class of combination diet drugs; and other pharmaceuticals.

• Wolfgang Saxon, The New York Times, 09/24/2004 For complete story, search here, fees apply

17. 3M, FIVE OTHERS TO PAY IMPLANT SETTLEMENT

3M Co., Dow Chemical and four other companies that made breast implants have agreed to pay the U.S. government $11.3 million in a settlement that will reimburse Medicare for costs associated with treating several women who became ill after receiving silicone breast implants. Silicone implants, which have been banned since 1992, have been blamed for an array of illnesses that affected some women's auto-immune systems. The settlement is part of a larger $1 billion settlement with implant makers that took place back in 1995. The $11.3 million agreement marks the final chapter in a Department of Justice lawsuit filed in 2000 that demanded that funds be taken from the 1995 $1 billion settlement to reimburse Medicare for treating implant-related injuries. 2004 WL 91249711.

• Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, Westlaw Highlights, 09/23/2004. For complete story, see here Westlaw password required or variable fees of $4 and up are charged for article retrieval

A technology to prevent vehicle rollovers got a major boost from a federal study showing it reduced fatal sport-utility vehicle crashes by 63% and fatal car crashes by 30%. Electronic stability control (ESC) detects when a vehicle is not heading in the direction a driver intends and uses brakes and engine power to bring it under control. It can be especially helpful in emergency maneuvers or on slippery or gravel surfaces. Automakers and regulators have been focusing on ways to prevent rollovers, which accounted for 10,376 deaths last year, about a third of fatalities in vehicles. Altering a vehicle's width and center of gravity can influence its chance of tipping.

• Jayne O'Donnell, USA Today, 09/24/2004 For complete story, search here, fees apply

Due to Purdue Pharma's "take no prisoners" stance in hundreds of OxyContin product liability suits across the country, the company has yet to pay 1 cent to plaintiffs. But now, at least one insurer is trying to litigate a way out of paying the multimillion-dollar legal bills created by those aggressive defense tactics. In a first-impression ruling in Connecticut, Judge Taggart D. Adams has blocked Steadfast Insurance's bid to limit damages related to suits over the controversial painkiller.

• The Connecticut Law Tribune, Law.com, 09/27/2004 For complete story, search here, subscribers only

20. HELPING THE UNTOLD VICTIMS OF 9/11

As a roll of those killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks was read during recent memorial events, Beaufort attorney Jeff Newton recalled the victims whose names were not heard. Along with the 3,000 killed, there were survivors left with physical injuries and emotional scars, Newton said. "One of the things that people don't realize is that there were more injuries than there were deaths," he said. Newton is well acquainted with the stories of two survivors. He handled their injury claims as part of the largest pro bono project in the nation's history. Newton was one of about 1,100 attorneys nationwide and about 60 in North Carolina who volunteered their time and expertise to assist victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon. TLC President Richard Bieder of Connecticut said it was a massive undertaking by attorneys across the country who essentially came together as the "largest law firm in the world" to represent 1,745 claimants before the federal Victim Compensation Fund set up after 9/11. Bieder estimates TLC attorneys put in an average of 150 to 200 hours of their time per case, and he knows from the many calls he made to recruit help that they did so with no questions asked.

• Jannette Pippin, Jacksonville Daily News, 09/16/2004 For complete story, see here

DALLAS MORNING NEWS SERIES: EFFECTS OF PROPOSITION 12 ON TEXAS

21. LAWYERS CAUGHT BETWEEN CLIENTS, MALPRACTICE CAP

AAJ member and Dallas attorney Paula Sweeney asked a roomful of lawyers in July how many had filed a medical malpractice lawsuit since Proposition 12 went into effect. Three hands went up out of 300 at a Dallas seminar on medical malpractice. At a San Antonio seminar, four hands out of 400 went up. "It's not lawyers saying, 'We can't make enough money,'" said Ms. Sweeney. "It's lawyers saying, 'Look at it: They've [Texas lawmakers] made the system impossible.'" Voters narrowly approved the amendment, despite warnings from lawyers that many Texans could lose their day in court. A year later, "it has turned out exactly as we said it would," Ms. Sweeney said. AAJ member Les Weisbrod, a Dallas attorney who has handled many malpractice cases, said he's trying to pursue cases that others might turn down. "I'm trying not to turn those cases down because I think that's what the insurance companies and the right-wing fanatics within the medical profession wanted," Mr. Weisbrod said, "and I don't want to let them win." Plaintiffs' attorneys say the caps hurt the most defenseless Texans – old people, children, homemakers and others who have little or no economic damages to recover. Fort Worth attorney Randy Moore said the cap on damages "is turning out exactly the way the insurance company, big business and special interests wanted, exactly like the lawyers feared and totally different than what the doctors thought because they're not getting any breaks on this. It's just made the insurance companies more powerful."

• Terry Maxon, The Dallas Morning News, 09/25/2004 For complete story, search here
• "No Cure-All: Time Hasn't Healed Controversy Over Caps On Damages," The Dallas Morning News, 09/25/2004. For complete story, search here
• "Doctors Still Awaiting Lower Rates," The Dallas Morning News, 09/25/2004 For complete story, search here
• "Cap Slows Patient's Lawsuit," The Dallas Morning News, 09/25/2004 For complete story, search here

Doctors and trial lawyers are squaring off this fall in an unprecedented four-state struggle over limiting malpractice awards. The volatile issue is in voters' hands and each side is desperate to win, spending millions of dollars to make their cases and portray the other side as greedy. In all four states - Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming - doctors and health insurers pushed to get measures on the November 2 ballot, and trial lawyers are campaigning hard for a "No" vote. "The insurance industry, the drug industry, the hospital and nursing home industry have far more money than people injured by medical malpractice and their lawyers," said Carlton Carl of the American Association for Justice. "But if there's a level playing field, I have no doubt Americans will vote to preserve their legal rights." The American Medical Association has been lobbying tenaciously for federal legislation, supported by President Bush, that would place a nationwide $250,000 cap on non-economic damage awards. Those are awards for pain and emotional distress as opposed to awards for medical bills, lost wages and other quantifiable costs. The four ballot proposals differ from each other: Wyoming's is a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to place a not-yet- determined cap on non-economic losses. Oregon's would cap non-economic awards at $500,000. In Florida, where lawmakers imposed a $500,000 cap last year, the proposal would limit lawyers' share of any malpractice settlement to 30 percent at most, less in the case of large awards. Nevada's measure would remove all exemptions from an existing $350,000 cap, and also limit attorney fees.

• David Crary, The Associated Press, 09/26/2004 For complete story, search here

When it comes to rule-making, the Judicial Conference of the United States generally has the corner on what works best in the federal courts. But in what one scholar deems an attempt at "tort reform through the back door," the U.S. House of Representatives has resurrected and approved a rule on attorney sanctions that the conference, as well as most academics, judges and lawyers, believed had been justly interred in the old-rule graveyard more than a decade ago.

• The National Law Journal, Law.com, 09/27/2004 For complete story, search here, subscribers only
• "Dispute Goes To Voters: Malpractice Suit Limits Are On The November Ballot In Four States," 2004 WL 92456669. Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Westlaw Highlights, 09/27/2004 For complete story, see here Westlaw password required or variable fees of $4 and up are charged for article retrieval

24. HEADSET PHONES MAY STILL POSE RISKS FOR DRIVERS

Evidence is mounting that talking on a cellphone while driving can be risky, even when using the increasingly popular "hands-free" devices. Drivers account for roughly 40% of all cellphone use and, because of safety concerns, the use of headsets is exploding in popularity. Hands-free devices are now required in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and many towns around the country. A batch of scientific papers presented at the annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in New Orleans raised safety questions about voice- activated dialing, including a study funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that was first reported by The Wall Street Journal in a page-one article in July that raised questions about the increased safety of hands-free devices. Perhaps the most provocative findings presented at the meeting came from researchers at the University of Utah, who presented two studies. One experiment, presented by psychology professor Frank Drews, compared a group of drivers who talked on a cellphone with another group that talked to a passenger sitting next to them. The researchers put 48 college students in a driving simulator. Half of the students drove while having conversations with friends on cellphones equipped with headsets. The other half talked to a friend sitting in the passenger seat. All of the students also drove another round unaccompanied, without talking on the phone. Overall, 12 of the 24 drivers in the group talking on the phone missed their exit, a rate four times as high as the drivers who were talking to their passengers - and 12 times as high as while they were driving alone without talking to anyone.

• Jesse Drucker, The Wall Street Journal, 09/24/2004 For complete story, search here, fees apply

Pleasing automakers and frustrating consumer advocates, the government is keeping the public in the dark about vehicle safety data. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials compiled extensive data on deaths, injuries, consumer complaints, property damage and warranty claims following demands from Congress stemming from the 2000 recall of Firestone Tires. Now, the NHTSA is waiting for a court ruling that will determine exactly what type of data should be made public.

• The Associated Press, Law.com, 09/27/2004 For complete story, search here, subscribers only

26. LINKS

• "The Making Of The Corporate Judiciary," Michael Scherer, MotherJones.com, November/December 2003 Issue. For complete story, search here
• "Award In Smoking Case Is Cut," 2004 WL 55938926 Los Angeles Times, Westlaw Highlights, 09/22/2004 For complete story, see here Westlaw password required or variable fees of $4 and up are charged for article retrieval

27. GLASS-DOOR WALL CABINETS

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and IKEA Home Furnishings, of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, are recalling about 25,000 BERTBY Glass-Door Wall Cabinets. Some of these glass-door wall cabinets have the wrong sized screws for the safety bracket, which can result in the cabinet not being properly secured to the wall. The cabinets can fall and injure nearby consumers.

• For more information, see here

The CPSC and Natura Products Downey Inc., of City of Commerce, California are recalling about 9,400 Jaloma pacifiers. The pacifiers are banned under federal law. They failed federal safety tests, come apart and can pose a choking hazard to infants and small children.

• For more information, see here

The CPSC and Sauder Woodworking Co., of Archbold, Ohio are recalling about 300,000 TV/VCR carts. The carts can tip over, and the television can fall off, posing a risk of serious injury or death if the TV and cart fall on a child.

• For more information, see here

The CPSC and Polaris Industries, Inc., of Medina, Minnesota are recalling about 12,170 Polaris "Sportsman 700 EFI" ATVs. The throttle cable may bind when the handlebars are turned full left or full right, resulting in an increase in engine speed and unintended vehicle acceleration. In addition, the fuel line may rub against the vehicle chassis, resulting in a fuel line leak, which could be a fire hazard.

• For more information, see here