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As thousands of Americans descended on the National Mall this past Saturday to protest President Barack Obamas health care agenda, the rallying cry for tort reform was again a popular theme. Who can forget the so-called medical malpractice crisis in New Jersey back in 2004, when hundreds of doctors in their white coats picketed outside the Statehouse in Trenton. Then, as now, the goal was caps on non-economic damages as a proposed solution to out of control health care costs. The prior effort by doctors towards those restrictions failed for the same reason that it should be off the table in the present health care debate- there is no evidence that medical malpractice damages are a significant factor in health care costs.

In my blog post of August 5 I detailed a story about how drug maker Wyeth paid professional, non-physician ghostwriters to formulate articles that were then published by medical journals that doctors read to keep up with the latest changes in medical practice, including new information about prescription drugs. This effort by Wyeth was, of course, to improve doctors opinions about their products so that they would prescribe more Wyeth drugs so that Wyeth would make more money.

The lawyers at the Locks Law Firm are mindful of the importance of giving back to the communities where they live and work. Partner Marc P. Weingarten has shown his dedication to the community by teaching a class in high school civics. Marc participated this past academic year in a program called Advancing Civics Education. This unique program is a joint effort of the Philadelphia Bar Association and the School District of Philadelphia. It is designed to place attorneys and judges in Philadelphia public school classrooms to teach a civics course.

Partner Marc P. Weingarten has been extremely active in lecturing internationally to various groups of lawyers and asbestos victims. Last November, he lectured at the Occupational Disease Conference of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) in Manchester, England. Marc spoke to them about Lung Cancer Attribution Without Asbestosis. Marc went back to England in March of this year to give two lectures. One was in London at the Occupational Disease Conference of the APIL. His earlier presentation in Manchester was so well received that the organization asked Marc to come again and give the talk for the benefit of the lawyers in London. At the same time, Marc went to Leicester, England where he was asked to make a speech to an organization consisting not of lawyers, but rather of victims of mesothelioma, the Leicester Mesothelioma and Carer Support Group, where he spoke about Asbestos Claims in the United States.

In another exhibition of corporate greed over public good in the pharmaceutical sector, a recently released document (available here) reveals Forest Laboratories extensive effort to market its drug Lexapro to doctors. So whats the rub? Lexapro is much more expensive than other drugs in its class used to treat the same condition---depression---but has never been shown to work any better than older drugs that cost a fraction of what Lexapro does.

Yesterday the pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer agreed to pay 2.3 billion dollars to settle civil and criminal lawsuits that alleged it illegally marketed Bextra, its arthritis drug, which has since been withdrawn from the market due to concerns that it caused severe skin reactions and contributed to clotting event, including heart attacks and strokes. Pfizer, which is in the midst of a deal to acquire the pharmaceutical manufacturer Wyeth, agreed to this settlement ending the litigation that stemmed form the illegal marketing accusations.

Locks Law Partner Marc P. Weingarten was recently awarded the most prestigious international award given by the American Association of Justice (AAJ), the national organization of plaintiff trial lawyers. At the Annual Convention of AAJ in San Francisco in July, Marc received the 2009 Jackass Penguin Award from the International Relations Committee and the International Practice Section of AAJ. Although the name sounds odd, the history of this award is quite honored. About 15 years ago, a delegation of AAJ officers visited South Africa to help launch an association of plaintiff lawyers in that country, called the South African Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (SAAPIL). While there, the lawyers visited the beach in their spare time and were quite taken by the delightful little birds indigenous to the area known as jackass penguins. They decided to name the annual international award from AAJ after these little creatures.

As a follow up to my blog post of August 6, New York State last week passed a law that makes texting while driving illegal. Assuming even reasonable police enforcement of that law, we all know that it will likely have little effect in changing the behaviors of those who insist on texting while driving. What can be done?

Leave it to a police chief in the small township of Gwent, Wales. The Gwent Police Department has produced a graphic video (WARNING: the video spares nothing in its very realistic depiction of the carnage) that depicts what happens when a distracted, texting young adult is also behind the wheel of a car. This effort by the Gwent Chief is remarkable in its frankness and honesty, but will it make a difference?

Marc P. Weingarten, a partner in the Philadelphia office of Locks Law and Joseph M. McGill, a senior associate in that office recently were successful in the jury trials in Philadelphia state court for two gentlemen who tragically died of mesothelioma. The cases were tried together, in a consolidated manner, before one jury. One man died of mesothelioma at the age of 93 and was awarded $492,000. The other gentleman died of mesothelioma at the age of 63 and was awarded $732,000.

These trials were unique because the only exposure they had to asbestos was in the installation and repair of automobile brakes and clutches. These so-called friction defendants have a scorched earth policy of never settling cases, although in these cases they offered each plaintiff $100,000 to settle before the trial began. The 93 year old victim was able to prove his case against Bendix and the other gentleman proved his case against Borg-Warner.