Analysis and discussion of issues that impact business

This a follow up to my last post regarding legal issues and their effect on business. I hadn't planned it this way, but I was stunned when I read this story. This article in Business Week about pharmaceutical giant Merck buttresses my point, I believe.

In the prior two losses, the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company was ordered to pay one plaintiff $253.4 million, which will be reduced to $26 million under Texas caps on punitive damages; and the other $13.5 million.

 

Attorneys for Garza said that while Garza had a history of heart problems, his veins had been cleared and a stress test showed less than a 2 percent risk of heart attack within a year. They said he had taken the drug for almost a month before he died in April of 2001.

Merck lawyers argued there was no proven link between heart problems and use of the drug for less than 18 months and said there was doubt whether Garza had taken the drug for more than a week. They said the heart attack was the end result of Garza's 23 years of heart disease.

Attorneys for Garza's family asked the jury to award $22 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages.

Unfortunately my inquisitive nature forces me to ask a potentially difficult question. A BILLION in punitive damages? I'm nearly speechless. What's the point? To make sure they "never do this to another person"? A billion would do the trick - it would put them out of business.

Again, something is wrong here. This is a money-making venture, pure and simple. Exploitation in the guise of 'justice' for a grieving family. How much would the law firm representing this family rake in? It boggles the mind.

Who needs competition to eliminate business rivals. Rogue lawyers could do the dirty work for you.

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