Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

As Florida Lawyers we are truly disappointed by the current state of the law regarding the erosion of injured victims rights caused by the negligence of medical product manufacturers. A Federal Judge in Minnesota just dismissed cases brought by thousands of injured patients with heart-defibrillator wires which were proven to fracture, shock and sometimes kill patients .

The cases were dismissed because of a recent decision by United States Supreme Court which proclaimed that federal law pre-empts state based product-liability lawsuits, essentially preventing such cases. Therefore, in the absence of some new law passed by Congress, victims injured due to faulty medical products will be unable to file a lawsuit unless they can prove the medical company violated FDA regulations. This will certainly be a difficult, if not impossible, hurdle for injured patients to meet.

Unfortunately, given the efforts of medical manufacturers and drug makers, who have convinced lawmakers that federal regulations take precedent over state laws, the Supreme Court will probably soon also apply this pre-emption to drugmakers.

A Miami Dade County Judge ruled that Florida smokers, former smokers and survivors of smokers may be eligible for a portion of an unprecedented fund of $600 million which was established by the tobacco industry. The qualifications are: the disease or medical condition must have been first diagnosed or manifested itself before November 21, 1996; and claimants will be required to submit "contemporaneous, verifiable proof," mainly medical records dated before November 21, 1996, to support their claim.

The fund, known as the "Engle Trust Fund," named after the original plaintiff in the Florida products liability case against the tobacco industry, is for people, or survivors of immediate family members, who have suffered, presently suffer, or have died from the diseases and medical conditions, including aortic aneurysm, bladder cancer, cerebrovascular disease (including stroke), cervical cancer, COPD (including emphysema), heart attack, throat cancer, kidney cancer, laryngeal cancer, lung cancer, miscarriage, and oral cavity/tongue cancer.

We cannot stress strongly enough that all claims must be registered no later than June 16, 2008. Any claim not submitted, along with the necessary medical records documentation, by June 16, 2008, will not be eligible for a proportionate share of the fund.