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Video of Opening Statements

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Humeston v. Merck Trial - 09/15/05 to 11/03/05 ( full proceeding )

Pharmaceutical product liability trial against Merck for the painkiller drug Vioxx held in New Jersey September 2005.

Plantiffs granted a retrial in 2006.

McDarby v. Merck Trial - 03/06/06 to 04/11/06 ( full proceeding )

Pharmaceutical product liability trial against Merck for the painkiller drug Vioxx.

Doherty v. Merck Trial - 06/05/06 to 07/13/06 ( full proceeding )

Pharmaceutical product liability trial against Merck for the painkiller drug Vioxx.

Grossberg v. Merck Trial - 06/27/06 to 08/02/06 ( full proceeding )

This is the first Vioxx trial held in Los Angeles, CA. In this suit, plaintiff Grossberg, used Vioxx for several years until Merck pulled it from the shelves in 2004. Plaintiff suffered a heart-attack and claims it was Vioxx caused, and that it required doctors to implant a stent and proscribe regular cholesterol medication.

He seeks compensatory and punitive damages and $214,000 to cover medical care. He maintains causes of action for strict liability, negligence and negligence per se, breach of implied and express warranties, deceit, and negligent misrepresentation.

Watson v. Ford Trial - 07/17/06 to 08/06/06 ( full proceeding )

A sudden acceleration Ford Explorer car crash left a passenger dead and the 17 year-old driver with a broken neck, brain injury, and paralyzed, allegedly due to a defective cruise control and defective safety belts.

The plaintiff alleged that she tapped the cruise control in the 1995 Explorer (UN105), and the vehicle started to accelerate uncontrollably to 70 or 80 miles per hour, and eventually fishtailed and rolled over.

The vehicle's TRW safety belts allegedly came undone due to an inertial unlatch defect, ejecting the plaintiff and another passenger.

During a prior episode of sudden acceleration involving the same vehicle, mechanic D&D Motors allegedly misdiagnosed the cause of the sudden acceleration as due to the driver's side floor mat, which had been placed upside down. Instead, according to the plaintiff, the cruise control malfunctioned due to electromagnetic interference (EMI). The EMI could have been protected against, said the plaintiff, by the use of twisted pairs or an off switch that cut electricity to the cruise control.

The defendant alleged that the vehicle was not under power while it was out of control. The accelerator was not defective, and did not cause the accident. According to the defendant, the vehicle performed well when the 17 year-old driver lost control, and the plaintiff was not wearing a seatbelt.

The plaintiff alleged that the safety restraint system, the cruise control system, and the Ford Explorer itself as a whole, was unreasonably dangerous.

The jury found in favor of the plaintiff on both negligence and product liability claims as to the speed control system, but not the seat belts, awarded total compensatory damages of $18M.

Arrigale v. Merck Trial - 11/07/06 to 01/18/07 ( full proceeding )

Pharmaceutical product liability trial against Merck for the painkiller drug Vioxx. Los Angeles Complex Civil.

Comes v. Microsoft Trial - 11/28/06 to 02/14/07 ( full proceeding )

Consumer anti-trust trial brought by State of Iowa against Microsoft.

Bronwood v. Tahoe Trial - 01/11/07 to 04/03/07 ( full proceeding )

A private utility provider sued its joint venturer for breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract involving the provision of gas and electricity to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRI-Center) via a general improvement district (GID). The private utility alleged that its joint venturer secretly negotiated a more lucrative arrangement with a public utility (Sierra Pacific, now NV Energy) that resulted in $30M in wrongful gains to the joint venturer, and cost the private utility $10M in lost profits.

Hermans v. Merck Trial - 01/22/07 to 03/12/07 ( full proceeding )

Pharmaceutical product liability trial against Merck for the painkiller drug Vioxx. Held in New Jersey, January 2007.

Horbel v. Three Rivers Hearing - 01/31/07 to 01/31/07 ( full proceeding )

Plaintiffs, founders of a Health Management Organization, alleged that their co-investors abused their positions by siphoning off tens of millions of dollars from the HMO in the form of disguised salaries and corporate perquisites; plaintiffs call these "de facto dividends."