U.S. Supreme Court Hears Argument Regarding Vaccine Lawsuits - Erik L. Peterson Personal Injury Law Blog on Lawyers.com

The United States Supreme Court heard argument today on a significant case involving whether drug companies can be sued as the result of serious side effects from childhood vaccines.  As reported in the Hawaii Star Advertiser, the parents of a girl sought the right to sue the drug maker Wyeth, after her daughter suffered injuries from a vaccine she received in infancy.   At issue is how far a federal law reaches in barring state lawsuits over vaccines.  If the Court finds in favor of the plaintiff, parents in nearly 5,000 cases could litigate whether autism, and other serious injures, have been caused by the vaccinations such as the measles and mumps vaccine.

Last year, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the family’s lawsuit was preempted by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, a compensation program for vaccine-injury claim that also immunized vaccine-makers from some lawsuits, such as where the side effects were “unavoidable.” Much of the debate focuses on what is meant by “unavoidable.”  Here, the girl developed a seizure disorder after receiving a vaccine manufactured by Wyeth when she was six months old.  The family argues that Wyeth could have produced a safer vaccine but chose not to.

NPR reports that the justices appear spilt, questioning “ferociously” both the plaintiff’s attorney and the government, trying to determine a manufacturer’s burden to pursue different, safer vaccines and whether Congress intended to make the vaccine court the “exclusive” system to determine these claims.

As Hawaii personal injury attorneys, we are dedicated to assisting those suffering from serious injuries of any kind whether the result of medical negligence, products liability defective/dangerous drugs, or automobile accidents.