FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: PETER BYLSMA
PHONE: 310-795-8532
February 28, 2006
(Los Angeles, CA) – As an alternative to the Oscars™, Los Angeles Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) presents this year’s winners of the “Bad Science” (B.S.) awards for bestowing dishonor on our judicial system through the most egregious use of bad science to support bad lawsuits. Los Angeles CALA wants to lift the curtain to shine the spotlight on those who have helped create these examples of just how far bad science can go in the interest of trying to profit from lawsuits that cost healthcare consumers millions.
“Again and again, we see the harm that lawsuit abuse has caused with personal injury lawyers always getting a second act. It’s time we boo them off the stage,” said David Houston, chairman of Los Angeles CALA. “We encourage all Californians to help stop these B.S. award winners from making Hollywood blush.”
These examples of the personal injury lawyers’ litigation sideshow are worthy of the Hall of Shame. Without further ado, the envelope, please…
Best “Film Editing:” Dr. Ray Harron
Any experienced technician can edit a film to tell a good story, but what about an “editor” who turns a film into a whole new story? The Best Film Editing Award goes to Dr. Ray “X-Ray” Harron of West Virginia. He was hired by personal injury lawyers to read x-rays for their asbestos lawsuits – and then he was hired to read the same x-rays for silica lawsuits. In a result that was surprising to the scientific community and a federal judge, Dr. Harron improbably diagnosed the same people as being sick from both conditions! Dr. Harron may not be able to accept his award, however. After U.S. District Judge Janis Jack questioned his diagnoses of thousands of patients as having two diseases, he sought a lawyer for himself and abruptly closed his medical practice that was dedicated exclusively to reading x-rays. (“Reading X-Rays in Asbestos Suits Enriched Doctor” by Jonathan Glater, New York Times, 11/29/05)
Best Use of Special Effects: Dr. Paul Nausieda
Special effects add visual “zing” and can help make up for a weak plot, just ask Dr. Paul Nausieda and the personal injury lawyers who relied upon his medical creativity to bolster their cases against welding rod manufacturers. While on the payroll of personal injury lawyers, Dr. Nausieda conducted mass screenings of welders claiming symptoms ranging from headaches to tremors; his diagnoses were based on a form completed by the claimant and a few minutes of observation by Dr. Nausieda or one of his interns, some of whom were not even trained in neurology. To add zing to the lawsuits against the welding rod producers, Nausieda specifically blamed manganese fumes emitted during welding for causing a Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders. (“Twitch and Shout” by Mary Ellen Egan, Forbes Magazine, 9 Jan 2006; “Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Come Under Fire for Claim Veracity” Wall Street Journal, 12/8/05).
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Production: Dr. Gary Ordog
Not everyone can sell the story of killer mold, but Dr. Mold can. The top player in a plot about expanding lawsuits over mold and mycotoxins, Dr. Gary Ordog has performed as personal injury lawyers’ medical expert on hundreds of witness stands. While it is generally accepted that mold causes asthma and sinusitis, Dr. Ordog has gone where no expert witness has gone before, by using science fiction to claim that mold causes cancer, memory loss, autoimmune disorders and cirrhosis of the liver. The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the American College of Medical Toxicology see no evidence for these claims. In fact, there are no reliable tests to show that a person has been exposed to a specific mold or mycotoxin, how long the exposure lasted or how much was absorbed (“Dr. Mold” by Daniel Fisher, Forbes Magazine, 4/11/05).
Best Performance by a Guest Star: Dr. Maria Araneta
A special guest star can boost the value of a performance, and personal injury lawyer Mark Lanier traveled a long way to track down just the “guest star” he needed to help him win a case worth millions. Lanier hired a private investigator to travel almost halfway around the world to track down an expert witness who he felt would agree with him in a trial against the maker of Vioxx. Expressing confidence in his “directing” skills, Lanier was quoted as saying he would “browbeat” former coroner Dr. Maria Araneta from the United Arab Emirates into agreeing with his novel legal theory. Lanier’s guest star became an award-wining supporting actress, helping him win a $253.5 million verdict. (“Vioxx verdict raising profile of Texas lawyer” by Alex Berenson, New York Times, 8/22/05; “Coroner Helps Plaintiff” Associated Press, 7/28/05).
Best Original Script: Jerry Colatis
Personal injury lawsuits sometimes tell stories that are doozies, but a “death by flying shrimp” tale gets the nod for originality. The family of Jerry Colaitis, 47, of Mineola,
New York sought $10 million from the Benihana Japanese steakhouse chain, claiming Colaitis’s died from a neck injury suffered while ducking a piece of tossed shrimp at the restaurant. Colaitis reportedly experienced numbness in his arm, followed by fever and death in the months after his meal. The jury “tossed” the family’s claim (“Jury rejects claim in tossed-shrimp case” Associated Press, 2/9/06).
Best “Supporting Actress”: Dr. Linda Crouse
A really good supporting cast knows how to take direction and make those around them shine. When personal injury lawyers hired Dr. Linda Crouse to screen echocardiograms to find plaintiffs for fen-phen diet drug lawsuits, they found just such a person. Dr. Crouse made sure she was acting according to the personal injury lawyers’ script by allowing her lead sonographer and other staffers to be trained by law firm employees on how to interpret the echocardiograms. In fact, personal injury lawyer employees were “on the set” to monitor most of Dr. Crouse’s screenings. Unfortunately for Crouse and the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Judge Harvey Bartle III’s reviews were not kind. Judge Bartle threw out many claims as “medically unreasonable,” noting that Crouse found heart valve damage in 60 percent to 70 percent of the lawyers’ clients, compared to the five percent rate she had found in a blind clinical study in 1998. (“Bogus Claims Discovered in Fen-Phen Class Action” by Shannon Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer, 11/19/02).
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse is a nonprofit, grassroots public education organization dedicated to serving as a watchdog over the legal system and those who would seek to abuse it for undeserved gain. For more information, visit www.losangelescala.org. .
