Litigation packets guide bad-faith, pharmaceutical, and discrimination cases.At the ATLA ATLA Association of Trial Lawyers of America ATLA American Theological Library Association ATLA American Trial Lawyers Association ATLA Air Transport Licensing Authority (Hong Kong) ATLA Avatar: The Last Airbender 2006 Winter Convention in Honolulu last month, Mike Abourezk of Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City is a city located in the western part of South Dakota and is the second largest city in the state of South Dakota after Sioux Falls. Set against the eastern slope of the Black Hills, Rapid City is in the county of PenningtonGR6 USA. , spoke at Litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. at Sunrise about a workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. case in which the defendant insurer, Travelers, repeatedly denied the existence of a company incentive program designed to reduce claims payments. Through tenacious discovery, Abourezk discovered that an incentive program did, indeed, exist, and that it awarded claims professionals year-end bonuses of up to 100 percent of their salaries it they succeeded in reducing overall payouts from one year to the next. What Abourezk learned in that case is assembled for other attorneys in an Exchange litigation packet, "Insurance Bad Faith ''' Insurance bad faith refers to a claim that an insured person has against an insurance company for bad acts. Under the law of nearly every U.S. jurisdiction, Insurance companies owe a duty of good faith in dealing with the persons they insure. : Travelers Claims Professional Incentive Program." The packet contains Travelers documents from 1997 to 2004, key court documents, the deposition and deposition summary of Travelers's insurance expert, a full trial transcript, and the defendants' appellate brief. It also includes supplemental materials, such as ATLA Education speaker papers and a survey of medical literature on carpal tunnel syndrome carpal tunnel syndrome: see repetitive stress injury. carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) Painful condition caused by repetitive stress to the wrist over time. from ATLA Extras member Medifocus Legal. For ATLA plaintiff members preparing pharmaceutical products liability cases and employment discrimination cases, the Exchange has created two new litigation packets: "Pharmaceuticals, the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. , and the Industry: Unweaving the Web and Discovering the Evidence" and "Navigating the Maze of Employment Discrimination Law." The pharmaceuticals packet contains materials and guiding commentary from experienced members on the many issues to consider in this complex litigation, including the FDA prescription-drug-approval process; drug companies' direct-to-consumer marketing tactics; pharmacology; epidemiology and its role in proving causation; liability theories and recent litigation trends; sample complaints, client intake forms, and drug intake and evaluation forms; sample requests for production and interrogatories Written questions submitted to a party from his or her adversary to ascertain answers that are prepared in writing and signed under oath and that have relevance to the issues in a lawsuit. ; sample deposition questions; an explanation of the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System; and a selected bibliography of medical and scientific journal articles. The employment discrimination packet can help lawyers defeat the critical motion for summary judgment motion for summary judgment n. a written request for a judgment in the moving party's favor before a lawsuit goes to trial and based on recorded (testimony outside court) affidavits (or declarations under penalty of perjury), depositions, admissions of fact, answers . Materials contributed by ATLA members include complaints and discovery requests from age, disability, and sex discrimination cases; summary judgment motions and briefs in opposition; employment law statutes and U.S. Supreme Court case summaries outlining the changing role of a Rule 56 summary judgment motion and its application in employment rights cases; TRIAL articles and ATLA Education speaker papers; and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission materials outlining various discrimination charges and how to file a complaint. Exchange litigation packets are produced by staff lawyers in partnership with experienced ATLA members to help plaintiff lawyers assess and try similar cases. For more information, visit the Exchange at www.exchange.atla.org and click on "Litigation Packets," or call (800) 344-3023. |
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