Washington DC Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Archive for January, 2010

Whistleblowers Focus on the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

The pharmaceutical industry is caught in a wave of whistleblower cases. Employees help the government shine a bright light on what they consider to be taxpayer fraud. Pharmaceutical fraud accounts for the largest amounts of money paid out under the Federal False Claims Act. In January, Eli Lilly and Co. agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle charges that it illegally promoted the anti-psychotic drug, Zyprexa® for unapproved uses. Nine whistleblowers, all former Lilly employees, split about $100 million of the settlement as their reward. In September, Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle charges that it illegally promoted numerous drugs, including Bextra®, a painkiller. Six whistleblowers will split about $102 million. In October, AstraZeneca agreed to pay $520 million to settle investigations into illegal marketing. Numerous whistleblowers split an undisclosed amount of money in that case. Still pending is the law suit against Johnson & Johnson which began in Trenton, New Jersey and which was the subject of earlier blogs.

Whistleblowers typically get between 15% and 30% of any recovered damages, an amount which is frequently enough to retire with millions of dollars in the bank. For instance, last year a former Merck sales manager collected $68 million for helping to expose an alleged drug price-fixing scheme. A microbiologist at Warner-Lambert was awarded $26.6 million for helping expose illegal marketing of an epilepsy drug.

If you believe that you are aware of any tax fraud or inappropriate behavior that cost the government money, please contact the whistleblower attorneys at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C.

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Brain injury Association of D.C. Seeks to Establish Coordinated Effort With The NFL Players Association.

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Ira Sherman, Vice President of the Brain Injury Association of D.C., has reached out the NFL Players Association in an effort to enlist their support in educating local students of all ages that are engaged in playing football to inform and educate them to the risks of a brain injury. It is the hope of the Brain Injury Association of D.C. to have the NFL Players Association add its knowledge and resources to the effort to educate both players and coaches regarding the potential risk of a traumatic brain injury as a result of a failure to properly protect against concussion and/or diagnosing it at the time it takes place.

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Greater Emphasis on Traumatic Brain Injuries Which Occur As A Result of Playing Football.

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Congress has now gotten in the debate regarding the likelihood of traumatic brain injury to individuals who play football. On October 29, 2009, the House of Representatives Committee announced plans to study the link between playing football, concussions and traumatic brain injury. Representative John Conyers, Jr., Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that the need for an expeditious review of all data is a necessity. He asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith, the Executive Director of the NFL Players Association, to share medical information with the committee. Both the NFL and the NFL Players Association enthusiastically agreed to share the data. We will keep you informed of this continuing investigation into the safety of football and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of concussions and traumatic brain injuries that can result from playing football.

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Montgomery County Seeks To Improve Pedestrian Safety In Parking Lots.

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Montgomery County’s County Executive Ike Leggett recently declared that the county would dedicate funds to the safety of pedestrians in parking lots. The surprising statistic resulting in this new emphasis is that of the 1,496 pedestrians struck between January 2006 and June 2009, 324 of them had been struck in parking lots. That means that approximately 1 in 5 pedestrian accidents take place in parking lots. This problem is particularly bad once Daylight Savings Time ends because residents are more likely to be running errands in the dark. Moreover, retail centers become crowded with holiday shoppers and the risks increase even further.

Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. has represented numerous clients who were seriously injured as a result of being run over in parking lots. Accordingly, we welcome this new initiative by County Executive Leggett.

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Partners Ira Sherman and Joseph Cammarata attend the Brain Injury Association of America’s Annual Affiliates Convention in San Antonio, Texas

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Partners Joseph Cammarata and Ira Sherman, President and Vice President of the Brain Injury Association of D.C., respectively, attended in their official capacities as leaders of the Brain Injury Association of D.C. at the Brain Injury Association of America’s Annual Affiliates Convention. The Affiliates Convention is an annual get-together where representatives from across the country gather to share their experiences, both good and bad, over the last year. Of course, the economy has posed a challenge to all affiliates. Surprisingly, one of the primary matters of discussion was the use of social networking on the Brain Injury Association of America website. Overall, the convention was a complete success with a wonderful exchange of ideas having taken place.

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New York Times Reports that there is a risk of dementia seen in football players.

Monday, January 4th, 2010

On September 29, 2009, the New York Times reported on a study commissioned by the National Football League that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population. According to the report, the rate of dementia is 19 times the normal rate for men between the ages of 30 and 49. The confirmation of the existence of dementia is the league’s first public affirmation of the connection to playing football and the development of brain injury-related dementia. The announcement of this finding could have a dramatic effect on safety policies in the area of all sports, not only football, and at all levels, not only professional. Hundreds of on-field concussions are sustained every week at each level and certainly little league, high schools, colleges and professional associations will need to concentrate more thoroughly on the adverse consequences of playing the sport without a maximum amount of protection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment.