Weitere Gehirntumorprozesse gegen amerikanische Mobilfunkindustrie anhängig
Quelle: RCR Wireless News, 24.03.2003, Jeffrey Silva
Newman-Angelos-Prozeß in Berufung
Jeffrey Morganroth vertritt 6 Gehirntumoropfer
Weitere Klagen anhängig, Kläger Brian Barrett verstorben
Die Geschichte des Gehirntumor-Opfers Brian Barrett: http://www.elektrosmognews.de/news/usa.htm
Originalmeldung von RCR Wireless News (Englisch):
Handful of law firms continue to
press brain-cancer lawsuits
by JEFFREY SILVA
* March 24, 2003
WASHINGTON-Plaintiffs' lawyers are
leaning toward an appeal of U.S.
District Judge Catherine Blake's
dismissal of five class-action lawsuits
on headset health protection and
say they have no plans to drop a slew
of brain-cancer lawsuits pending
before a Baltimore judge who has been
hostile to wireless health litigation
and highly supportive of
industry's federal pre-emption arguments.
The legal developments come as two
newly published studies by Swedish
scientists, including one whose
testimony was debunked in the $800
million cancer suit thrown out by
Blake last year, link cell-phone use
to brain tumors.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported data
from a conference in Italy pointing to
a 40-percent increase in brain tumors
in the United States and Europe in
the past 20 years.
Still, the decision to continue pressing
health litigation, despite
Blake's dismissal of Christopher
Newman's brain-cancer lawsuit and her
recent headset ruling, remains a
high-risk proposition for plaintiffs'
lawyers. The costs can be huge,
both in terms of the hundreds of
thousands of dollars in legal expenses
and judicial precedent. But those
costs pale in comparison to the
risk to industry, which has spent
millions defending itself the past
two decades, of losing a single case.
A handful of law firms are pressing
the brain-cancer and headset
class-action lawsuits. In some cases,
they work together and in others
they do not.
"We intend to go forward," said Jeffrey
Morganroth, whose Michigan law
firm represents six brain-cancer
victims who have filed lawsuits against
wireless firms, trade associations
and standards bodies.
Morganroth conceded the mobile-phone
industry has fared well in Blake's
court to date. But he said all brain-cancer
cases are not the same and
that the ruling on the Newman case,
litigated by the law firm of
Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos
and under appeal in a Richmond
circuit, does not necessarily dictate
the outcome of his law firm's
cases.
"We have a different philosophy of
how to present and package the
cases," said Morganroth. Morganroth
said his legal team will be relying
on a different set of experts than
those Angelos relied on in the Newman
case. However, it is not clear that
Morganroth's experts have committed
to having their research and scientific
careers scrutinized by industry
lawyers who were highly effective
in undermining testimony of Newman's
experts.
At least one other plaintiff is expressing
more caution. Lawyers
representing a Texas brain-cancer
victim recently asked Blake to stay
all further proceedings in its lawsuit
against wireless firms, pending
the outcome of the Newman appeal
in Richmond. The final brief in the
appeal should be filed today. The
court then likely will set a date for
oral argument, which is expected
to take place later this year.
Elsewhere, RCR Wireless News learned
last week that Georgia's Brian
Barrett, a plaintiff in one brain-cancer
case before Blake, died last
November. However, the lawsuit will
continue on behalf of his estate and
his wife.