How to piss off a judge, really!
Advertisements, press releases and studies already admitted into evidence were among hundreds of thousands of documents which Merck attorneys claimed they could not release, the judge overseeing all federal lawsuits involving the painkiller Vioxx said Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon said he went through nearly 500,000 documents over the past two weeks - checking many twice - and probably will release many of them on Monday to the steering committee representing thousands of federal court plaintiffs.
Fallon is to hear four of those cases in July, September, October and November. The suits claim that Merck hid information about the drug's dangers from patients and their doctors, and therefore should pay for their heart attacks.
The judge said he will have all of the papers which should remain secret in "a box or boxes" for Merck's attorneys by Thursday. If he hears nothing from them by Monday, the rest of the 81 boxes - each holding 5,000 to 6,000 documents - will be released to the plaintiffs' committee.
Source: The Ledger
Image: Michael Korb
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