AstraZeneca - Seroquel: Judge Slights wonders aloud

The Honorable Joseph R. Slights, III, was appointed to the Superior Court of Delaware by Governor Thomas R. Carper on November 2, 2000.

Judge Slights received his B.S. cum laude in Political Science from James Madison University in 1985, and his J.D. degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1988. He was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1988.

Prior to joining the Superior Court, Judge Slights was an associate in private practice with the firm Richards, Layton & Finger from 1988 to 1990 where his practice focused on corporate litigation. From 1990 to 1992, he was an associate with the Law Offices of Sidney Balick where he practiced in the areas of personal injury, commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. From 1992 to 2000, he was a partner with the law firm Morris, James, Hitchens & Williams, where he practiced in the areas of health law, white collar criminal defense and corporate and commercial litigation. He was Vice Chairman of the Health Law practice group and Chairman of the firm's recruiting committee.

Judge Slights is a member of the American Bar Association and the Delaware State Bar Association. He is a past chairman of the Health Law section of the Delaware State Bar Association.

He currently serves as the Criminal Administrative Judge for New Castle County and has been specially assigned to preside over the Court's Seroquel© litigation docket.

Judge Slights' current term ends November 2, 2012.

The judge has dismissed the third of hundreds of lawsuits over AstraZeneca's antipsychotic drug Seroquel, following a judge's opinion that questions the future of the litigation in Delaware.At the request of plaintiffs' attorneys, a case brought by Linda Hebert of Massachusetts was dismissed Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court, according to AstraZeneca representatives. The court was scheduled to hear pre-trial arguments in the case Wednesday.

The dismissal followed the release Tuesday of a detailed opinion from Judge Joseph Slights III, explaining his decision to throw out a case brought by plaintiff Nina Scaife of Kansas. A third case in Delaware was thrown out in May because a plaintiff failed to disclose the filing of her lawsuit to a bankruptcy judge.

Slights' decision in the Scaife case was disclosed in a letter in May, but the opinion offered insight into his reasoning.

AstraZeneca is being sued by thousands of plaintiffs nationwide who blame Seroquel for their diabetes or related illnesses. At a hearing in March, the drug maker's attorneys argued that an expert witness for Scaife failed to offer legally admissible testimony connecting Scaife's diabetes to her use of Seroquel.

Slights agreed with AstraZeneca, writing that the expert witness, endocrinologist Valerie Peck, had not used a scientifically rigorous process to reach her opinion that Seroquel was the most likely cause of Scaife's diabetes.

The decision followed the dismissal earlier this year of two cases in federal court in Florida, where thousands of cases from across the country have been consolidated for pre-trial purposes. Given those dismissals, Slights wrote, "the Court is left to wonder what is to become of" the more than 700 cases pending in the Delaware court.

"Trial groups have been formed well into the future and the parties are expending significant resources to prepare for these trials," Slights wrote. "The Court is expending resources too. Under these circumstances, it is appropriate to wonder aloud."

The judge noted that AstraZeneca, which has said it will litigate each case on its individual merits, has not yet made the broader claim that no plaintiff would be able to establish a legally admissible link between diabetes and Seroquel.

"Perhaps, for all concerned, it is time to call that question," Slights wrote.