Outcome of Amarillo-related Botox trial should be interesting

People sometimes cry when I interview them.
I’m not proud to say that either.
Maybe their crying is a product of the story they’re telling. Maybe it’s a product of me and my harsh questions. I don’t know.
One such case of a mother crying came during an interview from July 2008.
Mother Dee Spears of Amarillo had lost her 7-year-old daughter less than a year before. She and several other families had filed a lawsuit against the makers of Botox, Irving, Calif.-based Allergan, for causing the death of her daughter. I was asking about the lawsuit and her daughter.
Daughter Kristen Spears suffered from cerebral palsy and began receiving Botox injections in June 2006 to treat her limb spasms, according to the lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court in California.
After a series of injections, the child developed pneumonia, her seizures worsened and she developed muscle weakness in her neck that prevented her from holding up her head, according to the suit. She died Nov. 24, 2007.
Jury selection began today in California in the trial of Spears and Allergan.
It’s curious that Allergan didn’t settle the case already.
The pharmaceutical giant profited $3.5 billion in 2008. Its revenue exceeded $4.4 billion. That’s a lot of dough.
Usually the cost of litigation exceeds whatever of a settlement, and defendants rather cut a check than stand trial.
Allergan probably thinks it can win a case against Spears.
The trial may take a few weeks, but we’ll see what the outcome is.

Settlement numbers come to light

It’s not everyday that the news media is able to print settlements of civil lawsuits.
Today, we were able to do that.
A federal judge approved the settlement between Ford Motor Co. and the family of former Amarillo police Officer Mark Simmons.
Simmons died while riding as a passenger in an unmarked Crown Victoria patrol car in March 2005. A pickup ran into the back of Simmons’ car and his seat anchor failed, Simmons’ family claimed in its lawsuit.
The case’s settlement needed to be approved by a judge before becoming final. In most settlements, attorneys inform the court an agreement has been reached, and the matter is dropped.
But in the Simmons matter, the parties attended a hearing in open federal court before U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson.
Marshall attorney Carl Roth, who represented the Simmons family, tried to tell Robinson the parties wanted to keep the settlement confidential. He know the only person sitting in the court was a newspaper reporter.
“That’s not the policy of this court, counselor,” Robinson would quip back.
Instead, the family’s attorney laid out all the numbers of the settlement in open court; how much Ford Motor Co. would pay and how much the worker’s compensation company and family would receive.
In full disclosure, a report filed in with the court this week also revealed the settlement terms and stated in greater detail the payments to be made to Simmons’ two daughters, ages 7 and 8.
Where this may be a settlement of a lawsuit between a private company and a family, this is a fine example of journalists working to keep information in public view.