Merck Lawyer's Conduct Called "Unethical"

Ben Glass

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In a Vioxx trial going on right now, apparently the judge and the Merck & Company lawyer are really going at it. Apparently, Judge Carol Higbee has chastised attorney Diane Sullivan for "deliberately violating [court] orders on repeated occasions."

According to a Bloomberg article on the Vioxx trial:

Higbee repeatedly clashed with Sullivan at Humeston's first trial, which ended in November 2005. The judge admonished Sullivan today for showing jurors a photograph during opening statements of plaintiff's lawyer Mark Lanier, a different image than the one the judge had approved.

The trial has just begun and in the first stage the jury will be asked to determine whether Merck failed to warn of Vioxx's risk.

The first phase of the trial now under way is examining whether the company failed to warn of Vioxx's risks. Later, the case will focus on the medical care of the individual patients.