Vaccine rulings may drive plaintiffs to sue manufacturers

Now that special masters in a federal vaccine court have rejected three test cases alleging that childhood vaccinations cause autism, plaintiffs are weighing whether to appeal or to sue the vaccine manufacturers in civil court.

“Although disappointing, we know this is just one step in a long, uphill battle,” said Kevin Conway of Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan in Boston, who represented one of the plaintiffs.
The three cases addressed whether a combination of mercury and the MMR vaccine – or the MMR vaccine alone – contribute to autism by weakening the immune system.
“The science on the issue is close, even though they made it sound like it was not close at all. This was like losing by one point at the end of double overtime,” said Curtis Webb of Webb, Webb & Guerry, another of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
The rulings – issued by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which has exclusive jurisdiction to hear vaccine claims – are not binding on any of the other nearly 5,000 autistic children seeking compensation under the National Vaccine Compensation Program, Conway noted.
An appeal of the special masters’ rulings would be heard by a single judge of the same court.
Another option is to go outside of the program and sue the vaccine makers in civil court.
– Sylvia Hsieh