American Association for Justice Lists Overturning Pre-emption as One of Its Top Priorities in 2009

Officials for the American Association for Justice on Monday released a legislative agenda for 2009 and cited as their top priority efforts to pass legislation (S 3398, HR 6381) to overturn a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that protects manufacturers of medical devices from state product liability lawsuits, CongressDaily reports. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) sponsored the bills to overturn the court's ruling last year in Riegel v. Medtronic that FDA approval of certain medical devices protects manufacturers from product liability lawsuits filed in state courts.

Linda Lipsen, senior vice president for public affairs at AAJ, said that the legislation could receive a floor vote in the Senate this year. In addition to efforts to pass the legislation, AAJ will remain "on guard" during the debate on health care reform to "ensure that attempts to limit medical malpractice are killed, especially through the establishment of specialized health courts that aim to make medical tort cases more efficient than jury trials," according to CongressDaily (Swindell, CongressDaily, 1/12).