Originally published February 16 2006
New Jersey judge saddled with thousands of Vioxx cases
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The LA Times relates the story of New Jersey Judge Carol Higbee, who has been assigned the Herculean task of hearing 4,333 suits brought against Merck & Co. for damage done by its painkiller, Vioxx.
For someone mired in judicial purgatory, Superior Court Judge Carol E. Higbee is remarkably upbeat.
Higbee, 55, is the New Jersey judge assigned to thousands of cases brought in state court against Merck & Co. over its now-withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.
The lawsuits --- all 4,333 of them --- blame the pharmaceutical company for heart attacks and strokes suffered by users.
Merck, which is based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., has acknowledged links between Vioxx and heart attacks and strokes in clinical studies but only after 18 months of use.
With 9,200 cases filed nationwide and former users still streaming into courthouses with new claims, the litigation shows no signs of slowing.
In New Jersey, the responsibility for trying them all falls to Higbee, a soft-spoken former medical malpractice attorney known for cutting through the cant without playing favorites.
Higbee says patience is not one of her strong points.
But she has shown plenty of it, refereeing lawyers in the recent trial --- which ended Nov. 3 with a Merck victory --- and meeting with lawyers for Merck and the plaintiffs to schedule the trials to come.
On Feb. 27, it's back to the courtroom for the next Vioxx trial.
As in the first, Higbee will spend her days on the bench and her nights at home reviewing trial transcripts.
And when she isn't dealing with a Vioxx issue, she'll be tending to the 375 non-Vioxx cases on her docket.
When she's off the bench, Higbee spends her time at home tending to her rosebushes and tomatoes, reading mystery novels and --- with her husband, a high school English teacher and part-time actor --- raising their 5-year-old granddaughter.
For now, though, her eyes are squarely on the mountain of work ahead of her.
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